Hi Everyone,
I'm new to goats and to this forum. This really is a gold mind for sharing information.
I been doing a lot of research but the area I'm having issues finding any information is on the size of a barn and the layout. Maybe I'm just overthinking this area, but it seems pretty important.
I'm getting 3 Nigerian Dwarf Does to start (once I'm all setup) but I'm sure I will add a few over the years. Looking for a general rule of thumb on space needs and layout for a barn that's housing Nigerian Dwarfs. Possibly 25 Sqft for each animal? Is it more, is it less?
Also how big of a pasture for each animal? 100, 1,000, 10,000 sqft per animal? I plan on rotating them on small paddocks but how small or big do they each need to be? Again starting with 3 Does with the possibly of going up to 6.
Thanks in advance!
Dan
Replies
Don't forget to include space in your barn for storage of feed, straw, hay, etc, as well as a place to milk the goats, if you're planning to have milkers. When in doubt, err on the side of making it larger than you think. Even then, it probably won't be big enough.
I don't have any Raising Goats Naturally webinars planned at the moment, but I recorded my talk for The Homegrown Food Summit, which will be coming up from March 7 to 13. My talk will be available for a full 24 hours on Thursday, March 10. There will be 30+ free presentations that week, and you'll have the opportunity to buy all of them on a jump drive or as a download to listen to later. (Click on the link to register.)
I have recently put together a 45 minutes talk on copper supplementation in goats, which I just presented at a workshop last weekend, so I'm planning to do that as a webinar in the near future -- probably after The Homegrown Food Summit.
Thanks for the great information. I just started reading your book, it's excellent! I am looking forward to reading the parasites and rotational grazing section in the book!
As far as building a barn, I'm going with a dirt floor with removable panels so if need be it can be reconfigured as needed or as I learn a better herd management solution.
Based on the information you provided I'm leaning towards a 10 x 15 barn. Since this will be a new barn my goal is to get it right the first time or pretty close to right anyway haha!
My goal is to break up an acre of land into smaller paddocks to use for rotational grazing for 3 or 4 does.
Off subject, do you know when you will host another webinar on raising goats naturally or any other topic pertaining to goats?
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question, I greatly appreciate your input!
Size of the barn depends on whether you have dirt or concrete floors and if the goats have access to outside and whether they are encouraged or locked out during the day. If they are only spending the night in the barn, the space can be a lot smaller than if they are in and out during the day. Size also depends on how often you want to clean out the barn because the more they're in there, the faster the poop will build up.
Our milking stall, which is where goats in milk spend the night is 10 X 10. If we get much past 5 goats, it needs to be cleaned out every other day. Since I don't want to clean it out more than once a week, that stall opens to a 10 X 15 for a total of 20 X 15 space, and if I'm over 15 does in milk, we open it up to another 10 X 15, for a total of 40 X 10. We generally put all the goats outside during the day and only let them come in at night unless it's raining or snowing.
Our bucks have 3-sided shelters that are 10 X 5 and only about 3 feet tall in the front and 2 feet tall in the back. Since the fourth side is open (no door), they can come and go whenever, and they don't stay in there unless it's night or the weather is bad. It also has a dirt floor. Since they are mostly sleeping in there, it takes a long time for poop to build up, so we rarely clean them out. We put pigs in there, and they actually do a great job rooting up everything. Sometimes it's too good a job, as they have dug it out to below the ground surface around the shelter, which is bad because then if it rains, water can run into the shelter and make a puddle.
Only you can figure out what size your pastures need to be. Ideally you can move the goats every few days. Don't let them stay in one area if the grass gets shorter than 6 inches because of parasite issues. If they are in an area for a couple of weeks, that's really too long because if there is still tall grass, it's getting tough and stemmy at that point, and they are going to start going back to the shorter grasses that are regrowing, and that will cause parasite problems for the goats. So, there will be some trial and error involved, and it will vary from year to year based upon how much rain you get (or not) and how fast the grass regrows. You want enough different areas so that they won't be going back to the same grass for at least six weeks.
More information on parasites and rotational grazing is in my book, Raising Goats Naturally.