A week or two ago there was someone that talked about rotational grazing when responding to a discussion, but I can't remember who it was. She didn't feed extras, if I remember correctly, just the browsing.
I would love to learn more about this - =)
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No you wouldn't need to do fence the entire thing - you would only need to do that if you were going to use something like electric to make your paddocks.
The only caution with having goats and chickens together is making sure the goats - especially the kids - can't get into the chicken's feed.
A house on wheels wouldn't be too hard to do - and if you had a tractor or ATV to pull it around with you could go for something built on a trailer axle.
So you think I should fence the entire 10 acres before I put up the paddocks? We wouldn't have the money to do that for a while...
Our goat yard is made of cattle panel or maybe it's combi panels, so I am familiar with that. I like the idea of leaving one side up and moving the other 3. I also like your idea of the house on wheels.
What I want to do is have my chickens live in a moveable pen and follow the goats around in the pasture rotation.
Jane Wagman said:
My goats get Mineral Max EAD paste - but there is also an injectable version. That takes care of both copper and selenium needs. And although they don't really need it I also provide a mineral block just because some of my girls like to gnaw it occasionally in the summer.
I know some long time Nigerian breeders that now use Mineral Max II which is an injectable cobalt-blue colored liquid that must be obtained from a vet, Mineral Max II contains zinc, manganese, selenium, and copper in chelated (timed-release) form. It is given to goats IM (into the muscle) usually one injection per year and in decreasing amounts as the goat ages. Mineral Max II is made by Sparhawk Labs in Lenexa, Kansas for RXV Products in Westlake, Texas. Do not give BoSe and Mineral Max II together or you will OD your goats on selenium. When I run out of my stock of paste I will probably be switching to this.
Now as for fencing - you want a good perimeter fence for starters. We have almost 2 1/2 acres and only 5 does in it at present so we just let them roam the whole thing. We do have "summer pasture" that we move the bucks into to eat black berry bushes and we use cattle panels to fence that off since they are easily moved. If you were wanting to use those type of panels with does & kids then you would want what is known as combi-panels as they start off with smaller spaces at the bottom that will keep the kids in (most of the time). They come in 16ft lengths and just need a t-post at either end and one in the middle. Since they flex you can usually get by without needing to add a gate, just use carabiner type clips to close up where your "gate" is. Eight panels and eight t-posts will give you a 32x32 enclosure. And if you plan it out you can leave one side standing and just move the other three sides to make the next square when your goats have finished off one area. Oh and don't forget to make sure they have some shelter. I'm thinking of building my boys a house on wheels just to make it easier to move around. :)
1.5 acres sounds like a lot. How many does do you have?
We have 10 very sparse acres, basically high desert. The back half is partially fenced, but it's also on the other side of the hill and I wouldn't feel safe with the goats back there unless we had a guard animal with them. The front is not fenced except for the goat yard... something I hope to remedy this year. The cheapest way would be to get the premier1 electric fencing for rotational grazing, but I don't know for sure if we want to go that route or not. I do think that rotational grazing would improve the quality of our land immensely.
Adrienne said:
Our entire 1.5 acres is fenced, and at the moment I have no bucks so I have been letting them have the whole yard. Late in her pregnancy I caught Indiana on her back legs eating from the berry bushes in the front. I worry about not supplementing their diets. They get whatever is in the yard, plus trimmings from the trees in the summer including entire banana trees that would otherwise grow into my back deck, and they have free choice minerals and grass hay, which until the last few weeks of their pregnancy they did not eat very much of. They get a mix of alfalfa, goat chow, and sunflower seeds. The goat I am not milking at the moment gets 1 cup a day and Indiana gets however much she wants while I milk. When I get a milk stand I will do the same with Isabel who has never been milked before. If they don't eat it, it just means I don't have to buy it as often.When I get their new pens I plan to do the rotational thing in the spring and summer since they will be more confined than they are now.
Rachel Whetzel said:
Kare at Chaverah Farm said:
Rachel Whetzel said:
Thank you for those links. I think I need to work on my pasture. From what I've read, in rotational grazing, you really become a pasture farmer who happens to have goats... or something like that. =) Ours is very sparse --- the only water it gets is what falls from the sky We have some natural grasses and noxious weeds, sage and a few cactus. Oh, and thistles and dandelions by the septic and drain fields. There are other weeds mixed in, but I don't know what they are. I was thinking about seeding this spring with a mix of berseem clover, tall oatgrass, basin wildrye, and intermediate wheatgrass. I also want to put the word out that I will take trimmings from trees and bushes in the spring and the fall.
Is that a good start?
Thanks again for the great information!
That might have been me :) My goats get only alfalfa pellets and occasionally some BOSS on the milk stand and they have plenty of pasture. If it is icy out and then they get some grass hay, other wise I don't feed hay and I feed no grain or goat chow at all. At this time I don't do rotational grazing - I have so few goats they would have be in pretty small paddocks to make it work.
If you have goats that are used to supplemental feeding you will have to force them to graze/browse or you will find them hanging out around the barn waiting for their next handout. The biggest thing in successful MIG (management intensive grazing) is knowing your land and making sure you have a good selection of forbs that will provide the proper nutrition for your goats.
One of the most informative articles I have ever found on the topic specifically for goats is found here: http://www2.luresext.edu/goats/library/field/hart02.html
Here is another one on setting up a rotational setting: http://www.sweetlix.com/media/documents/articles/Goat_007.pdf
Rotation can also help control parasites: http://www.nodpa.com/parasites_03_14_08.shtml
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