Posted by Jan on April 27, 2011 at 3:58pm in Goats 101
This year I didn't purchase enough because I had no true guideline for how much we would use through the winter. At present we have 13 goats...one buck , 5 does and 7 babies. I intent to sell 3 to 5 babies and 3 does. I hope to add another easy milker. Will breed one doe for late fall (so more babies). Then two for March kidding and two for May or June kidding next year. How do I figure the hay amount?
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I had some figures on my computer, which is out of commission, but I just did a search and here is what I found:
The average size goat should eat 3-5# per day
So if you were to figure 2-3# per day for each Nigerian, that would be anywhere from 4380 to 6570# (2- 3 tons) per year for 6 adult Nigerians IF you rely only on hay and no pasture
The people who gave examples were saying they gave between 5000 and 6000# per year for 6 Nigerians, but one of them said her goats were overweight.
It looks like it depends on how many bucks you have (they tend to eat more), how big your does are (bigger does will eat more), how much your goats like to eat and how much they will be grazing...
If you only have one buck and your does are on the smaller size, then you might be able to get away with 2 tons or less if you can graze a lot???
It really depends on how long your winter lasts -- or how long you don't have pasture available. Weight of the bales also varies and plays a big part. Look at the number of goats you have this year and compare to the number you'll have next winter. Then look at how many bales you bought and how many you should have bought. Looks like it'll be about the same number of goats next winter, so you really just need to figure out how many you should have bought this year. When did you run out of hay? When did you start using hay? So, your hay lasted X months, which means you would need how many bales to last until you have pasture available again. (Hope that's not horribly confusing. Math is not my strong suit.)
Replies
I had some figures on my computer, which is out of commission, but I just did a search and here is what I found:
The average size goat should eat 3-5# per day
So if you were to figure 2-3# per day for each Nigerian, that would be anywhere from 4380 to 6570# (2- 3 tons) per year for 6 adult Nigerians IF you rely only on hay and no pasture
The people who gave examples were saying they gave between 5000 and 6000# per year for 6 Nigerians, but one of them said her goats were overweight.
It looks like it depends on how many bucks you have (they tend to eat more), how big your does are (bigger does will eat more), how much your goats like to eat and how much they will be grazing...
If you only have one buck and your does are on the smaller size, then you might be able to get away with 2 tons or less if you can graze a lot???
Hope this is helpful =)
Kare,
Can you teach us how to do your calculation?
Theresa