# Help With Pasture Layout



## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

We are trying to be more efficient with our land and the layout of our farm. Our property is about three and a half acres. My labels are a little small, but if you zoom in you can see them. Currently it looks pretty much like this:







This is what I am thinking:







My question is, is in necessary to divide the left and right pastures further to allow for better rotation, or is the larger area better for more forage potential. The salad bar feature would allow me to have the does out in the area attached to their barn and have the bucks out in the pasture off of their pen.

The shelters I have drawn in the right and left pasture are just imagined they are not in existence yet. Also the barn labeled pasture barn is going to be used for chickens for part of the year.


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

If those left and right are good sized ones we would here most likely. But it involves movin them more. So you have to decide how often you want to move them. I think it takes three months for the worm eggs to die off in an area. Not positive on that but that is what my brain cell says right now. So. Do you have enough vegetation to keep them rotating so they are off one piece for that long? That would help us to decide if we wanted divide the big areas. 

Also. If you do not put everyone abed every night... gates to the next fence over might be helpful as well. Like inside the fence not so you had walk them outside of it. More work to put it up but less when moving.


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## ScottE (May 4, 2019)

I prefer smaller over larger. It takes 90 days for parasites to die off, and I don't know about yours but my girls get bored after about a week or two in any one area. 

However I move them every day from the barn to pasture and back. Not sure if your willing or able to do that.


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Some things I want to bring up for consideration: I do not house my Does and bucks together and sharing a fence line is an issue. I find it inconvenient to put up electric on both sides of a fenceline, so that is something I am going to have to figure out if I am going to have the bucks, say, in the left pasture and the does in the pasture adjacent while the right pasture is resting. 

As for amount of vegetation in the right and left pasture, there is absolutely loads of brush in those two areas. I got my two does in May and it has taken until now for the pasture they are in to really be eaten down, but it still has grasses and some small leafy plants. The buck pen is really basically a dry lot at this point, they are a big reason we want to do this.


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Morning Star Farm said:


> That is a great idea. I always keep double fences between my bucks and does. How many goats do you have? I think you should be fine with just the two pastures. That's what I've done and mine are pretty brushy too.


So what do you do with the space between the double fence lines? Do you plant stuff in them? That's what I hope to do.
Right now I have two bucks and two does, but I plan on expanding. I really can't say at this point how many goats my end herd size is going to be, goat math and all...


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

MellonFriend said:


> Some things I want to bring up for consideration: I do not house my Does and bucks together and sharing a fence line is an issue. I find it inconvenient to put up electric on both sides of a fenceline, so that is something I am going to have to figure out if I am going to have the bucks, say, in the left pasture and the does in the pasture adjacent while the right pasture is resting.
> 
> As for amount of vegetation in the right and left pasture, there is absolutely loads of brush in those two areas. I got my two does in May and it has taken until now for the pasture they are in to really be eaten down, but it still has grasses and some small leafy plants. The buck pen is really basically a dry lot at this point, they are a big reason we want to do this.


So if you have bucks on one side and does on the other.... where will you move everyone to keep them off a lot for three months? Since you are doin the rotation for worm issues too. You could divide the two larger into two each but still keep does on one side and bucks on the other. That way no one is on a dry lot. Then there is the will the forage grow back soon enough if it is heavily wooded.

Our bucks are rotated through the woods... where they were at the beginning of spring is still not grown up enough for them to be put back and happily eat for three weeks (three weeks is about when ours need moved now).

Since you only have two each sex.. you may could divide the bigger parts into more than two areas. Yes it requires movin them more often than you are now. But that gives time for the eggs to die off. Where as keepin them in the large area undivided they are foragin all over it and droppin berries all over all the time.


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## NigerianNewbie (Jun 6, 2018)

Yes, in a larger area the poop is dispersed more, however so are the worm hatchings. The cycle for most worms are about 21/2 -3 weeks until hatching. And there are approximately 90 days until the cycle is broken and die off begins. The 90 day die off is how long it generally takes for an area to be clean again from most worm infestations.

Also, there should be an area for quarantine in case of a sickness or new herd additions. An additional Clean Area for newborn kids and does to be turned out after bonding would be of benefit for the weak immune systems. An area for weanlings that included a creep feeder would be helpful as well. Possibly, this area could be sectioned off later for the kids that were actively being weaned.

The more sections you can create the better the options for rotating the goats every couple of weeks or so. Ideally, the first section they were housed in should lay dormant at least 90 days before being turned back onto that section again. 

I currently maintain 8 sections for browse with 14-17 days in each section before rotation. Depending on the rain, each day they are taken back and forth from a large sized dry lot with a goat barn to the browse areas. In the browse area are portable housings made from 55 gallon barrels with supportive legs and 2 water buckets that also get moved from section to section.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

My pen area is divided up into 5 smaller pens. All of them open up into one another, so I can have anywhere from 5 pens down to one really large pen. It is very flexible for what I have happening at that time. Small pens that can open up and be larger pens is my vote.


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Morning Star Farm said:


> Can you post a picture of those shelters?


Agreed!

For now I might not be able to divide the larger areas in to more because of cost of fencing. I don't know yet. This might end up being something to keep in mind for the future.

What I would do now is something like this: (I really wish I would have labeled the pasture where the "pasture barn" is, so from now on I am going to call that "the Top pasture") Does in the left, bucks in the right while the top pasture rests. When that's done switch the does to the top pasture while the left rests. When that's done switch the boys to the Left, so the Right rests. And so on and so on and so forth. The buck pen would be for putting them in at night (maybe) or maybe I wouldn't even use it at all for the moment because it is completely eaten down. The does area beyond the salad bar attached to their barn would be used in a similar manner. It could be worked into the rotation, but it is a lot of grass so maybe not.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Cattle panels, Combination panels, and sheep and goat panels. Yes, they are permanent! Not sure why they wouldn't be?

Yes, it took time. Started with one big pen and over a couple of years got carved up inside.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Uhm, I just open the gates and let them through...


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Oh, OK. I wasn't making that leap.

Yes. As a matter of fact, Those gates ARE sections of cattle panels They are wired on one side just loosely enough to allow a pivoting action (that would be the "hinge") and the other side overlaps the rest of the fence just enough for clips to hold it shut. I have 2 clips, called snap links holding the gate shut so the goats can't push through. One snap link toward the top and the other closer to the bottom. Here is what a snap link looks like.








Very easy, you just have to plan well enough that you have a small overlap with the rest of the fence to clip to. And of course that you have a sturdy T-post at the other end to wire to. I use baling wire for that.

And those are our gates. They don't have to be the entire 16 foot length of a complete panel. I use partial lengths as well, according to my needs. I use a bolt cutter to cut the panels to the length I need.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

It's a combination of cattle panels, sheep & goat panels, and combination panels, all from TSC. I had a section of horse wire fencing and that wasn't working out too well, so just this past Spring I had my neighbor help me replace it all with cattle panels. So now it is much safer and sturdier. I ran out of wire and clips, so we used zip ties to connect them! They'll need replaced, but they worked to get that fence up!


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

I much prefer the snap links. I do not like those horse lead snaps. But everyone needs to be able to use what they have, can get, or prefer, right?


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

I use many different sizes of snap links for everything.

I don't use anything that requires finagling and fingering work.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

All good advice.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Hardware stores, Lowes, etc.


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## NigerianNewbie (Jun 6, 2018)

Morning Star Farm said:


> What kind of fencing are your pens built out of so you can do that? I'm guessing it's not that permanent. Cattle panels?


Yes, it is 8' long cattle panels. The tpost are set every 4' and are permanent. I set up 2 sections at a time, a row of side by side. When relocating areas, 3 sides are moved over to have one new section beginning behind the upper row, each couple of weeks or so.


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## Nigerian dwarf goat (Sep 25, 2017)

Same thing happened with me. It started out with 2 sections, then i added a 3rd, and im am now thinking about a 4th and 5th for the does! My buck pen is attached to the doe pen but has abt 3 inches in between.


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