# The Cost Of raising Goats:



## cinderrella123 (Sep 11, 2016)

Well When i Restarted with 2 Registered Nigerian dwarf Doe's and 3 months after i bought them I bought 2 Mini Lamancha's Mom and Son. But sold Mom 2 months after I bought her sense i had nothing to breed her to. 

I now in 2018 I have:
11 doe's and 3 Buck's 

Hopefully next year I will be able to keep kids from my doe's so i will have more. 


I spend about 20.00 Dollars a 90-lb bale for Timothy As my goats waste alfalfa and they don't really like orchard. I spend about 80.00 a Month On hay (They truck it in from another area)

I spend about 50.00 dollars in grain every 2 months as i don't give my does that are none Milking or pregnant or nursing kids I only feed it to milking and nursing so it keeps for 2 months. 


I would love to know how many goats you all have and what type of hay you feed them and grain if you feed grain. and how much you spend for the goats you have. thank you have a nice day.  

I love my goats and I feed them the best and i give them the best. I believe they give me kids and milk I should repay them with good food and and grain and love and care. they also get to run on 5 acres on a good day when it is not raining.


----------



## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I feed alfalfa Hay that is $11-17 depending on the time of year. They also get some brows, that’s a long explanation because I change it up on how much depending on what’s going on lol. Kids get a creep feeder with grain. I buy it buy the ton so pay $13.50 a 50#. Does get protein tubs $70 for 200#. I don’t really keep track of it monthly but will get the total years bill and divide by the number of does. Sometimes I’ll start the year out with more and end with less and vise versa, plus kids feed is included. Anyways last year it came out to $160 a doe for a year


----------



## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

I have four dairy does - two are LaManchas and two are Nigerians. I feel like I never spend enough and my hubby feels like all I do is spend - so it's all in how you look at it! 

In all seriousness, I don't keep track of expenses - too depressing! But my daughters are in 4-H, so they do. And it's REALLY depressing. The income from kid sales and milk/candy/yogurt sales and goat show winnings don't even pay for our hay, let alone all the other stuff!

But then, we're not in it for the money!


----------



## kevinbuck (Mar 28, 2018)

My goats go threw 4 #50 bags of grain a week and about 3 bales of hey a week that's 11 goats. the grain is cheap here $8 a bag. The hey I don't know we had 600 bales here when we bought the house


----------



## Kaigypsygoats (Jan 10, 2018)

We aren't sure here yet. Hubby thinks it expensive and I'm like, we have not even STARTED yet! Ha! Hay runs about $15 for first and second cut. They are still babies so our main expensive right now is milk.

Let's see.....$11 for medicated feed 50# bag. $11 on all livestock mineral w/ copper 25# bag. $14 for 50# bag of sweet feed (gonna change that out as soon its gone-want something more goat friendly not just all livestock). That's about it. $5 bucks on a feed older. $600 for the shed we built with another $300 invested in fencing.


----------



## cinderrella123 (Sep 11, 2016)

Jessica84 said:


> I feed alfalfa Hay that is $11-17 depending on the time of year. They also get some brows, that's a long explanation because I change it up on how much depending on what's going on lol. Kids get a creep feeder with grain. I buy it buy the ton so pay $13.50 a 50#. Does get protein tubs $70 for 200#. I don't really keep track of it monthly but will get the total years bill and divide by the number of does. Sometimes I'll start the year out with more and end with less and vise versa, plus kids feed is included. Anyways last year it came out to $160 a doe for a year


My goats Love just wasting the alfalfa hay they will eat the stems off the tops of the hay then just leave the rest and won't touch it. and alfalfa around here is 21.00 but with tax it comes to 22.00 a bale.

I plan on buying the protein tubs I need to as they waste a lot of the mineral they will pee and poop in the mineral i put out for them.


----------



## cinderrella123 (Sep 11, 2016)

groovyoldlady said:


> I have four dairy does - two are LaManchas and two are Nigerians. I feel like I never spend enough and my hubby feels like all I do is spend - so it's all in how you look at it!
> 
> In all seriousness, I don't keep track of expenses - too depressing! But my daughters are in 4-H, so they do. And it's REALLY depressing. The income from kid sales and milk/candy/yogurt sales and goat show winnings don't even pay for our hay, let alone all the other stuff!
> 
> But then, we're not in it for the money!


Yeah I know it is sort of depressing for me to but I get happiness out of all 14 of my goats.

I spent about 250.00 on buying the hog panels that we made there big pen we spent around 200 dollars on the fencing that we attached to the hog panels as the babies got through the panels so we had to put the extra fencing on the hog panels.

but yeah with housing and fencing i probably didn't even cover the cost that i sold the kids for although i did keep 5 kids from this years crop.

But hey if i did it for profit the doe's would not be well cared for.


----------



## cinderrella123 (Sep 11, 2016)

kevinbuck said:


> My goats go threw 4 #50 bags of grain a week and about 3 bales of hey a week that's 11 goats. the grain is cheap here $8 a bag. The hey I don't know we had 600 bales here when we bought the house


Are your doe's in milk or pregnant.


----------



## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

cinderrella123 said:


> My goats Love just wasting the alfalfa hay they will eat the stems off the tops of the hay then just leave the rest and won't touch it. and alfalfa around here is 21.00 but with tax it comes to 22.00 a bale.
> 
> I plan on buying the protein tubs I need to as they waste a lot of the mineral they will pee and poop in the mineral i put out for them.


Ouch on the price! I don't allow mine to waste. They won't get more till it's gone and then I'll keep cutting it back till they get just enough that nothing is sitting there. Oh they pick threw it but they will get hungry enough to eat the stems. 
The protein tubs won't work for replacing minerals  they put very little minerals in the tubs. It's kinda like the added minerals in a bag of goat pellets, just hardly anything. I use the tubs instead of grain though. It is really cool/ interesting to watch when they suck it down and when they hardly touch it. When I'm getting hay from my parents which is tested just below dairy quality they won't touch it. When I'm getting the junk from the feed store (now) they are sucking it down. After all that jabbering lol it's basically a way to up the protein and allow them to pick and choose when they need it.


----------



## TooManyBoers (Oct 19, 2017)

cinderrella123 said:


> Well When i Restarted with 2 Registered Nigerian dwarf Doe's and 3 months after i bought them I bought 2 Mini Lamancha's Mom and Son. But sold Mom 2 months after I bought her sense i had nothing to breed her to.
> 
> I now in 2018 I have:
> 11 doe's and 3 Buck's
> ...


Well, my costings are £10/month/doe. Plus whatever babies then eat (which amounts to about £60/£70 for a 6 month slaughter, although that's massively overestimated). But that doesn't include straw, meds, water or the inevitably broken hurdles that my does like to literally snap in half...


----------



## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

21 adults and I'm not sure how many kids. Tons, it seems. Most of my adults are Standards- Nubian, Lamancha and a single Oberhasli. 4 adults does 3 kids and 1 buck are Nigerian dwarfs.

I go thru a large round bale every 5 days (I also have a horse and a pony). This is just plain field hay, mixed grass and weeds. 30$ per bale.

The bucks and kids get meat goat grower- $14.00/50 lbs twice a week.

The dries get a mix of textured horse feed $9.00/50 lbs and whole native oats $12.50 for 80 lbs. 2 bags of each a week.

The milkers get dairy goat pellets- $14.00/50 lbs. I go thru 50 pounds a day.

All goats get alfalfa pellets mixed with their grain. $15.00/50 lbs. X 2 bags a week.

I supplement with free choice loose minerals -$20.00/20 lbs every other week

Kelp meal- $45.00/ 50 lbs every 6 months- mixed with their soaked beet pulp.

Beet pulp- $16.00/40 lbs every other week fed soaked with their night feeding for all

Rice bran meal top dressed on their grain- $24.00/50 lbs every 6 months or so. They each get about an ounce a day.

I use 2-3 bags of shavings ($4.50/bale) and 1 bale of straw ($4.50 bale) a week. Meds, dewormers, insecticides, supplements and such are as needed.

I have to work a part time job to pay for the hay. The rest comes from my regular pay check and kid sales.


----------



## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

I think I spent $200/month last year. Herd size fluctuated from 3 to 10. I give free choice alfalfa which is $8/bale, and non GMO feed which is something like $25/bag. Plus minerals and whatever else.


----------



## ETgoatygirl (Mar 23, 2012)

Good 2nd cutting alfalfa hay is about
$200 a ton around here. Ugh. So for the year, I usually buy 4 tons. They also get $15 a 50# bag of goat grain. Their bedding is $6 for a bag of shavings. Hopefully all of the for kids I had here will help offset all of these costs!
You’ve got to love goats.


----------



## Steampunked (Mar 23, 2015)

I have two dairy goats. A large bale (not a round) of hay is about $16. Goat pellets are about a dollar a kilo. Shavings are a lot more expensive than hay by weight and volume here, so their bedding is hay as well. They are in an enclosure with a lot of brush, moss, and fallen logs that they prefer to eat, so I'd roughly guess that maybe they currently cost me about $10 - $12 a week to run including the goat block that they ignore. My partner thinks it's more like $5.

They also get weeds from my vegetable garden, so the occasional corn stalk, edible leaves, herbs, etc.

No one around here sells 'second cutting' anything, or knows what it means. You get what you get. We're unusual in that I feed the goats - most people nearby never feed them, they just let them eat whatever they can find in the garden, they certainly never get hay.


----------



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

I don't add up what I feed in a month. But I know how much it costs and I know how much I feed... so here goes.

Per week:
2 bags alfalfa pellets at $19/bag
2 bags alfalfa cubes at $13/bag
2 bags of goat feed at $13/bag

I don't feed hay right now as I just opened up a new 3 acres of orchard to the goats, but when I was I was feeding 
2 half bales of timothy hay at $25/half bale

So with no orchard: $122/week with orchard $72/week.

I am upping the feed as I just added two new goats though, but I was feeding 
1,000 pounds of goats and sheep roughly. lol
4 adult ewes who recently lambed
4 lambs
6 adult does
7 kids
1 buck
and now 2 added does. Wait is that all of them? I'm not 100% sure at this point. I know I have 7 kids cause I do a head count. haha I also know I have 4 lambs because lambing this year was difficult. 

So feeding... 13 adults and 11 babies? Most of the babies will be leaving though. In one capacity or another. Oh and I guess I also have a bottle baby in the house but she's not really eating "food yet" but I AM spending $12/week on her formula. I just bought those 2 extra does in milk to try to feed her a little less formula. UGH. What a circus.


----------



## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

Currently we are feeding:

1 bag of grain a week @ $15/#50 bag
1 bag of alfalfa pellets a week @ $14/#40 bag

Before the spring grass came in I was giving them a bit of alfalfa hay (one #50 compressed bale per week, costing an extra $18) to munch on at night, but that is a rare treat now. 

At the moment we have 9 adult goats (7 standard breeds and 2 minis), and 9 kids, not including the one that went to his new home yesterday. One of the adult does is also leaving soon because she needs a more pampered lifestyle, and after that I plan on selling one or two of the other does to make room for the two doelings we're retaining. All the rest of the bucklings from this year will be sold. 

Mostly their diets consist of the new spring grass, as well as brush/undergrowth. We rotate them in electric paddocks.


----------



## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

Goat_Scout said:


> Currently we are feeding:
> 
> 1 bag of grain a week @ $15/#50 bag
> 1 bag of alfalfa pellets a week @ $14/#40 bag
> ...


I need to learn your ways! My goats are thinish even though I'm feeding more than twice as much as you and I have mostly smaller goats. I wonder what the main diff is? Feeding goats can be so frustrating.


----------



## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

Dayna said:


> I need to learn your ways! My goats are thinish even though I'm feeding more than twice as much as you and I have mostly smaller goats. I wonder what the main diff is? Feeding goats can be so frustrating.


I totally agree, trying to figure out what will work for you and your goats can get very frustrating! I've gone through many different kinds of feed since getting into goats. The first 3 years we were mostly feeding an organic grain ($30 per #50 bag) but then I added more goats and that got kind of expensive, so I stopped. Some of my standard does are a little on the thin side right now, but I think a lot of that has to do with their huge, piggy bucklings that are wearing them down a lot. I think, as much as they love their kids, they're counting down the days 'til weaning time! 

We do have 53 acres but the goats are only on a little bit of it, though that is only because electric fencing is pretty expensive! I like rotationally grazing them but it takes at least a couple hours to set up, depending on how big of an area I cover. We have one Saanen doe that jumps over the 2-3 ft electric fencing, which drives me crazy (I actually don't know why any of the other goats haven't jumped over it yet), but after some chastisement she's stopped doing it for the most part.


----------



## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I'm feeding 15ish goats right now and 5 lambs/sheep.
Last month I went through 10-15 bags of creep pellets @ $6.90/bag
12 bales of prairie hay at $6/bale
4 bags of sweet feed at $9.30/bag

All bags are 50 lbs. I'm not currently milking, I have 2 "teenager" bucks, a baby buck, had a set of triplets this month and a heavily pregnant doe that hasn't popped yet but was skinny when I got her so she gets an extra ration.
I'll start milking the triplets mom next week once a day, so a bit more feed in there.
So $212.20 for around 15ish goats (I did some rearranging, bought 4, sold 1, had a doe pass away, had kids a week and a half ago, etc, so 15"ish" lol) - rounds out to about $11 a head per month.

That said, these are all Boer and Nubian goats, so this wouldn't be the same amount of feed if they were smaller goats. Currently have
6 Boer goats (1 buck, 5 does)
7 Nubians (2 bucks, 5 does)
1 Alpine (doe - skinny pregnant one)
1 pygmy wether destined for the freezer - intended to resell him but found out he was a wether and can't seem to find anyone that wants him, so cheap enough to go in my freezer.
2 large "lambs" ( maybe 10-11 month old sheep)
3 barely weaned lambs - had 4 one went from abosamal bloat last night)

I also feed 3 horses but I didn't count what they eat into the equation. We don't have grass or much of it due to the lack of rain right now, so rather that spending all that on the small prairie hay bales I bought them a $50 round bale today. I'm probably going to cut back on the creep feed because I have a lot of overweight does. It is great for putting weight on but I think i feed too much of it for a maintenance diet. Nothing is any part of lean except the Alpine doe and I"ve had her since the end of February, and my new momma Nubian looks a bit pulled down. I basically free feed those two as much in pellets as they'll eat, and they are free-fed hay like everyone else.


----------



## kevinbuck (Mar 28, 2018)

cinderrella123 said:


> Are your doe's in milk or pregnant.


They are pregnant


----------



## cinderrella123 (Sep 11, 2016)

kevinbuck said:


> They are pregnant


Oh nice. Yeah Next year i will Hopefully Have 11 Doe's Pregnant well no I will have 10 doe's pregnant as I am giving my one doe a year and half off to just be a goat.


----------



## Kaigypsygoats (Jan 10, 2018)

lottsagoats1 said:


> 21 adults and I'm not sure how many kids. Tons, it seems. Most of my adults are Standards- Nubian, Lamancha and a single Oberhasli. 4 adults does 3 kids and 1 buck are Nigerian dwarfs.
> 
> I go thru a large round bale every 5 days (I also have a horse and a pony). This is just plain field hay, mixed grass and weeds. 30$ per bale.
> 
> ...


I was thinking of putting Kelp meal as a top dressing on their loose livestock minerals. Overkill or good to go?


----------



## Kaigypsygoats (Jan 10, 2018)

We also plan on having a couple of mixes for the goats. Right now, they are still on bottles though we are heading to weaning time next month.

Dry Doe/Wether
-Boss
-Goat feed
-Loose minerals (small amount of


Doe in Milk

-BOSS
-Goat Feed
-Alfalfa Pellets
-Calf Manna
-Small amount of Sweet feed

BOSS for us is about $15 bucks from TSC, which I also use in a mix for chickens (when we had them). No idea on the Calf Manna and Alfalfa pellets are about $12-$20 depending on if they are organic plus weight.


----------



## cinderrella123 (Sep 11, 2016)

Kaigypsygoats said:


> We also plan on having a couple of mixes for the goats. Right now, they are still on bottles though we are heading to weaning time next month.
> 
> Dry Doe/Wether
> -Boss
> ...


yeah my dry doe's only get grain once every other day as they get to fat some times.

wow i spend 8 dollars for a 20-lb bag of BOSS I buy it from Walmart. TSC, is way to pricey on that one for me i will buy my other stuff from them but Boss is way to expensive at TSC,


----------



## NicoleV (Dec 12, 2015)

I like this thread because now I don't feel so bad seeing that others are very similar to me! I still feel like I spend too much on the goats, but I keep the budget in the black by sharing some milk. 

I feed alfalfa hay and orchard grass. On average a 100# bale of alfalfa costs around $17, orchard grass bales usually are around 115# or 125# for $21. So basically 17 cents per pound (some is wasted of course which means I don't have to pay for bedding! ). My milking does eats about 5 or 6 pounds of hay per day, so about $1 per day. I no longer feed grain, even on the milkstand. I found that my milking doe doesn't need it, so I just cut it out and that saves some money. I have 9 goats now: one buck, two bucklings, 2 does in milk, 2 dry does, and 2 doelings. The boys eat less than the girls and only get grass hay, no alfalfa or grain. 

So it's pretty much 30# of hay per day that we feed, so about $5 a day. I feel like that's a lot, but then again I can get $5 per quart of milk and I'm going to be selling one of the does in milk and a doeling soon. My one doe produces just over a gallon a day without grain, and the other one is feeding her doelings still so I guess you can say I produce a gallon of milk for $5 in feed and most of it goes to all the other goats that are not even doing anything all day! If only I had the heart to downsize! 

I don't even want to think about the cost of minerals and meds that I use. Ugh! But we love our goats!


----------



## cinderrella123 (Sep 11, 2016)

Yeah I wish i could cut the grain from my milking routine but i don't think it would work out to good for me although i only give them 2 cups of grain for 2 of my doe's that are in milk which are both Nigerian dwarf's. 

I wish i could also buy it by the ton but i have no space to do so at this moment.


----------

