# Goat pasture-how far from house?



## Shorty1071 (Jan 2, 2017)

We are getting two nigerian dwarf doelings this spring, and are trying to figure out where to put their pasture. We have an old garage behind our house (30-40 feet maybe?) that we are turning into a doe barn. It will easily house 10-15+ goats if we decide to get serious about goats. There's plenty of room for milking/feed storage/hay/etc, and I love how close it is to the house for future kidding. 
The thing I'm trying to figure out is where to put their pasture.. I could turn the backyard (currently our dog yard) into a goat pasture, is that going to smell terrible? Probably a silly question, but I've never had goats!! I have a few other places that I could put a good sized goat pasture, but obviously it would be convenient to have the pasture attached to their barn. Thoughts? Any reasons it would be a good or bad idea that I'm not thinking of?


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## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

Usually the pasture area for goats doesn't have a strong smell. The bigger questions will be where you will dispose of the manure and old bedding from their pens, and if you keep a buck, yes his lovely aroma will be noticable.


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## Shorty1071 (Jan 2, 2017)

goatblessings said:


> Usually the pasture area for goats doesn't have a strong smell. The bigger questions will be where you will dispose of the manure and old bedding from their pens, and if you keep a buck, yes his lovely aroma will be noticable.


Okay, thanks! Maybe we will put them in the backyard, then. The only downside is that then I won't be able to see them from the front porch.. hmm. Decisions, decisions. As dumb as it sounds, I honestly haven't thought about where to put manure/bedding.. thanks for that!! Definitely something we need to figure out!

Oh, and as far as males-we are planning on getting a buck and wether next year, and they will be kept completely separate from the females.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You definitely want their pasture attached to their barn.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I agree with goat blessings. They smell WAY less then other animals lol well not counting the buck but you'll get immune to it to a point  but seriously I can open my back door and throw a rock and hit part of their pasture. My kidding pen is actually right outside my bedroom window and again if I throw a rock really hard I'll hit the main pasture.


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

keep the buck far away from the house. we have our does in the front yard


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## IHEARTGOATS (Jun 14, 2016)

Why don't you get an aerial pic
of your property usually available on your
county website
You can draw up different options


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## MoonShadow (Mar 1, 2015)

Yes, bucks separate and as far away a possible, while still being a safe distance(in case anything happens or goes wrong) and with you being able to check up on them at least twice a day without to much effort. (I can see my buck pen from the tv room window, but then again I'm use to the smell so to me its not a big deal :lol:)

Keep Does as close as possible. Your Doe yard shouldn't smell at all as long as you keep it clean. I like to be able to see my goat pasture from my window. Especially when it comes to my does and kid, so I would keep them In in a place you can see from a porch or window.


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## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

You really want your barn to be connected to your pasture. So much less hassle that way. And that being close to the house is convenient for milking.

But... I love that my goat pasture is out of sight of the house. My goats tend to call to me whenever they see or hear me, so I like to be able to move around in the house and yard without attracting their attention (their pasture is a few hundred feet from my house). Some goats are louder and/or friendlier than others, but it is something to consider.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I love being able to look out my windows in the morning and seeing them. Right now they are split up in 2 different pens because they are being bred and I have to go out and check on them to see them. But having them out the window was a life saver with my doe that had polio. I was waking up and looking out the window when I saw she was off


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## catharina (Mar 17, 2016)

My goats are 20 feet from my back door & bedroom window, & I love it! I can hear them & know if something's wrong. I can check on them at night if need be with just a strong flashlight & I don't have to put on shoes.


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

Yep ours are close too! Love to have them close for predators too. We don't have any livestock protector animals so barn them up at nite and we keep an eye on them during the day. Having them close makes that easy.


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## wndngrvr (Dec 10, 2011)

Predators are always something to consider. We have our does and bucks with ajoining fence line and have a hot wire on the inside of the buck pen to keep them off the fence. Better if they could be further away from the does but we have bear and cougars around so I want the animals close together with hot wire on the outside of the fence that is turned on at night, lights around the penned area shinning into the woods, and nite guards on the corner posts. We also have a camera set up with sound so that I can always hear what is going on in the barn. 
I feel they should always have assess to their buildings. We can open a gate on the does and let them roam further from their pen but they can always get back there easily. They only go further away when we take them for walks.


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

Yeah we have a camera in our barn too. I love it!! Very helpful! 
We lock our goats in barn at nite. 
How does the night guards work for you? Do you think they are worth putting up? Like if you had them without lights would they work for protection? Just curious about those. I've thought about using them on the corners of our property. We have hot wire on top of fence and haven't seen any signs of animals coming over. Coyotes dug once under our fence but haven't seen any signs of them coming on the property since. They go around our property because the surrounding fences are older and easier to get through I think. 

A good fence is so valuable to have!! 

It's seeming to wk well to keep predators out. Have heard cougars are down the Rd a couple miles from us.


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## Melinda29 (Apr 19, 2016)

We move our pasture pen every 4-8 days and thus eliminate the need for bedding and cleaning. So it changes through the year. Right now they are 15 feet from the house. They have an xlarge dogloo dog house for shelter and only go in the barn if the windchill gets below 0 degrees F. They are dairy goats (mini Nubian and mini Sable) but are furry and fat for the winter. I used to put them in the barn when it got below 20 degrees, but they whined to come out. 0 degrees seems to be their magic number. 

It really only gets that cold in parts of December, January, and February. The cold comes and goes. I'd say they spend 11 months a year in their pasture, day and night. Their pen in the barn only gets cleaned once a year, in the spring, because it is used so little, and the soiled bedding goes straight on to our garden. 

Moving the pasture so frequently gives them fresh grass for eating, plus I leave out a bucket of alfalfa pellets if they so choose (we planted lespedeza in our pasture along with the existing bromegrass, so they mostly mow their own feed). And of course they have water and minerals. We don't return the pen to the same spot until at least four months have passed, so as to reduce the parasites. I run regular fecal tests and have never once had to deworm them.


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## catharina (Mar 17, 2016)

What is a night guard?onder:


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

Here is the link:
http://www.niteguard.com/


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

I highly encourage you to have pens or "sacrifice areas" connected to the barn/garage and then have those open out to the actual pasture(s). Kind of like a horse barn where they have stalls, then run-outs, then pasture. Your pasture is super important to healthy goats and you want to be able to keep them out of it if needed! So the pens or sacrifice areas are not for grazing, those are for the goats to have exercise space. Those areas have heavy parasite loads because the goats poop there a lot - they might contain covered hay racks or water troughs, climbing toys, etc. Then your pastures are actual browse (trees & shrubs) and grass. You don't want your goats over-grazing the pastures. Depending on the quality of the pasture, you will likely need 1 acre of pasture for every 6 miniature goats, that's an estimate based on your climate and grazing season though.


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

I have a area outside my barn that I guess would be considered saltys "sacrifice area". I call it a dry lot. It's sand. And we have play stuff for them. If it's wet they don't go out to pasture. It wks well doing things that way too. They have barn and dry lot to hang out and play in on the days they can't be on pasture. It wks quite well. I do want some cross fenced areas tho. 

Salty love: how many pastures do you have to rotate in and out of? And how often do you rotate them to new pasture?

Good info you shared! Thank you!!!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

My pen is just a big pasture area, if I don't want them to eat it I'll just feed them more hay. Last year once I took the bucks out I did put them all in the smaller pasture so that there was grass for the kids when they were born but it was such a pain to let them out for a few minutes and then back in and the next day out a little longer till I could just let them go for it. I don't think I'll do that again


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Buck Naked Boers said:


> I have a area outside my barn that I guess would be considered saltys "sacrifice area". I call it a dry lot. It's sand. And we have play stuff for them. If it's wet they don't go out to pasture. It wks well doing things that way too. They have barn and dry lot to hang out and play in on the days they can't be on pasture. It wks quite well. I do want some cross fenced areas tho.
> 
> Salty love: how many pastures do you have to rotate in and out of? And how often do you rotate them to new pasture?
> 
> Good info you shared! Thank you!!!


Yes! Dry-lot is another good term for it! That's not a common phrase here on the east coast.

I have 4, 1-acre pastures that I rotate my herd of 15 breeding head (give or take) plus annual offspring through. It's not enough. Typically by August I am pulling them off the pastures and feeding hay and letting them free-range to other areas of the farm when I am home. I don't let them graze pasture shorter than 4" height. My pastures do need additional soil tests and likely a good application of lime to get the soils back to prime production.


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

Jessica I have two grass pastures but have thought about cross fencing so I'd have smaller pens. That would help worm loads even more I think. We have extra fence posts. Just after fencing our entire 5 acre plot three yrs ago my old over forty self needs to muster up energy for that. But I'm sure we could do it!! Lol. The goats would have longer grass in different pastures too. So I'm thinking on that. 

Salty love: that sounds great! I'd love to have a set up like that. I have less goats than you do so am thinking I could perhaps do some 3/4 or 1/2 acre divisions. 

We had to put pasture in when moving here 3 yrs ago. Was Christmas trees before we moved here. What a job!!! 2 tons per pasture acre of lime 2nd yr. after we figured out nothing was growing. Why we didn't soil test before planting seed? Um well cause we were beginners. Lol. 2nd yr 1 ton per acre on our pasture. We are hoping to fertilize perhaps this spring too based on our soil test last fall. Will see. But tons of wk pastures are....to maintain. Lol. It's getting there tho!


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