# Share your goat operation big or small



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone has and what you feed.

How much land?
Goats & what breed?
Free choice minerals, if so what kind & color?
Hay?
Grain?
And any extras you feed your goats?
How much grain do you feed your goats?

I'm very curious about this, and again thought it could be fun to know what everyone is doing and what works, could help others who are struggling, like me...LOL Of course I know what I need to do, I just have a man, called husband in my way LOL


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## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

How much land?
That's kind of a hard one. My goats live mainly in horse stalls with small out door runs on them. I am not a fan of this but I live at home right now while I save up money for a house of my own and my step dad does not want me to fence in his 4 acre field. I have about 1/2 an acre with fence panels set up that on nice days I walk 1 pen out there and let them graze for a few hours then switch them out. In the summer/ fall my dad likes me to bring them to his house to clean up the fields of weeds his cattle wont eat. So at those times they have 3 or so acres at a time to roam in.

Goats & what breed?
I have seven yearling-adult does, One 9 month old buck, and seven kids right now. we raise boer percentage goats

Free choice minerals, if so what kind & color?
yes we have free choice mineral feeders in each stall, ADM meat makers.

Hay?
Unless it is the last month of pregnancy or while the does are lactating they get grass hay. but while lactating and in the last month they get Alfalfa. We bale our own hay so I always know what is in it.

Grain?
The kids get an 18% pellet complete feed, and the lactating does are fed twice a day with a 16% textured feed and the rest get that once a day in a smaller portion since these are show goats they all have to keep their condition up.

And any extras you feed your goats?
If we have any pine branches fall I will give them those, they will get some of the sweet corn husks and stalks but not much else.

How much grain do you feed your goats?
We don't have a real pound system. the 3 does with kids each get about 1 quart of grain twice a day, the 4 unbred does get 1 quart split between them once a day and Freeney my buck gets about 1 quart once a day.


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## GotmygoatMTJ (Apr 25, 2009)

How much land?
We have 17ish acres. Our goats are using about 2 and 1/2 acres for the goats so far.

Goats & what breed?
We have 10 goats. 8 nigerians. 1 lamancha. 1 myotonic

Free choice minerals, if so what kind & color?
We are using Sweetlix meat maker at the moment.(dark red) Our to bucks get Mannapro(light tan). Switching over to Purina.(dont know yet)

Hay?
Grass hay mostly. We also feed Chaffhaye alfalfa.

Grain?
18% mix with oats, crack corn, boss, and pellets. 

And any extras you feed your goats?
We feed alfalfa pellets

How much grain do you feed your goats?
Our 2 bucks get fed twice daily a mix of 1 1/4 cup grain with 1 cup alfalfa pellets with chaffhaye. The 7 in the pasture get 4 cups grain to 2 cups alfalfa pellets with chaffhaye in the morning. In the evening they get their chaffhaye in dishes out in the pasture as well as their grain in the feed pen.


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## Mini Goat Lover (May 4, 2011)

How much land?
We have about 5 acres but only use about 1 acre. 

Goats & what breed?
I have 5 Nigerian Dwarfs at the moment.

Free choice minerals, if so what kind & color?
I feed free choice Purina Goat Minerals.

Hay?
Alfalfa

Grain?
I only feed grain to my milking does. And that would be oats and barley. 

And any extras you feed your goats?
Black Eyed Peas, willow, citrus

How much grain do you feed your goats?
About 1/2 of a cup to my does when I am milking them.


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## Frosty1 (Jul 12, 2011)

How much land? About five acres around the house.  
How many goats, and what breed? 4 LaMancha's and one Nubian cross.
Free choice minerals, if so, what kind and color? Wellll..... I'll admit, I'm really not very good about remembering/getting around to putting out the minerals, but, technically they are free choice.  But anyways, I use Manna Pro loose goat minerals from our local Tractor Supply. I'm also thinking of getting a mineral block to put in their stall. As to color, it honestly looks like colorful cat litter and smells gross. :laugh: 
Hay? Um... I'm not really sure what kind it is, but they like it, so I guess it's ok. ;D 
Grain? I'm not really sure what brand it is, I'd have to go look at the bag, but I only give it to my milking/preggo does. 
How much grain? I actually just measure it in a bucket, but it's about a cup and a half to two cups, I think.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

I currently have 10 goats on 2 1/2 acres. Seven Boers. One Boer/Alpine and two Saanens. I wish I had more ground, but an acre and a half of it is very good goat land. Trees, black berries, saplings, weeds and grass. It has usable perimeter fence. I got rid of some freeloader horses in the front pasture near the barn and currently have it over seeded with stuff I thought goats might eat. We'll see how that works. Ha. That pasture is resting until it gets up this spring and then I will give the back pasture a much needed rest. I'm hoping rotating the two will enhance their use. My first ever kids will arrive the end of March. Nine does theoretically are preggo. I've got my does pretty well lined out, but I'm sure the addition of kids will offer a new goat learning challenge for me. Sweetlix loose minerals free choice, though they don't seem to use them very much. I currently only feed alfalfa hay. I believe alfafa hay is the best hay there is. I would maybe feed some good orchard grass or other nice green grassy hay, but they want just as much money for a bale of that as they do alfalfa which I think is BS, so I won't buy it. If I'm going to pay through the nose for hay, I'm at least going to buy the best. I feed my goats way too much grain. They are probably getting around two pounds each per day divided up between two feedings. My goats are fat. Probably about a 4 on the 1-5 fatness scale. I try to counter their fatness by being sure they get some excercise which they do on their own by making several trips a day up the hill to the back pasture to browse and explore. My goats are what you hear refered to as "pampered show goats", even though maybe only a couple of them are competitive show quality. My three yearlings and the fullblood doe bred to a AI sire get Payback Boer Goat Developer. The other six get Purina Noble Goat (which I got a really good deal on from the guy that sells me feed for my race horses) and a sweet COB mix that is cheap and low protein mixed half and half. I figure this brings the protein to about 13% so I don't worry as much about the obscene amount I feed them and to balance all the calcium that's in that alfalfa. At least that's the theory. After kidding I will either change or stay the same depending on how it goes. Say a prayer for me.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Wow great replies 

We have 2 acres. The goat pen is about 1 1/2 acres, but is mostly wooded, I think maybe a half acre of grass?. We do graze them in our front & back yard during nice weather.

We have 7 goats, 1 fullblood boer buck, twin boer/nubian bucklings <who are ready to be sold>, 1 kiko/mix doe, 1 mostly boer doe, and 2 nubian/boer does.

Ultralyx free choice mineral medicated. It's red and they LOVE it. I can't get them to touch the Southern States -dark colored- mineral, they turn their nose up at it 

I wanted alfalfa, but waited on my husband for hay again this year so we had to settle for grass hay. We feed from roll bales, which looks like really good hay this year, and we have some mixed grass & clover square bales.
This summer I plan to get Alfalfa and a good grass mix. I do like the round bales for the grass mix.

We recently switched back to the feed mill grain, sweet 15% medicated.

I mix alfalfa pellets in with their feed. Otherwise no extras, but I do plan to add BOSS starting next week, and something else just not sure what!

Right now we are feeding:
twin 3 1/2 mo boys 1lb between the two of them
buck - he gets about 2lbs a day but I am trying to get him to eat more, he doesn't care for the grain...
Does - 3 are pregnant the other recovering from nursing and I feed them all 1lb of grain each a day
I add 2 cups of alfalfa pellets after I measure out their feed, the exception being the buck since he's so 'picky' he won't eat them.
I divide their feed into morning/evening feedings.

On the bag it says to feed 2lbs a day per 100lbs. It seems like a lot? They could use a little extra grain IMO, but not a whole lb. more? We have a feed trough from TSC, the black ones, and with the alfalfa pellets it nearly fills it completely up with the 4 does <3 are pregnant and due next month>. Of course when they start nursing we'll up their grain another pound or so, plus the alfalfa pellets and BOSS...


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## GoatGirlMO (Aug 13, 2010)

Land: 25 acres, split probably 65/35 woods and brush to pasture. The goats pretty much have free range, except for the bucks.

Goats: FB Boer buck, purebred Nubian buck, one spayed pygmy doe, one Boer wether, and about 15 adult Boer does and up-and-coming does. Three to four dair does of various nationalities. Plus kids. 

Orscheln Goat Mineral and copper boluses

No grain for the main herd, unless we are working them-- then they get just a bucketful of livestock mix. Babies get Purina Noble Goat grower, dairy does get Purina dairy parlor on the stand. 

Hay: small grass round bales from October-May

We don't purposely give them extras, but they do a dandy numer on cedar trees.


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## Maggie (Nov 5, 2010)

How much land? Hmm maybe about 4 acres fenced for that goats in 4 different pastures and 2 different barns. 
Goats & what breed? Boer FB, PB, and one unregistered. Currently 2 bucks, 12 does, 8 kids and more coming. 
Free choice minerals, if so what kind & color? Vigortone, reddish
Hay? Orchard grass with some alfalfa
Grain? Sweet feed formulated by our vet for the girls, and just dumor pellets for the boys.
And any extras you feed your goats? BOSS. The neighbor's christmas trees this time of year. 
How much grain do you feed your goats? Varies by goat, stage in pregnancy, # kids, etc.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

We're on an acre with 11 total Boer including a couple of %s.
Straight 3rd cut alfalfa yr round. The boys (wether & FB buck) have been getting a flake of that along with 80/20 & about a lb Boer Goat Developer twice daily between them since it started getting cold. This is an experiment as last year the buck blew his coat something fierce after his first winter here on grass hay only. The wether definitely doesnt need it but the set up makes it near impossible to seperate him during grain time.
7 preg does for Feb & March. Will start graining them toward the end of month & into lactation. Top dressed with a handful of BOSS.
Just switched from SweetLix to Onyx Right Now, as the copper content is way more than SweetLix. I go out to feed it in a pan as it clumps up like the SweetLix did in our perpetual damp weather. It was in those plastic feeders but the LGDs chewed them up. Besides they'd put thier front feed in it. :angry: They wouldnt touch those minerals either unless it was fresh & dry. :roll:


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## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

How much land?- 3 acres-1/4 acre fenced soon to be 1-1.5 acres fenced.

Goats & what breed? 6 goats presently(kids to come). Next year I will have 10 or more.
I have Alpine,LaMancha,Boer, Boer/Kiko, and soon to come Toggs.

Free choice minerals, if so what kind & color?- I have Purina at the moment...may switch to something else when I find something. 
Hay? Afalfa/timothy horse hay/ $3 a bale
Grain? Local grain mill. 14% costum horse sweat feed/$10 a bag.

And any extras you feed your goats? In the fall around breeding season and the first couple months of pregnancy they get apples. They also get carrots starting late summer to the beginning of winter when they are cheapest. In The late spring,Summer, and fall they get some garden greens that are supposed to be marked "not for human consumption"...as they are collards and other yucky stuff. Also they like beet tops.

How much grain do you feed your goats? 1 pound for dry pregnant does. Prior to kidding they go up to 2 pounds and continue on 2 pounds grain while lactating. Some does need up to 4. I don't feed grain to non lactating does in the summer.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Ohhh boy, here goes.........
How much land?
895 acrs, but they are chicken and dont go past certain points, so I would guess that they have only been on maybe 40 of it, but am planning on getting hot wire or pannels and making them do their job, which is brushing.

Goats and what breed?
2 dairy does, lamancha, and saanen,
20 boer cross does
9 reg boer does
8 kids
and a reg boer buck

Free choice minerals, if so what kind and color?
Yes on minerals, I dont know what brand on the one, it had the highest % copper the feed store had, its a brownish red.

Hay?
(this one is gonna be long, bear with me)
I was getting what I call weedie alfalfa (the grower says 'grass' I say 'weed') and they loved it. But he does not grow it any more so changed to oat, which they love more then good alfalfa. But only feed it to them when its too hot, or cold, and dont want to go out and look for food. Or when they start going up to the highway, or the neighbors. Then when they get prego, start switching to good alfalfa, or if Im lucky, alfalfa with clover, and they stay on that till the kids start nursing less.

Grain?
They all get grain at night so I can put them away safe. I usualy just get sweet cob, but have found a place that sells wheat, barley, and milo mix and comes out to $0.08 a lb,so am in the process of mixing that in with their wet cob. Mommas also get calf manna mixed in their grain(that stuff is the best), and when the kids get about a month old I put them away at night and give them some kind of show goat grain from tractor supply with calf manna.

Any extras you feed your goats?
They get, oak trees, weed, grass, buck brush is their fav, what ever they can find. But that I actual give to them is a proteine lick from tractor supply, but its not all year long, just when I feel they need it.

How much grain do you feed your goats?
Hahaha, a bucket for the group. But mommas, babys, or ones that I think need a little help get extra. I dont know the weights.


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## oz in NC (Jan 15, 2012)

HoosierShadow said:


> How much land?


17 acres,curently have only a tiny portion fenced.



> Goats & what breed?


Three Boer does,unregistered but buying a 100% registered buck soon.



> Free choice minerals, if so what kind & color?


Free choice,granulated but not sure of brand,the one TSC carried.



> Hay?


Yes,but they aren't THAT interested in it.



> Grain?


Are testing sweet feed out,they don't seem too crazed about that either,we were feeding Sunflower seeds and they liked that more.



> And any extras you feed your goats?


Pine trees....actually we cut branches off the pines covering our land and they love them.Added benefit,nice pine smelling breath.



> How much grain do you feed your goats?


We feed 'Noble Goat' pellets once a day,a scoop full and they certainly seem fat enough.

The plan is to fence in sections of up to 1/2 acre,interconnected and rotate them to clear out the brush and such,it is what goats are supposed to eat afterall.


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