FOOD FOR THOUGHT
If the goat pasture is to help support your goats nutritionally, the pasture should be woody with plenty of leafy plants, wildflowers, wild shrubs, berries, trees and textured grasses such as orchard and ryegrass. Legumes such as vetch and alfalfa make a good meal, as well. First things first: Don’t make any assumptions that your goats can forage on just any plant in the pasture. Do your due diligence, and identify each plant to be sure that it’s safe and nontoxic to goats.
Many people won’t have the amount of pasture necessary to feed them and certainly not year-round. You’ll need to provide daily hay and perhaps other supplements along with fresh water. All animals prefer fresh to stagnant water, but this may never be truer than with goats; they love clean water!
Quality hay, trace minerals, along with fresh water usually fills the bill for bucks, wethers and nonlactating does. Of course, this can change if you have pregnant does, does nursing kids, etc. For example, during the rut season on our farm, we often have bucks that are so focused on breeding that they don’t eat as much and end up losing some weight. That’s when we step in with some supplements as weight-boosters such as pelleted hay, rolled oats, barley, corn and calf manna.
The type and amount of supplement is going to be based on the individual animal and perhaps the breed. For instance, Angoras always have higher nutritional requirements than other goat breeds due to the amount of fiber they produce each month. Thus, it’s important to find local mentors for yourself from the beginning.
It’s wise to keep hay, pelleted feed, grains and other supplements in an area that’s not accessible to your livestock. The most important reason being that if goats get into sweet feed or grain, they won’t stop until they are gorged. This can be a death sentence for these delicate-stomached animals. As far as hay is concerned, enjoy nothing more than jumping and dancing all over your clean, neatly stacked hay bales. Before you know it, the bales are a shredded, hot mess.