Sherry V - Journal of my New Adventure

I've been busy with life, new job, Christmas, 18 inches of new snow and then a visit to my sister in NH. New job is going great, so happy to be working for a small local office. Enjoyed seeing my sister and her family and celebrating the new year with them. I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season. Happy New Year !!! I now need to catch up on what I've missed.

I do have a few goat questions (I currently have none but they are in my future). For the shelter, do they need their own stall or do they prefer to be together. I plan on only having does 2 to start. Do you heat their barn in the winter? How much feed does one goat eat per day? Looking at other herders posts, it looks like they eat hay and supplemented with alfalfa. Is the alfalfa mixed with the hay?

I warned you I may have some silly questions but I have not raised goats before. I trying get an idea of the cost of feed so I can come up with a budget. I'm more worried about the winter months up here when there is a lack of hay. I found this bit of information "Goats need up to 2 pounds of chaffhaye per 100 pounds of body weight when you feed it as an alternative to hay. The nutritional value of one 50-pound bag of chaffhaye is equivalent to an 85- to 100-pound bale of good-quality hay." on another website. Do any of you use chaffhaye?

Another question, how many acres do you have fenced off for your goats? Our neighbor seems to rotate his goats between 2 fields of about an acre each. Any thoughts??

Ah lots of questions! Haha so, goats like to live together. If you have bucks for breeding most keep them separate from their does except when they want them to breed.

I do not use Chaffhaye at this point but I am looking into it to supplement due to the drought and hay shortage this year. I use grass hay and have yet to find anyone who sells alfalfa here. I use alfalfa pellets (was using Green Mountain Organics but my wallet is only so deep so am going to price out Blue Seal). If fed Chaffhaye, goats still do need hay as the long fibers help their rumens function properly.

Are you looking at full size, mini or dwarf breeds? Are you going to milk?

I do not use supplemental heat. It can make them sick going back and forth between heat and outside. They just need a draft free shelter.

A lot will depend on your intentions for the goats....breeding, milking, for meat, or just to have some. As far as feed goes they will eat as much as ya give them, but that wouldn't be wise because a goat will eat itself sick, even death, so the purpose of your intentions will determine the need of the animal. It is wise to have hay available free choice and I am unfamiliar with the chaffhaye. I am sure others will be of more help to ya, just wanted ya to get to thinking.

NH homesteader said:

Are you looking at full size, mini or dwarf breeds? Are you going to milk?

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CntryBoy777 said:

A lot will depend on your intentions for the goats....breeding, milking, for meat, or just to have some.

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Well, I didn't know this. I'm looking at nigerian dwarf goats for milk production. Yes, I would eventually like to breed them so I can get milk.. .

See I have a lot to learn.....

Thank you NH for the barn answers. I thought they would need to be together but I wasn't sure on heating. Happy to hear I won't need to provide heat for them, heating my house is enough $$.

Not to worry Sherry, I was standing in those shoes just 18-20mnths ago, and still have a bunch to Learn. That is why I am only a little bit of help... I have learned some of the questions to ask, but it is learning the Answers that can be difficult.... and we don't have dairy goats so that is well beyond me at this point, and being from Ms I certainly don't know what hay or feed is available in Me. I just try to assist others as best I can and if it is serious and nobody else has chimed in I will draw others attention to it so they can help. It never hurts to admit one's limitations.

No kidding! It costs a fortune to live in the north east this time of year!

Nigerians are smaller but give a lot less milk. It's delicious milk though, well I think so anyway!

SherryV said:

I do have a few goat questions (I currently have none but they are in my future). For the shelter, do they need their own stall or do they prefer to be together. I plan on only having does 2 to start. Do you heat their barn in the winter? How much feed does one goat eat per day? Looking at other herders posts, it looks like they eat hay and supplemented with alfalfa. Is the alfalfa mixed with the hay?

I warned you I may have some silly questions but I have not raised goats before. I trying get an idea of the cost of feed so I can come up with a budget. I'm more worried about the winter months up here when there is a lack of hay. I found this bit of information "Goats need up to 2 pounds of chaffhaye per 100 pounds of body weight when you feed it as an alternative to hay. The nutritional value of one 50-pound bag of chaffhaye is equivalent to an 85- to 100-pound bale of good-quality hay." on another website. Do any of you use chaffhaye?

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All of our does live in the same shelter. We don't individually stall goats, I'm not a huge fan of it unless there is a particular need to do so. It would be a good idea to have a few stall available for kidding or separating at feeding time if needed.

They don't need a heated barn. Having constant supplemental heat all winter can cause all kinds of health issues for your goats. As long as they are out of the elements/wind and the barn doesn't have big drafts, the goats will be fine. Just use more bedding during the coldest times. The goats will snuggle to keep warmer if needed. The only time we use extra heat is when a goat is ill, or we have newborns.

We have used Chaffhaye and it is nice.
But, with two goats I don't know that is would be worth is, especially during summer. Here, we must use the bag within 5 days. Not a huge issue as we have a lot of goats and went through 20+ lbs daily. We used it as a supplement- hay and feed were fed to the goats as well.

We did have an incident with the Chaffhaye… we must have gotten a bad lot, we had several goats get nasty bacterial infections that needed to be treated with a long course of antibiotics. It was a new batch IOW it hadn't been sitting for months.
Our friends got some from that same batch and had some very sick goats- same issues we had. It was obviously the Chaffhaye.
The Chaffhaye looked and smelled fine…

If you are only wanting to feed Chaffhaye you will need to feed more than two pounds. Many read that and end up with small, skinny goats. I think it's a good product- but it is NOT a "fix all". You should still give some feed and hay along with it.

@Goat Whisperer ... Thank you for the information on Chaffhaye. Now that it is winter in the Northeast, a lot of questions have been popping up as I think about going out in the cold snowy yard and tending to goats. Since I never had any before I was wondering how to supplement their diet in the winter. I know there are sometimes hay shortages in the winter. Good to know the shelf life of Chaffhaye and the side effects of a bad bag.

Thank you to everyone with your awesome advise and insight!!!

Good luck with the (eventual) goats! I second everyone's opinion here. I feel like once upon a time, when I was looking at ND goat breeders, I stumbled across a dairy in Maine (I think that's where you said you are from in the beginning...?) that I really liked, but being in Michigan makes that not possible.

We also have everyone together. I separate out does that are due to give birth, but have the stalls set up so they can still see others. Although that's a bit far out there.
We have our own hay but last year when we had some disgusting hay, we supplemented with alfalfa pellets and deeper into winter, grain. This year I am doing fodder which seems to be working quite well.

Calendula said:

Good luck with the (eventual) goats! I second everyone's opinion here. I feel like once upon a time, when I was looking at ND goat breeders, I stumbled across a dairy in Maine (I think that's where you said you are from in the beginning...?) that I really liked, but being in Michigan makes that not possible.

We also have everyone together. I separate out does that are due to give birth, but have the stalls set up so they can still see others. Although that's a bit far out there.
We have our own hay but last year when we had some disgusting hay, we supplemented with alfalfa pellets and deeper into winter, grain. This year I am doing fodder which seems to be working quite well.

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Thank you Calendula for your winter supplement suggestions. I will be looking into some farms in Maine later in the spring and hope to visit before jumping in. We have so much to do before this becomes a reality for us.