how many goats can fit in this space?

[marlowmanor]

We've done the math and came up with around 20,000 sq ft of space in the fencing we are planning to put up. We are fencing in our whole front yard. Now my question is how many goats would you recommend in that amount of space? We were thinking of getting up to 4-5 does, we will have a buck here starting in December plus we still have both wethers (though we may sell one of them). So that would be 6-7 goats in that area plus whatever kids end up resulting from breeding but we plan to sell most of the kids we get. We are working with mini breeds (pygmies, nigerians, fainters).

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

A standard rule of thumb is that you can keep 6 goats on one acre. You may be able to use more because they are small goats.

 

[SheepGirl]

In the mid-atlantic region (which includes part of NC...I'm not sure if you're in that part or not), you can have 1,000 lbs of livestock per acre. You have a little less than a half acre, so you can have about 460 lbs of livestock. Because your goats are smaller, you can probably have 4-5 goats eating grass in there. You can always have more goats than that as long as you feed them hay.

 

[marlowmanor]

In the mid-atlantic region (which includes part of NC...I'm not sure if you're in that part or not), you can have 1,000 lbs of livestock per acre. You have a little less than a half acre, so you can have about 460 lbs of livestock. Because your goats are smaller, you can probably have 4-5 goats eating grass in there. You can always have more goats than that as long as you feed them hay.

They'll have hay all the time available. The only thing that would be permanently here would be the does and wether(s).

 

[SheepGirl]

So do you want to eventually make it a dry lot or do you want them to get their nutrition from the pasture? Or you can do half and half...let them graze half the day and then put half of the entire herd's hay needs out and make them eat that by blocking their access to pasture.

 

[marlowmanor]

Not sure really how we are doing it. We may have less does and we may sell one of the wethers (we are not allowed to sell one of them for sentimental reasons). The buck will only be here a few months then will be returned to my dad. We're still working out details on how many will be here and how they will be handled. We will likely expand their space or have another space to rotate with too when we can.

 

[SheepGirl]

I know with sheep the space requirements for lot space is 30 sq ft/hd (though my sheep had on average 128 sq ft/hd when they were on a dry lot)... so whatever you're comfortable giving your goats.

So basically if you have 4-5 goats you don't need to feed hay (except for in the winter, obviously) but if you want to have more then that you will need to feed hay. So however many extra goats you want to feed can fit in the space comfortably (in your case you want 6-7, so about 2 extra).

But you can always adjust as you find what works and what doesn't

 

[Southern by choice]

sheepgirl is right it is 1000 lbs per acre