rotational grazing goats
If you are looking for tips on raising healthier livestock, rotational grazing goats is the answer. Use this approach to give your goats the best pasture to graze on with a routine that will keep them and your grass at their healthiest.
How to raise dairy goats that are healthy and strong enough to fight off worms and other parasites.
Livestock owners are always looking for ways to ensure their animals remain healthy. There is nothing worse than going out to the barn to do your morning chores only to be greeted by a sick or down goat.
Goats seem to be hardy and healthy until they are not, and most often, the cause is a parasite issue. You can wait for parasites to get into your herd and deal with the problem, or you can be proactive with a few tips that will keep outbreaks to a minimum.
Rotational grazing is a preventive approach for raising healthier goats and livestock. At first, it sounds confusing, but I hope to explain it in a way that makes sense so you can make a routine for rotating your herd around your pasture.
What is rotational grazing?
Rotational grazing is sectioning off areas of a pasture, giving a herd of goats access to only one section at a time while the rest of the areas are rested.
The sections are called paddocks, and the size of each paddock will depend on the number of goats in your herd and the number of paddocks will depend on the size of your pasture.
Instead of allowing your goats to graze continuously on one area of the pasture, you rotate them between the different paddocks using fences to differentiate them.
Be sure to grab your FREE Rotational Guide below!
Rotational grazing is an effective way to prevent overgrazing and parasite overloads in your herd.
How much pasture does a goat need?
If you are allowing your goats to fully graze on your pasture, then you will want to have about 1,000 square feet of pasture per head. This means that if you have 5 goats, you will want to have about 5,000 square feet of designated grazing area.
If you are rotational grazing, you can reduce that number significantly because your goats will only be in one area for a shorter time. This can be helpful If your pasture is too small for your herd’s size.
Moving them around routinely will help you maximize pasture usage and keep your goats and your pasture healthier.
How to section off a pasture
How you section your pasture will depend on its size and the number of goats you plan to keep. For our setup, we have 4 acres of pasture, and we section that area into 4 paddocks for a herd of 15-20 goats.
You will need to section off each area and you can do that with movable fencing.
We like to use woven electric fence netting. It is easy to move around, meaning I can set it up and move it alone, and it is very effective at keeping goats contained. Read How to Train Goats on Electric Fence for our easy approach to training.
This style of fence can be attached to each other as well as a high tensile or electric wire fence giving you one solid current throughout.
Setting up a routine for rotational grazing
Once you have your pasture sectioned off, you will then want to set up a grazing schedule for your herd. For our setup, we move our goats to a new paddock every 3-6 weeks.
The frequency will sometimes differ depending on the time of year and how often our herd is out each day.
If you have smaller paddocks, you will need to move more often. A good rule of thumb is every 2-3 weeks. Let the pasture be your guide starting out as the growth will give you clues when it is time to move.
Be sure to grab your FREE Rotational Guide below!
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Moving Goats Based on a Worm’s Lifecycle
Understanding how worms invade goats will better help you to setup a schedule that is effective at keeping them under control.
- Adult worms are found inside of goats, where they lay their eggs.
- Those eggs are then passed out in the goat’s feces.
- The eggs then hatch and develop into larvae out on the grass in a pasture.
Timing is Everything
Worm larvae tend to stay about 4 inches or lower in the grass and can live for months at a time. If goats remain on that pasture they will ingest the larvae which will grow into more worms that will infest your goat.
Our goal is to upset that cycle, giving your goats more time to graze on clean grass. The longer you wait between paddocks the more time you will allow for the larvae to die.
By moving to a new area every few weeks you can stay ahead of the worm cycle, greatly reducing outbreaks.
Example routine/schedule:
Keeping worms to a minimum is all about timing, that’s why keeping a schedule is so important. Let’s look at an example schedule to give you an idea of how this all works.
Remember, this is just a guide, and the times you allow your herd to graze before moving will depend on the size of our pasture and your herd.
- Day 1: Move the herd to a new paddock.
- Days 2-21: Allow the goats to graze in this area.
- Day 22: Close off access to this area and move the herd to another paddock.
- Repeat in a clockwise order.
If you have 4 paddocks set up, this schedule will give each paddock about 60 days of rest before the herd is back.
Fencing options for paddocks
When rotational grazing goats, it’s best to use temporary fencing that can easily be moved. There are a variety of fencing options available, such as electric netting or moveable panels, which make it easy to section off areas and keep goats from straying.
Portable goat fencing is also ideal for rotational grazing because you don’t have to permanently fence in the pasture – you can check on the animals regularly and move them when needed.
Gallagher 35
Premier 1 Electric Goat & Sheep Net Fence | Yellow – 42Starkline All-Purpose Sheep and Goat Netting AC Electric Fence Kit – 42
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Other tips for rotational grazing
Let’s look at a few additional tips to consider when rotating your goat’s grazing areas.
#1. Paddock size matters – Make sure the paddocks are large enough that the animals can get adequate nutrition before moving again.
#2. Monitor your goats and pastures closely – Walk your pasture routinely and look for signs of overgrazing, alerting you that it is time to move paddocks.
#3. Provide plenty of water for your goats – Make sure they have easy access to clean drinking water while they are out grazing on pasture. You can use a water troth or an old tire with a rubber bowl inside.
#4. Make sure you have adequate shade available for your goats – This can be a tarp, a few trees, or a lean-to. They need to be able to escape the hot sun during the summer months.
Having a routine for grazing is a great way to manage pastures for your dairy goats. It not only helps keep the pasture healthy, but it also allows you to maximize the amount of space your herd has available.
With the right fencing setup and a regular routine, rotational grazing goats can help ensure that your goats have access to fresh grass that is healthier and has fewer parasites.
