[cuckoo]

Hi All,


When calculating how many animal units per hectare / acre - should you include acreage left for growing hay therefore effectively reducing the stocking density. 


How many goats would you allow per hectare / acre taking into account wanting to produce your own forage


Thanks

[Brucklay]

Never done the calculation and I am guessing your talking dairy goats - I would work on 5 like sheep then if you need 5 months of hay reduce to 3 - I'm sure someone will come up with an accurate formula

[wytsend]

With goats there is no accurate formula...............it does depend a great deal on the quality of ytour land.
Also whether you house the goats at night............most of us do.
Bear in mnd, goats don't eat grass like sheep.............possibly 40% less as they prefer 'rubbish' i.e. weeds, hedges etc.
I have grazing across 14 acres, 40 goats & 4 horses and we still have plenty of grass.   The topsoil here on Dartmoor is thin so cannot be classified as good ground for grass.

[fifixx]

...be sure to include the hedgerows they jump into when bored of grass!

[Anke]

As you can keep goats quite well without ANY grazing I don't think this calculation has ever been done.
 
The majority of dairy herds are kept in large barns and fed on hay all the year round. You will need to feed a good amount of concentrate anyway if you want a decent amount of milk.
 
Mine don't really graze much by now, but just mooch around outside. They get a huge laod of branches every night and new hay... so much better than the grass right now!

[Lesley Silvester]

Mine are yarded so I have no idea. I feed concentrates to keep the milk yield up and hay all year round. It's not ideal but I don't have a field to put them in and, in any case, I feel that they are happier with some access to outside.