How Many Goats Can You Have Per Acre?

How Many Goats Can You Have Per Acre?

How Many Goats Can You Have Per Acre?

When James and I first discussed getting goats, one of the first questions we had was “How many goats can we have?”  A quick Google search led us to the answer of 6-8 goats per acre.  But what does that mean?  We were hoping it meant that if we maintained a stocking rate of  6-8 goats per acre, we would not have to supplement their forage.  This past year, we’ve learned that this is not the case.

All the golden “grass” in the background is broomsedge.

Attempting a Carrying Capacity of 6-8 Goats Per Acre

We set up a 2 acre pasture and started moving animals on it in the end of July. At that point, no livestock had grazed on it in 7 months. The pasture had had the opportunity to grow without disturbance. The pasture was so thick with vegetation, we felt that it had a high carrying capacity.  In September, we topped out at a total of 14 goats and 2 pigs on 2 acres. This was within the 6-8 goats per acre we had read about. 

What Happened When We Had 6-8 Goats Per Acre

As the weeks went on though, it became apparent that much of the vegetation was not good forage for livestock.  We started to learn that the “grass” was mostly broomsedge, which is unpalatable at maturity. 

The plants with yellow flowers is stickweed. The undergrowth is mainly Japanese stiltgrass, (another plant goats prefer not to eat).

Many of the “flowers” were stickweed, something else that the goats would not touch.  This meant that our 2 acre pasture that was full of vegetation had a significant percentage that our livestock would not eat.  As time went on, the edible forage in this 2 acre pasture diminished.  We downsized the stocking rate for this pasture in November by selling 2 (goat) kids and moving our 2 bucks to another area of our property.  As the forage continued to diminish, I began cutting down autumn olive branches so the goats could eat the leaves.  Forage was still quickly running out.  In December, we moved out 4 more goats into breeding pens. This left only 6 doelings and 2 pigs in the 2 acre pasture.  At this time, we started to supplement the goats forage with hay…something we had (naively) hoped we would not have to do.  Then, in January, we sent the 2 pigs to freezer camp.  So, here we are in February with only 6 doelings in a 2 acre pasture.  They are now getting daily supplemental hay and grain.    

Photo taken in late February. We’ve had only 6 doelings on this 2 acre pasture for the last 6 weeks.

What We’ve Learned about Carrying Capacity

Moral of the story?  Research alone will not be able to tell you how many of each kind of livestock your property can support.  Previous and current management practices, specific needs of the breeds you choose, the soil’s health, types of forage available, and climate are among the factors that will influence your unique carrying capacity.  We hope to increase the carrying capacity of all of our pastures by using pasture rotation to improve soil health and forage quality.  Lack of infrastructure has limited our ability to currently use pasture rotation in our 2 acre pasture.  We need to build more moveable goat shelters. We also need to purchase more temporary fence materials so that we can improve our practices.  In the meantime, we will continue to use temporary fencing to rotate our 6 breeding goats across our property in areas that have no permanent fence.  And we will continue to supplement the doelings’ forage with hay and grain until the 2 acre pasture is able to regrow.