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How important is rotational grazing for your goats?
It is so much easier to just put your goats in a large pasture (depending on how many goats) and basically just letting them enjoy life than to consistently be moving them from place to place. Moving fencing, watering spots, mineral feeders, and sheds is a lot of work to for a herd of goats. Thankfully we have a creek that runs through our pasture so we do not have to worry about giving them water as long as we split the large pasture correctly into smaller pastures. We have a large pasture fenced in with 4 foot goat fence and one electric wire on top. We split that pasture into 5 different sections using 3 foot temporary electric goat fence. Some people put their goats into a barn every night but we just let them out on pasture until the grass stops growing in the winter. We have movable calf hutches we give them for shelter, plus they have trees and bushes as shelter from the weather.
How often should they be moved?
You will probably get varying answers to this question. We move ours as least once a week depending on how the grass is growing. I have done some research and some people move them everyday, every 3 days, or every 5 days, so it varies greatly. As a general rule you should wait as least 30 days before your goats are back on the same grass. Some people say to wait 45 days and others say you should only have them on a particular piece of pasture once a year.
Goats are browsers and not grazers. They would rather have bushes and trees then grass. For the prevention of parasites (more about this later) it is best for your goat's pasture to be knee high. Goats tend to just eat the tops of the grass unlike cattle who will eat it down to the ground. But if the grass gets too tall the tops are not as tasty for the goats and they will forage around for better things to eat.
Reasons it is better to rotational graze
Rotational grazing is vital for controlling internal parasites in your goats. Therefore, rotational grazing will help keep your herd of goats healthy. Parasites are more of a problem with goats if they are always in the same location and eating directly from on the ground. Parasites are in the goat's poop so if they are eating right close to where they poop a lot they will just eat the parasites again and help the parasites to keep reproducing. Parasites normally stay closer to the ground which is why tall (knee high) grass is better for goats. By moving your goats every few days or every week you will leave behind the parasites eggs in the goat's poop and the parasites should die because they do not have a host (your goats) to continue living in.
Rotational grazing is healthier for your animals. You will use less dewormers and chemicals to keep your goats healthy. So, in the long run it is healthier for the consumer as well. Both meat and dairy products will be healthier for the consumer if it comes from a healthy goat.
Rotational grazing is also better for your pastures. It gives your pasture a chance to grow without animals consistently on it. If you start rotational grazing chances are that your grazing season will be longer then if you just let your animals have the whole pasture all the time.
Do you rotational graze your goats? Tell us how you do it and how it works for you. We all probably do it slightly different because we all have different numbers of goats, breed of goats, pasture space, different pasture grass/brush, weather, grass growth, etc., but it is still interesting learning what others do to keep their goats healthy out on pasture.
Well done.