STOCKING RATES:
HOW MANY GOATS PER ACRE?

For cattle and some other species of livestock, stocking rates are based upon how many head can be run on an acre of land without over-grazing it. This is not true for goats. Goats are not "little cattle" or sheep.

Stocking rates for goats cannot be based upon plant materials that are available for consumption per acre of land. Goat stocking rates must be based upon controlling internal parasites and avoiding over-crowding.Goats are very susceptible to internal parasites, particularly the blood-sucking stomach worm Haemonchus contortus (barberpole worm) that causes anemia and death. Goats, like deer, need lots of land to roam over. By moving continually and eating "from the top down," goats avoid worms that are on plant materials that are closest to the ground. Having lots of land to roam over allows goats to keep distances amongst themselves, further reducing the chance of ingesting worms. Goats cannot handle the stress or the worm load that exists in overcrowded conditions.

Goats are primarily browsers and foragers of leaves and weeds. Goats will eat many types of nutritious plant materials, including grasses. In fact, they eat different plants and grasses at different times of the year and will even vary their choices from morning to evening. Goats are very picky eaters. There are many plants that cows and sheep will eat but goats won't -- for valid digestive reasons. Goats have the fastest metabolisms of all ruminants, except deer, and as such, must eat easy-to-digest plant materials frequently. If the Acid Detergent Fiber (a measure of digestibility of plant materials) is 40 or higher, then too much lignin is present and goats cannot digest it. Goats will always find and eat the newest and most tender growth. If you force goats to become pasture grazers, they are not going to eat the tall grasses but instead will go to ground level to get the youngest and therefore most tender shoots -- right where the worms are. Worm eggs hatch, travel up the new blades of grass, and wait for goats to ingest them. Even in dry climates, worms can survive for long periods of time and can do much damage to goats if overcrowding exists.Meningeal deerworm is another internal parasite devastating to goats living in areas of white-tail deer populations. The combination of standing water (bogs, marshes, ponds, lakes, and even heavy leaf litter) and white-tail deer is not good for goat health. Meningeal deerworm infection can be hard to diagnose, is difficult to combat, must be treated aggressively and quickly, and often leaves permanent damage (including paralysis). Read my article entitled Meningeal Deerworm Infection on the Articles page of www.tennesseemeatgoats.com for additional information about diagnosis and treatment.

Goats thrive best in dry climates. They can be raised in moderately wet climates if you are able to provide an environment that minimizes their exposure to internal parasites. You must have well-drained pastures, build at least three and preferably more rotational paddocks to move goats through probably every three weeks (the life cycle of a stomach worm) at the minimum, and be prepared to feed supplementally when weather is bad or pastures cannot support the goats' nutritional needs. Running a second species like cattle behind goats through the rotational pastures will help clean up the stomach worm load.

Rotational grazing with cattle is done for a very different reason -- to consume as much of the available plant material in order to avoid supplemental feeding. Rotating goats in pastures is done to control internal parasites and avoid the stresses caused by over-crowding. Unless they are reduced to starvation, goats are not going to eat the coarse plant materials that cattle will eat as filler; it has no nutritional value to goats and they know it. You cannot starve the profit out of a goat.

Where do you begin? Start small with just a few goats. Goats multiply quickly. Sexual maturity is as early as two months of age in some goat breeds, gestation is five months, and multiple births are common. Populations can double in less than one year. Your pasture/forage/browse will be depleted quickly, supplemental feeding will be necessary, and stress and worm loads will increase rapidly.Controlling worm loads is critically important to the health of your herd. Stomach worms suck the blood from goats, causing anemia and death. No goat can eat enough to overcome a heavy worm load. If you insist upon raising goats in wet areas or overcrowded conditions and if you deworm as frequently as monthly, then you are creating super worms against which no class of dewormer will work for long. Do fecal counts every few weeks and cull those goats that cannot tolerate a moderate worm load. Don't anticipate the development of new classes of dewormers. It isn't likely to happen. Most dewormers and other medications that we use for goats are off-label/extra-label because the goat population isn't large enough to justify the costs involved in getting products approved for this minor species of livestock.

If you can't make these recommendations work for you, then goats probably aren't suited for your land and your climate and you will save yourself a lot of money in addition to saving goats' lives by finding a different and more suitable species to raise.

Suzanne W. Gasparotto, Onion Creek Ranch, Texas 9-13-12

The author, Suzanne Gasparotto, hereby grants to local goat publications and club newsletters, permission to reprint articles published on the Onion Creek Ranch website under these conditions: THE ARTICLE MUST BE REPRODUCED IN ITS ENTIRETY AND THE AUTHOR'S NAME, ADDRESS, AND CONTACT INFORMATION MUST BE INCLUDED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REPRINT. We would appreciate notification from any clubs or publications when the articles are used. (A copy of the newsletter or publication would also be a welcome addition to our growing library of goat related information!)

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