Can you give me ideas for planning a goat yard?

[candyfloss]

I have 2 does, and 1 buck (laManchas). They are little bottle babies right now, I am building their permenant yard (as soon as the snow goes away!).

I plan to breed the does (with my buck in October) and then sell on the buck as soon as his job is done.

The does will have a decent size wood shed, and a large run. How should i deal with the buck pen (I was planning on also having a pallet run in shed for him).

should I have the buck pen as a section of the main pen, meaning he will share one long "wall"(option A)?

should I have the buck pen off to one side, meaning he will share one short "wall" (option B)?

should I have the buck pen completely separate, not sharing any walls (option c)?

Picture is NOT in anyway to scale or even proportionate, just a quick sketch.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I would put the buck as far away from the girls as possible, otherwise his smell will get in the milk. I guess that's only important if your drinking it though!

 

[RainySunday]

Our main setup is pretty similar to your option B and it has worked well for us. We have NDs and milk them and have never had bucky milk, even with the does in heat and the bucks both in raging rut. However, I wouldn't want anything bigger than NDs sharing a fenceline. When in rut, both genders get pretty insistent about getting to the other, and standard sized breeds would really wreak havoc on the fence (or that would be my concern).

Right now, the boys have actually been moved further away, so they can work on some clearing for us, but that is only because they were the easiest ones to move (and least intensive, management-wise, so being further from the hay barn and milk stand isn't as big of a deal as moving the 3 pregnant does and 3 milkers ).

 

[candyfloss]

but the buck will only be 8-9 months old when he is sold on...

Then we we get a new buckling next Feb/March keep him over summer rebreed the does in october and then sell him too.

I don't plan on keeping bucks all the time, are they really that stinky when they are only 3-9 MONTHS old?

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

but the buck will only be 8-9 months old when he is sold on...

Then we we get a new buckling next Feb/March keep him over summer rebreed the does in october and then sell him too.

I don't plan on keeping bucks all the time, are they really that stinky when they are only 3-9 MONTHS old?

They are only stinky when actually in rut, which for Nubians is in fall.