My plans for goat house, feeding station, and goat cares

[Georgia Girl]

Also, I have been following this facebook page of a goat farmer in Florida. They have a really great set up. In this tour of his place, he shows how he has a creep feeder set up for the little ones to access grain without the adults eating it all. He uses a gate installed upside down with an added screen covering the top opening (now on the bottom) and some slots cut out.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=379426769550455

He's got a quite large operation, but I learn a lot from looking around his videos and photos.

This is the way animals should be raised.

 

[Carla D]

I am building a new goat barn and plan to have dirt floors, what do you use as bedding??hay,straw or other and are you have to clean daily or do you just add new material for awhile. thanks

I’m curious as well. Right now my young guys are on gravel in the barn. They’ve been in there for four months now. I used to scatter some straw on the floor to help catch marbles and soak up urine. That has not worked well at all for me. I’ve tried raking it up really good to get out what I can. Then I’ve tried sprinkling baking soda on the floor, lemon juice on the floor, and even vinegar on the floor. None of these have worked for more than a day or two. The floor is going to need leveling then we want to pour cement for the floor. That should be much easier to clean up. Then it can also be scrubbed and sanitized when needed. I too would like to know what I can put on the gravel floor to soak up the urine and neutralize the ammonia on the floor.

 

[Georgia Girl]

I’m curious as well. Right now my young guys are on gravel in the barn. They’ve been in there for four months now. I used to scatter some straw on the floor to help catch marbles and soak up urine. That has not worked well at all for me. I’ve tried raking it up really good to get out what I can. Then I’ve tried sprinkling baking soda on the floor, lemon juice on the floor, and even vinegar on the floor. None of these have worked for more than a day or two. The floor is going to need leveling then we want to pour cement for the floor. That should be much easier to clean up. Then it can also be scrubbed and sanitized when needed. I too would like to know what I can put on the gravel floor to soak up the urine and neutralize the ammonia on the floor.

Some suggest sprinkling ag. lime and then straw. I think the gravel needs removing if you have the goats in there, must be hard on them trying to lay and sleep on gravel. One thing I have found that deep bedding, straw/hay is much better on odor control and keeping bedding dry and cleaner. I think it would be very difficult to clean any bedding from the gravel.

 

[Baymule]

I like dirt floors. I sprinkle with lime, deep litter with pine shavings, sometimes hay or pine straw, then throw more on top. When babies are coming, we clean it up, put sheep poo on the garden and rebed with pine shavings. Same with chickens, deep litter.