What To Plant?

[cwerkeiser]

Hello All,

We are very new to goat ownership...in fact our first goats are arriving in one month! We have purchased 3 Nigerian Dwarf Doelings, and are super excited. We're presently preparing our barn and field, and have some places that need to be planted. Knowing that they are foragers, and enjoy a good hay, I wonder if there are any recommendations on what we might plant to make it more hospitable for them? We live in PA so winters are cold.

 

[Alaskan]

Hello All,

We are very new to goat ownership...in fact our first goats are arriving in one month! We have purchased 3 Nigerian Dwarf Doelings, and are super excited. We're presently preparing our barn and field, and have some places that need to be planted. Knowing that they are foragers, and enjoy a good hay, I wonder if there are any recommendations on what we might plant to make it more hospitable for them? We live in PA so winters are cold.

I would simply plant in a grass that is hardy in your area.

They love eating brush...but any yummy brush will not be able to stay alive inside a small pasture.

 

[Baymule]

You can plant willow outside the fence, then cut and carry branches to them.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Really any pasture mix for your area should work fine. They do prefer to browse so they may ignore a large portion of grasses if there are other things available, which is fine.

We are seeding a pasture mix, timothy, orchard grass, red clover, landino clover, alfalfa, festulolium, rye grass, and kentucky bluegrass. We also added in 10# of buckwheat seed as it grows quick and will help shade our other mix, but we are planting to bare dirt so you may be able to skip buckwheat. Be aware you generally need to keep livestock off of new seedings for 90days minimum, so you may need to section off part of your pasture for a bit unless you want to plant again. Pasture mix is not cheap, like $165 per 50lbs or so depending on mix.