Ideas That Work

When it comes to goat farming it is important to have practical equipment that can be moved. Moving feeders to a clean piece of ground is critical for hoof health. If you always feed in the same spot the accumulation of rotting manure can become caustic to goat hooves. It also makes sense to have equipment that can be easily moved for the sake of practicing pasture rotation.

Make it yourself! You need two wooden pallets for each hay feeder. We are able to get wooden pallets for free and you can also find these around town if you look around. Many companies offer them for free.

You will need one length of Cattle Panel. We cut ours into 3 foot sections using a Bolt Cutter. You can leave them longer that three feet, but then they are likely to flex too much and collapse in the middle. The sections are easier to bend if you first cut them to the desired length. Two people can bend the Cattle Panel by laying it flat on the ground, then folding it over in half. This is hard and if you have more people, it would be easier. Both people stand on the Cattle Panel and lay one of the pallets on top of the panel about half way across. Then you pull up on the opposite section and bend until you have a good bend in the middle, but not a crease. When you step off the Cattle Panel it will stay bent in a nice "U" shape. We would not recommend anything longer than 4' as there will be no support in the middle.

Once you have the "U" shaped Cattle Panel, stand a pallet up on its end, position the top of the Cattle Panel corner at the top of the first pallet, secure the corner with red plastic bailing twine - make sure to wrap the bailing twine around the wire on the Cattle Panel and around the pallet several times, then tie a bunch of knots. (You can use the soft green bailing twine but it does not weather well and will come apart before the winter is over.) Then secure the opposite corner to the first pallet using your bailing twine. Stand up the second pallet at the end of the Cattle Panel and secure both corners like you did on the first pallet. Once all four corners are secured, use more bailing twine to secure the bottom of the Cattle Panel to the middle of the pallet on both ends.

This makes a very strong, sturdy hay feeder that feeds the goats up off the ground. Goats really enjoy picking the hay from up high, perhaps it simulates picking from trees in nature. Of course there will be some hay waste that falls under the hay feeder. This makes a very nice sleeping spot for goats. Once hay accumulates to several inches, simply pull the hay feeder forward to a fresh piece of ground. This light covering of hay left behind helps prevent erosion and mud. If you move your hay feeders each week the ground will not be damaged. If you never move your hay feeder you will wind up with "dead" spots in your field.

The beauty of this hay feeder is that when you are finished using it for the winter, just cut the bailing twine with your pocket knife, toss the twine, store the bent Cattle Panels in your barn and either stack your pallets for next time or throw them on the burn pile. If the pallets get broken, they are easily replaced. Goats cannot sleep or poop in these hay feeders. The Cattle Panel wire allows air to get through the hay keeping it fresh, dry and appetizing.

Portable Hay Feeder

Many goat farmers already know the trick of using plastic water pipe for feed troughs. We bought this six inch water pipe from our local hardware dealer, cut it into five foot lengths and tried to use these troughs on the ground. Goats stepped in them, pooped in them and made a mess wasting their feed. We have visited other farms who have a very long length of this pipe running the length of a fence for a fence line feeder however we witnessed goats getting their heads stuck between the fence and the feeder as well as a large accumulation of feces and debris underneath the feeders. If your goat stands around in that stuff you are just creating the potential for problems like foot rot. Not to mention the goats can only eat out of one side of the feeder because the other side is fenced. Easy for the farmer, not so great for the goats.

Bill had the idea of having metal legs welded to hold the feeders up off of the ground. A local welder charged us $20 per pair of legs and we have been using them for years. The metal legs just slide on each end of the feeder. They are not hard mounted or secured in any way. When you want to move the feeders you just pick up the legs and carry them to the next spot. Goats can eat out of both sides of the feeder. The feeders are too small for the goats to walk in and if they poop in the feeder you just wash it out. At the end of feeding season you just take them apart and store them in the barn. We hang our feeder legs on the wall on a nail and just stack the pipe in the rafters of our barn. Goats can still knock them over, but they are easy to re-set and we haven't had any broken yet. The legs have been bent, but we just lay them flat on the ground and bend the back and put them back in service. We use eight of these feeders for our herd, if the goats compete for their dinner they can't trap each other -- everyone gets to eat without getting hurt.