If you live somewhere with seasons, you must plan accordingly with your livestock. Even when we’re not getting a record-breaking snowstorm, every fall we move our livestock and change our practices in preparation for winter weather.
This is the first article in a series focusing on the winter weather practices we follow. Each article will focus on a different animal species and our winter practices for that species.. Today’s article focuses on what we do with our Alpine dairy goats in preparation for winter.
Let me first summarize how the goats are managed in summer. We rotate them through the woods with portable electric fencing. Their primary food source is wild forage. Their housing is a collection of small dog houses that are easily portable as we rotate pens. Their care consists of daily watering and periodic health checks with hoof trimming.
Three goats are snuggled in this house, despite other houses being available for them!
Our goat management changes significantly in preparation for winter, with alterations to their location, feeding, and housing.
Location
The location changes primarily because there will be no wild forage for them to eat in the woods. Since we will provide them food on a daily basis, we want them closer to home where it’s easier to get to them. Once there’s nothing green to eat in the woods, all the goats are moved to pens close to the house for ease of access. Fall/winter is also goat breeding season, so we take that into consideration and put certain doe/buck combinations in each pen based on whom we want to breed with whom.
Feeding
Once the leaves fall and the goats cannot forage, we begin to feed the goats. While the goats are breeding, they all get grain. We then continue to supplement the bred does with grain. All the goats get hay throughout the fall and winter. They also all have access to goat mineral and baking soda. When temperatures are below freezing, we give the goats fresh water twice daily. We prefer rubber buckets for water as it’s easy to break ice out of them and refill with fresh water.
Housing
Goat housing changes because we’re no longer rotating the goats, so their housing doesn’t need to be easily portable. We take advantage of this fact to house the goats in larger hoophouses. These structures have many added benefits, including that they’re large enough that we can hang feed and water buckets plus a hayrack in the structure. This allows the goats to live completely in the hoophouse during inclement weather. Since goats are wimps when it comes to weather, this ensures they get enough to eat.
You’d think goats would brave the weather if they’re hungry enough, but they don’t. Goats need to eat roughage (hay) to maintain their health, but after this last snowstorm none of the goats trekked through the snow to get to their haybales. I had to shovel a path to the haybale, and then they’d venture over and eat hay.
As I mentioned in the snowstorm post, one of our goat hoophouses collapsed under the weight of three feet of snow. Fortunately, we have another hoophouse, and I was able to move the goats into that one.
When the weather’s warmer, we’ll build another hoophouse to replace the one that collapsed.
In Summary
I hope this summary of our winter management methods for our goats helps those of you who have goats or will have goats in the future. If any of you have your own tips for wintertime goat care, please share them!
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