Goats aren't grazers

“To the goats, all people are equal, except for those who have treats.” - Karin Tidbeck

Goats eat grass, don't they?

They do, but they like a wide variety of food and grass is only part of their preferred diet. They are browsers, meaning they prefer leaves, shrubs and woody plants to grass.

Because they're browsers, not grazers, they're not well adapted to deal with problems that come from eating at the base of grass, like facial eczema or worms. When they do eat grass they eat the top of the grass then move to the next blade and eat the top of that. They don't eat down to the base of the plant unless they have no choice.

What if there's only grass to feed them?

That's not ideal. Goats need more fibre than other livestock species and grass, especially the nutritious, soft rye grass that other species love, is not fibrous enough. They also don't like clover and avoid eating it which means the clover can take over and the pasture is even less ideal.

What can I do to help my goats get enough fibre?

I'm glad you asked. You could plant gorse and thistles but while your goats would be happy, the neighbours would be horrified. So why not plant fodder trees for your goats? We've planted lots of willow, poplar and tagasaste (tree lucerne) which we trim and feed out to the goats. It's useful at any time but especially during droughts and wet spells. Droughts mean less grass which means goats have to eat closer to the ground which can mean more internal parasites. During rainy spells if the goats are eating wet grass they need roughage more than ever.

Some of my very young goat kids eating hay

Why not just plant tree crops in the paddock?

You can certainly do this but you'll need to protect the trees. Goats are great at ring-barking trees, which kills the tree.

You can either fence the trees off, or use individual plastic sleeves. Just beware if you use a sleeve, it will protect the plant from being eaten but animals will still rub and scratch on the sleeve. We lost a lot of poles in our first block when our cattle used them to scratch against and created a gap around the roots which then filled with rain and killed the trees.

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