Goats are wasteful eaters

Goats are pigs, but pigs cant be goats

Any suggestions on capturing the hay spillage when these two little girls eat? Trying to keep their floor clean,but it ends up with soiled hay all over which i'm assuming (2nd question) i can build soil with ?  Can i just put the soiled hay in a big pile and wait ? or ?

Thanks so much

Goats are browsers. They are not meant to be fed, they are meant to roam and wander around, munching on whatever catches their eye. Pigs will eat anything they can reach, anytime, anywhere. Goats want to explore and nibble here and there. They are different animals. They are best kept in a herd, with room to wander, and with lots of browse. If you are feeding them in a pen, you are going to have generally unhappy goats, and you will be generally unhappy with them as well.

Give them an acre of shrubland or new growth forest and they will love it.

They are in danger of picking up parasites if they eat off the ground. Avoid that.

An acre just for them would be wonderful however we cant offer them that right now
The first goat we rescued from someone that had her in a 40x40 ft pin which had 4 goats (saanens) a prenant sheep and a brad new live stock dog that was abusing her. She is a tiny nubian we quickly found another nubian to keep her company
The scars on her ears have since healed and the bloat has gone away (no more animal crackers)
She and her companion are in a pen that is 60x40 ft
I plan to expand their area to 100x60ft as soon as I can remove anything harmful
Although its not a perfect environment, it is a safe one
Hopefully i can think of a better feeder that solves the waste problem safely
cheers

Can you build a hay rack with a tray underneath to catch the spillage so they can pick over it again?  Or a rack which makes them work harder at getting the hay out so they can't pull big mouthfuls and then drop most of it?

Possibly the hay is not to their liking, goats are very picky despite everyone telling you "goats will eat anything"...

Hester Winterbourne wrote:Can you build a hay rack with a tray underneath to catch the spillage so they can pick over it again?  Or a rack which makes them work harder at getting the hay out so they can't pull big mouthfuls and then drop most of it?

Didn’t think about the them pulling out big mouthfuls, it’s about 2 inch mesh, I tried a tray yesterday in the little poops thought it was a new toy.. so I gave it a rest they were purposely teasing me 🙃 we’ll try a better design today

Hester Winterbourne wrote:Possibly the hay is not to their liking, goats are very picky despite everyone telling you "goats will eat anything"...

I’ve been giving them 2nd cut , I may have assumed they would like it more , maybe not. Heck if I know I wouldn’t eat it

Thanks so much
Cheers

Oops correction the mesh is 2x4 inch
We’ll try a deferent mesh after rebuilding the tray thingy
One variable at a time
😎

i wondered if chopped hay / dried grass clippings would be more bite size for the goats and less likely to be pulled out in bunches.

Goats are very wasteful of hay. If it drops on the ground, they won't eat it.  This seems horrible to us, but for goats it means survival.  Since goats are browsers, they aren't meant to eat things low to the ground the reason for this is that the parasite larvae that infest goats usually climb up to about 3 to 6 inches above the ground on grass and other vegetation.  If goats are grazing/browsing that low then they are ingesting massive amounts of parasites which can and will kill them.  

A two inch by four inch mesh usually is fine.  However, adding tray under it to catch the hay usually leads to goats putting their feet on the tray so they can reach higher up and reach the choices tidbits. After all the harder it is to reach the better it tastes for goats.  Often young goats will get all four feet up there and end up pooping and peeing in the tray and things just get nasty.   I really can't understand why anyone who has ever own goats wants a tray to catch hay under the feeder and they usually put a tray under there that doesn't have drainage so you get a horrible moldy nasty mess in that tray.  

If you have other animals like pigs or cows, or horses, you can pick up the hay under the feeder and give it to them.  I have done that before.  Most parasites from goats will not infect the pigs, cows, or horses.  In fact, I use this to my advantage in rotational grazing and graze my horses and cows behind my goats so they ingest the low climbing goat parasites and the goats don't get infested then.

you can use the hay under the feeder for goat bedding.  Then when the goats pee and poo on it, make it into a compost pile and use it later on our garden beds, flower beds, or any other place you would normally use compost.

I don't buy bedding for my goats, I just use the hay they drop and wont eat. If it is nice hay, sometimes I take it to my horses, but if it is first cut, I use the dropped hay in their shelters for deep litter bedding all winter.  I even take the outer layers of the round bales off the hay and lay it in the goat shelters so they have plenty of bedding. The goats love it, they will pick through it and eat a bit then they lay down on it and wont' touch it.

and if anyone can't tell, it is a rainy wet day in my area or I wouldn't have any time to post on permies.  

goodluck with your goats!

Thanks so much for your response
Loads of worry off my mind
There is a ton of uses for that waste hay, or "Goat Enhanced Hay"
I think I can turn it into Biochar
Cheers