Hi Cali and all,
There is a guy in Missouri named Greg Judy. He does rotational grazing, mostly of cattle, but is familiar with multi species grazing, and the rate of recovery of forage. Plenty of things cmoe up when you google his name, but here is a good starting place:
http://www.permaculturevoices.com/tag/greg-judy/
Looking at your plan, I think your paddocks are too large for that numbe of animals, once the forage is developed. I think you could keep them at that size, but use electric fence to keep them off part of it, then move them across the paddock in a couple of stages. But, as I said that would be after the forage is established. Until then, it would be really important to limit their access to the pasture.
I think having a snug
shelter of some kind with a small dry lot with hay feeder would be helpful. Maybe one between one-two and another between three-four. You could rotate them between the two dry lots while the pastures are developing, and have the means to give them limited access to the paddocks.
One thing I learnd from Greg Judy is that if you have a contained paddock and you put electric fence across to keep them in one end of it, then when you're ready to move them, you just move the fence down and give them access to the next section, no need to "back fence. They will go to the fresh feed. If you had the water available at the shelter / at the dry lot, they could go back to the water, which would save you some time and effort. Also, he says move them when there is still feed left. Don't keep looking in there thinking they have enough for at least another day. Move them! As a beginner, this is hard for me, but I am learning.
One thing I notice with my one 5 year old la mancha I am milking and the 4 nubian doelings: if I put them in too big a place, with plenty of nice tall feed, they ruin as much as they eat, and the paddock doesn't last as long as the feed available could have fed them.
As for establishing pasture, do you have adequate rainfall or the means to water it? I agree with the guy who said that water isn't all it takes, but you can't get replenishing forage without it....
What to plant: make sure it is adapted to your climate. I live in western colorado, high desert, sandy soil. One of the most prolific "weeds" is also one of the goat's favorite in the summer time. Kochia scoparia. It is an annual and when it is hot, it is one of the ones that seems to grow faster than fast. It is a C4 plant, meaning it fixes
CO2 faster than the "normal" C3 plants. I don't want to get it wrong, or go look it up, so the general idea is that for every 3 CO2 that a C3 plant takes up, a C4 takes up 4. 25% faster growth, or is that 33%? Anyway, these are hot season adapted "weeds". There are hot and cool season grasses and other "weeds". My goats eat different things as the season progresses. Right now, late July, they are eating the C4 weeds and grasses. When the weather cools off, the cool season grasses and forbes will begin to grow faster. Then the goats prefer those.
There is probably plenty elsewhere in the forums about what to plant, but you will probably want a few legumes, for nitrogen fixing, grasses, broad leafs... what I've planted for my goats: amaranth, chicory, alfalfa, sweet clover, red clover, salsify, mountain lettuce, dandelion, blackberry, raspberry, sorgum.... They also eat holly hocks, day lilies, elderberry, hops, evening primrose, rhubarb, mulberry....
There are lists of poisonous plants
online, but some of these I've watched my goat eat, and it frightened me at first to see her chewing up rhubarb leaves, but they've all been OK. I think the toxicity problems arise out of giving the goats limited options. I can't remember who it was I heard say that a goat will not willingly poison herself. Maybe that was Greg Judy. It is good to be careful about what they have access to, but they are not as fragile as the lists would have us believe.
How I learned what the goats like. My first goat was an "only". Plenty of people were willing to tell me how cruel that was, and I tried to give her the companionship she lacked until her kids came to keep her company. She was not a tame goat, would not followme around or stick with me, so I had to keep a leash on her, and I followed her around and observed what she ate, and I made her follow me around while I did chores and such.
Once I realized what she wanted to eat, if I saw a favorite by the road in seed, I would stop and gather the seed.
If you stay attuned to the process, and respond to what you observe, you should be able to get forage on all 4 of you paddocks and feed your goats from them. If you can't devote the time, don't have the resources to keep them off the pasture when necessary, it's going to be a long frustrating nightmare. Fewer goats would only help a little bit, prolong the agony.
Welcome to permies!
Thekla