# Hay for Boer goats



## River Bend Farm (Jul 4, 2007)

Just wondering since I am new to the goat business and am trying to prepare for wintering my goats....how much hay do year old Boer goats eat each day or maybe each winter? I would hate not to be prepared :Bawling:


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

A good "starting point" is to figure on about 5 lbs per day per goat X the number of days youll be feeding them . Its better to get more than you need than to not have enough, since it will keep for a long time as long as its dry


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## Milk n' Honey (Aug 14, 2005)

We have 32 goats. Seven of those 32 goats are kids. So that leaves 25 adults. We actually figured 3 lbs/day x 32 because we didin't figure the kids would eat that much but we wanted to figure higher than we needed. Then, we took that number which is 96#/day and multiplied that times 30 for days in a month and that equals 2,880#/month. Then we figured feeding for 6 months so 2,880 x 6 = 17,280# of hay. We bought 18 round bales weighing around 1000# each. Thing is, it might be more like 7 months. We are also going to purchase 100 bales of grass hay and we have a couple more grass hay round bales coming that should hold us out until winter. Unfortunately, the pastures are not great due to the dry weather so we've had to supplement with grass hay round bales. They saved our butts for sure. So, we should have more than enough hay. If we run out though...hay prices might seem high now but I hate to have to pay for it in Feb./March!! Hopefully, next summer will bring better weather and lower hay prices. Also, we are going to plant our own in some of the pasture land we have.


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