Goat Pastures Considerations

June 28, 2012

Considerations to Be Given to Goats for Pastures

Goats are very active foragers, able to cover a wide area in search of scarce plant materials. Their small mouth, narrow muzzle and split upper lips enable them to pick small leaves, flowers, fruits and other plant parts, thus choosing only the most nutritious available feed. As natural browsers, given the opportunity, goats will select over 60 percent of their daily diet from brush and woody perennials (multiflora rose, saplings, small deciduous trees, black locust, briars, brambles, sumac, privet, honeysuckle), and broadleaf plants (pigweed, dock, horseweed, plantain, lambsquarter) over herbaceous species such as fescue, bluegrass, orchardgrass, crabgrass or bermudagrass. The ability to utilize browse species, which often have thorns and an upright growth habit with small leaves tucked among woody stems, is a unique characteristic of the goat, compared to heavier, less agile ruminants.

Goats have been observed to stand on their hind legs and stretch up to browse tree leaves or throw their bodies against saplings to bring the tops within reach. Goats are more likely than other domesticated ruminant animals to select plant parts containing tannins. Goats even sometimes climb into trees or shrubs to consume the desired forage. In spite of their grazing preferences, goats can be grazed on pasture alone. The feeding strategy of goats appears to be to select grasses when the protein content and digestibility are high, but to switch to browse when the latter overall nutritive value may be higher. This ability is best utilized under conditions where there is a broad range in the digestibility of the available feeds. It is is an advantage to an animal that is able to select highly digestible parts and reject those materials which are low in quality.

In a pasture, goats tend to graze from the top to the bottom of plants and do not like to graze near the soil surface. Therefore, goats will more uniformly graze a canopy than other ruminants will. This behavior results in even grazing and favors a first grazer-last grazer system. This system might consist of using a goat herd as the first group and cattle as the last group. It is most appropriate with lactating does or growing kids whose nutrient requirements are high.

Goats have been observed to:

• select young grass over clover;
• prefer browsing over grazing pastures, and eat more browse than other domestic ruminants;
• eat a wider range of plant species than sheep or cattle;
• prefer foraging on rough and steep land over flat, smooth land;
• graze along fence lines before grazing the center of a pasture;
• graze the top of pasture canopy fairly uniformly before grazing close to the soil level;
• travel longer distances in search of preferred forage than other domestic ruminants.

Grazing time can be influenced by several factors, including the season of the year, the temperature and humidity, the topography of the land, the nature of the plant canopy, pasture availability and social interaction between animals. The season of the year, with changes in day length and intensity of sunlight, cause goats to graze in different patterns. At mean temperatures below 50 F, goats spend very little time grazing at night. At mean temperatures above 50 F, some grazing time will occur at night; and when mean temperatures exceed 77 F, one or more grazing periods will occur at night. During hot weather, frequent movement of goats during the day will increase intake. The topography and size of the pasture also will have an effect on grazing time, as will forage availability and ease of forage removal. Goats will not graze sites within the pasture where urination and defecation have taken place, and this can increase the time it takes to graze. Goats are generally sociable, so if one animal gets up to graze, others will follow.

Luginbuhl, J-M. 2006. Pastures for Meat Goats. In: Meat Goat Production Handbook, ed. T.A. Gipson, R.C. Merkel, K. Williams, and T. Sahlu, Langston University, ISBN 1-880667-04-5.

Ref

http://www.extension.org/pages/19409/goat-pastures-considerations

Grazing Vs Browsing

GRAZING

Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants (such as grasses), and also on other multicellular autotrophs (such as algae). Grazing differs from true predation because the organism being eaten from is not generally killed, and it differs from parasitism as the two organisms do not live together, nor is the grazer necessarily so limited in what it can eat (see generalist and specialist species). 

Many small selective herbivores follow larger grazers, who skim off the highest, tough growth of plants, exposing tender shoots. For terrestrial animals, grazing is normally distinguished from browsing in that grazing is eating grass or forbs, and browsing is eating woody twigs and leaves from trees and shrubs.

Grazing is important in agriculture, in which domestic livestock are used to convert grass and other forage into meat, milk and other products. The word graze derives from the Old English (OE) grasian, "graze", itself related to OE graes, "grass". Further information: River continuum concept#Grazers Water animals that feed for example on algae on stones are called grazers-scrapers. Grazers-scrapers feed also on microorganism and dead organic matter on various substrates.

GRAZING

Browsing is a type of herbivory in which an herbivore (or, more narrowly defined, a folivore) feeds on leaves, soft shoots, or fruits of high growing, generally woody, plants such as shrubs.

This is contrasted with grazing, usually associated with animals feeding on grass or other low vegetation. An example of this dichotomy are goats (which are browsers) and sheep (which are grazers); these two closely related ruminants utilize dissimilar food sources. 

Browse 

BROWSING

The plant material eaten is known as browse and is naturally taken straight from the plant, though owners of livestock such as goats and deer may cut twigs or branches for feeding to the stock. In temperate regions, owners take browse before leaf fall, then dry and store it as a winter feed supplement. In time of drought, herdsmen may cut branches from beyond the reach of their stock, as forage at ground level. In the tropical regions, where population pressure leads owners to resort to this more often, there is a danger of permanent depletion of the supply. Animals in captivity may be fed browse as a replacement for their wild food sources; in the case of bears, the browse may consist of bunches of banana leaves, bamboo shoots, slender pine, spruce, fir and willow branches, straw and native grasses.

Ref
Wikipedia

Kudzu

Kudzu ( /ˈkʊdzuː/; Pueraria lobata, and possibly other species in the genus Pueraria; see taxonomy section below) is a plant in the genus Pueraria in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. 

It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine native to southern Japan and south east China. Its name comes from the Japanese name for the plant, Kuzu (クズ or 葛?). Where it occurs as an invasive species it is considered a noxious weed that climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so rapidly that it kills them by heavy shading. The plant is edible, but often sprayed with herbicides.

Vine

A vine (Latin vīnea "grapevine", "vineyard", from vīnum "wine") in the narrowest sense is the grapevine (Vitis), but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners. 

The word also can refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance when used in wicker work. In the United Kingdom, the term "vine" applies almost exclusively to the grapevine. The term "climber" is used for all climbing plants.

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Indigofera

Indigofera is a large genus of about 700 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Fabaceae. The species are mostly shrubs, though some are herbaceous, and a few can become small trees up to 5–6 m (16–20 ft) tall. 

Most are dry-season or winter deciduous. The leaves are pinnate with 5–31 leaflets and the terminal leaflet present. Leaf sizes vary from 3–25 cm (1.2–9.8 in). The flowers are small, produced on racemes 2–15 cm (0.79–5.9 in) long. Indigofera species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Turnip Moth.

Alaminos Salad Garden

Ref

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/295527/salad-garden-goats#.ULTA8Ye-2uJ

MANILA, Philippines – Investing heavily in the Alaminos Salad Garden is one of the best business decisions that Alaminos Goat Farm (AGF) has made in their goat business in 2010, according to Rene Almeda who and his two sons run the modern goat farm in Laguna. He said that the idea began in 2008 when friends from the academe would say that although AGF has a good system in place, their operations were too high end – meaning, it is not within the reach of the ordinary goat raisers. At the same time, the high production cost can be attributed largely to the cost of feed concentrate.

The salad garden consists of 30 long plots planted to various forage crops from which fresh leaves are harvested every day for feeding the goats, especially the dairy animals.

The development of the Alaminos Salad Garden became the solution to address these concerns on costs and feasibility. The salad garden would hit two birds in one stone. It would address productivity and help AGF in its corporate social responsibility program by doing a project that the farmers can replicate.

In the beginning, developing the salad garden in Alaminos was done without urgency. At that the time, the main priority was goat raising while working on the fields was done in their free time.

In 2009, Almeda said they recorded an impressive performance in their dairy operation. “From 24,000 liters produced in 2008 we doubled production to 48,000 liters in 2009. It also established that the 305-day lactation period is doable under the tropical condition of the Philippines. The dairy goats averaged over 2 liters of milk per day,” he said.

In reviewing the 2009 performance they saw why they were very successful in their dairy milking operation with the Saanen breed and just average with their Boer breeder operation.

This is what they saw:

1. The dairy goats were prioritized in feeding the highly digestible and young forage grass and legumes.

2. The Boer breeders were given the excess matured forage available.

3. The emergence of indigofera as a sought-after legume for the milking goats.

4. The huge volumes of indigofera being harvested compared with the other legumes planted.

5. Improvement of the milk performance of dairy goats whenever fresh indigofera was included in the feeds.

These observations can be confirmed through a research work done by Ngo van Man, Nguyen van Hao & Vuon minh Tri of the Animal Nutrition Department, University of Agriculture and Forestry in Ho Chi Min City Vietnam. According to their study, indigofera’s plant growth rate as well as its biomass yields are much higher compared to most of the plants included in the research. In selecting the tree legumes to be studied, they chose drought resistant species that will perform on poor soils. The soil was fertilized with goat manure and organic fertilizer during the study.

The increasing milk yields of the AGF dairy goats after adding indigofera to their daily feeding regimen can also be attributed to the indigofera’s 24.8% protein level, the 84.8 % digestibility plus its 2.08% calcium content.

AGF’s confidence with the Alaminos Salad Garden bannered by the tree legume indigofera is at an all time high. The Almedas started pursuing this project seriously in early 2010 by purchasing a Bowa hand tractor. A full time worker was assigned for the planting of indigofera, mulberry and centrosema. During the dry spell at the time of El Nino, they installed drip irrigation and sprinklers in their pasture at great expense. The Alaminos Salad Garden has started to provide part of the forage requirement of their Boer breeders and the full requirement of their dairy goats in 2010.

“Palatabilty is one issue the experts are hitting us about indigofera. Our experience indicates that if you cut it every 30 days, you improve digestibility and palatability. To address this issue you must start teaching your goats to eat indigofera when they are still young,” stresses Almeda.

The Saanen milking goats in Alaminos love indigofera and it is one of AGF’s secret in successfully milking them for 305 days under the tropical condition of the Philippines. It was their farm manager Felino Serdan who stumbled upon the indigofera tree legume.

He observed that the goats love and relish eating it. In their daily milk recording, they noticed an increase in milk yields. He cuts the indigofera every 30 days to augment his feeding. This is when they discovered that it is fast growing and produces a lot of edible leaves and stem.

“We ended 2010 with a very bright outlook for 2011 because of our Alaminos Salad Garden. It will be fully operational in 2011 to provide the full forage requirement of highly digestible and protein rich forage legumes and grass for all the goats in our farm,” says Rene.

AGF has partnered with the Bureau of Animal Industry’s, Research Division to implement a project funded by the Bureau of Agricultural Research to commercialize the technology they have developed through their Alaminos Salad Garden. Pelletized Total Mixed Ration (TMR) using a mixture of indigofera and malunggay plus feed concentrate will be fed to dairy goats in a controlled environment to show its positive effect in milk production.

Indigofera is one of the easiest tree legumes to plant and establish during the rainy season. Its biomass yield and protein level are one of the highest among the tree legumes the Almedas have planted. When cut every 30 days it is a highly digestible feed for goats. Based on their experience with the Alaminos Salad Garden, this is one doable technology that can help the poor farmers raising goats in the countryside tp improve productivity.

Indigofera can supplement the feeding of forage and crop residue of low nutritive values to goats the farmers raise.

“Watch as we pursue our advocacy in genetics and nutrition in 2011. The Alaminos Salad Garden would be in the limelight as we commercialize the technology to improve productivity and help modernize the goat raising industry in the Philippines. Hand in hand with genetic infusion in the countryside through Artificial Insemination, there is no way but up for goat raising in the Philippines. If only government officials were listening,” Rene Almeda concludes.

Poisonous Plants

Factors contributing to plant poisoning are starvation, accidental eating and browsing habits of animals. Starvation is the most common reason. Most woodland or swampy-ground pastures contain many species of poisonous plants.

These are usually eaten only when animals have nothing else to eat. Certain plants are accidentally eaten by animals as they graze. A notable example of this is water hemlock. This plant emerges in wet areas which are the first to become green in early spring.

Animals eager to eat the fresh young grass may accidentally bite off the crown of this plant with fatal results. Another type of accidental poisoning occurs when large amounts of cockle are present in wheat which is fed as grain. Some animals on good feed in a dry lot or excellent pasture become bored with the same regular diet. They may eat unpalatable weeds or ornamental plants growing along fences. Goats and cattle like to vary the best kind of diet with a little ''browse''. Many ornamental or wild shrubs may be consumed, not because they are palatable but because the animal craves variation in its diet.

The severity of poisoning is related to the quantity of material eaten, the specie of animal eating the plant, portion of the plant and condition of the plant eaten, level of ground moisture, general health of the animal prior to ingesting the substance and the age and size of the animal. Therefore some livestock can eat some of the bad plants and under several of the mentioned conditions, fail to show symptoms of injury or poisoning. At other times death may occur. Scores of plants contain material toxic to animals if eaten in sufficient quantity. Some of the plants are well known, some quite rare, some are useful, others are valued ornamentals.

They may be grouped by the type of poison contained, the effect of their toxins or the part of the plant containing the poison. Some plants may contain several poisonous principals. Cyanogenetic Plants These contain under certain conditions, prussic acid (hydrocyanic acid), a deadly poison which interfers with the oxygen-carrying ability of the blood. Death in these cases is usually rapid and with little outward symptoms. Members of the prunus family of plants, especially wild cherries, are dangerous. Peaches, plums and other stone fruits belong to this group of plants. Wilting of the green leaves caused by frost, storm damage, or by cutting, changes a glucoside found in the leaves to hydrocyanic acid (HCN) and sugar.

The sweet, wilted leaves are thus more attractive to animals than normal foliage. HCN content varies widely; but under some conditions a few handfuls of leaves may be enough to kill a horse or cow. This type of poisoning should be suspected when sudden death of animals follows windstorms or early sharp frosts. These leaves apparently lose their poison after they have become dry; the limp, green or partially yellowed leaves are the most dangerous. Sudan grass and sorghums are also cyanogenetic plants.

These plants are usually deadly when damaged or frozen. Aftermath sprouts following an early frost are particularly dangerous. Very little sudan grass poisoning occurs from animals trampling down plants and later eating them although this is often listed as dangerous. In dry weather, sudan grass is often pastured to the ground without ill effects. After sudan grass has been repeatedly frozen and the plants are completely dead, it is safe but not very valuable for pasture. Once frozen, sorghum, sorghum sudan hybrids, or their aftermath should never be pastured. As long as the plants show any green color they may be very poisonous.

Both frosted sorghum and sudan grass can be best and most safely utilized by ensiling them for at least two weeks before feeding. Normal ensilage fermentation safely eliminates the poisonous principle. Common milkweed, a perennial that grows three or four feet high, has a heavy stem and leaves and is frequently found in pastures. The milky white sap is sticky and has a bitter taste but livestock eat the topmost, tender leaves if good forage isn't abundant. Remove plants by spading, pulling, cutting or plowing extensive areas and planting to cultivated crops for a year or two. Horse nettle is a perennial plant, two-feet-high, with spiny stems and leaves, and smooth, orange-yellow berries.

Fruits are more toxic than the foliage. It's a common plant in grasslands and fields and is a member of the nightshade family. Black nightshade is an annual plant, two-feet high, with many branches. Leaves are variably smooth or hairy. The stems angled in cross-section and sometimes spiny. Clusters of white flowers, one-fourth inch across, bloom in midsummer and are followed by small, black fruits. Both the foliage and green berries are toxic. The ripe berries are not poisonous. Black nightshade is widely distributed.

Mountain laurel is an evergreen shrub of the Appalachian Mountain region. Plants grow five-feet tall and have glossy green leaves. Flowers appear in clusters at the ends of branches. Livestock eat the leaves in early spring when little other foliage is available. Weakness, nausea, salivation and vomitting are symptoms of poisoning. The preventative is to keep livestock out of areas where mountain laurel is abundant. Plants Containing Deadly Alkaloids Fortunately these plants are unpalatable for most wild and domestic animals. Water hemlock and poison hemlock are deadly. Poisoning rarely occurs except in early spring when young plants are accidentally eaten, but the roots, stems, leaves and flowers are always poisonous.

Look for and learn to identify these plants in the summer when they are large and showy. The hemlocks are members of the carrot family and have showy, white, umbrella-like flower heads. Poison hemlock needs dry land to grow and is often found in gardens as an ornamental plant. Flowers are often incorporated into large mixed flower sprays in rural churches and at social events. Water hemlock - a perennial frequently found in wet, fertile soil - is a five-foot-tall plant with thick rootstocks, doubly compound leaves (fernlike) and small white flowers in umbrella-like clusters. The roots are the most poisonous parts of the plants.

Cut the thick rootstocks lengthwise and you'll find air cavities separated by plate-like partitions of solid tissue. Drops of yellowish, aromatic, resin-like exudate containing the poisonous alkaloid appear at the cuts. Leaves and seeds contain little of the toxic substance and eaten in small quantities, either green or in hay, do little harm. Water hemlock starts growth in early spring. Its green foliage may show up before most other plants leaf out. Livestock tug at the tender leaves and pull roots from the soil which are still soft from late winter rains. The combinations of foliage and roots in considerable quantity can be fatal. As a preventative, pull water hemlock plants from the soil during the summer when they can readily be found and destroy them.

Plants usually are not numerous in an area. Poison hemlock is a hollow-stemmed biennial, four-feet high, with double compound leaves resembling parsley and a large, white taproot like parsnip. Flowers are showy, umbrella-like clusters and appear in late summer. The poison is a volatile alkaloid, coniine, found in the foliage all season and in the seeds in late summer. Most livestock poisoning comes in the spring from eating fresh foliage. Mayapple, bloodroot, pokeweed, nightshade and hellebore are other alkaloidal plants. They are rarely eaten except when animals are starving for better feed. Deaths from alkaloidal plants usually result from severe digestive disturbances, pain and nervous symptoms. Animals usually die in convulsions. Plants That Are Photodynamic This means photo-sensitive animals get a reaction.

Conditions necessary for a reaction to occur are: 1) the animals must have white areas of skin (unpigmented); 2) the animals must eat a sufficient quantity of the plants; and 3) the animals must be exposed to bright sun. In typical cases, an animal suddenly becomes sore on the white areas of their bodies. Whole areas of white skin may raise up and slough off. White goats may become severely affected and die from this condition. Some common plants which cause photosensitization are rape, alsike clover, buckwheat, lantana, St. John's wort, and ornamental hypericums. Both St. John's wort and ornamental hypericums have showy, golden-yellow flowers. They are not readily eaten by animals. White goats frequently become badly ''sunburned'' when they are on rape pasture in bright, sunny weather with little or no shade. Alsike clover or other legumes may produce these symptoms in dairy goats under the above conditions.

Plants That Produce Mechanical Injury A number of plants may have a spiny covering, long beards, fine hairs and when eaten may cause mechanical injuries or form hair balls in the stomach and intestines. Sand bur, downy brome grass, squirrel-tail grass, poverty grass, mesquite, cocklebur and clover are some of the offending plants. Some Other Poisonous Plants Comparatively few plants containing poisons grow in areas usually used as pastures. Bracken fern is very common in wooded areas and unimproved pastures. Most animals will not eat bracken fern if there is adequate pasture or other feed. In ruminants, such as goats, bracken fern must be consumed over a period of several weeks before toxicity signs develop. Affected animals are listless, show weight loss and may exhibit small hemorrhages on the mucous membranes. They may die from internal hemorrhages. Buttercups contain an acrid, volatile alkaloid-amenenol, strong enough to blister the skin and cause inflammation of the intestinal tract. Cattle and goats poisoned by buttercups produce bitter milk and a reddish color. The toxic material volatilizes and is lost when buttercups are dried as in hay. A heavy growth of buttercup is an indication of low soil fertility. Have the soil analyzed and apply ground lime and fertilizers as their need is shown.

The increased grass growth soon crowds out buttercups. Poison ivy is widespread over most of the United States. It's a shrub or vine with woody stems that climb by attaching aerial rootlets to fences, walls, trees, etc. Leaves have three leaflets, glossy green and smooth at the edges. Inflammation of the skin from contact with the plants is an affliction of goat-keepers more frequently than of goats. The infection can become serious and may need medical attention. Kill poison ivy with a herbicide. Several ornamental plants that are green outdoors or indoors are highly toxic. Goats should not be fed clippings from ornamental plants. Common poisonous ornamentals are yew, delphinium, oleander, larkspur and lily-of-the-valley. Goats should not be allowed access to these plants. NOTE: USDA and the State Department of Agriculture in each state can offer help in providing reference material on poisonous plants.

A Listing of Some Plants Known to Cause Problems When Eaten by Livestock

(Source: Stock Poisoning Plants of North Carolina, Bulletin No. 144, by James Hardin; Plants Poisonous to Livestock in the Western States, USDA Information Bulletin No. 415; Poisonous Plants of Pennsylvania, Bulletin No. 531, PA Department of Agriculture) Cyanogenetic Plants (Glucosides - Glycosides) Arrow grass Black Locust Blue Cohosh Broomcarn Buckeye (Horse chestnut) Cherry Choke Cherry Corn Cockle Dogbane Elderberry Hemp Horse Nettle Indian Hemp Ivy Johnson grass Kafir Laurel Leucothoe Lily of the Valley Maleberry Marijuana Milkweeds Milo Nightshade Oleander Rhododendron Sevenbark Silver Sneezewood Sorghum Stagger brush Sudan grass Velvet grass White snakeroot Wild Black Cherry Wild Hydrangea Alkaloid Containing Plants Aconite Allspice Black Snake Root Bloodroot Blue Cohosh Boxwood Celandine Common Poppy Crotalaria Crow Poison Death Camas Dicentra False Hellebore False Jessamine Fume wort Hellebore Hemp Horse Nettle Indian Hemp Indian poke Jimson weed Larkspur Lobelia Lupines Marijuana Monkshood Moonseed Night shade Pink Death Camas Poison Darnel Poison Hemlock Poison rye grass Rattleweed Rock Poppy Spider Lily Spotted cowbane Spotted Water Hemlock Stagger grass Staggerweed Sweet Shrub Thorn Apple Varebells Wild Parsnip Wolfs-bane Yellow Jessamine Volatile or Essential Oils as Poisonous Principle Baneberry Buttercups Crowfoot Ground Ivy Lobelia Snakeberry Spurge White Cohish Saponin Containing Plants Bagpod Coffee weed Purple sesban Rattlebox Soapwort Photosensitizing Plants Buckwheat Goat weed Klamath weed Lantana Rape St. John's Wort Plants That Cause Mechanical Injury Clover Cocklebur Downy Brome grass Sand Bur Squirrel tail grass Tannin (Tannic Acid) as Poisonous Principle Oaks Poisonous Principle Not Exactly Known Inkberry Poke weed Resins as Poisonous Principle Discarded Christmas trees Ponderosa Pine needles

Feral Goat

The feral goat is the domestic goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) when it has become established in the wild. Feral goats occur in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Great Britain, Hawaii, the Galapagos and in many other parts of the world. 

When feral goats reach large populations in habitats which are not adapted to them, they may become an invasive species with serious negative effects, such as removing native scrub, trees and other vegetation. 

However, in other circumstances they may become a natural component of the habitat, even replacing locally extinct wild goats. Feral goats are sometimes used for conservation grazing, to control the spread of undesirable scrub or weeds in open natural habitats such as chalk grassland and heathland.