Farm life

Left, the finished product all your hard work is rewarded when your end result looks like this!

Winter Housing for Goats

ALL ANIMALS NEED A DRY SPACE TO ESCAPE WET AND STORMY WEATHER. THIS YEAR WE FITTED OUT A BARN AS A FEEDING, SLEEPING, AND SHELTERING AREA FOR OUR GOATS

By Tamsin Cooper

Tamsin Cooper is a smallholder and writer with a keen interest in animal behaviour and welfare

www.goatwriter.com

Goats do not tolerate rain to the extent over feed and resting places. Generally, of most other farm species, and they they establish a hierarchy to avoid combat, readily suffer hoof and respiratory illness and related goats, or long-term if kept in damp conditions. They need a companions, are tolerant enough to get place to get out of the rain and, most along. However, goats from different importantly, a dry floor to let their hooves herds can take years to find peace, if at all. dry out. Equally, their hay needs to be kept Despite establishing a hierarchy, more clean and dry. These vulnerabilities stem dominant members may be highly from their origins in dry mountainous intolerant around food. This poses little areas, where they evolved to cope with problem outdoors, as long as there are extremes of temperature enough places to feed and the goats can in a dry climate. Alpine space themselves at the and Saanen goats, which are very popular in Goats are highly rack. However, indoors it can be more difficult France, are well adapted competitive and will fight to get away from an to conditions in the Alps, with their horns and aggressor and spats can but not to the damp lowlands of western France. Poitevine and teeth over feed and resting places result in injury or at least a painful blow. This may lead to more Chèvres des Fossés vulnerable goats not breeds are much better suited to our daring to enter the shelter. So, the inside climate, having been local to west France of the shelter became the main work. We for many hundreds of years. They are needed to provide a way for goats to hardier, with tougher hooves and better circulate easily without getting trapped, parasite resistance. while providing places to escape and hide. A Dry, Draught-Free Shelter I was pleased to find some scientific research had gone into such matters and Having Alpines in my herd, I need to that certain features had been found to provide the maximum weather protection. help reduce competition in closed spaces: Healthy goats can keep themselves warm in winter, especially when given plenty of − platforms to climb upon; hay to eat. So we focussed on providing a − partitions to hide behind; dry, well-ventilated and draught-free barn. Next to the fields, we have a solid stone barn with one wooden side that badly − increased distance between feed racks; needed replacing. We replaced this with − feed racks on different levels; vertical wooden planks (bardage) as is standard for animal shelters in this area. − no dead ends. These shrank as they weathered, needing So we incorporated such suggestions into an overlay of wooden slats (liteaux) to fill our design. the gaps. The aim was to provide wind protection up to over head height, while Building with Pallets allowing air to freely circulate above. We No need to go to a lot of expense: we built checked the barn did not flood during our internal structures with rafters heavy rains. A breeze-block (parpaing) (chevrons) and pallets (palettes). We made row or two under the wooden boarding platforms that the goats could jump up helps to check any run-off from the fields. onto and made partitions that could be Otherwise, drains could be inserted to turned into individual stalls by closing direct the flow away from the shelter. gates. We soon discovered that most of the Keeping the Peace goats wanted a platform each and didn’t want to share, so we split up long stretches When it comes to goats, we have to bear in with partitions. Under a long platform, we mind social issues as well as physical placed a half pallet along the side to form a comforts. Goats are highly competitive tube, while not blocking entry or exit. This and will fight with their horns and teeth allows a goat to hide out under the platform relatively unseen. This ‘tunnel’ runs through one of the partitions providing a hidden route from one area of the barn to another. This has proven very popular with the goats as a hiding place and escape route. Every section has an entrance and exit gate so no goat could get stuck in a corner. The barn itself has two entrances with a partition between them, so that no goat can monopolize the entrance, and there is always a second route to exit. We placed a podium in the middle which the goats love jumping upon, but I notice they only sleep on platforms or straw beds against the walls.

Distributing Feed

The most testing time is always when filling hay racks or distributing other feed. We tackle this by spreading the food as widely as possible and providing one extra hay rack or feeding place. In the barn, we spread individual racks around the different sections so that each goat could eat at a private rack partially hidden from the others. Some of these racks are at head height, while others are placed on platforms. When feeding, the ability to close the sections off into stalls has been very useful. We found that older and more vulnerable goats would not enter the barn during feeding until we separated them from the others within their own stall. As the walls of the stalls are pallets, goats maintain contact with the herd, even if they have to be closed off for their own protection.

The Goats’ Verdict

The goats have really taken to their indoor space and especially enjoy jumping on the platforms. The older and shyer animals took longer to rustle up the courage to come in, but will enter at quiet, resting times. When fighting breaks out, goats have been able to escape and especially appreciate the hiding place in the ‘tunnel’. The platforms also help them to defend their space from attacks from below. Racks on different levels have allowed them to eat at the same time. Overall, the space allows them to get in from the rain and dry their hooves, and avoid conflict when it arises.