How Many Goats Can You Keep Per Acre

Goats are hooved animals that eat a wide variety of foods and survive in some pretty tough environments. 10,000 years ago goats were domesticated alongside sheep for their milk and meat. We still keep them as livestock or pets today.

If you’re wondering how many goats you can keep per acre you’re in the right place. Let’s take a closer look.

How Many Goats Can You Keep Per Acre?

Per acre you can keep up to 8 goats, but if the pasture is poor a better number is 4. This is a smaller number than sheep per acre, but experts say goats need more room to roam and exhibit healthy goat behaviors. Like all animals, goats need enough room to exercise and experience their environment.

You could fit more of the smaller breeds into an acre if you’d like a bigger herd. The Nigerian dwarf is the smallest goat, so you could fit in 10 goats per acre. The largest goat is a Boer so you’d be limited to 6.

How Big Is An Acre?

Mathematically an acre is 4,840 square yards. This may seem quite large, but it’s important to remember goats are active creatures. They will use every inch of their acre to eat, sleep, and amuse themselves. Goats are intelligent animals that need room.

If you’d like to the math yourself, experts say a mid-sized goat needs on average 10 square feet indoors and 200 square feet outdoors.

How Many Goats Should I Start With?

Livestock keepers recommend starting with two goats from the same herd if you’re new to the world of goat keeping. Goats like company, so a minimum of two is important for their wellbeing. A larger amount is overwhelming for a newbie keeper – because mischievous goats are clever enough to find the escape routes!
Starting with two does, or a doe and a wether, (a neutered male) is best unless you want to start a herd.

What Do Goats Eat?

Goats are herbivores that eat plant matter, but they have a reputation for eating anything! Their inquisitive nature does mean they will chew on odd things like plastic and clothing. This habit of chewing means a trash-free enclosure is important.  

Goats predominantly eat roughage so that’s grass, hay, weeds, tree bark, shoots, and leaves. They will also happily eat vegetables, fruit, and grains.

Goats have a four-chambered stomach to help process food and they chew cud which is regurgitated food. This sounds unappetizing to us, but it’s just a way of helping them digest tough organic matter!

How Do Goats Find Their Food?

Goats find their food by grazing and exploring their environment. In an enclosure, they will mow the grass down, nibble bushes, and reach over fences to sample overhanging vegetation. In the wild, a goat will eat whatever it can to survive. In tough mountainous areas, they munch on mosses, lick lichens, and sniff out fallen berries and nuts.

An article in the Journal of Applied Animal Science Behavior showed that more than one goat per feeding space, i.e. able to access a hay bale, was not recommended as it led to aggression.

On average an adult goat forages for 5-6 hours a day and eats 4% of its body weight. With that amount of time spent eating plus aggression if there are queues for food, it’s easy to see why farmers keep a maximum of eight goats per acre of land.

What Is A Goat’s Favorite Food?

As curious herbivores goats will eat pretty much any vegetation you give them, but they have a clear preference for nutritionally rich foods. This includes fruits, vegetables, young tender shoots, and roots.

Much like us, goats prefer tasty food. They will choose sweet vegetables like carrots over grass given half the chance!

Are Goats Good Pets?

Goats are good pets because they are generally gentle, inquisitive, and entertaining animals. Watching goats leap, bound, and play in their enclosure is fun for the family. They even take to lead walking, although you won’t get far because they will sample everything green on the way!

It’s easy to train goats with treats such as apples, but it’s important to make sure they get the majority of their calories from healthy roughage such as grass.

Threatened or scared goats can kick, bite, and charge, but there are no recorded cases of a goat killing a human. Mother goats with kids and unneutered males are more likely to show aggression. Well-fed goats treated with respect are peaceful pets that can help with yard maintenance!

What Can’t Goats Eat?

Alongside poisonous weeds like ragwort, goats can’t eat chocolate, avocado, holly, wild cherries, lilacs, azaleas, and any nightshade greenery. Nightshade greenery includes tomatoes leaves, but tomato fruits are fine for goats to eat.

Goats are curious eaters that will munch on pretty much anything. It’s important to make sure their enclosure has a strong, well-maintained fence to limit escapees finding inappropriate foods.

What Enrichment Does A Goat Need?

Goats need a dry, comfortable place to sleep, shelter from the elements, and safety from predators like wolves and coyotes.

Goats also need enrichment.

Goat enrichment is a way of mentally stimulating goats so they can live a happier life. Happy goats mean more milk, kids, and fun. Suitable goat enrichment allows them to jump, climb, investigate and browse.

Good examples are brushes to rub against, barrels to jump on, and even tough footballs they can kick and push.

So, keeping 8 goats per acre is recommended if you have small to medium-sized goats and up to 6 goats per acre for larger breeds.  Bear in mind if your pasture is poor you need to reduce your number or provide plenty of additional food such as hay and silage.

Up Next

• How Many Goats Are in the World?
• Are Goats Good Pets?
• Screaming Goats

The photo featured at the top of this post is © iStock.com/aurorat