Goat Herd Management: How we manage goat bedding

Goat bedding is something where there are likely as many variants as there are goat farms. Some things are simple differences and some styles vary quite a bit. Here I’ll explain what we currently do, the things we’ve tried and few options we haven’t tried because we didn’t think they would work for us.

Our does enjoying a clean barn

Goat Bedding Considerations

Key things I considered for our goat bedding system were keeping the goats dry, reducing ammonia, dust, time and cost. How I weigh these variables might be different than how you do. My barn is large with a concrete floor and good ventilation which also plays into my plan.

The way I image the ammonia and dust is in my choice of bedding. I keep the goats dry also by the choice of bedding, key being absorbency and how often I change the bedding. Time and cost, I manage more for time than cost.

I optimize for time

There are cheaper ways to bed your goats, what I’m writing about works for me. I put bedding down across the whole floor as I know of some people that make specifically spots with bedding. Goat tend to not pee on a hard floor and will go over and pee on the bedding spots. Poop however needs to be swept up. The reason I don’t do this method which saves on bedding costs is to do it properly you need to clean-up daily. I know with working full-time that some days feeding and milking is all I can get in. It is easy for skipping one day to turn into skipping multiple days and then have a mess.

Another method some folks use is the “deep bedding method” I find this to be a love it or hate it method. The way deep bedding works is in the winter you keep adding bedding on top of the old. It starts to compost in place which is great for keeping goats warm in the winter. The not so great? When you have to clean out in the spring. We don’t own a tractor and I had to make a big trade with the neighbor for them to help us clean it out. It was still a big project.

My Barn Flooring

My barn has a cement floor but also has a drainage channel across it set-up for cattle. What we did was fill the channel in with gravel and then put stall mats across it. I haven’t put stall mats across the whole barn, primarily due to cost. I’ll eventually do this, but overtime.

The Bedding Itself

I typically use three products for bedding my goats. An anti-ammonia agent, stall pellets and wood shavings. The exception to this is I use straw in kidding stalls, I find it is more comfortable for everyone. Personally I don’t use straw all the time as I find my goats tend to have mites more often when I use it.

Ammonia Prevention with Zeolites

After the barn has been stripped first I spread Sweet PDZ, I personally prefer the powdered formulation. Sweet PDZ is zeolites which interacts with the ammonia, think the same stuff in cat litter. This goes directly on the concrete and I find it helps keep the ammonia smell from sinking in.

Taffy Inspecting the Layer of Sweet PDZ

Stall Pellets

Next I put down a thing layer of stall pellets covering the whole area. I personally prefer Dry Den Equine Bedding, but I think this is only available on the West Coast. It has zeolites in it similar to the Sweet PDZ further reducing the ammonia.

Pine Shavings

Finally I add a layer of pine shavings. I buy bags of shavings, if I had a tractor I might get a truckload delivered instead. This is what we did at a horse farm I worked at, but in my case buying what I need monthly is the best option.

The shavings do two things: first they stop the goats from eating the pellets, two it gives them a more comfortable service at first. The pellets do fluff and break down overtime as well, but I find the shavings are an important addition.

Twyla always has to help us moving the shavings

The Clean Out

With this set-up I strip the barn every 3 or 4 weeks. I actually pay someone to come strip the barn. One of the reasons I’m not a big fan of the deep bedding method is it sent me to physical therapy for six months. Now I try to reduce my shoveling. If we are going to be closer to 4 weeks I will put another bag of Sweet PDZ down, this time the granular variety to help with the ammonia.

What to do with soiled bedding?

In our case we make a big pile of bedding out behind the barn to compost it. Currently the pile is getting too big for where it is and I plan to rent a skid steer to move and turn it in the spring. Since the goats don’t spend much time out in the winter it isn’t too much of an issue right now.

Other Variants

This is the method we use for our does most of the year. This does vary when we hit the road though. I only bed with shavings at shows and in our travel. The exception to this was Nationals as the goats where there a week so I did the same set-up described above. For our bucks in the winter I use straw and stall pellets together. This is more because the dogs like the straw and encourages them to stay out of the rain.

Ada enjoying her freshly straw filled dog house

What method is right for you?

There are different things to balance when deciding on your farm management practices. What works for me might not work for you due to cost, your facility or any other number of reasons. If you are new to goats you might just have to experiment. Did you try any of the things we do for goat bedding? Let us know.

Does enjoying a snack with their fresh barn