How Many Goats Per Acre? Exact Calculation

Got an acre waiting to be utilized? Utilizing this little piece of land smartly would surely bring a good amount of money every day, week, month, and year. Well, if you love animals, there is a lot you can do with that little piece of land.

The aspiring livestock farmers would surely want to go for the most profitable idea, we suggest you raise goats. Raising goats is recommended because it demands you to invest less and become self-sufficient in a short period.

Whether it’s big or small animals, no matter how they live confined to cages or roaming and grazing around, all animals deserve to have some space to move around.

Goats are just no exception, they need some space to graze/browse to serve the purpose they are made for.

So, How many goats per acre? must be the first question to come to your mind when you finally decide to go with the plan. 

Frankly, one acre is a small piece of land for goat farming however it is big enough for a little start-up.

To be able to understand how many goats you can raise or keep in an acre, you first need to know how much this measuring unit is.

One acre is a piece of land that is about 4,840 square yards, 43,560 square feet, or 160 perches. If we try to simplify it even more, an acre would almost be as long and wide as a sports ground; especially the football one.

Now that the acre mystery is resolved, let’s find out how many goats can be raised!

If you want a vague answer we would say just as many goats as many sheep you can raise in an acre. However, if you want us to be more specific, we would say six to eight goats at a time.

The livestock keepers can choose to bring more goats but you have to arrange some space for grazing and browsing.

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However, if you want to listen to the expert opinion, raise six to eight goats in an acre even if it’s underutilization of resources. 

Bringing more goats would just be a mess if you are planning to raise your herd on natural forage. Remember! The goat’s case is a bit different from the sheep’s. In the goat’s case, eight is an ideal number. They need more room to roam and help livestock farmers to make more profit.

Well, if you have read our previous post, how many sheep per acre? All aspiring livestock keepers might have judged that they can keep six to ten sheep at a time.

If you can arrange food, the number can be increased to fifteen.

As mentioned above, the goat’s case is slightly different. Goats are susceptible to internal parasites, they have to maintain a distance to prevent themselves from ingesting worms.

So for this reason goats, despite being the same size, goats need more space than the sheep normally do. 

Since you are planning to bring goats home, you need to know that few factors can influence the number of goats you can keep. The factors are;

Like sheep, there are small, medium, and large-sized goats. The Nigerian Dwarf is the smallest and Boer is the largest one from the goat’s world.

The aspiring livestock keeper’s goal is to avoid overcrowding, so if he invests in the small-sized goats even ten goats per acre would not overcrowd the area.

If he decides to go with Boer(the largest-sized goat) or a medium-sized goat, six would be an ideal number.

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Climate does not directly influence the number of goats you can keep in an acre. However, it affects their grazing and browsing.

No grass can keep on entertaining the animal the whole year. Some grasses grow actively in summer whereas a few grow best in winter.

When more grass is available you can bring more goats as there is enough to eat. Whereas, in the season of slow growth the livestock keeper either has to arrange feed or reduce the number of goats he is keeping.

The amount of grass, grains, and other goat food available also influences the number of goats a livestock keeper can raise.

If the piece of land and the livestock keeper has enough to offer, he can raise the maximum number of goats that is eight per acre.

However, otherwise, the aspiring livestock keeper can only keep as many goats as he can feed.

To be able to calculate the number yourself, you need to know how much space a goat needs to live a balanced life.

On average, one goat needs 10 square feet indoors and 200 square feet outdoors for health and wellness.

Now the aspiring goat keeper has two options, he can do some mathematics or choose to take google assistance and find out the accurate number.  

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Goats, whether they are small or large-sized, need at least 10 square feet indoors and 200 square feet outdoors. The said farm animal needs this space to exercise and to live a healthy life. If overcrowding is not avoided, the goats will become a victim of internal parasites easily and fastly. 

In brief, goats are a little more sensitive than sheep. They need more space for their health and wellness.

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On average, a single goat needs 10 square feet indoors and 200 square feet outdoors so the maximum number of goats that can be kept per acre is eight. However, keeping six goats per acre is ideal.

If the aspiring livestock keeper wants to raise goats for profit, he should avoid overcrowding. Overcrowding increases the risk of parasite load so he must stick to the six to eight goats per acre rule.