Goat Production Systems for the Southeast

The Southeastern states have mostly a mild temperate environment, hot and humid summers and mild winters with not more than 20 freezing days and relatively high rainfall throughout the year, depending on the location. Goat production systems in this region can vary from using pasture and browsing woodlands to total confinement or somewhere in between. Feeds available include grasses, legume trees (mimosa, kudzu), forbs and under-story brush as forage; sweet potatoes, peanuts, and cotton by-products as well as other conventional supplements are available.

The quality of forages especially in pastures drops drastically in the summer and requires the use of available commercial energy and protein supplements for optimum gain. Legume trees or small grain pastures may be used with proper management to reduce the need for supplemental feeds.

It is necessary to understand animal production systems at a local level and to take a more realistic approach to feeding livestock. The potential resources must be identified and encouraged to develop sound feeding programs. Pasture and browse can play an important role in feeding goats year-round particularly in the Southeastern region of the country.

We propose a year-round foraging system that includes annual Marshall ryegrass (cool season grass) for winter grazing (December-April), peas or soybean greens (legume) for late spring and early summer (May-June), mimosa browse, sorghum or bermudagrass (warm season grasses) for summer (July-October) and hay/ concentrates to be used sparingly when needed (Solaiman et al., 2006). Unfortunately, this system is management intensive and requires some input (fertilizer, anthelmintics).

We compared production systems such as feedlot style to those mainly based on summer pasture (common bahiagrass pasture), browse (mimosa) or winter pasture (Marshall ryegrass). Preliminary carrying capacity or stocking rates on mimosa fields, when rotationally browsed, and Marshall ryegrass pasture, when continuously grazed by goats, were also determined.