Grazing and Browsing Behavior, Grazing Management, Forage Evaluation and Goat Performance: Strategies to Enhance Meat Goat Production in North Carolina

Goats (Capra hircus hircus) offer an opportunity to more effectively convert pasture nutrients to animal products as milk, meat and fiber which are currently marketable and in demand by a growing segment of the US population. With the introduction of the Boer breed and the upgrading of meat-type goats with Boer genetics, research focusing on forage evaluation, feeding strategies and the development of economical grazing systems was urgently needed to meet the needs of this emerging industry. The first part of this paper focuses on the description of grazing/browsing behavior of goats and grazing management, and grazing strategies such as control and strip grazing, differences between control and continuous grazing, forward creep grazing, limit grazing and co-grazing and multispecies grazing. The second part reports on results from research conducted at North Carolina State University, the objective of the program being the development of year-round grazing systems. Studies were conducted with winter and summer annual forages, cool-season perennials in spring and fall, weaning age in spring on perennial forages, summer perennial forages including gastrointestinal parasite control, evaluation of fodder trees, and finally a demonstration with a volunteer stand of a mixture of a summer annual forage and a broadleaf plant.