Paddock Management
🐐 Herd tab → ☰ → 🌿 Pasture Rotation
Paddocks are the grazing areas you rotate through. Defining them lets the app track where animals are and how long each piece of ground has rested.
Setting Up a Paddock
Each paddock records:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Name | How you refer to it — "North 5", "Creek Pasture" |
| Acreage | Feeds stocking-rate thinking |
| Forage type | Browse, grass, mixed — affects capacity and how fast it recovers |
| Minimum rest days | The shortest you're willing to let it recover before regrazing |
| Maximum grazing days | How long a group stays before moving |
| Linked group | Which group of goats normally uses it |
| Notes | Fencing state, water, shade, problem areas |
Why Rest and Grazing Limits Matter
The two limits are the whole point of rotation, and they're driven by parasites more than grass.
Most goat parasite larvae live in the bottom couple of inches of forage. Moving animals before they graze that low, and resting a paddock long enough for larvae to die off, breaks the cycle that otherwise makes deworming an endless treadmill.
Setting minimum rest days honestly — based on your rainfall and regrowth, not on wishful thinking — is what makes the rotation actually work.
Stocking rate depends on rainfall, soil, forage species, and management. Begin below what you think the land will carry and increase as you learn it. The pasture management guide covers this in more depth.
Tracking Who's Where
Assign goats or groups to a paddock and the app knows the herd's current location. That's useful for daily checks, for anyone else working the farm, and for the grazing history that builds up over a season.