6 Best Goat Feeders for a Small Backyard Herd
Keep your backyard goats’ feed clean and off the ground. This guide reviews the 6 best feeders for small herds, focusing on waste reduction and durability.
Anyone who keeps goats knows the familiar sight of perfectly good hay pulled from a feeder and immediately trampled into the bedding. It’s a frustrating and expensive part of raising these clever, and often wasteful, animals. Choosing the right feeder isn’t just about convenience; it’s a strategic decision that impacts your feed bill, your chores, and the health of your herd.
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Why the Right Goat Feeder Matters for Your Herd
A feeder is much more than a simple container for hay or grain. It’s a critical tool for managing your herd’s health and your farm’s budget. The primary benefit of a well-designed feeder is waste reduction. Goats are notorious for pulling out large mouthfuls of hay, dropping half of it, and then refusing to eat anything that has touched the ground. A good feeder minimizes this behavior, ensuring more of the expensive hay you buy actually gets eaten.
Beyond saving money, the right feeder plays a huge role in herd health. When hay and grain are thrown on the ground or into a trough that goats can stand in, the food quickly becomes contaminated with manure and urine. This is a primary vector for transmitting internal parasites like coccidia and stomach worms, which can be devastating to a small herd. A feeder that keeps food clean and off the ground is one of your best lines of defense against costly vet bills and sick animals.
Finally, feeder design influences herd dynamics. A single, small feeding station can encourage bullying, where dominant goats hoard the food and prevent more timid members from getting their share. Providing adequate feeder space or using multiple feeders ensures every animal can eat peacefully. This reduces stress and helps maintain a stable, healthy social structure within your herd.
Key Features: Waste Reduction and Durability
When you’re shopping for a goat feeder, two features stand above all others: its ability to reduce waste and its durability. Waste reduction is all about design. Look for features that make it difficult for goats to pull out more hay than they can eat in one bite. Slanted bars, wire mesh grids, or "keyhole" openings force a goat to eat more deliberately, significantly cutting down on dropped hay. For grain, a deep trough with an inward-facing lip can prevent them from "rooting" and flinging pellets everywhere.
Durability is a non-negotiable for anything that will live in a goat pen. Goats are incredibly tough on equipment; they will rub, push, head-butt, and try to climb on everything. Feeders made from heavy-gauge, galvanized steel are often the best long-term investment. They resist rust and can withstand the daily abuse. High-quality, thick-walled molded plastics are another excellent option, as they won’t rust or have sharp edges, but they can become brittle in extreme cold over many years.
Avoid flimsy wire hay racks, which can be easily bent or broken, creating dangerous sharp points. Also, be wary of untreated wood feeders. While they can be a good DIY option, they absorb moisture and are difficult to sanitize properly, potentially harboring bacteria over time. Ultimately, paying a bit more for a feeder built to last will save you the headache and expense of replacing it every other season.
Tarter Wall Hay Feeder: Best for Small Stalls
Feed your livestock efficiently with this durable, 18.5-gallon steel hay feeder. Its wall-mounted design saves space, while rounded edges ensure animal safety during feeding.
If you’re working with a small stall or a tight space for just a couple of Nigerian Dwarfs or Pygmies, the Tarter Wall Hay Feeder is a fantastic solution. This is a classic V-shaped rack, typically made of steel bars, that mounts directly to a wall. Its vertical design takes up zero floor space, which is a huge advantage in converted shed or small barn setups. The slanted bars allow hay to gravity-feed down as the goats eat from the bottom.
The main benefit here is space efficiency. It keeps the hay completely off the ground and contained in a small footprint. It’s simple, rugged, and gets the job done for one or two small goats. However, it’s not without its limitations. The open top means clever goats can still pull hay out from above, and the bar spacing might not be ideal for goats with large horns, which can get stuck.
This feeder is for the hobby farmer with a very small herd in a confined space. If you have just two mini goats and need to maximize every square inch of their shelter, this is an economical and practical choice. If you have a larger herd or goats with impressive horns, you’ll want to look at a different style.
Little Giant Hook Over Trough: A Versatile Classic
Feed multiple animals at once with this durable, hook-over trough. Its galvanized steel grid provides six feeding slots and easily mounts on standard boards or wire panels.
You’ve seen these everywhere for a reason. The Little Giant Hook Over Trough is the definition of a versatile, multi-purpose feeder. Made of tough plastic or galvanized steel with built-in hooks, it can be hung over any fence rail or stall wall in seconds. This portability is its greatest strength; you can easily move it for cleaning or reconfigure your feeding setup on the fly.
These troughs are perfect for grain, minerals, or water. They are deep enough to hold a decent amount of feed and are incredibly easy to dump and scrub clean. For supplemental feeding or providing specific rations to individual goats, they are an indispensable tool. They come in various lengths, allowing you to provide enough space for several goats to eat side-by-side without competition.
However, this is not a good primary hay feeder. Goats will happily put their front feet in it, fouling the contents and wasting a tremendous amount of hay. It offers no waste-reduction features for forage. Think of this feeder as an essential accessory, not your main hay solution. If you need a durable, portable container for anything other than hay, this is the one to get.
Premier 1 Supplies Caprine Feeder for Less Waste
When your top priority is stopping hay waste, you need a feeder designed specifically for that purpose, and the Caprine Feeder from Premier 1 Supplies is a top contender. This feeder is engineered with a wire-panel grid that sits on top of the hay. As the goats eat, the panel lowers, keeping the hay compressed and forcing them to pull out small, manageable bites through the grid openings.
This design is exceptionally effective at minimizing waste. The days of finding half a bale of hay used as bedding will be over. Because the food is so well-contained, it also stays much cleaner. The feeder is typically built from galvanized steel for longevity and is substantial enough that goats can’t easily push it around or tip it over.
The tradeoff is the upfront cost; this is an investment piece of equipment. But if you are feeding high-quality alfalfa that costs a premium, this feeder can pay for itself in saved hay within a year or two. This is the right choice for the serious hobby farmer who is tired of watching profits get trampled into the mud and wants a permanent, highly effective solution to hay waste.
The DIY Barrel Feeder: A Top Budget-Friendly Idea
For the resourceful farmer on a tight budget, nothing beats the DIY barrel feeder. The concept is simple: take a food-grade 55-gallon plastic barrel, lay it on its side in a simple wooden frame to keep it from rolling, and cut several feeding holes along the sides. The holes should be large enough for a goat’s head but small enough to prevent them from climbing in or pulling out excessive amounts of hay.
The primary advantage is cost. A used food-grade barrel can often be found for very little money, and the wooden frame requires only basic carpentry skills and scrap lumber. This feeder holds a significant amount of hay, reducing the frequency of refills, and the enclosed design offers excellent protection from rain and snow, making it a great option for pasture feeding.
Of course, the downside is the "do-it-yourself" part. It requires time, the right tools (like a jigsaw or Sawzall), and a bit of effort to ensure there are no sharp plastic edges on the cutouts. But if you have more time than money and enjoy a good project, this is an unbeatable option. It delivers the capacity and weather resistance of expensive commercial feeders for a fraction of the price.
Behlen Country Mineral Feeder for Vital Nutrients
Goats require access to free-choice loose minerals to thrive, and simply putting them in an open trough is a recipe for waste and spoilage. The Behlen Country Mineral Feeder, or models like it, is specifically designed to solve this problem. These feeders are built with a protective hood and often a rubber flap or rotating cover that keeps rain, snow, and dirt out of the minerals.
Proper mineral supplementation is crucial for preventing deficiencies that can lead to poor growth, a weak immune system, and breeding problems. A dedicated, weather-proof feeder ensures the minerals stay clean, dry, and palatable, so your goats will actually consume them. These feeders are typically made from ultra-durable polyethylene that won’t rust or corrode from the salt and mineral mix.
This isn’t an optional piece of equipment; it’s a necessity for responsible goat ownership. While you could try to build something similar, the durability and purpose-built design of a commercial mineral feeder are hard to beat. If you are providing loose minerals to your herd (which you should be), investing in a feeder that protects them from the elements is a must-do for their health and your wallet.
Brower MGF48 Combo Feeder: For Hay and Grain
For the farmer who values simplicity and an all-in-one setup, the Brower MGF48 Combo Feeder is an excellent choice. This unit combines a V-shaped hay rack on top with a built-in trough underneath for grain or minerals. This design saves space and consolidates your entire feeding station into one durable piece of equipment.
The main advantage is convenience. You can feed both hay and grain in the same spot, streamlining your chores. The trough underneath also cleverly catches a lot of the smaller leaves and hay fragments (the "fines") that fall from the rack, which are highly nutritious and often go to waste in other systems. These feeders are typically constructed from heavy-duty galvanized steel, so they are built to last.
The potential downside is that some goats may pull hay down into the grain trough, but the catch-pan design minimizes this better than separate units. This feeder is ideal for a small, stable herd in a barn or dry-lot setting where you want a single, robust, and efficient feeding station. It’s a perfect fit for the hobbyist who wants to buy one piece of equipment that handles all their feeding needs effectively.
Feeder Placement to Keep Food Clean and Dry
Where you put your feeder is just as important as which one you buy. The ideal location is inside a shelter, protected from rain and snow. Wet hay molds quickly, and moldy feed can cause serious health issues, including respiratory problems and listeriosis. If a feeder must be outdoors, choose a design with a roof or place it under a natural overhang.
Position the feeder away from the main loafing and sleeping areas where manure tends to accumulate. Even the best feeder can’t keep food clean if it’s placed in a high-traffic bathroom zone. Elevating the feeder slightly can also help. A feeder that is at a comfortable eating height for the goats is also high enough to discourage them from urinating or defecating into it.
Consider herd flow as well. Don’t place a feeder in a narrow alleyway or corner where a dominant goat can easily block access for others. Placing it along an open wall allows multiple animals to approach from different angles, reducing competition and ensuring everyone gets a chance to eat.
A Routine for Cleaning and Maintaining Feeders
A clean feeder is fundamental to herd health. Establishing a simple, consistent cleaning routine is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of disease and parasites. This doesn’t have to be a monumental task; a little bit of daily and weekly maintenance goes a long way.
On a daily basis, do a quick visual check. Remove any hay that is wet, moldy, or has been soiled with manure. For grain troughs, dump out any leftover feed that has gotten wet or dirty. This simple step takes only a minute but prevents goats from ingesting harmful contaminants.
At least once a week, grain and mineral troughs should be scrubbed out with hot water and a stiff brush. Hay feeders should be completely emptied of old fines and dust. A few times a year, it’s a good practice to do a deep clean with a disinfectant like a dilute bleach solution or a veterinary-grade cleaner, followed by a thorough rinse. This routine maintenance is a small time investment that pays huge dividends in the long-term health and productivity of your herd.
Ultimately, the best goat feeder is a tool that works with your specific setup, herd size, and budget. By prioritizing waste reduction and durability, you’re not just buying a piece of equipment. You’re making a smart investment in the health of your animals and the sustainability of your small farm.
