# 94 | Winter Feeding Goats: How Growth Rate Changes Hay Needs and Marketing Plans

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/goat-wise-meat-goats-feeding-goats-goat-fencing-livestock-management-6892560/94-winter-feeding-goats-how-growth-rate-changes-hay-needs-and-marketing-plans
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/goat-wise-meat-goats-feeding-goats-goat-fencing-livestock-management-6892560/94-winter-feeding-goats-how-growth-rate-changes-hay-needs-and-marketing-plans.md
Podcast: [Goat Wise | Meat Goats, Feeding Goats, Goat Fencing, Livestock Management](https://stenobird.com/podcast/goat-wise-meat-goats-feeding-goats-goat-fencing-livestock-management-6892560)
Published: 2026-01-26T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://getgoatwise.podbean.com/e/rapid-growth-winter-feed-increase/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/4gaw2zbwbjhz2g2n/94_Winter_Feeding_Goats_How_Growth_Rate_Changes_Hay_Needs_and_Marketing_Plans6oxlf.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/goat-wise-meat-goats-feeding-goats-goat-fencing-livestock-management-6892560/episodes/94-winter-feeding-goats-how-growth-rate-changes-hay-needs-and-marketing-plans
Duration seconds: 720

## Resource

Fast growth is something we’re genuinely excited about on our ranch. This winter, a stretch of unusually mild weather reduced maintenance energy demands, allowing our weaned goat kids to put more of what they were eating toward growth instead of staying warm. As a result, they’re running 15–20 pounds ahead of where we’d normally expect them to be this time of year. In this episode, I walk through how that weather-driven growth changed our winter feeding plan. I explain how we recalculated hay needs, what a 30–44% increase in feed demand looks like in real terms, and how we adjusted our marketing plan to match what the goats were actually doing instead of forcing the original timeline. I share what we noticed early, how we ran the feed calculations, and why additional weight matters so much during winter feeding. I break down dry matter versus as-fed hay, how waste factors into real-world feeding systems, and why those details add up quickly when you’re feeding a large group of goats. You’ll also hear how we evaluated our options, why buying more hay didn’t pencil out, and why selling earlier than planned was the most responsible decision given our feed inventory and the current market. This episode is a real ranch example of adjusting plans early, before a good situation turns into a costly one. If you’re feeding goats through winter and trying to balance growth, hay supply, and marketing decisions, this episode will help you think through those trade-offs with clarity instead of guesswork. In This Episode, I Cover: A ranch update and how winter breeding conditions affect management decisions How mild winter weather shifted energy use and increased growth in weaned goat kids Why faster growth directly increases winter feed requirements Calculating feed intake based on…

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