Most animals will gorge themselves when able to free eat at first, but do eventually even out and eat only when hungry (Recently read a study on allowing horses to free eat). We built a large roofed area and keep a round bale of bahia grass under it for feeding our dairy heifer and 4 goats: They have access to this 24/7.
We have a juvenile Boer goat, a Nigerian/Nubian cross wether, a Spanish/Myotonic mix wether, and a Spanish doe along with our Brown Swiss x Jersey cow. Together, they eat one bale a month, which costs about $40. We found a local farmer who has his hay tested by the ag center and it is nearly weed and dust free: We get this hay for our horse, so just buy an extra for the goats and cow while we are there. They do waste some, but the cow seems to clean up a good bit of the hay off the ground before it is ruined. We remove the soiled hay to our compost bin.
When we first began doing this, you could not pry any of them away from it: They all just stood there and ate and ate. However, after some time passed and I guess they saw it was always there, they would only go eat occasionally (except the cow who is very pregnant right now and does two things, eats and lays down). After they have their fill, they find a nice comfy spot in the sun to lie down and take a nap or chew their cud. I do give all the animals a bit of oats in the morning: One small scoop divided amongst the goats and one scoop for the cow. They have access to some pasture, but it is less than we'd like this year due to horrible drought conditions which persisted until a couple weeks ago. With good browse available, they do not need the oats at all.
I watch their body condition and if the goats seem to be getting fat, I cut back their portion of oats. I don't skip a day as they look forward to their morning food, but they get a much smaller portion than I usually give them (down to a handful per animal). Also, even though they love it, don't give them much corn: It's like goat candy (not highly nutritious). I unfortunately knew a man that only offered his goats corn via a deer feeder twice a day. Despite my best efforts with animal control and the local vets, 10 of the 13 starved to death. His response was always, but I give them plenty of corn...... (Two of my current goats are ones I rescued from his animals).
