Quote: Keeping them shedded requires a bit of learning to prevent issues, but I don't think deep litter would work too well for sheep. I have never heard of it done. The theory seems sound enough since it works for poultry (in my experience) but then you have to consider that sheep and goats produce a lot of urine which chickens do not. They would be likely to get respiratory issues and foot rot and no matter how quickly you added new layers, they would turn them into a mud sty. A milking goat (full size) has been estimated at having an output of up to 40 liters of urine a day! This must be a slight exaggeration but it's very close, from my experience with milking goats and cattle. Milkers can pee actual rivers and ponds. A mini-milker would still probably soak your bed area faster than you could keep up. It would be a great time saver and health aid if you could give them some sort of bed that drains the urine into an area away from their pasture and sleeping areas, which is easy to hose down or otherwise clean.
I would not recommend using newspaper, since a while back they changed to known carcinogenic chemical inks from the more natural ones they used to use. There were protests against this but the change still went through. It is no longer safe to use newspapers in mulch, as bedding for animals, or anything like it used to be good for... Using newspaper in gardens means they are not organic, something many people have not caught up to, since they are still doing things the way their grandparents did them and not realizing the chemicals involved have changed.
Quote: I always read about people in agricultural papers boasting about the sorts of grasses they've sown their pastures to, so I was quite surprised recently to read the goat expert Pat Coleby listing most of these popular pasture grasses as dangerous to goats. I don't know about the ones you've listed so would do a little supplementary reading up on them. Some grasses 'tie up' nutrients in animals and you get sometimes fatal issues from that.
Pat Coleby ran successful commercial goat ventures for most of her life and associated with professional goat keepers as well, and shared the info she learned, with referenced studies and data to support it, so her books are well worth getting if you intend to farm at all, whether with goats or anything. She covers soil health which is the foundation of all health above it, so this is vital to learn for long term health and prevention of serious issues.
The main value of grass is in the fiber, so adding a calcium and seaweed supplement to that will cover most nutritional bases. Extra copper and sulfur were added because in Australia the soils are very deficient in this on average, but this may not be necessary in your area. If your area has had topdressings of fertilizers (not counting manure) then you may well need to supplement like it's Australian soil because these fertilizers are proven to inhibit uptake of some minerals (especially copper and sulfur) up to 100%. Sulfur is a large part of what fleece is made of so fleece animals will always need more sulfur than those that do not grow fleeces.
Coleby condemned these pasture grasses as "hazardous" which I find strange because they are used throughout Australia on cattle... Pangola, Green Panic (Guinea Grass), Para, Kikuyu, Buffel, and a few others she only gave the latin names for, like
Narok setaria and
Kazungula setaria. Goats may cope with Kikuyu if properly supplemented but they won't do well, she reckons. All the other grasses listed will cause symptoms akin to nitrate poisoning in goats or any other stock*, and in horses the disease is called hyperparathyroidism.
Some feeds are only poisonous to white animals, as colored animals can cope with much higher levels of copper. So St John's Wort, Red Clover etc can kill white goats but not colored ones, or at least it's very unlikely unless that's all they have to eat and they are not supplemented with dolomite, which has calcium and magnesium in balance which is necessary. The treatment for copper poisoning is a teaspoon of dolomite and sodium ascorbate tipped straight into the mouth or in the feed. Personally I'd wet it down just before giving it to them for obvious reasons, lol. Vitamin B12 is also an antidote to copper poisoning.
*Pat Coleby sometimes overgeneralizes. Sometime she says "all other stock" meaning hoofed stock, not poultry, etc.
For fiber and meat goats Coleby made up a stock lick consisting of 25 kgs of dolomite, 4 kgs of seaweed meal, 4 kgs of yellow dusting sulfur, and 4kgs of copper sulfate. It must be kept dry or the dolomite neutralizes the copper sulfate in about 30 minutes. About 2 grams per head per day were given. It would be less for miniatures or animals that are not in milk, pregnant, or producing large quantities of fleece or flesh. Proprietary stock licks are often too hard for them to get enough nutrition from, she says, and I've found my sheep would definitely wear their teeth down if I only supplemented via those blocks. I broke the bock up so the sheep can gnaw on it, but I supplement with kelp, which they love.
Quote: Sounds alright!
Right now I'm trying to gently deter my landlord from making a mobile pen for sheep which is 20 square meters for four or more sheep; he's got 10 acres, of which at least 5 is available, but to his way of thinking sheep are lawnmowers able to live on grass alone. They would be moved to new pasture when they've eaten the grass down to stalks, but he starves them thinking they're just lazy gluttons and they don't need anything more than plain grass alone, or they're "spoiled". He's lost goats and poultry before to mystery deaths and isn't interested in the 'why' of it. No supplementation means sooner or later they die of malnutrition. He fertilizes his plants, but doesn't think animals need anything, doesn't seem to care, to be honest. Ok, enough about him...
I highly recommend you lime the ground before you put them there. Dog tapeworm can live a long time in the soil and fills their brains with cysts, and of course brain surgery on a sheep or goat is not within the average person's financial reach. The cysts will end up all throughout the body but it's the brain ones you will notice as they will of course damage the animal permanently; their effects are rather like the symptoms of a stroke. Lime will also kill many nasties and if you keep stock on the same ground for long periods then lime is a literal lifesaver, killing harmful fungi, parasite oocysts, viruses, bacteria, etc. It will break up any clay soil you've got so drainage is better and the pasture will be lusher. Cocci overload is an issue with sheep and goats kept eating off the ground, so best to give them feed bins off the ground and your idea for an off-floor sleeping area sounds like a good one.
While I personally prefer all animals have a wide range to roam, I know it's not always feasible, and there are animals dying for want of good homes which may have less than an ideal amount of space... So go for it and I wish you all the best with it. Definitely do a fair bit of reading up first to avoid suffering and damage later though. Minis are an ideal way to go. I would make your little goat a playground to climb, she'll keep herself fairly fit that way possibly. The sheep may try to join in too.