since it's cold outside, grass and weeds aren't growing. this means the goats need to be supplemented with hay to stay healthy.

i found a ton of free bundled hay already on the property, but i was always feeding it to the goats by simply putting it on the ground.

this isn't great for a few reasons:

1. goats will poop on it, then stop eating it
2. portion control is difficult because they spread it around
3. goats don't like getting wet, and they may ignore wet food
4. goats eat quickly when hungry, leading to over feeding

at Tractor Supply i found the answer. it was quite pricy ($339) but allows me to do a better job with all of the above challenges.