When migrating they fly much higher, finding an altitude with a wind that is going their direction. Geese have been seen as high as 9,000 feet. The air to the side of a flying goose is smoother to fly in than the more turbulent air right behind. A goose flying in back of another goose would be like a person trying to swim behind a motor boat. Geese are grazers - they like soft shoots, leaves, and buds off meadow plants, grasses, wild rice, and cultivated crops.
Goslings eat many insects as a supply of protein for rapid body growth.
They eat about a half pound of food per day per bird when they are at Horicon. When they are present for long periods of time in extremely large numbers they can cause a severe problem for some land owners. Geese will feed on the very same crops farmers in east-central Wisconsin grow, corn, alfalfa, and winter wheat. Assistance to farmers is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the State of Wisconsin through a program that charges a surtax on Hunting Licenses which is used to partially pay land owners for damage caused by geese. This program is administered by county government.