Do I really want goats??

[chicken stalker]

My husband and I just got into chickens and now we are tossing around the idea of goats. Niether of us have had goats before and are pretty much clueless on what breed would be best for us. We are thinking more of a lawn maintance breed. We have 26 acres for it to mow. Not really interested in meat or milk. I like the small ones, cuter and I would think they would be more kid friendly. Of course the fainting ones are pretty cool. Any suggestions on good breed?

 

[coondog]

Well, I don't know about lawn mowing with them, but they are cute and small, so go for mini-nubians.

 

[steffpeck]

We had Pygmy Goats, and LOVED them!! We bottle raised ours (they ranged in age from 2 days - 6 days old) and that made them soooo friendly. They were more like dogs than goats. We would let them out of their pen and the would wonder around the yard eating, weeds, grass, hay, anything they could find. They were so funny to watch. We did sale them, because we are limited to the number of animals we can have with our water shares, so short of buying more shares, which are $10,000 a piece, we had to sell them to make room for our cows, and of course MORE chickens. If you just want them for pets, I loved our pygmy's!!

 

[luvzmybabz]

I love my full size nubians. I have 2 doelings that are just sweeter then anything. One will dance with my 5 year old and my 2 year old that is afraid of a lot of animals and too rough on the others love the goats and when his scratching (petting) gets rough they love it all the more. I do have mine for milk though

had to dry up my older doe cause I need to get some meat onto her bones before she is bred (recent purchase ). The younger girls will have to wait a while not old enough or big enough to breed.

 

[momma's chickens]

I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely love my dwarf nigerians. They are greatest things ever. They have a big fenced area but I tether them during the day and they do graze but not enough to say they "mow" the grass.

They are easy to keep and very friendly. I can't tether Jill , the doe, out of sight or she cries so loudly I am afraid the neighbors will complain. They are socialable, smart and loving. Steffpeck got it right, they are more like dogs than goats. They are wonderful!!

 

[ncgnance]

I LOVE my goats, and they ARE more like dogs than anything else. They love to be petted, and my vet says they're the best and friendliest boer goats he's ever seen. But they are a handful, being as big as they are. You'll need a good, strong, goat proof fence. Goats live to get out. And with your acreage, you can get a few of everything. I am going to breed my boers to a kiko or spanish buck, because boers are suseptible to just about everything, and I'd like to breed for more hardy babies.

 

[MagsC]

Nigerian Dwarfs, but for a larger breed our family has had some really nice French Alpines.

 

[Henrietta23]

I really want a couple of Nigerian Dwarfs myself but it doesn't look like I'll be getting any soon so get those and post lots of pictures for me! I also love the look of Oberhaslis.

 

[Bren1222]

We just purchased 3 baby fainting goats. Like you this our first experience with goats. We have had ours for only 3 days but I have to say I love them.

They are so cute and friendly. They love to be petted and they love to play and jump up and play on things. We still have them in a fenced in area with access to the barn. I am hoping to get them in the pasture this weekend for a few hours while we are home. The man (who we know very well) only have them fenced in with cow panels and say he has never had a problem with them getting out and he has like 50 + fainting goats.

My cows were scared to death of them. They came up for water and freaked out. I had to laugh. Here are these cows that are 10 times bigger then these goats and they wouldn't go near the goats. Now they are used to them but for the first day I think the cows would have died of thirst before they came close to the goats. Silly cows!

Go for goats! You won't be sorry!

 

[kinnip]

I love my goats, but I would never trust them to mow the lawn. They really don't want grass. They're browsers not grazers. They eat bushes and shrubs, tall weeds and trees. They eat pretty much everything except grass.
ETA: ...unless they're really hungry.