Goats?

[peepmommy]

We are thinking about getting two goats as lawnmowers. We have a number of areas that are too wet to mow (around creek beds and trees). I've owned livestock, but never goats. Any words of wisdom? What breeds are nicer (I have young children). Thanks!

 

[SmallFarmChick]

Minis are great with kids! Goats are not the best lawnmowers, but some breeds do quite a good job. Would you be interested in milk or meat? Would your kids like to show in 4-h? These are all considerations when getting into goats. Do you have enough money for proper fencing, housing, and feed? I love my goats! They are rewarding, playful, enjoyable and fun! I have 2 nigarian dwarf goats. They are small, but give great amounts of milk and are good with small kids and easy to handle. I would got to this site: http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/ I'm a member there. They really give you a great boost. It's just like BYC.

They have alot of great info! See you!

 

[SmallFarmChick]

Words of wisdom, goats are like potato chips, you got to have 1 more!

 

[peepmommy]

Thanks so much for the info! We have a wonderful stone barn with many stalls. I can house/feed/care for quite easily. I just want to know what I am getting into. We have fencing, but no electric. I was thinking of tethering them. Not looking for mowing, but for very tall weed eating

We have lots of poison ivy and am hoping they will eat the multiflora rose too! We have 19 acres and could use a little help!

 

[peepmommy]

We also have that strange chicken math. Started with 10 and ended up at 32!!

 

[SmallFarmChick]

Oh yes! They'll love the poison Ivy, the rose bush, ALL OF IT! I think pygmy goats would be a good choice for you!

 

[donrae]

If you have littles and want them to do much with the goats, I'd say go with a dwarf or other small breed. My ds10 really wanted a goat, we bought two nubian weathers. He literally can't control either of them on a rope, they've laid him out several times. He just doesn't have the mass to stop them. Needless to say, this has hampered his enthausium!

We were also told nubians were more vocal than other breeds, and thought we would be good with it. Yeah, until they start calling/crying the moment they hear the alarm go off! And don't quit until they are fed, even if they still have hay. They are very wasteful and I'm starting to resent them a lot.

How would you contain them to these areas? Goats are pretty hard to fence. They can be staked out, but in a wet area I don't know if you could sink something to hold them. They're very strong and don't yield easily. We are looking to make a portable pen of hog panels, so we can move them to the area we want eaten. The panels aren't cheap, but they're the best thing to hold them we've found.

 

[Skipspin]

For pets/weed control your best bet is probably two wethers. They are easy, you can usually get quality ones for a great price, and require less maintenance a doe. You don't want bucks for pets. Breed is probably more of a personal choice and isn't quite as important if they are just pets, but some breeds have pros/cons. I would highly suggest either a naturally polled goat (not super common) or one that has been disbudded. You can call any local dairy goat breeders and ask them about pet wethers. Most have "extra" ones around and they are generally disbudded, bottle raised, and friendly. Around here it's easy to get one for $50 or less.

My daughter has a registered LaMancha doeling (for breeding, milk) and a boer-mix wethers to keep her company. The doeling was bottle raised and the little boy was dam-raised and they are both very friendly and great with our human kids. They never butt people, they run together, etc. She wants to train him to pull a cart when he's bigger. Ours live in our one acre fenced "backyard" but have a pen with a shelter for when we need them out of the way. They will climb on everything, so be prepared. We have five acres all together and they go out there supervised, but the fences aren't "goat proof."

As far as "mowing" they do eat grass, but they also love weeds, vines, branches, etc since they are browsers, so depending on the size of the area you may find you still need to mow sometimes. Also, they may not eat the grass when it's really wet because they don't like standing in water at all. They will go in once the ground dries out.

 

[Kaitie09]

I have a pygmy and 2 Nubian/Boers. If you are just looking for pets, go with mini weathers. With smaller goats, you normally only have to worry about them getting under fences. My 2 Boers figured out they could jump a 5 ft fence. Before we got them, we could keep the pygmy in with a 3ft fence and she was perfectly happy. We had to completely replace all the fencing with 6ft welded wire.

As for clearing out areas, they work great. Here is a picture of our backyard not accessible to the goats:




Here is the 1/2 acre the goats have access to:




They cleared the ground in less than 4 months, and then they started ripping bark from trees and killing the small ones. Everything below 5ft is gone. It worked out for us because we wanted to clear some of the area, and we are planning on planting grass in the fall down there. when they first moved down there, they went for the thorn bushes first. With the amount of room you have, 2-3 minis would take probably about 1-2 years to clean most of the area, depending on how thick the brush is


ETA: I agree with the Nubians being screamers. Ours have hay 24/7 , yet as soon as they hear someone in the morning, they won't stop yelling until you go out there and give them some grain.

 

[farmerlayne1]

they say that a goat with lad back horns and floppy ears are more gentle and best nature. I would go with boer or nubian. I have boer goats and they are very loveable and are good lawnmowers!!!!!!!!!!!