Should I get goats on our farm? Please help!!!

[chickieluver26]

We have a 40 acre ranch about 1 hour away from our home which we go to every Saturday-Monday, about 21 acres of if are fenced off into our field where we keep our 2 female cattle. We have a lot of overgrown brush and weeds in the pasture and it's an eye sore from the road. So we thought of goats!!! I've always wanted goats but have never been able to but we just got brand new fencing all around the farm and pasture. We already have a good hay supplier. The shelter we have available is a very large barn. What are the best breed of goats that can handle extreme hot and moderate cold weather? we are also not interested in raising/butchering meat goats. We are not interested in a buck but will get one if necessary. Can you please tell me EVERYTHING I will need to get goats!!!

 

[cassie]

You need to get a book. Go the caprinesupply.com. They have several books on goats available and most of them are inexpensive. If you just need brush eaters and not milk goats check out pygmies and Boers.

 

[chickieluver26]

Ok I will try to but is there any info you can give me now?

 

[MeepBeep]

Mine do a pretty decent job of mowing down the pasture to about 6" tall but just like other animals they will leave patches of stuff they don't like... Initially when I released them to the pasture they hand picked the stuff they really liked, leaving lots of patches, as the summer progressed they moved onto the other stuff and still avoided some stuff... If you are looking for a clean mowing you will not get it with goats if they have the room to graze... Also mine tend to clean up the areas around the barn first, it took them until this month to actually get to the furthest corners of the pasture and I only let them graze in about 1.5 acres my herd is 6 goats and two llamas... I suspect that if you let them graze over 21 acres you won't get a lot of the mow down effect you are looking at unless you get a BIG herd of them, more likely you will get them cherry picking the stuff they like while ignoring the rest...

 

[chickieluver26]

Mine do a pretty decent job of mowing down the pasture to about 6" tall but just like other animals they will leave patches of stuff they don't like... Initially when I released them to the pasture they hand picked the stuff they really liked, leaving lots of patches, as the summer progressed they moved onto the other stuff and still avoided some stuff... If you are looking for a clean mowing you will not get it with goats if they have the room to graze... Also mine tend to clean up the areas around the barn first, it took them until this month to actually get to the furthest corners of the pasture and I only let them graze in about 1.5 acres my herd is 6 goats and two llamas... I suspect that if you let them graze over 21 acres you won't get a lot of the mow down effect you are looking at unless you get a BIG herd of them, more likely you will get them cherry picking the stuff they like while ignoring the rest...

Oh ok what breed do you have

 

[chickieluver26]

I like the look of Nubians would they work for me?

 

[MeepBeep]

Oh ok what breed do you have

They are generic mutts... My wether is a pure fainter, all my does are half fainter and half angora/cashmere don't know that exact breeds though... The half breeds get a sheep like coat for winter and sorta look like sheep all winter, come spring they shed it and then look like goats again...

As I said, I don't know the bloodlines, the farmer I got them from was an angora/cashmere breeder but these were his 'pets' not part of his business bloodlines...

 

[chickieluver26]

*Bump*

 

[crazypoultrychx]

MeepBeep is right......goats are great but they are nothing like we think they are....you think that they will generally eat everything even tin cans and nothing could be farther from the truth.....they will only eat what they want to eat and if you are looking to get some property cleared all your gonna get is partial clearing and patchy.....they are VERY VERY picky eaters and still have to be fed goat grain as it contains copper and other minerals not avalible in the open range...we thought the same thing when we got our pregnant nubian....we thought about fencing and the whole 9 yards....how she would clear the back woods for us.....um....yeah.....that isnt happening.......she eats the pine bark off the trees and several vines but we are gonna have to go back there and bushog and cut all the stuff she and the kids arent eating....also you do need to read up on them as there are MANY things that are poisonous to goats like white clover...and if you get a young goat you may just have a dead goat.....there are lots of things that they CAN NOT eat.....and then there are a lot of things they wont eat either....

 

[chickieluver26]

MeepBeep is right......goats are great but they are nothing like we think they are....you think that they will generally eat everything even tin cans and nothing could be farther from the truth.....they will only eat what they want to eat and if you are looking to get some property cleared all your gonna get is partial clearing and patchy.....they are VERY VERY picky eaters and still have to be fed goat grain as it contains copper and other minerals not avalible in the open range...we thought the same thing when we got our pregnant nubian....we thought about fencing and the whole 9 yards....how she would clear the back woods for us.....um....yeah.....that isnt happening.......she eats the pine bark off the trees and several vines but we are gonna have to go back there and bushog and cut all the stuff she and the kids arent eating....also you do need to read up on them as there are MANY things that are poisonous to goats like white clover...and if you get a young goat you may just have a dead goat.....there are lots of things that they CAN NOT eat.....and then there are a lot of things they wont eat either....

Since we go up Saturday-Monday and Only have the ranch hand up there Wednesdays and sometimes Thursdays how do we make sure they don't overeat and bloat on the grains?