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jtcweb
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Tell Me about Goats
09/22/02 09:05 PM
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I have 9 acres, currently about 6 of it is brush. I have a Ford 9N tractor with a rotory cutter, but am unable to keep up. I have thought about a goat or two to help me. I have tried to read up on it, but cant find any info that really lines up with what I want to do. I cant even find out how much a "regular" goat costs, only stuff about special breeds. Any one care to share their thoughts?
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Phred
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
09/23/02 12:14 AM
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jtcweb,
I have been thinking along the same lines. My problem is some areas are way to steep to cut so a goat would be just the trick. I have some friends that have a few so I will tell you what little I know and hopefully others will chime in.
You can get goats for ~$100 at the local live stock auction. Price depends on quality of animal, etc.. Be careful not to buy some ones elses problem.
Fencing is the biggest problem for me, and maybe for you as well. The 5 strand barbwire fences I have are setup for cattle not goats. The goats would get out in a heart beat. Most folks around here use mesh wire fencing. Some folks supplement this with an electric wire across the top to discourge escape.
You also need to provide a shelter since they can't handle bad whether without it.
Phred
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s1120
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
09/23/02 05:02 AM
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Any one else have any input? I have also been thinking of getting goats. Some people say they love to eat poison ivy, and I got a ton of it.  How much work is invalved with goats? Whats the day, to day work invalved? Any thing people are not telling us about them?
Paul Bradway
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EJB
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: s1120]
09/23/02 05:27 AM
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We just picked up three goats about 2 weeks ago, so I hardly qualify as an expert...my guess would be that if you ONLY want the goats as roving grass-mowers, that you'll find them more work than justified...after all, you still need to erect and maintain fences, provide shelter food and water for them...
We got ours as pets, but with an eye towards breeding them and perhaps selling a few here and there to offset the cost of keeping them. Keeping some of the fields down is a side-benefit. 
I haven't found them a lot of work so far, but then again, I haven't setup permanaent fencing or housing for them yet. I do find them quite enjoyable to have around, and, while there is grass on the ground, do not need to provide much in the way of food.
BTW: We paid $75 dollars a piece for the three of them from a local guy I know down the street...he said the going rate was about $100 at an auction, but selling to us saved the hassle of bringing them in.
My guess is if you buy them and it doesn't work out, that as long as they remain healthy, you won't have much trouble re-selling them or at least fidning someone to take them.
Good luck 
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s1120
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: EJB]
09/23/02 06:00 AM
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We got ours as pets, but with an eye towards breeding them and perhaps selling a few here and there to offset the cost of keeping them.
Oh, we would also have them as pets. We love animals, and just like having them around. Also I would like to bring my daughter Danielle up with some animals around. Teaching her responabilty, by caring for them.
Paul Bradway
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EJB
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: s1120]
09/23/02 06:09 AM
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I say go for it...think of them as pets, and any additional work they do around the house is a bonus
I find that the more animals we have around, the more animals I want to have around  ...so far chickens, rabbits and goats...(plus one dog and one cat) more farm animals to come.
Getting a couple of pigs in the spring and maybe a lamb...none of them are going to be pets if you know what I mean...
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RichZ
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
09/23/02 09:37 AM
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We have two goats right now. An angora and a pygmy. They're great animals, and they're VERY smart. If you get them as a baby, they become very attached to you, and love to follow you around. They love to climb things, and you have to be careful of that. They do need shelter, and need to be penned to keep them out of mischief. They are very good at getting out of most pens also. Ours got out so much, that they became used to staying around the barn. I eventaully was able to take the pen down, and they just hang out by the barn, they woon't stray more than a few hundred feet, but I don't know if you can count on all goats to do that.
Goats also get along well with horses. Our goats love to play with our Belgian. They love to try to get her to chase them, then they turn around and run under her legs. It's alot of fun to watch them all together.
We're enjoying our goats (these are just pets) so much, that we're looking into getting dairy goats. A friend of ours who is a dairy (cow) farmer offered to get us started, and even knows where we can get a used goat milking parlor. We're researching it now, but we are very serious about it.
Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."
Edited by RichZ (09/23/02 09:38 AM)
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Dob
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
09/23/02 10:08 AM
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Sorry, I don't have much time to post, too much time reading these posts! There was a thread at tbn you might want to check out:
Click Here
to see it.
Dob
FKA Dobber30052
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LazyJ_Arabians
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
09/23/02 02:12 PM
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The herd instinct in goats is so strong that having just a couple will not yield the brush-clearing you desire. They will establish a small "safe" area and will be reluctant to expand their range into overgrown areas out of fear. Goats purchases as singles rarely survive because they'll back themselves in a corner and starve to death for fear of venturing out to eat. I believe 6 to be a minimum herd size for effective brush control. And the billies REALLY stink, like cat spray x 10
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jtcweb
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Loc: SE Michigan
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: Phred]
09/23/02 08:02 PM
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I was thinking about building a small shelter I can drag with my tractor, get two goats and try them to it. I could then move it around to different areas. Plus my 3 year old son loves animals so he would have a ball with them.
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Boondox
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: RichZ]
09/23/02 09:09 PM
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Rich -- They sound like a LOT of fun!  How do you winter them over? Got any pics of your shelter? Any suggestions for goat-proof (or at least resistant) pens?
Pete
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Boondox
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
09/23/02 09:14 PM
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That's pretty much what we were thinking. A portable pen surrounded by portable electrified wire mesh fencing. Let em munch for a few days, then lock em in the pen, move the fencing, drag the pen to the new location, and unlock em. Not sure about the winter, tho.
Pete
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EJB
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: Boondox]
09/24/02 06:59 AM
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Well a shelter is becoming a high priority for us (go thte goats about 3 weeks ago). Last night it was a full moon, and the goats who have all been very quite every night since we got them, we up all night nervously "screaming" (they really do sound like someone is killing them, its kind of funny)....around midnight I heard the pack of coyotes circling the field (and the dumb goats kept giving away there location ).
So far we just have had them in a smallish pen 100ft by 100ft which is a 4 foot high wire mesh fence (non-electric) and surrounding that a 5 foot high snow fence). They havn't gotten out yet, and nothing has gotten in, but need to get an electric fence setup soon (like today) and also give the a more permanaent structure for protection from the cold while I build an animal barn.
ANyone know how much (and where I can get) those plastic bubble shelters you sometimes see on farms? Thinking of something round, maybe 4-5 feet in diamter and about 3-4 feet tall as a temporary solution??
Don't need any more sleepless nights listening to coyotes calling the goats and the goats screaming in fear... 
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RichZ
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: Boondox]
09/24/02 07:39 AM
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Pete, yes the goats are a lot of fun! We keep ours in one of the horse stalls in the barn. Ours actually came with our farm, the people we bought the farm farm, asked if we'd like to keep them, because their kids weren't taking care of them. We jumped at the chance. So our goats are living in our largest horse stall!! They lived in it for over 6 years, so there's no way we could get them to move into a smaller stall.
But shelters for goats are very simple. Just a small three sided shelter will do. My goats have never been destructive, so I don't know of any special requirements to make it goat proof. You just have to make sure that you provide water, and food during the winter. In the winter it's especially important for them to have grain in addition to hay. I feed my goats dairy goat feed and hay all year long, and they forage whatever they like, but I'm not looking for mine to control any growth.
One important thing, though, make sure there are no cherry trees anywhere near where you keep the goats. They love cherry leaves, and they're very poisonous. Our friends lost a goat who ate cherry leaves, and it was a horrible death!
Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."
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EJB
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Re: Tell Me about Goats/goat poisoning warning
[re: RichZ]
09/25/02 05:13 AM
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>>poisonous. Our friends lost a goat who ate cherry leaves, and it was a horrible death!
Based on my *extensive* 3 week ownership of goats, I'll second that.
I'd recommend that anyone that is going to get goats, do some surfing on the interent to find out how many very common plants are deadly to goats (just a few I know of: cherry, rhododdendron, lilly of the valley, mountain laurel and dozens more).
Unfortunately, we didn't know about this and for the last 36 hours one of our new goats has been wretching and shaking for the last 36 hours in a pretty horrible way after being allowed to munch a few mountain laurel leaves in our yard.
The kids like to walk them around on leashes and the goats will pull them over to what ever looks tasty...
Here is a link with dozens of plants to be avoided: (wish I had knownb about it before I got the goats)
http://www.goatworld.com/health/plants/
Also, FYI, we tried this home antidote and it seemed to bring about quite a lot of relief to the affected goat, so it looks like he may not die after all:
¼ cup cooking oil
½ cup strong/strong cold tea (6 to 8 tea bags removed) ["English" tea]
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
MIX ALL TOGETHER
We then used a syringe (with needle removed) to get it down the goats throat...he threw some of it back up, but the 2nd and third batches he seemed to keep down and within 1-2 hours he seemed much better.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
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Boondox
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: RichZ]
09/25/02 02:20 PM
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Darn! Black cherry is one of our most numerous trees! I'll have to study up some more. Thanks for the warning
Pete
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
09/25/02 05:44 PM
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Here is what I can add to what's already been said.
I think Boer goats are the best breed for your application. They are heavy bodied meat goats bread in South Africa to deal with harsh bush conditions. They are very calm and friendly and the billies do not have the strong odor of some other breeds. They have realitively short legs for their weight so they don't jump as much as other goats and are easier to keep in.
I keep my goats in easily moved electric mesh netting, available from Premier. The electric netting keeps the goats in and the predators out. Dogs and coyoyes love to harrass and kill goats. You have to confine the goats to an area you want cleaned up for them to do an effective job. First they eat their favorite new leaves, then the older, then the younger twigs, and finaly they chew the bark off the brush. One or two episodes of this treatment in rotation will kill most kinds of unwanted brush.
Goats eat mostly broad leafed plants and tend to avoid grass unless they are very hungry. When you put them in an area of mixed broad leaf and grass, they quickly get rid of the broad leaf stuff and leave the grass for the horses. They are great pasture improvers.
Like most herbivores, goats will not eat all poisonous plants available to them. Poisoning occurs most often when the poison plants are the only thing available to them. Goats eat poison ivy like candy, with no ill effects.
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jtcweb
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How much do Boer goats cost? I relize this is dependent on the area of the country you are in, I'm in SW Michigan
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EJB
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Re: Tell Me about Goats/goat poisoning warning
[re: EJB]
09/26/02 06:19 AM
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Just as an update, my poisoned goat seems to have made a full recovery...not sure if the homespun antidote did it or not, but within 1-2 hours of giving it he stopped throwing up and now 36 hours later he seems to have a healthy appetite back and is his usual cheerful self.
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s1120
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Re: Tell Me about Goats/goat poisoning warning
[re: EJB]
09/26/02 10:04 AM
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Good, I'm glad to hear all is well
Paul Bradway
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Goatman
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We moved to the country about 9 years ago. The brush over the 33 acres was so thick you could not walk through it. The first thing was to fence a small area and get 2 brush goats. They had been bottle fed, therefore were just pets. I had a very had time keeping them in the fence, which was barbed wire with electric fence between the strans. Both goats would get out and come to the house and stand at the back door and want inside. Oh well, I have since had as many as 40, Pygmy mixed. They cleaned up the 33 acres. A goat need a means to get out of the rain and bad weather, as they cannot stand to get wet. You can buy a mixed breed for about 20 to 50 dollars here in Alabama. I have 5 goats at the present time, two are the same first two pets I bought.
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RichZ
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: Boondox]
09/30/02 10:46 AM
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Sorry, Pete! Any kind of cherry leaves are deadly! Cherry leaves contain cyanide!!
Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."
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davidh
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
10/01/02 10:27 PM
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I've got 25 goats. I started out with 8 nannies that were half boer and half mohair for $60 each. I got a full billie for $150. After 4 generations I figure that the offspring are about 90% boer. They say it takes 7 generations to be considered pure. I can tell you that 25 goats can mow a 5 acre pasture in two weeks.
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
10/02/02 11:20 AM
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I'm in Georgia and prices range $75-150 for pure blooded Boer goats. A good strategy already mentioned is to get cheap nannies of other breeds and gradually upgrade your herd with full blooded billies.
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beenthere
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Re: Tell Me about Goats
[re: jtcweb]
10/02/02 06:16 PM
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Now after all the posts about goats, are you going to crank a little harder on that 9N Ford and mow those 9 acres, or get the goats? I know I would be doing some more seat time, instead. Seems it would be much more fun than putting up fences, listening to coyotes hassle my goats at night, pouring down medicine, worrying about where they were 24/7, etc. Just my thoughts.
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