Son...Of...A...Bitch

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cracengl

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May 18, 2014
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360
Goats....made my life easy.

Exactly what I was going to suggest. I was going to post, "One word - GOATS" That's nature's Weedeater right there. And they're funny little fuckers.

Okay guys, so how did you utilize goats? Any tips or tricks of the trade? I've read up on them in the past and was thinking of getting some of that fencing that can be moved over time. My property is overrun with poison ivy, Chinese privet, and all kind of other crap I'd like to get rid of.
 

RAMSinLA

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Mar 28, 2015
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Okay guys, so how did you utilize goats? Any tips or tricks of the trade? I've read up on them in the past and was thinking of getting some of that fencing that can be moved over time. My property is overrun with poison ivy, Chinese privet, and all kind of other crap I'd like to get rid of.
They will eat everything. I have some poison ivy as well and they munch it down like it was a Cesar salad. They act a little funny after eating it but they are still alive and well. Make sure your fences are mended not so much to keep the goats in (goats don't roam very far from the safety of home) but to keep predators out.
We also hired a vet to check in on them and handle any breeding for us. Other than that it's like I said; easy as pie. It's nice to pull onto our property and see it all mowed in time for fire season. Last month I even lent a neighbor my herd for a week to take care of his overgrowth.
 

RamFan503

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Stu
Okay guys, so how did you utilize goats? Any tips or tricks of the trade? I've read up on them in the past and was thinking of getting some of that fencing that can be moved over time. My property is overrun with poison ivy, Chinese privet, and all kind of other crap I'd like to get rid of.
Goats often can be had for free but otherwise generally aren't very expensive. Like RAMSinLA said, you need to keep the predators away from them and also watch to see that they don't stray too far at first. We used to actually use those little screw things that you put in the ground and clip a cable to it if we had areas we wanted them to concentrate on. We would then just move those around as necessary. We had cattle and horses for the most part so our fences were not very good at keeping predators out. We had more problem with keeping the goats away from the house than trying to keep them from straying. One of them would run inside the house every time we left a door open.

They will eat everything. I have some poison ivy as well and they munch it down like it was a Cesar salad. They act a little funny after eating it but they are still alive and well. Make sure your fences are mended not so much to keep the goats in (goats don't roam very far from the safety of home) but to keep predators out.
We also hired a vet to check in on them and handle any breeding for us. Other than that it's like I said; easy as pie. It's nice to pull onto our property and see it all mowed in time for fire season. Last month I even lent a neighbor my herd for a week to take care of his overgrowth.
Yeah - you can actually rent them in a few areas. I had a guy come out in Portland and he set up a little pen for them and set up an electric fence with collars on the goats for an area next to our creek that I wanted to clear of brambles. Worked like a charm.
 

RamFan503

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Stu
They are funny to watch...I have one that likes to ram his head into stuff like walls or a fence post or my wife's new car...:eek:
One of ours we called Rudy (de-nutted with the ole rubber band trick) used to sneak up behind you and butt you in the back of the legs. Not hard but when you turned around, he'd do the whole - up on the back legs with his head tilted and try to get you to butt him back. We'd just thump his head with the sole of our shoe and he was happy.

Yeah - goats generally get along great with dogs and are also like having little daredevils around all the time. They have to be my favorite farm animal - personality wise.
 

Mister Sin

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Tim
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
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My Neighbor has goats pretty close to our property line. They just have them in a small enclosure. I think I may just steal a few lol. But once I get it cut down, I'm putting moving 3 horses into it while I clean up the larger pasture. I know horses are costly, but my wife has always had them and always will. It's her thing.
 

RamFan503

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Stu
My Neighbor has goats pretty close to our property line. They just have them in a small enclosure. I think I may just steal a few lol. But once I get it cut down, I'm putting moving 3 horses into it while I clean up the larger pasture. I know horses are costly, but my wife has always had them and always will. It's her thing.
Yeah - my parents have several of those hay burners. Give me a mule any day.
 

RAMSinLA

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Make sure and get Pygmy Goats. Regular barnyard goats will eat grass all the way down to the root like a horse or a donkey. After a short while in a confined space all you will have is dirt or mud when it rains. Pygmy's only eat the tops of vegetation allowing the grass to still grow and flourish.
 

RamFan503

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Stu
Make sure and get Pygmy Goats. Regular barnyard goats will eat grass all the way down to the root like a horse or a donkey. After a short while in a confined space all you will have is dirt or mud when it rains. Pygmy's only eat the tops of vegetation allowing the grass to still grow and flourish.
Ooh - good point. Keep that in mind with your horses too. Bastards will eat the stubble off of stubble. You may want to cross fence your pasture if you weren't already planning on it.
 

RamFan503

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And you probably already realize that horses won't clear anything tall or brushy except for maybe flower tops.
 

bluecoconuts

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May 28, 2011
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My family owns a dairy farm back in Ireland, mostly cows obviously. We also have about 15 or so sheep, and 4 goats (I assume for yard maintenance, but I never asked)... When I went back to visit, my grandfather didn't seem to really do any extremely hard physical labor though. Part of that is the nature of the terrain, and the livestock did a lot of work for him.

Cows are always fun, there's a portion of our farm that's a little above a road, so whenever we walk home from the store they like to come over to the fence and look at us. Once one cow comes the rest will want to see what he's checking out and come by too. The allies actually used cows to determine if Germans were nearby when fighting in Normandy, they'd typically gather towards where they were to see what they were doing. They're actually probably my favorite of the animals (other than the dogs of course) because they're surprisingly emotional. As I said, they're naturally curious (so when I was a teenager and was learning to play guitar, I always has an audience), and they get excited about going out to the fields and such.. Seeing cows run and skip around is hilarious.


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