Goats…. I have questions

1911gobang

1911gobang

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So we’re doing great with our chickens. Next up is goats. I have some questions for you seasoned farm hands:
1- Which breeds have the best milk?
2- Can they be in an area with access to a pond?
3- How long will it take 3-4 goats to clear underbrush on 3/4 to 1 acre?
4- Anything unusual about goats that I should be aware of?
5- What livestock feed do they thrive on?
 
I picked up a magazine at Tractor Supply a couple years back all about goats including breeds for meat and milk. After reading through twice I decided sheep you don’t have to shear were easier. Still have yet to do it, but worth checking in on!
 
Goats will eat anything and everything on your property. I’m not talking about plants. They will eat your siding on your house/building, spark plug wires, tires/valve stems, plastic bumpers, anything that they can chew.
They are also escape artist. Once they find a way out of the fence you can’t change thier mindset. You can fix the fence in that spot and they will keep going back to that spot. They will work on that spot until they can escape again. I bet you could leave the gate open and they would still go back to the escape spot.
They will also kill trees by eating all the bark off from the ground to however high they can reach.
 
Took 2 goats about 3 hours to make everything completely disappear inside of their roughly 500sqft enclosure. Grass-weeds-ivy and some other unknown growth. Absolutely nothing grows in their enclosure any more, any vines that make their way in, they promptly trim them back as far as they can reach. Haven't let them roam the undergrowth areas yet, but I suspect they will make short work of it.


Mostly feed ours hay, branches(depending on the tree they might not eat them), ivy and some goat feed from Cavanaugh's Supply outside of Dunn, I'll have to check the brand and supplement when I get home and edit this post.

I don't have much answers on anything else because I'm fairly new to rasing goats, but they are possibly the least amount of burden between dogs, chickens/ducks and themselves.
 
LaMachas were our favorite.

They will eat lots of stuff they shouldn't, geothermal Storeys nook o. Goats.
 
1- Which breeds have the best milk?
I have no answer for this one.

2- Can they be in an area with access to a pond
Yes

3- How long will it take 3-4 goats to clear underbrush on 3/4 to 1 acre?
Faster than you would ever imagine.

4- Anything unusual about goats that I should be aware of?
Other than what others have noted... they love to climb. If they are able to get around your vehicles they will end up on top of them. Any thing of height inside your closure needs to be further from the fence than jumping distance.

5- What livestock feed do they thrive on?
I have no answer for this one. My 2 cents is that anything edible works.
 
Cool beans. So….
1- Livestock fencing with holes much too small for a goat head
2- They won’t drown in the pond
3- Any type livestock feed.
4- I’ve got lots of old cable spools and other stuff to build a jungle gym for them.

So if I put a drive through gate or walk through gates around their area, the gates needs to be every bit as impenetrable as the rest of the fence. Got it.

Planning to start the fencing part this fall when the temps cool considerably…..
 
We have had some Nigerian Dwarf goats for a few years. These guys were chill and would climb around on their jungle gym and talk to you or lay down in a red rider wagon and soak up the sun. Mostly fed them hay and veggies from the kitchen. Their were a few choice weeds and the stray tall grass that got missed with a few laps of the weed eater.

They were pets and just fun to visit with.

The last one standing was violently dragged away and killed by a black bear yesterday just before 6. I couldn’t run outside fast enough from a dead sleep with a gun to catch the thing. Stomped a hot with and a 4’ tall fence, tossed the igloo and left with the goat.

I had one killed last fall by a bear too. I am either going to put up a 8’ tall ornamental steel fence (lol I’m a fence guy for a living) or just be done with them.

The bear won’t bother the mini pot belly. Pig doesn’t even have a hot wire around her enclosure.
 
This was from Tuesday evening. Eustice loved to eat from your hand and green beans were some of his favorite. At least he had a good last meal.


Pic taken from a slow mo video for best lol. IMG_2417.png
 
1.) norvegicus domestica
2.) Depends on if there is a pond.
3.) Depends on if the underbrush is kudzu or no.
4.) they have beards. And can be gruff.
5.) non-aquatic
 
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1911gobang said:
So we’re doing great with our chickens. Next up is goats. I have some questions for you seasoned farm hands:
1- Which breeds have the best milk?
2- Can they be in an area with access to a pond?
3- How long will it take 3-4 goats to clear underbrush on 3/4 to 1 acre?
4- Anything unusual about goats that I should be aware of?
5- What livestock feed do they thrive on?
Click to expand...
@303hunter is the goat expert
 
Car0linab0y said:
LaMachas were our favorite.

They will eat lots of stuff they shouldn't, geothermal Storeys nook o. Goats.
Click to expand...
Wow... just saw that hot mess.... let me try again.

LaMachas are the breed we most enjoyed the milk from. In large part it depends on what they eat.

Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats:... book by Jerry Belanger

www.thriftbooks.com

This book to start with.
Don't have a pond but it shouldn't e an issue.
We used several different feed brands; an allstock blend was what we settled on. Sweet feed for the occasional treat. Just keep an eye on copper content; goats are less tolerant of it than others.

Tractorsupply.com carries a wire fence they call goat fence. It is the best we used. The welded wire stuff will break faster. Whatever fence you put up they are going to rub on. This stuff and a hot wire around the top should do the trick. We use galvanized cattle gates; so far they haven't broken them.



You will want to put a pile of cinderblocks for them to climb. Their hooves grow and need to be trimmed. Climbing on rocks helps keep them worn down.

Fiasco farm is a good source for goat info. https://fiascofarm.com/goats/index.htm

Quick thoughts; ask away if you have more questions.
 
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Lamanchas are what we have, we have enjoyed them. The milk depends on what you feed them, we use a sweet grain from Cokers mill, local source. We also use peanut hay when we can get...They LOVE peanut hay. Like any livestock you have to watch what they get into, some plants can be poisonous to them. They will clear land fast... But you MUST have more than 1, they don't like to be alone. They also need shelter as they hate getting wet. They can be bred easily and in our experience are great mothers. Happy to answer any questions, feel free to PM.
 
Anyone know how human food affects the milk? my sister has a a little herd and doesn't milk them yet, but they get fed a lot of human food/leftovers. Not necessarily from them... No clue on what breed they are
 
Boers get huge and are good meat goats and they resist disease great. Kikos also are great disease resistant goats. Saanen are great milk goats and breed well with Boers yielding a big dual purpose offspring. I only have experience with these breeds as far as useful goats. I had some fainting goats and pigmy goats but they’re kinda just there and not exceptional at anything but the fainting goats are entertaining as hell. Give them something to play on and climb. I like burying tractor tires half in and half out of the ground and they never wear out and goats love em. The feed is just a treat. Don’t depend on it for nutrition. Depend on hay and whatever grows there for nutrition along with a good Billie Block always available and keep the water clean. The sweet feed I give a tiny scoop every morning as a treat and it makes it easy to give shots and examine them . If you need to grab a goat just take out the feed scoop and they come running and stand for you.
 
Leadchunker said:
Goats will eat anything and everything on your property. I’m not talking about plants. They will eat your siding on your house/building, spark plug wires, tires/valve stems, plastic bumpers, anything that they can chew.
They are also escape artist. Once they find a way out of the fence you can’t change thier mindset. You can fix the fence in that spot and they will keep going back to that spot. They will work on that spot until they can escape again. I bet you could leave the gate open and they would still go back to the escape spot.
They will also kill trees by eating all the bark off from the ground to however high they can reach.
Click to expand...

You had the same goat as I did. I got stories.
 
We’ve got Pygmy goats, and they’re very easy to raise. They can be fed only hay and do very well, but as said above, sweet or all stock feed allows you to interact with them. Even our Billy is very friendly.

IMG_0108.jpeg
 
What I know about goats:

They taste good when cooked right
They are demons in a sweet disguise
If you want to keep them in a place, put up fences to keep them out
They are a pain to chase on I-95...
 
Fainting goats would be my only option because I dont want to chase them when they get out and they will get out. Besides i think it would be fun to mess with them 😆
 
Quick question. My field is full of this. The internet says it’s dogbane. Supposed to kill anything that eats it.
Anybody know about this stuff? How to get rid of it?

I take it is bad for goats too.

IMG_2781.jpeg
 
I use google as well. There’s some way/app to use your camera to ID things for sure. The GF has used it. Also some things are only poisonous during certain cycles of the plant. I’ve been lucky that my goats refuse anything that isn’t good for them like fruit pitts and nightshade bits but that’s not the case always so I’d be sure.
 
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We had dairy goats for many years... I always thought the milk from the Nubians tasted best....nubians also produce a little more milk for trying to keep a medium-sized family in milk whereas something like Nigerian dwarf goats produce decent milk, but in very small quantities... nubians get to about the height of a great dane and are fairly gentle... i never worried about any of my kids being left alone with any of our females (not the case with males)...my daughter regularly milked by herself even at 8 or 10 years old... my daughter loved it and would even volunteer to milk before school without being asked and even in the dead of winter... one of my sons was ok with it but didn't love it... two of my sons hated it...it will take longer to clear an acre than you think, but mainly depends on number of goats...yes, you can clear an acre faster with several goats but it will not be good for long term, if you wanna keep goats long term... bad for the land and the animals if they are above the land's carrying capacity... they should have more sprouting up in another area as they are finishing with what they are working on...you can/should supplement with hay and maybe a handful of sweetfeed/grain... more hay is required in winter.... invest in an automatic waterer... turn it off when temperatures drop below freezing 😁 (ask me how i know)... they usually will not try to escape if they have enough room and things to eat inside the enclosed area... for one acre, I would not do more than two goats....one would likely be best for that small of an area but get two because they need a companion ... do NOT get males (folks will try to give you males for free, but take them only of they have been banded and then for food only as they obviously will not provide milk which you indicated you want)... males should be kept ONLY for breeding purposes but for a small homesteading op, i would not keep any... ponds are fine... they kept my pond dam cleared... someone above mentioned them killing trees, but only small ones.... they will not kill the mature trees, and actually will help maintain a healthy piece of land by keeping small trees and underbrush from competing with the mature ones... field fencing will work fine... strap some on your gates as well... go ahead right now and start trying to line someone up to milk if you are the kind of folks who like to go on a trip to the beach occasionally, otherwise you will be disappointed and will not get to go 😂... I'm sure I am leaving a bunch out, like spending the night in the barn on nights when they are about to birth kids, but you can ask whatever you think of and I will be glad to give you any info I learned so you will not have to learn the hard way... overall, it is a really rewarding undertaking, although time consuming and tough at times....hope this helps....holler if you need anything
 
1911gobang said:
4- Anything unusual about goats that I should be aware of?
Click to expand...
My Uncle always said, " Don't listen to them goats, you know how they lie."

But, he was a bit odd. Other than that, no matter where you put them, they'll get out and eat all your best stuff when you're not looking, plants, grass, trees, shrubs, door mats, Crocs, seat cushions, propane hose for grill, loose window screens, garbage, and all the really expensive stuff in your neighbors yard.
 
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