Goats go to work keeping meadow trimmed (Employees of the month)

AP VIA Houston Comical. ^ | 10 19 2009 | AP

[Gator113]

I’ll try it and see... thanks.

[Gator113]

It sounds like fun, so I have to try it. Thanks.

[Gator113]

check. thanks.

[Gator113]

Thank you very much. Your horse is beautiful.

[Gator113]

Are they fence busters and will a weed-burner fencer keep them off of the fence?

I think I am going to give it a try as soon as I build a winter shelter for them. I have raised as many as 8 head of cattle here before, but I am not sure that I can any longer handle bringing in all of the hay those gals can eat. LOL

My German Shepherd dog (Falco) should help me keep the goats in check... nothing backs my boy down, nothing. ;>)

A few months ago I wanted to try raising around 3 hens for brown eggs. Before I was done, I had built a Chicken Mansion, as my wife calls it, and I now have 26 girls. Some of them started laying a couple of weeks ago and in the last couple of days, I have collect a dozen a day. I suspect that on my mountain, I will soon be known as the “egg guy”. Of course, I will be calling them “Gator eggs”.

Oh, I know this sounds crazy, but my dog has learned to herd the chickens into the henhouse.... it is quite a sight to watch. When I put him in a down, the chickens will climb all over him... then when I tell him to “round ‘em up”, he gets up and with a calm work ethic, he gently drives them into the hen house.

I don’t know goats, but I suspect that Falco will try to herd them for me.

Can goats be herded by a dog?

Again, thanks for your input.

[An American in Turkiye]

At first glance of the title, I thought this was about Meadow Soprano. Ahh, me and my dirty mind....

[blackbart.223]

"If neutered as kids, they have about the same temperament as females."

Just so everyone knows, adult males(bucks)tend to be very nasty and aggressive.

[AnAmericanMother]

Thank you! Poor lady, she's retired now. She developed an incurable unsoundness, and couldn't be ridden at anything but a walk or trot.

I kept her on a friend's pasture about an hour away from our house until that became unworkable, but I have been able to find her a home with the Special Olympics.

She worked for them before when she was in active training -- I would hunt her or show her on the weekends and she would carry the little kids around on two nights a week. It's amazing how a horse knows the difference between going out to gallop and jump, and carrying little kids with medical issues gently around a ring. But she always knows.

I'm SO glad we found her a spot, I was worried sick about her.

[Doomonyou]

http://woolyweeders.com/

[AnAmericanMother]

Gosh, that sounds like us! Get started on a building project, and before you know it it's a million-dollar condo for dogs -- or chickens -- or whatever.

I can't wait to move to the country so we can keep a few hens.

[Gator113]

That is a beautiful story.....

I was having a good day... now it’s going to be a little better... thanks.

[goat granny]

My only experience with goats is with Angora's...they have a specific breeding season and during that time they are aggressive and smell like pi$$. I guess the female finds that smell irresistible...they urinate on the underbelly and you can smell them from 20 foot away...After breeding all the females we would separate the females from the males and neutered males into different barns....They would not be nearly as smelly or aggressive after they knocked up all the nannies....

We had separate pastures for each breeding male....or they would fight to the death or which ever on got a broken leg first...They can break a leg in a split second...had a yearling male break another males leg while my hubby and I were standing only about 10 feet from them in the barn talking...

They just use their horns to jam a leg of another goat into the V part and just twist their head, and the leg is broken....

But I spent a lot of time with the flock, so our animals were quite friendly, EXCEPT during breeding season....then they are dangerous....Our main breeder male had horns with a 42 inch span from one tip to the other...

I don't know if other breeds of goats have a breeding season or if they breed any time of year..That should be considered when getting a couple of animals...

When shearing a angora, the neutered males mohair was deemed soft enough to be classified as adult female...Un-neutered males has the lowest classify of mohair....course, smelly and cheapest of all the shears.....

[Gator113]

For me, it’s a curse.

This past Friday, I decided I wanted to park my boat next to the barn to better protect it from the winter winds. It’s too tall to fit in the barn. First I had to make a flat spot to park it, so I get on my John Deere tractor and played in the dirt for about an hour, not only making a flat spot, but a driveway to it, and a trail leading to a lower piece of property.

On Saturday, I knew I needed 110 electric power at the barn so that I could easily plug power into the boat. Just one little 110 outlet is all I needed... or so I told my wife. LOL

Well, I put on the backhoe attachment, and 3 hours later I had a 3’ deep ditch that runs from the garages for the 200’ to the barn.

So, I am thinking that as long as I have spent this much time on this project and will need to buy the stuff to run the line, I decided to make it a 220 line.... that requires much more money in parts to accomplish.

On Sunday, we laid the conduit, pulled the wire and connected the entire thing.

Then, I thought that as long as I have the ditch, why not run a waterline too. You guessed it... a water line now heads out to the barn.

I then went about filling in the trench. I graded it off and it looks great.

I will get around to wiring the entire barn for lights and outlets and move my wood shop tools out there, and when we buy an Airstream travel trailer, I will already have a place to winter it.

While doing this project I went ahead and made my wife a flat spot for a vegetable garden she has wanted me to put in for next Spring. I also dug a hole for the future placement of a power pole that PUD let me have... and then I will be able to light up the entire area for my bride. LOL

I almost forgot. Now that the boat is next to the barn, it’s clear to me that I will need to build a fish cleaning table hanging off a wall for the side of the barn... right where I put the water outlet.

AND, once I cut that trail in that leads down to the apple and walnut trees, it became clear that small lights on either side of the pathway would also look good.

One would think that after 38 years, my wife would be very carful about asking me to start on ANY project... I tend to wonder far beyond her mental picture... LOL

One day I put in a circle drive with the neighbors cat, and then moved eight 15’ trees and planted 6 more... all while she was at work. I did this mostly just to see her smile when she first saw it while pulling into the drive. It was worth it. LOL

I don’t know that I would ever want or need to, but unlike last Friday, I can now weld in my barn~~soon to be called “my shop”. LOL

My wife calls it, “obsessive compulsive disorder”... I call it, “creative fun”... that is only limited by ones own imagination. ;>)

[Gator113]

You have been very helpful... thank you.

[Gator113]

“I can’t wait to move to the country so we can keep a few hens.”

I could never live in the city again, it is heaven out here in the sticks.

[blackbart.223]

"My only experience with goats is with Angora's...they have a specific breeding season and during that time they are aggressive and smell like pi$$. I guess the female finds that smell irresistible...they urinate on the underbelly and you can smell them from 20 foot away..."

All bucks posses that habit. In fairness to goats neutered males (wethers) can make good pets. They are intelligent so far as animals go. In my experience the does are always docile.

[Landru]

Right up the ally of a farm girl like you, kid. LOL

Though admittedly I'd hate to get your goat. :^)

[AnAmericanMother]

What are you sayin'? THAT's not a curse - that's a Very Useful Talent! Hubby and I ran water and power (just 110) to the tool shed and were very proud of ourselves! But there's a limit to what you can do in the suburbs.

I can run a farm tractor and various useful devices off the PTO . . . but have never been allowed on a bulldozer or Ditch Witch. Man, could I achieve some results! (Or, as George MacDonald Fraser's Lt. Dand MacNeill said with reference to Wee Wullie -- "well, now all he really needed was a three-ton truck. Right."

Somebody, somewhere, must want a nice house in a close-in suburb of Atlanta, convenient to all the good schools and shopping . . . . .

[goat granny]

I will try to answer your questions based on my experience.

A goat can take down just about any fence if they are determined...They will put there hoofs on the fence and with their weight push it down enough to jump over....

What we did was put electric wire about 1 foot from the fence at about 6 inches off the ground, this wire got the nose of any goat that browsed too close to the fence. We put another wire 1 foot above the lower wire, that got the goat that would try to lean into the fence...After we wired the pasture, that had the oldest fence on it we never had one escape....We used regular cyclone fence to close in an area that had no fencing. We pulled the fence tight enough so that it had no slack, using the tractor to pull it tight. Never had to use an electric wire on that fence...

But remember we started with 18 goats and 5 years later had 80. If you are going to get only a couple, get them young and you can train them to be on a chain and they will eat everything within that area and then you could move the chain to another area...There are good anchors that you screw into the ground for dogs...that might work for you...I would recommend a neutered male, they eat more, will give you more meat when you are ready to butcher...But I would recommend you don't start out with a full grown adult especially with no goat experience...Any animal under 1 year is considered a kid...After a year, they are yearlings and a little harder to handle...If you start out with young ones, they can become quite a good pet.. Goats need grain once a day, I had my own formula at the elevator, but being goats that you shear, the quality of the mohair gives you the most money, thats why I had my own receipe for them..Diet determines the quality of hair..Meat and dairy goats I know very little about..

There are probably slight differences in their needs..Goats will panic at a dog, as they are a prey animal. But if raised with dogs as young kids, they wouldn't be so spooky...(I am speaking of kids under 6 month old)

Just to see the reaction of my flock, I once walked my dog (on a leash) into their area. All the female took off out the door and into the pasture in a panic..The adult males both neutered and breeders stood their ground, and would not turn their back to the dog.. All I did was stand in the middle of the barn, and the dog wasn't barking...they flee naturally from predators..

If you are only going to have a couple of goats, I don't think you will have too much of a problem. Just get them young enough so that their personality's are not really set yet....Like getting a puppy vs. getting an adult dog...You have more control at how the animal acts..

The do need a shelter for bad weather, and fresh water everyday...If you have an area that you will want to fence in the future, that would be a good place to put your goats. Depending on where you are at be aware that some animals prey on goats, including stray dogs..We only had to shoot one stray that tried to get into the pasture..

My goats would go out to pasture mornings and evenings, the rest of the time they were in the barn chewing their cud...or in summer finding a nice shady place to chew their cud....when they burp that up to re chew, it stinks to high heaven, I was petting one of our females when she burped it up....I left her to her cud. P U

Hope this helps a little...good luck

P.S. On goats being herded by a dog, an experience herder could do the job, just a dog, probably not....I have watched border collies work a herd of sheep across a 10 acre pasture, they are awesome, but follow directions by the handler, such as when to stop, which direction to go in etc...that type of herding comes with lots of training and using the right breed of dog...Your dog probably would just scatter and freakout your goats...

[TheConservativeParty]

Heading out to see my own pasture mowers right now, lots bigger than goats are...