I want a pair of goats

[ducks4you]

This webinar is closed, BUT they will You Tube it, so I can pick up some information next week.

2020 Small Farms Winter Webinar Series: The Basics for Goats and Sheep

March 19, 2020 The Basics for Goats and Sheep by James Theuri and Doug Gucker

extension.illinois.edu

 

[ducks4you]

@Ridgerunner ,thx!
I guess I will have to study up on their escape mechanisms. Since I am interested in gelded and dehorned goats, that hormonal thing should discourage escape somewhat.
Many years ago, somebody's stallion showed up, loose and interested in my herd of GELDINGS. The owner came to claim him and told me that my "mares" had gotten him excited.
I will NEVER own a stallion. My mare is lovey when in heat, but she doesn't have any cyclical pain, which is the main cause of mare "bitxhiness."
Stallions are a whole other species and have been known to mount geldings.
Go figure...

 

[ducks4you]

Research...

Goat Fencing: Keep Your Goats From Breaking Out

The following is a guest post by Liz Greene, all about building proper goat fencing.

www.weedemandreap.com

Goats – The Ultimate Escape Artists

Listen To The Article Installing safe, escape-proof goat fencing can be a big hurdle to overcome and should be one of the first steps to complete before bringing goats to the homestead. When I first got my three Nubian does, I thought that a three-and-a-half-foot, field-type fence would be...

www.offthegridnews.com

The Best Fencing for Goats

How do you know what kind of fencing will keep your goats in their pen? I'm comparing several types of fencing for goats, and telling you the pros and cons of each, plus my recommendation for the most effective goat fencing.

www.oakhillhomestead.com

THIS is a horse accident WAITING to happen!

 

[ducks4you]

My current chain link fencing, stretched in a straight line would measure 102 ft.
DH and I are going out to play "Tetris" and figure out what is the best way to combine the 2 enclosures, which, if you remember are absent chickens, at the moment.
I will be housing BOTH the goats and chickens in the same enclosure, but we have prepping to do before getting either.
Fortunately, I can store feed for the goats in my barn,
I will need a house for them, but a draft free winter shelter should suffice.
Patandchickens had an excellent article about free air and chickens, and how, in or around 1904, a gentlemen published this article suggesting that many current chicken houses were winter humid death traps. Having kept chickens for many years, and horses for 36 years, I can attest that, as long as your livestock builds a coat (or grows adequate feathers) they need only good windblocks, dry housing, clean litter and water with their feed to do quite well in the winter, and the rest of the year.
I want a goat house that has a removable side or part of a side, similar to my horse's shelter, to be cooler in the summer.
My only problem with my current chicken run is that it is a perfect fit right now, between 2 gates in the horse fencing. One is 4 ft wide, leads into my south pasture, and I use it, some times of the year, a LOT, like in the winter.
The other is an 8 ft wide fence, and my horse's water trough sits on the other side of it. It isn't used much. If I put the enclosure in front of it, I won't be using it at all, which might not be too bad.
Gotta think on it.
I will take some pictures tomorrow, and you can help me puzzle over this.

 

[bobm]

Over the years we had ( 1 nubian and 3 nigerian ) goat weathers. NEVER again ! Too much dammage as well as headaches. I would go with Dorper ( sheds wool annually ) or Southdown weathers... they are quite docile, easy to handle and when you are done with them, they have the finest tasteing meat as evidenced by most sheep tasteing studies as well as in competitions.

 

[ducks4you]

Thx, Bob. That's the thing, they ARE good meat if they don't work out.

 

[Ffagirl223]

I do this from time to time. Remember my thread, "I want a Magnolia Tree"? I had reasons. My neighbor over the fence had a I-don't-know-How-old magnolia tree, about 35 ft tall, No wind protection, so I knew it was doable. MY Magnolia Jane was a WM clearance, spent it's first winter in a pot and buried in my main garden bed blanketed heavily with mulch. It is now about 12 ft tall, lives on the east side of the house with a Great winter wind block and I still keep it's 12 inch x 12 inch decorative metal garden fencing around it, thankful for it every time I mow and I know I won't nick the bark.
I have an AG2 zoned, 5 acre plot, and a couple of goats would not make my property a nuisance. Again, I look to you goat owners here to give me advice. I was looking for Pygmy's or Dwarf Nigerian. I learned yesterday that a "wether" is a gelded boy goat, and that removing the horns keeps them from getting caught in things with their horns.
I have the room, intend to keep them with a new flock of chickens in their 12 x 30 ft run (with their own "goat house"), and I want to picket them to mow in hard to mow places, like under the fencelines, where the weeds flourish. I also need to have them eat the burdock in the pastures, that my horses will "sample", but never get around to really eating.
So...advice from anybody who knows More about goats than me, Please.

I own over 200 goats me and my dad raise horses,cattle,goats,dogs,cats,chickens etc. be careful what certain things to them are poisonous let me list the things.
azaleas, China berries, sumac, dog fennel, bracken fern, curly dock, eastern baccharis, honeysuckle, nightshade, pokeweed, red root pigweed, black cherry, Virginia creeper, and crotalaria

 

[seedcorn]

For grazing down, why not geese?

If you’re set on goats, get them. Somebody will buy them. Not sure where you would take them to get them butchered.

 

[ducks4you]

Why not geese? I have a weasel problem, took 2 flocks of mine. Yes, I sure can butcher geese, bc I can butcher chickens.
Who knows, I may end up with geese.
DD's AND DH's eyes are lighting up with the prospect of goats. They ALL say, that they can't have other animals, but I can have anything I want, bc I do all of the grunt work.

 

[Marie2020]

Glad to hear that! BUT, I don't want milk or meat from these goats, just their ability to mow. Guess they will fall in the category of "pets."
We have already pre-named them, "Gin" and "Tonic,"

I would love their milk and certainly would like their mowing skills