I saw a video while surfing about a man who has a flock of goats he rents to people to basically "mow their lawn". I talked with my wife about it and she thinks it's a good idea too. Mostly I want them for cutting the grass and weeds around my home and property then, getting milk and other dairy products as well as the meat and other products from them on occasion.
I'm starting my adventure by surfing the web for information about goats, speaking with a neighbor who has had goats and cows and we have a university agricultural extension nearby with numerous helpful peoples, and a laboratory for that university just down the road from the extension.
Of course, any personal information will be greatly appreciated as I have never raised or cared for anything more exotic than a hamster.
Tell me of your successes, your oops and your war stories about goats.
I have decided to get and keep some goats
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WillyPete
I have decided to get and keep some goats
Last edited by WillyPete on 20 Nov 2010 16:11, edited 1 time in total.
Re: I have decided to get adn keep some goats
The bucks stink to high heaven and you need to always keep them separate from your does. If raising for meat, castrate any billys. Easy to milk, easy to make cheese, easy to care for does. Will eat your grass to nothing if you don't have enough ground for them. A castrated goat will stay in the yard and become a watch dog. Folks around them will learn to keep any cigarettes or chewing tobacco tucked deeply in a back pocket. Fence your garden well...they are ingenious.
“Laws are made for the weak more than the strong.” Ben Franklin
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WillyPete
Re: I have decided to get and keep some goats
I figured I'd get a pair of does first and if I want more, the agricultural extension can send me to somewhere I can find a buck or two for breeding.
I have a fenced in back yard for them to reside and figured on putting them on a picket pin in the rest of the yard to cut the grass and weeds as needed.
I also figured I'd be buying bales of hay often enough. Part of the video showed how the goats had eaten the grass they were mowing down, and into the dirt. I don't want that, so I'll buy bales of hay from various sources as an alternate food source. I guess I'll have to figure out a good way of keeping them out of the garden when I get it in in the spring. Maybe my outside cats can help.
Wile talking with my wife she remembered that our neighborhood is zoned such that cows, chickens and pigs are not allowed at any property in the neighborhood. Let 'em try to give me any grief about my goats, I'll get an old, crotchety billy and turn him loose!
Nah, won't do that. Goats are allowed so, goats I'll have. Does anyway.
I have a fenced in back yard for them to reside and figured on putting them on a picket pin in the rest of the yard to cut the grass and weeds as needed.
I also figured I'd be buying bales of hay often enough. Part of the video showed how the goats had eaten the grass they were mowing down, and into the dirt. I don't want that, so I'll buy bales of hay from various sources as an alternate food source. I guess I'll have to figure out a good way of keeping them out of the garden when I get it in in the spring. Maybe my outside cats can help.
Wile talking with my wife she remembered that our neighborhood is zoned such that cows, chickens and pigs are not allowed at any property in the neighborhood. Let 'em try to give me any grief about my goats, I'll get an old, crotchety billy and turn him loose!
Nah, won't do that. Goats are allowed so, goats I'll have. Does anyway.