Livestock fence across a creek

[RichZ]

I don't know about goat meat being the most popular in the world, but I do know that goats are the most popular diary animal in the world. Sheep are number two, and cows are actually number three. Number four, in case you're wondering is water buffalo. If you've ever had REAL Italian mozarella cheese, you've had water buffalo cheese. And if you've ever had REAL romano cheese, you've had sheep cheese.

[Bird]

Rich, I don't know whether I've ever had any water buffalo or sheep cheese, but I've sure had goat milk. I was about 12 years old, I guess when I got a young goat as a pet. But when she reached maturity and we had her bred, I had an uncle with stomach trouble (actually the world's worst hypochondriac) living close to my grandparents and his doctor suggested goat milk yogurt and ice cream. So I let my granddad have that goat to milk instead of keeping her and doing it myself. Of course, he already had a cow to milk, just as we did.

As a teenager, at one time my mother had a babysitting job that included having to milk that family's goat, a job she did not like. So my mother always said that goats stunk and the milk stunk. Naturally, my youngest brother (6 or 7 years old at the time) believed her, so he adamantly did NOT want any goat's milk.

So one day, we were having lunch at my grandparents' home, I had a glass of goat's milk and my brother had a glass of cow's milk, and when he wasn't watching, I swapped glasses with him and he never knew the difference. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

I do remember the fresh goat's milk being a little whiter than the fresh cow's milk. The cream in the cow's milk gave it a tiny bit more of a yellow tint. As with the meat, if I could buy goat's milk cheaper than cow's milk, that's what I'd use.

[eccentricfarmer]

I am not sure but that may be from not cleaning off the production end well enough or a little infection. Anyway, the stuff i milked was very sweet and good (cream and all). The fat globs are smaller in goat milk, so humans are better able to absorb it, even the lactose intolerant. Also during the summer do not rest your head on the goats flank, goat lice are not human compatable but it makes an interesting view in the mirror!! [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[mfaley]

I saw this really great solution for cattle on one of the local ranches. There was a bridge for a seasonal stream that could really fill up and this helped keep the cattle from walking under the road to the other ranchers property.

If you imagine an opening with a heavy gauge 2-3 inch pipe that runs horizontally across the top. Welded perpendicular to the cross pipe(which ran the length of the opening) was heavy rebar on 6 in spacing running down to the ground. The rebar ran down about 6 feet and was reinforced with rebar running horizontally a couple of feet from the top.

When the creek ran just a little bit the water would flow through the vertical rebar. If debris piled up behind then the barrier would lift up and the debris would flow down stream. When the creek wasn稚 running it would hang down and the cattle would not push through it. Perhaps this would work for goats as well.

[RichZ]

Goat milk doesn't really taste different from cow's milk, though it's slightly richer, but as was said before, the fats in it have much smaller components and is much easier to digest. It has much less cholesterol than cow's milk, too.

A couple of years ago, my step-daughter moved back with us for about a year. She thought the idea of goat's milk was disgusting, and stated that she wouldn't touch it. One time she really starting arguing with me about it, and it was then that I decided to inform her that all of the milk that she always drank from the milk pitcher in the refrigerator was goat milk, so she had been drinking it for years without even knowing it wasn't cows milk. I was always amazed that she never figured out that we never had commercial containers of milk in the house, but our milk was always in a pitcher. Somehow it never occured to her. She never complained about goat milk again, but she did start buying her own milk, and would complain that the store bought milk tasted funny all of the time. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[eccentricfarmer]

The best was learning to squirt the cat in the face with milk and having it come back for more! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

You can install a pipe post on either side of the creek, far enough from the water so it is not in danger of being washed out. Brace this with a stub post 8 ft away, set in the ground at least 3 ft deep and use concrete. Stretch a cable across the creek well above the highest flood stage level. From this cable hang galvanized corrugated metal (corrugations running vertically) with a little overlap like for siding a building. You want the metal to reach as low as needed to come close to (or touch) the water at the lowest level of water to be expected (or within a few inches of the creek bottom if it goes dry.)

Flood water will push the metal out toward the horizontal but the metal will return to the vertical when the water goes down. If you are unlucky and have serious flooding a tree or similar coming down the creek can cause this system a problem. Otherwise it works pretty well.

I have seen used tires strung up on or tied to descenders dangling from the horizontal cable. Cheap but... be sure to make BIG holes in the bottom of the tread to let the water out or they will be a breeding ground for millions of mosquitoes. Also debris coming down the creek is much more likely to get entangled in the tires and the descending cables they are suspended by.

Pat