Tell Me about Goats

[Goatman]

We moved to the country about 9 years ago. The brush over the 33 acres was so thick you could not walk through it. The first thing was to fence a small area and get 2 brush goats. They had been bottle fed, therefore were just pets. I had a very had time keeping them in the fence, which was barbed wire with electric fence between the strans. Both goats would get out and come to the house and stand at the back door and want inside. Oh well, I have since had as many as 40, Pygmy mixed. They cleaned up the 33 acres. A goat need a means to get out of the rain and bad weather, as they cannot stand to get wet. You can buy a mixed breed for about 20 to 50 dollars here in Alabama. I have 5 goats at the present time, two are the same first two pets I bought.

[RichZ]

Sorry, Pete! Any kind of cherry leaves are deadly! Cherry leaves contain cyanide!![img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[davidh]

I've got 25 goats. I started out with 8 nannies that were half boer and half mohair for $60 each. I got a full billie for $150. After 4 generations I figure that the offspring are about 90% boer. They say it takes 7 generations to be considered pure. I can tell you that 25 goats can mow a 5 acre pasture in two weeks.

[Old_Soldier]

I'm in Georgia and prices range $75-150 for pure blooded Boer goats. A good strategy already mentioned is to get cheap nannies of other breeds and gradually upgrade your herd with full blooded billies.

[beenthere]

Now after all the posts about goats, are you going to crank a little harder on that 9N Ford and mow those 9 acres, or get the goats? I know I would be doing some more seat time, instead. Seems it would be much more fun than putting up fences, listening to coyotes hassle my goats at night, pouring down medicine, worrying about where they were 24/7, etc. Just my thoughts.

[jtcweb]

Well I don't have to worry about anything eating any goats, I live in SE Michigan in the last of acreage not taken by developments. My son would love a couple of goats, and I'm thinking about tying them up, so I wouldn't have fences.

[SmokyMtnMan]

I may have missed it somewhere but.....how do they get along with dogs? or maybe....how do dogs get along with them? I have a half Lab/half German shephard.