Anyone using goats for clearing underbrush?

[newbury]

I'm thinking of trying to raise a few goats when I finally get to retire in Mississippi, primarily for brush/undergrowth control.

I've seen the "electric net fences" and they look interesting, seem fairly easy to move and a minimum investment.

Any one here doing similar?

Any recommended links, web sites for more info?

I'm not looking to get into meat, milk, or fur production just wanting to clear the underbrush.

 

[Creamer]

Growing up we always had 50 head of sheep to keep the underbrush down. They did a great job.

 

[BigCountry1689]

We use to use goats but we found that they were more susceptible to parasites, especially in the southern states. We tried the gamut from Lamanchas (Weird with there stubby ears), Nubians and the big Boar fad they all came with there own set of issues, unless your talking about pygmy goats which can practically eat concrete and the like but you cant hardly give them away.

We switched to hair sheep; Kata dins, Black Belly Barbados, etc... they work just as well even eat palmettos.

My mom has a pretty large herd (around 100) in Central Florida and every spring she has the babies sold for eating before they hit the ground. She covers her cost and money in her pocket just off the babies. She has the two I listed above plus a few 4 horn Jacobs Sheep. Very parasite resistant don't tear the fences up and just the right amount of skittish to stay back from you when your in the pasture.

Not that I don't like goats I showed them all through school but in the rainy season it would seem to end up with some break out of a respiratory infection or pink eye. With the sheep knock on wood..... nothing in 4 years.

I am not familiar with the fence you mentioned we would just put up field fence and call it a day.

 

[Qapla]

We have three goats. So far no medical problems .... but, they are hard on fences and climb on anything/everything (including the fences) and keep finding ways to get out.

Good side is, they prefer weeds over grass.

 

[newbury]

We have three goats. So far no medical problems .... but, they are hard on fences and climb on anything/everything (including the fences) and keep finding ways to get out.

Good side is, they prefer weeds over grass.

That's about what I'm thinking of doing. However the fence I linked to is electric netting and reports indicate the goats stay OFF the fences.

 

[mapper]

My sister and husband used goats to clear brush and BlackBerry vines from the dike at their farm in LaConner. They used a dog chain with a cultipacker wheel to keep them from wandering too far, did not keep them out of the yard though:laughing:

 

[Zerk]

One interesting thing a coat farmer told me, is they need a companion animal, or they will die. Can be a different breed of animal.

I have thought about it in passing, for lawn control. My fear with any animal, that **** thing will wake at dawn and start making noise.

 

[DT86]

There are businesses that specialize in using goats for brush control. People actually pay to have goats trailered in to eat their weeds. I think it's great.

Now about goats and the net fencing, I have two rolls of the fencing you linked. It works well as long as the animals aren't bat sh*t crazy and/or spook easy.

I do like to use a extra plastic step-in post (temporary set up) or metal T post (longer term) if making a sharp corner. The little rod posts made into the net bend fairly easy being pulled from two directions.

Edit, I should have said... once upon a time I became guardian of a few goats, unwillingly. They love brush and weeds and to climb things. Keep the fence away from tall objects they can climb.

 

[DrRod]

Not just people pay for brush control goats, the Federal government always has RFP announcements for goat grazing in national parks, forests, grass lands, et al. The winning bidder shows up with a trailer full of goats and sometimes an RV to stay in during the clearing process.

 

[Barry 1]

 

[newbury]

One interesting thing a coat farmer told me, is they need a companion animal, or they will die. Can be a different breed of animal.

I have thought about it in passing, for lawn control. My fear with any animal, that **** thing will wake at dawn and start making noise.

That wouldn't bother me, I'm up before the dawn usually anyways.

There are businesses that specialize in using goats for brush control. People actually pay to have goats trailered in to eat their weeds. I think it's great.

Now about goats and the net fencing, I have two rolls of the fencing you linked. It works well as long as the animals aren't bat sh*t crazy and/or spook easy.

I do like to use a extra plastic step-in post (temporary set up) or metal T post (longer term) if making a sharp corner. The little rod posts made into the net bend fairly easy being pulled from two directions.

Edit, I should have said... once upon a time I became guardian of a few goats, unwillingly. They love brush and weeds and to climb things. Keep the fence away from tall objects they can climb.

AHH! an actual user!

Before reading about that fencing I had planned on shuffling gates and other fencing around if I were to get goats.

What height of the fencing did you get? They've got 42" and 48", I was figuring on 48".

Do you move it around much?

Do you provide shelter, like a goat shed?

If I do it most of the areas will be remote from roads and people, just me and my yet to be gotten dog(s), probably a Border Collie. So hopefully spooking will be minimal.

Any other pointers? Links to good informative web sites, maybe a Goat by Net?

Thanks.

 

[newbury]

View attachment 472950View attachment 472951

I think those are trees in Africa. Where goats may be used as money. And money grows on trees

 

[Mousefield]

Up our way there is a company called "Goats on the Hoof" that provides a brush clearing service.
They bought 3 goats from us including one that is a cougar attack survivor. They use a toy hauler motorhome to transport the goats and then at least one person stays in the motorhome around the clock while the goats (about 12) are on site. Goats are browsers so brush and weeds are mostly what they eat while sheep are grazers and eat mostly grass. They do use a mesh electric fence to keep the goats in and also to keep dogs out.
You can google , Goats on the Hoof, they have a nice website with good information.
Pics are from our farm.

 

[RalphVa]

Goats are excellent for clearing away invasive stuff. An outfit in this area actually rents them out for this.

Ralph

 

[GLyford]

A friend used that mesh (I think the 42) for both goats and sheep. Given enough time and boredom, the goats would time the electric pulses and go up and over. Half the time they'd get caught on the other side while trying to get the sheep to join them. The sheep never made it over the fence (unless the battery was dead).

 

[Creamer]

Up our way there is a company called "Goats on the Hoof" that provides a brush clearing service.
They bought 3 goats from us including one that is a cougar attack survivor. They use a toy hauler motorhome to transport the goats and then at least one person stays in the motorhome around the clock while the goats (about 12) are on site. Goats are browsers so brush and weeds are mostly what they eat while sheep are grazers and eat mostly grass. They do use a mesh electric fence to keep the goats in and also to keep dogs out.
You can google , Goats on the Hoof, they have a nice website with good information.
Pics are from our farm.

Never saw sheep that would not go for a broad leaf weed. They would even knock down 8' tall ragweed and eat the leaves off. They would stand on their hind legs and eat the leaves off the tress as high as they could reach making it a lot easier to walk through the trees. They will eat grass but only having teeth on the bottom they have a more difficult time getting grass bitten off and much prefer a broadleaf.

 

[EddieWalker]

We have five horses on two pastures totally 11 acres that are fenced in with a few strands of white electric tape. We feed the horses every evening at the barn, along with our other animals. Everyone is at the barn waiting for feeding time. We decided to try goats with two female nigerian pygmies. The just walked right through the fence and disappeared into the woods. It was like the electric fence didn't affect them. During the day, they came back into the fence, then back out of it over and over again. That night, the lights come on around the barn and that is probably what brought them back. I really don't know for sure. After that, they stuck around close to the horses. Followed them everywhere.

A couple of months later I noticed that all of the brush around the small pond in their pasture was gone. That all of the willows and other weeds that where working their way towards the barn and encroaching on the pasture where gone. They are just two feet tall, but their results where amazing. I bought another female nigerian pygmy and the same thing happened. She walked through the fence and disappeared into the woods. We didn't see her again until the next day, where she was wondering around our house. We coaxed her into the pasture with the other goats and horses, and gave her some sweet feed. She never left the group after that.

The tree of them are doing a fantastic job of clearing certain areas, but other areas are completely ignored by them. I don't know why they go to one spot and keep hitting it, and ignore others. We are now debating on another female, or if it's time to find a male.

 

[Trillium Farm]

Sheep are grazers and goats are browsers. Goats will do a better job in you circumstance and at the end you can have a BBQ

 

[jwstewar]

We have somewhere between 50 & 60 head of goat. We have Boers, LaManchas, and Alpines. Just recently bought our first Nigerian Dwarf. In the past we've had a few Toggenburgs, a Nubian, and a Pygmy. We keep our goats contained - or at least the best we can. They will clear an area pretty fast and they managed to kill our peach tree in a matter of a couple hours when our 2 bucks got out last year. The dairy breeds seems to be a bit hardier than the Boers do. Boers are also way more susceptible to parasites it seems. We have a friend that raises all Boers or Boer Xs. He uses that electric netting fence with pretty decent success. We took our first Boer doe out to breed with his buck. Our doe was mad we were leaving and cleared that net fence. The look on his face was priceless. Of course, I could also see our Boers since they have horns grabbing the fence with them and just tearing the crap out of it.

Looking forward to breeding the little Nigerian this fall. Looking for the excitement of new and different babies even though we had almost 40 kids on the ground this year.

 

[newbury]

<snip> We keep our goats contained - or at least the best we can. <snip>

What do you do for fencing?