Goats for clearing land

[kiphorn]

Several years ago I bought a 14 acres and built a house on it. The lot was wooded but had some undergrowth. Now that we're in the house and some of the other projects are done, I'd like to clear out some of that undergrowth.

A friend of mine was in town from Tennessee last week and for the second time he told me I should get some goats to clear out the growth. Has anyone ever done this? He says down in Tenn. you can rent the goats until your done with them.

A couple of goats and an electric fence seems to be a lot easier than hours and hours of cutting, chipping and getting torn up by the sticker bushes.

Do goats eat everything? Do I need to give them other food or will they be happy munching on grass and weeds? What about shelter? There's a spring where they could get plenty of water. What other issues do I need to be concerned with? I'm no farm boy so this will be my first venture into non-domesticated animals.

After reading the post about the deer stuck in the fence, I'm worried about that problem. I can just see the look on my wife and kids faces when they see one of our deer tangled in the fence. I know farmers have electric fences all over the place so are deer problems really an issue?

Thanks

Kip

 

[YanmarFever]

I tried the goats many years ago.
I found out that I did more clearing in an hour with my tractor than the goats did in 8 months.
no feed
no hoofs trimming
no worming
no noise
ect...

Ernie

 

[slowrev]

Ernie is right on the care of goats, however you might actually make some money off of your land clearing by selling the goats later. The tractor and grunt method just soaks up money.
Goats actually prefer weeds and such to grass. Will eat cudsoe(sp?) and like poision ivy, multiflora, etc. Put up several strands of electric, they are good at escaping. Goats have been bringing over 1.00/lb here in KY for some time. They also seem to work well grazing with cattle, the goats like the weeds the cattle don't like, and keep the pasture very nice. Also a good alternative method to chemical weed killers.


Ben

 

[slowzuki]

There are other browsers too like highland cattle but I doubt they like a southern climate.

 

[Boondox]

Can't help with goats other than to point out that several counties in California are using them to reduce the fire danger in hilly areas now. And power companies use them also as a cheap way of keeping brush away from their power lines.

We have Icelandic sheep. While they will eat grass, it's browse they really love! I am absolutely amazed by their ability to clear brush! They only eat the leaves, not the stemmy parts, but after several rotations the brush gives up and dies. My tractor does a faster job, but I use the sheep in places too steep or rocky for Clementine and they do a great job.

Pete

 

[MarkLeininger]

Male goats really SMELL, so you don't want to be around them or handling them. If you have poison Ivy and they get into it, and then you touch them, you have poison Ivy. They tend to butt everything with their heads, including you. They climb on everything, vehicles, tractors, buildings with low roofs. Females don't have the odor problem. They eat everything in sight, so if you fence them in somewhere, you can't be selective about what's going to be left standing. If it were me, I'd either do it with the tractor or shop for a cheap price. Some landscaper might take it on cheap if you do it during his down season.

 

[RichZ]

I raise dairy goats, and I can tell you this idea won't work. Goats are wonderful, intelligent animals, but they do not eat everything in sight. They browse, and eat a lot of weeds and brush, but only the types that they consider to taste good. In addition, you'd have to supplement their feed, build a shelter, worm them, inoculate them, and trim their hooves.

If the property isn't too hilly or rocky, you need a brush hog, or to hire someone to do it. Goats are not going to clear the land, they'll just reduce whatever they find tastey.

 

[tough451]

As a teenager I had about 14 goats in a area as you describe,inside a 2 strand electric fence they were Nubian, Toggenburg crosses. I had a really large buck 6ft plus when he stood up on his hind legs. My experience is they ate all of the under growth as high as he could reach. I never had to trim there hooves,did have to keep them wormed,the only real problem was when my best nanney gave birth to quadruplets and I had to assist with bottles.
So if I were you I would give it a try.
They dont eat wood but they will eat most of the green stuff so at least you will be able to see what you need to clear your self.

 

[PineRidge]

<font color="blue"> I raise dairy goats, and I can tell you this idea won't work. Goats are wonderful, intelligent animals, but they do not eat everything in sight. They browse, and eat a lot of weeds and brush, but only the types that they consider to taste good. In addition, you'd have to supplement their feed, build a shelter, worm them, inoculate them, and trim their hooves.
</font>

Rich I personally don't know beans about goats but a good friend of mine that lives just down the road from me has one. He likes to butt, climb, and he eats everything that isn't nailed down. I saw the inside of a garage door on his pole barn that the goat had skinned for a quick meal. Maybe yours are a bit more selective in what they eat?

 

[slydog]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> I personally don't know beans about goats but a good friend of mine that lives just down the road from me has one. He likes to butt, climb, and he eats everything that isn't nailed down. I saw the inside of a garage door on his pole barn that the goat had skinned for a quick meal. Maybe yours are a bit more selective in what they eat? </font> )</font>

That is what I have always heard. A goat will eat anything. I have wondered about using goats for this purpose myself. We have some blackberry vines on our property that I would like to selectively keep, but I've been told the goats will eat everything.

Ken

 

[Bird]

Kip, it seems you've gotten varying information; some think it's a good idea and some do not. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif My own, somewhat limited, experience is that I agree with tough451 unless you over feed them. I never wanted any animal to go hungry, so I tended to overdo it a bit. Goats, at least the common breeds in my area, seemed to prefer leaves and vines to grass or hay. I could show you some heavily wooded places that would be almost impossible to walk through because of the underbrush if it weren't for the goats, and yet, it's very pretty to me because the goats keep everything cleaned back as high as they can reach. So, in my opinion, you have a very good idea except that you'd need a lot more than a "couple" of goats.

 

[GareyD]

Yes, you can clear brushy land with goats...but...you have to look at the goats as a tool...and preferably use goats that you can't recognize as a certain breed...just goats /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

A "couple" of goats, won't be anything but pets...to make this work you would need at least a couple dozen goats...confined to a small enough area that they will be forced into eating everything in the pen...not just the choice morsels that they prefer...they will eat anything green and the smaller, softer twigs and then start stripping the bark off the larger limbs/brush.

When the area looks pretty bare/open and the goats are doing more walking than browsing...(watch your goats, they will tell you when they need moving)...move them over to the next area and start the cycle again.

We cleared about 50 acres on my parents place this way back when I was a teenager...we never gave supplemental feed, had enough rocks on/in the ground that we never had to trim hooves...I don't ever remember having to worm or inoculate (Daddy might have done this, but I don't think so)...and we ran bucks in with the does, both for protection from the stray dogs and for the natural increase..the land the goats was on had enough cedar trees we never supplied shelter.

And if you really want to get the land clear...run hogs in behind the goats...they will plow the ground by rooting and eat/expose the roots around the larger brush/trees!!!

GareyD

 

[Egon]

I surely agree with you Gary. Between goats and pigs you can almost clear land ready for planting.

Egon

 

[NoTrespassing]

and they would fertilize as they go /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Kevin

 

[mygoatboy]

I have about 50 goats right now and I will tell you that if you get enough goats on the land you want to clear that they will do it very fast and efficiently. What I would recomend is buying all males that are around 1-3 months old in the spring or early summer and then putting them out. Come fall you can sell them all for meat. I would recomend about 12 goats per acre. You may not need to trim their hooves at all if the land is rocky enough.

 

[Taylortractornut]

We have 10 goats that we use to clear and maintain 5 acres around my junk pile and our property. THey do like to climb and jump hop and but but they dont think about butting a human, well not me or dad because of the dire consequences. We supplement their feed with a little corn and other grain and hay in the winter. On the 4acres we have a few steep hills and some thick woods around the house on that land. It was so thick you couldnt walk through it so we added to the fence. Now its clear six feet high. We do have to take the box blade, or the bush hog to take care of the sappling stems. THey also kill the mimosa trees by eating all the bark off them and they die. they also doo a few other tree species like that. When your done you can sell them and the fencing is relativly cheap using electric fencing. most of the ime we have on live wire and one dummy wire. Most of the animals we have are Boer or Boer mix. They sell very good in the spring, Dad got 500 for a register boer billy this spring. And if you have a cull goat they you cant sell wich is rare you can do what i do name hime burrito and take him down the the nearest mexican neighbor hood. Two of my helpers take any goat i dont need and in 2 months make some nice barbeque.

 

[RichZ]

My goats are Nubians, except for one angora and one pygmy. They will ravage what they like and then move on to whatever else they find tasty. I have pastures for them, and I rotate the pastures every few weeks. When I move them to another pasture, I always have to have to brush hog the pasture they just left, because there are lots of vines and weeds that they don't eat.

So, from reading what others have stated in this thread, I guess some goats will do the job, but Nubians aren't the breed that you'd want to do this job!! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[fireshawn]

Considering I am offering a new service called goat clearing, I sure hope they work!! I agree w/ the electric fences and more than just a couple of goats. I might suggest a livestock guardian dog, and you will at least need to worm them. They need water, and if you want them to come up to a central location a little feed won't hurt, just keep them hungry enough to do the work you want them to do.

When you get ready to sell them, goat meat is an up and comer especially on the east coast. The ethnic markets have a huge demand that the us goat producers can't meet.

If you have any questions, let me know.

shawn

Just saw the shelter thing, as cold as it gets up there, a shelter would be nice, most goats don't like to get wet that much, and are prone to pneumonia (sp). A good three sided run-in would work, look at the one Wraught iron harv did and scale it down so you can drag it around as you move the electric pen.

 

[SPIKER]

I know a few people who like goat meat a lot:

though I have lost contact with the one who is form far east, they prefer the young male goats that are under 30 lbs and 6 months or so old. they will pay top $ for them Live is also prefered as there is special ways they want them prepaired for dinner. but the practice of butchering them is something I'm not familiar with but spent a lot fo time speaking to him about it as he knew I lived out in BFE sticks and that there was plenty of room for raising them. anyhow it was sort of aginst their ways to eat the females as they could provide milk & more offspring. also was a good market for fresh milk... look for far east food resteraunts and maybe advertize them that way... one other thing the range fed ones were also prefered if i remember right.

Mark M

 

[Donman]

I remember 40 some years ago when I was a teenager, I raised goats and had a great uncle who also was a vetenarian who instructed me to feed a couple of pinches of chewing tobacco to each goat once every three weeks for de-worming. Anyone else hear of this?