goats for clearing

[tommy&april]

i have an area of about 30 acres that was logged a few years ago and it has grown up real bad, lots of deadfall and briars and small saplings and stumps. i want ot start cleaning it up and possibly make pasture out of it. its on a slight hill side. would anyone recommend finishing the fencing of this acreage and putting goats in there to clean it up. or does anyone have any better ideas. its super thick

 

[Meador_m]

I highly recommend this, goats are a lot cheaper to rent than any equipment, plus they will eat all the browse first and leave your grass alone. The truth is goats don't even like tall grass so there is a good chance they might not eat that much of it and concentrate on all the vines and stuff that cattle won't eat. Plus once you get it cleared out you could even leave your goats on there while you put some cattle on it, since they do not compete with each other for food.
Its a great idea! overstock the heck out of it and they will have it looking like a park in no time...

 

[Lammie]

That is what I would do in a similar situation. Put goats on it, let them clean it up and then take them back to the sale barn. Our sale barn does a bumper business in goats every Saturday. You just have to put up with that goat smell...

 

[Beefy]

i had this idea too for a stand of planted pines that have only been thinned once. has a lot of briars and honey suckle and poison ivy and live oaks in it. trees are ~25.
my obstacles?
no fencing.
no water.
predators.

 

[bigbull338]

goats will clean pasture up of briars brush sapplings you name it.but you better have a fence that will hold them.because they can an will get out.for 30acs id start with 25 nannies an 1 billy.but you can go as high as 100 nannies an 4 billies on 30acs.

 

[Meador_m]

Fencing is probably the biggest thing to worry about. They say to build your goat fence up as best you can then throw some water on it, and if any of the water gets through the fence... start over because they will find a way through. You don't really need a billie unless you just want them to reproduce which they will year round. Only downside of it in my opinion is if you live in a parasite prone area you will need to worm them, but if not they are pretty hardy and can take care of themselves..

 

[warpaint]

Faced the same dilemma, when i bought my place.

30 acres more or less, hadn't been grazed in 10 + years. Lots of honeysuckle and briars.

Considered the goat thing, as I paid upwards of 400 to get about half of it bushhogged. It had some fence, but barbwire on the frontside.

At that time, goats were running at a premium, and deciced to go with.................

Wait for it...............

It's coming............


Longhorns. They will eat anything a goat will, are more easily contained, and survive well on anything from thistle to barley.

 

[Jogeephus]

Goats are great for clearing land but let me forewarn you. Just as your herd has doubled or tripled in size and your woods are becoming clean and you are thinking that you have just found the holy grale to riches and infamy by being a major goat producer - SELL EM! Sell em all! Cause once the woods get clean and the browse turns to grazing the worms will wear you out - at least they do in our humid climate. Suffice it to say I didn't get rich with them but after three years I ended up selling exactly the same number goats as I originally purchased.

 

[crittercrazy]

I had thought about doing the goat thing to clear off some property. But the initial cost was too high! You have to fence in the property for the goats, which is not cheap! I guess you could do temporary fencing, and move it after so many days??

 

[mermill2]

I agree with warpaint.Get Longhorns they;l clean it up.You won't have the parisite problem with Longhorns and they will be much easier to fence.

 

[grannysoo]

You won't have a parasite problem with goats as long as they are not eating on the ground. Buy goats, let them clean it up, and sell them just as quick. Keep a billy goat with them and you'll probably have some extra ones when you get ready to sell. That'll help pay for the cost of your improvements.

 

[Lammie]

That is what I would do in a similar situation. Put goats on it, let them clean it up and then take them back to the sale barn. Our sale barn does a bumper business in goats every Saturday. You just have to put up with that goat smell...

Durn billies peeing on their beards.

Is that what that is? Yuck...

 

[Lammie]

My goat story: Several years back, I am hangin at the sale barn just looking around while Steve is off doing gawd knows what. I am kinda leaning on one of the outer pens and this goat idles up to me and I start absent mindedly scratching on his head. I do that for a minute or two and we are walking around and I keep smelling this funky smell. And it's following me everywhere I go. I can't figure out what it is for the life of me.

Then I got a whiff of my hands. I just about could not get it washed off. It was, well, different...

No offense to goat folks. I was just not prepared for the olfactory onslaught.

 

[KenB]

My goat story: Several years back, I am hangin at the sale barn just looking around while Steve is off doing gawd knows what. I am kinda leaning on one of the outer pens and this goat idles up to me and I start absent mindedly scratching on his head. I do that for a minute or two and we are walking around and I keep smelling this funky smell. And it's following me everywhere I go. I can't figure out what it is for the life of me.

Then I got a whiff of my hands. I just about could not get it washed off. It was, well, different...

No offense to goat folks. I was just not prepared for the olfactory onslaught.

It is just the Billy's that stink, and that is mostly during breeding season.
The nannies don't stink.

 

[Lammie]

My goat story: Several years back, I am hangin at the sale barn just looking around while Steve is off doing gawd knows what. I am kinda leaning on one of the outer pens and this goat idles up to me and I start absent mindedly scratching on his head. I do that for a minute or two and we are walking around and I keep smelling this funky smell. And it's following me everywhere I go. I can't figure out what it is for the life of me.

Then I got a whiff of my hands. I just about could not get it washed off. It was, well, different...

No offense to goat folks. I was just not prepared for the olfactory onslaught.

It is just the Billy's that stink, and that is mostly during breeding season.
The nannies don't stink.

That's good to know, Ken. My goat knowledge is exactly zip. I have never had them. I guess if did get some I would have to learn a thing or twenty.

 

[mermill2]

An buck goat peeing on his beard discourages flys.Flys don't like the smell.Running a billy goat or two with cattle helps keep flys down.

 

[Lammie]

An buck goat peeing on his beard discourages flys.Flys don't like the smell.Running a billy goat or two with cattle helps keep flys down.

I learn something new every day.

 

[john250]

An buck goat peeing on his beard discourages flys.Flys don't like the smell.Running a billy goat or two with cattle helps keep flys down.

I learn something new every day.

Flys are attracted to rotting corpses. Billy Goat pee must be serious stuff, if flys don't like the smell. I think I am a cattleman.

 

[CKC1586]

I ended up with three wethers and they have been amazing a clearing up an overgrown, weed, briar infested area. Never woulda thunk they could do so much so quick!

 

[msscamp]

An buck goat peeing on his beard discourages flys.Flys don't like the smell.Running a billy goat or two with cattle helps keep flys down.

I guess our variety of flies are not aware of this, because the smell of a buck goat does not discourage them in the least.