wanting to learn about goats

[greybeard]

You need Fence that will hold water for goats.

We all know mine will not hold water..

 

[kentuckyguy]

We have sheep and really enjoy them. They can die on you quick if you don't stay ahead of parasite problems. We have had much better luck with wool sheep than the haired. We tried the haired for a couple years and they were not near as hearty and much more flighty.

Started lambing this week actually.

 

[Ebenezer]

We have hair sheep and they do well. Selected for no worming and it makes life easy.

 

[MtnCows93]

We've had goats or hair sheep pretty much my entire life up until the last few years. All the talk about them falling over dead and being impossible to fence in is pretty much bs. People regurgitateing what theve heard someone else say.
At times we had as many as 200 head. lambing or kidding can be quite a chore as many have twins and may leave one if given the chance. Very few birthing problems though.
I run bulls in my cattle year round. Not so with goats. Kids don't handle cold wet weather. We tried to kid around mid to late April. March would be better to get the right size lambs to market by Ramadan.. but we fish in March..... you need to make sure there is a good reliable sale close enough. We live in sheep/ goat country and it's 70 miles to auction. They need to be penned at night. We've still got the 2 acre pen behind my old house..my son's house now. It's easy enough to train them to come in at night. Their kinda scared of the dark..lol.
Don't castarate, cut tails, notch ears etc.
Most Muslim holiday, funerals etc call for unblemished animals. You can be docked heavily on young stocker kids.
Plenty of money to be made in goats and hair sheep. Just a little higher maintenance, which is why mine are gone. They'll be back someday.

yea ive got a sale 15 miles away that sells alot of goats and they always sell good. i did think about raising them in a old chicken house if i could leave them inside permenantly and feed hay year round that would be the easyest way but i dont know if that would cause issues or not. i am just thinking about it gotta learn alot before i would consider goats

 

[slick4591]

My friends that run the dairy have billies that can pizz sideways and hit you. No thanks!

 

[farmerjan]

I don't know how big the chicken coop is but they do much better out in the air and sunshine. No they don't especially like rain or snow. I don't find goats or sheep to be "looking for a place to die" as the saying goes. I think goats are a bit harder to fence than sheep; in our experiences. We have had wooled sheep, and now have hair sheep. White Texas Dall sheep. Raise the rams for their heads/horns to go on hunting preserves. They do tend to get wormy and this years wet weather has been a real challenge. We had Horned Dorsets but no market for the wool so went with the hair.
Goats are browsers and would rather eat the rougher stuff, but do well on hay and grass. They just like to browse bushes and brush and stuff, more than sheep.
BootJackBulls is a good one to ask and it seems Kentuckyguy is a "small ruminant lover too". I like our sheep. They are higher maintenance than a cow, mainly the worming, feet problems and PREDATORS. We run donkeys and/or llamas with ours to help prevent the coyote and STRAY DOGS, problems we have. They do bring very good money if you have them timed to sell for the different ethnic holidays.

 

[MtnCows93]

My friends that run the dairy have billies that can pizz sideways and hit you. No thanks!

yea ive seen them pizz on their face and curl their lip up at you, nasty but that type of thing dont bother me. i dont like it but ive dealt with worse things before

 

[farmerjan]

The peeing stuff is part of the goat breeding thing. In fact I know that a friend who had some dairy goats, had to get a rag from another friend with a buck, that smelled like the male in "rut" so to speak, so she could get her female to come in heat to breed because she didn't keep a male. Sheep do not get near that smelly.... although they do have a little bit of an aroma.... No worse smelling than a confinement pig barn.... or a commercial poultry house.... Besides the female thinks they smell just fine..

 

[ddd75]

We have sheep and really enjoy them. They can die on you quick if you don't stay ahead of parasite problems. We have had much better luck with wool sheep than the haired. We tried the haired for a couple years and they were not near as hearty and much more flighty.

Started lambing this week actually.

you got some bad hair sheep. lots of them in ky though

 

[kentuckyguy]

No haired sheep for us. Everything is Dorset or Dorset X Hamp.