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NP, and don’t forget barbed wire. It’s cheap enough and a few strands on the outside of other fencing should keep coyotes from getting in your pen.
Nothing about this is true. Coyotes will jump, climb, or dig under almost any fence that isn't electrified. And they will kill your goats. They don't kill with one bite, like mountain lions, they just start eating at the back and work their way to the front.
Brushy hills are really hard to run electric fencing on, but it can be done, because I have done it. You need electric netting, with a good battery and charger (solar is often too weak especially in dry ground). The company to buy from is Premier One. They have a world of information on their website.
Goats need shelter from the elements, clean water at all times, good feed; they need regular hoof trimming, vaccines, deworming. They are not brush-removal machines. They take a good bit of labor and like all animals, will bring you joy and grief.
If you want to keep goats, learn how, get the right equipment, and keep them right.
If you want brush removed, hire a couple guys with brush cutters. Or buy a brush cutter and do it yourself.
Goats are adorable animals with personalities. I would love to have one as a pet.
Enjoy.
They really are fun! Like all the other farm animals we have ended up with, we underestimated at the beginning how much we would enjoy having them. With that... I don’t intend to talk anyone out of having goats if they want them... but they are living creatures, not just brush mowers, and they do require some accommodations, protection, care and shelter. And feed! They will not survive year around here without supplemental food.
MechAndy - our animals are the reason we can’t travel… And I know you travel quite a bit so unless you want to adopt a lifestyle that revolves around animal care it would probably be easier for you to just hire someone to cut brush :-) if that’s all you want.
Nothing about this is true. Coyotes will jump, climb, or dig under almost any fence that isn't electrified. And they will kill your goats. They don't kill with one bite, like mountain lions, they just start eating at the back and work their way to the front.
Brushy hills are really hard to run electric fencing on, but it can be done, because I have done it. You need electric netting, with a good battery and charger (solar is often too weak especially in dry ground). The company to buy from is Premier One. They have a world of information on their website.
Goats need shelter from the elements, clean water at all times, good feed; they need regular hoof trimming, vaccines, deworming. They are not brush-removal machines. They take a good bit of labor and like all animals, will bring you joy and grief.
If you want to keep goats, learn how, get the right equipment, and keep them right.
If you want brush removed, hire a couple guys with brush cutters. Or buy a brush cutter and do it yourself.
Nothing about this is true. Coyotes will jump, climb, or dig under almost any fence that isn't electrified. And they will kill your goats. They don't kill with one bite, like mountain lions, they just start eating at the back and work their way to the front.
Brushy hills are really hard to run electric fencing on, but it can be done, because I have done it. You need electric netting, with a good battery and charger (solar is often too weak especially in dry ground). The company to buy from is Premier One. They have a world of information on their website.
Goats need shelter from the elements, clean water at all times, good feed; they need regular hoof trimming, vaccines, deworming. They are not brush-removal machines. They take a good bit of labor and like all animals, will bring you joy and grief.
If you want to keep goats, learn how, get the right equipment, and keep them right.
If you want brush removed, hire a couple guys with brush cutters. Or buy a brush cutter and do it yourself.
You have me confused with Andy (OP). I advised Andy on everything you mentioned. The only thing different is fencing. Coyotes are a problem here, but they can’t get in my chicken pen, which is Redbrand fencing with hardware cloth on the bottom. Some mornings a coyote will be sitting out in front of the chicken coop, but can’t jump, climb or dig their way in after several years.
I agree about electric fencing, it’s the best. I also agree that animals should have good basic care. My goats were purchased to do a job. They had supplemental food, although they had voracious appetites. There wasn’t much they didn’t eat. I did their hooves, regularly wormed them and they had shelter and clean water. I didn’t pamper them, they were there to work. They were also pets. I refused to turn them into cabrito, but my goats were lucky. This was Texas after all and people asked. I’m sure Andy will give his animals good care too. Goats don’t need a lot of fussing to have a decent life.
Yeah - Unfortunately, to have a successful goat and predator system, you'd probably still have to spend the 3-4K dollars.
Rhodies are very toxic to goats. And azaleas. My vet had a rule of thumb that has proved *mostly* true, that any shrub or bush that is both leafy and evergreen, should be initially suspected to be toxic to goats. Local exception to that rule is salal. They can eat salal.
Since the thread woke back up, I'll share another pic we took this morning of our goats eating blackberries on the hill below us... We just got this fenced last year. We fenced down the steep part of the hill with hard galvanized hog panels backed up with electric wire, and the flat part down below is fenced with wire mesh and 2 hot wires, one low, one high. If you end up interested in taking that on, I could post more pics. It was our third attempt to fence that part of the property, after regular wire mesh and electric netting, failed to hold up or work over time and use and varied terrain.
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 04-15-2021 at 12:15 PM..
Yeah - Unfortunately, to have a successful goat and predator system, you'd probably still have to spend the 3-4K dollars.
Rhodies are very toxic to goats. And azaleas. My vet had a rule of thumb that has proved *mostly* true, that any shrub or bush that is both leafy and evergreen, should be initially suspected to be toxic to goats. Local exception to that rule is salal. They can eat salal.
Since the thread woke back up, I'll share another pic we took this morning of our goats eating blackberries on the hill below us... We just got this fenced last year. We fenced down the steep part of the hill with hard galvanized hog panels backed up with electric wire, and the flat part down below is fenced with wire mesh and 2 hot wires, one low, one high. If you end up interested in taking that on, I could post more pics. It was our third attempt to fence that part of the property, after regular wire mesh and electric netting, failed to hold up or work over time and use and varied terrain.
Those are all goats, some are just a little too round. We do have sheep also though! Sheep in this picture! .... and a bit of the galvanized fencing we ran down the hill. Best solution we've found so far, for goats, in areas where electric is likely to get shorted out by brush. In most areas we have since added electric on top.
1. Goats
pro: cheaper than humans with machines. Add fertilizer as they work. Non-toxic. Cute.
con: require fencing, protection from predators, shelter, other routine livestock care. Do not remove woody debris, or kill brush except with successive grazings.
2. Roundup or other herbicide
pro: cheapest, simplest.
con: poison. Will kill fish if it gets in streams. Non-specific, kills everything.
3. Humans with machines
pro: fast, targeted.
con: expensive. noisy, use fossil fuels. If using vehicles, extremely destructive of topsoil structure.
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