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Post by the illustrious potentate on Feb 28, 2020 4:29:25 GMT -6
I'm not ready to dive off into goat production, but I'd like to know how difficult it is to keep them from becoming a coyotes breakfast.
There's a real heavy coyote population here. How much territory can a donkey cover a herd of goats in and is one effective enough guard a herd of goats. And if so, what size of herd are we talking?
My interest is in weed and tree control with benefit of maybe returning the costs of what it would take in fencing and other care.
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Post by M-5 on Feb 28, 2020 15:41:08 GMT -6
I would not worry about the coyotes for the most part they won't bother them . The biggest issues will be having fences to keep the bastards where you want them. All the ones I ever owned came to the barn every night. They might have been a mile away during the day but when it got close to dark the would come stringing in .
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Post by okie on Feb 28, 2020 16:43:04 GMT -6
There's a rotational grazer here that runs sheep, goats and cattle. He runs miles of electric fence and in most cases that's all that keeps them in. He has a few pyranees that stay out with them and says that's all it takes. He still shoots a few coyotes here and there but I my understanding is that it's more of a love affair with long range shooting than predator control.
I would think that given your location less prey might bring on more need for predator control but the electric fence helps there too.
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Post by fence on Feb 29, 2020 9:58:08 GMT -6
Even a good donkey will have a hard time with a good sized group on good sized brushy pasture. We always brought them in at night. A two acre pen with good tight netwire fence is where they spent the night. Very easy to train them to come home at night. A little corn every evening will keep them coming in. Start out letting a few out, and the rest penned. They won't stray to far from the group. Don't have to be the same ones every day.
Just like coop training chickens. Once you get them trained you can hang a deer feeder in the pen. Just go out and close the gate every day, and open it every evening. Spanish/Boer cross does and a Boer buck.would be a good choice for brush control and having kids worth something.
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Post by chuckie on Mar 1, 2020 5:49:15 GMT -6
If I had a herd of goats, I would name them all Houdini 1, Houdini 2, Houdini 3, etc..... If you have a place that used to be your Granddaddy's and is what I called an old establishment, those goats can find every tiny hole. They are like mice, and do not squishing their bodies through places that I never thought they could go through. It is more like what M5 said, the trouble is keeping them inside. And the horns, they get their heads stuck in everything.
If I were serious about a goat herd, I would run electric wire that they could not slip through, but the cost would be high. If a goat can't go through it, then I don't think a coyote could either. Just my thoughts.
When I was a kid, I used to beg my Dad for a pet goat. He never would say yes or no, but never got one for me. Now I know why. I have had pet goats since then and they are really sweet animals.
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Post by chuckie on Mar 1, 2020 6:27:17 GMT -6
If I had a herd of goats, I would name them all Houdini 1, Houdini 2, Houdini 3, etc..... If you have a place that used to be your Granddaddy's and is what I called an old establishment, those goats can find every tiny hole. They are like mice, and do not squishing their bodies through places that I never thought they could go through. It is more like what M5 said, the trouble is keeping them inside. And the horns, they get their heads stuck in everything.
If I were serious about a goat herd, I would run electric wire that they could not slip through, but the cost would be high. If a goat can't go through it, then I don't think a coyote could either. Just my thoughts.
When I was a kid, I used to beg my Dad for a pet goat. He never would say yes or no, but never got one for me. Now I know why. I have had pet goats since then and they are really sweet animals.
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Post by bootjackbulls on Mar 1, 2020 7:52:05 GMT -6
Our goats are essentially dry-lotted, though their pastures are loaded with phenomenal grass. For us, that makes the most sense. The risk of loosing one to depredation is too high and very much out weighs the cost of providing their forage. We have bear and coyote on our properties, and have seen cougar and wolf in our own pastures occasionally.Keeping them out is as important as keeping the goats in lol! Ours are in large paddocks that are completely fenced in cattle panel, with a HOT wire at about 18 inches from the ground on the inside of every pen. We really have 0 issues keeping them in or off fences this way. Having said that, we have culled does that are hard on fences before and have found that if the kids are raised around hot wire and taught to respect it early, we have less issues later.
We do occasionally put some dry does in brush during the summer to clean it out as needed, or put them out in larger temp pastures just to spread them out a bit. When we do have occasion to do this, we use a hot wire net fence with a fencer hooked up to a car battery. Seems to work well enough, but as soon as they run out of browse, they can and will walk the net fence down...
As far as guard animals go, we don't use any. I know some people swear by them, but it never worked well enough for us. Llamas are dumb creatures. Donkeys can be a pain to have around if you have other stock, and can't always be trusted not to kill the very stock they are entrusted to protect. Dogs are an absolute no-go for us. ACDs are highly territorial, and having a LGD on the same property is asking for trouble. We just have not found any of those options to be worth the hassel they also present. I'm sure their are other programs where they would be more effective...
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Post by fence on Mar 1, 2020 12:23:16 GMT -6
You need a good fence for goats, but that's really it. Sure they will pour through a sorry fence or a few strands of barbwire. A good tight net fence or lots of barbwire. There is 165 acres of our place fenced with 10 strand barbwire. For a good bit of my life there would be goats and or hair sheep. Up to a few hundred. Never recall any getting out. Coyotes are forced to go under are over. When they dig crawl throughs under it's pretty simple to drop snares. And effective .
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Post by angusrancher on Mar 1, 2020 14:55:34 GMT -6
If nothing else, the title to this thread might be a pretty good billy goat name.
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