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Author Topic: Brush Clearing Goats  (Read 22318 times)

Offline Roundhead

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Brush Clearing Goats
« on: July 30, 2012, 01:26:56 PM »
I'm curious if anyone run goats for brush clearing and management?
I'm tired of all the brush jungle around my property and thinking about starting a small herd of goats.
I heard that Kiko goats are basically carefree.
My plan is to get some portable electric fence panels and a solar power system and move them along my property.

I love to hear some advice. Thanks

Offline sirmissalot

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2012, 01:36:29 PM »
I'd like to hear what others have to say as well, I bought some kid goats several months ago hoping to do the same thing. Mine are Nubians, two young bucklings that are now "wethers" I had them banded when I picked them up from the goat lady. I only got these ones because they were cheap, I didn't want to pay $150 per goat and when I saw these for $40 I jumped on it. They were one week old and it was a lot of work bottle feeding them for about 8 weeks, I learned my lesson there, I probably would have been money ahead or at least better off just paying more money and getting some that were weaned or ready to be weaned. I've never had goats or any other farm animals for that matter so its been interesting, but not too bad and they were really friendly, its been a fun experience. I've trained them now to be on a leash, they hate being separated so I tie them up together since I'm still working on getting the property fenced.

Offline rasbo

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2012, 01:38:21 PM »
Gasmans brother does it I believe,as a business....

Offline seth30

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2012, 01:49:42 PM »
My mother in law lives in a town house in Renton, and twice a year a bunch of goats will come in and just clean up the green belt and pond area of all the blackberries and other unwanted plants.  They can clear land fast!  Last time I counted 12 goats all different breeds and if I remeber correctly they were all rescue goats.  If I had the land I would do something similar, beats trying to get rid of blackberries the old way :tup:
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Offline KopperBuck

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2012, 10:55:36 AM »
City of Pendleton just had a goat load of 'em down here mowing up along the river. Spent several weeks down here.

Offline HUNTINCOUPLE

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2012, 11:49:23 AM »
I would get a bread that will also pack into the high country! Lots of info on the net about it. Let us know what you end up with.
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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2012, 06:38:14 PM »
I could see doing this on our property... good idea.
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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2012, 06:43:27 PM »
Gasmans brother does it I believe,as a business....

Yes he does.... Give him a call or look him up on FB.

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Offline NW-GSP

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #8 on: August 15, 2012, 06:50:30 PM »
from what I have heard they have to grow up eating brush or they dont really eat all that much of it

Offline sirmissalot

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Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2012, 02:00:05 PM »
My goats aren't picky at all. They are still young but eat everything in sight, just not a lot of it yet

Offline Huntbear

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2012, 02:32:19 PM »
Growing up we had a brush eating goat....

damn animal made great coyote bait...  :chuckle: :chuckle:

finally hung himself in the fence ... goat tastes a lot like venison....
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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2012, 03:33:05 PM »
I know my brother has more then one type of goat, at all ages and they all eat every thing.

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Offline PlateauNDN

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #12 on: August 16, 2012, 03:44:17 PM »
Anybody in the Yakima area want to fatten up their goats and drop them off at my place for a couple of days. :chuckle: :chuckle: :chuckle:
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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #13 on: August 16, 2012, 04:57:44 PM »
I'm really considering a couple of pack llamas for brush suppression and lower impact hiking/packing.  Rinella's brother has an old Chevy van he carries 3 in and they packed a pretty nice camp from what I saw.

Offline KopperBuck

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #14 on: August 17, 2012, 09:37:16 AM »
I'm really considering a couple of pack llamas for brush suppression and lower impact hiking/packing.  Rinella's brother has an old Chevy van he carries 3 in and they packed a pretty nice camp from what I saw.

Reminds me of the time my lady's mom captured an emu and put in the canopy of their pickup...

I saw/read about one of their trips. I'm not sure about packing llamas in a van. Man that would be ripe. I still like to ride in, but for those that don't want the misery of taking care of hay burners.

 

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #15 on: August 17, 2012, 09:44:58 AM »
Sirmissalot,

I have a small patch of land that needs cleared.  Interested in dropping them off a couple of days?

Offline sirmissalot

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Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #16 on: August 19, 2012, 08:06:32 AM »
Sirmissalot,

I have a small patch of land that needs cleared.  Interested in dropping them off a couple of days?

They're still young, about 6 months old so not sure they would do with being dropped off at random places. They scream a lot right now too. Is it all fenced?

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #17 on: August 19, 2012, 08:30:30 AM »
Watch CL, my brother has gotten many over the years for free on there  ;)
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Offline Roundhead

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #18 on: September 05, 2012, 09:16:59 PM »
I recently acquired 6 heads of Kiko goats and got them in a half acre plot for about 2 weeks now.
Needless to say they are doing their job too well and I may have to give them new forage property in a couple of weeks.
They are in portable electric net fence circle of about half an acre of thick western WA brush.
When I set it up, I couldn't see through the perimeter.
But now I can clearly see from one side to the other.
At the rate they're going and possibly producing twins from my 5 does next year, I'm really nervous that they may run out of food.
I've been doing some research on food plots and came up with a Sun Hemp for a summer crop and Brassica for the fall/early winter.
You guys got any experience with big game food plots for the western side?
I figure goats and deer eat just about the same stuff.

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #19 on: September 05, 2012, 09:31:58 PM »
Had goats when I was a kid. One female rode around in the back of my open pick up where ever I went. Another loved to eat cigerattes and cigars. Black berrys where no match for them. They ate them like candy.
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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2012, 09:34:28 AM »
http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/grd/3231743127.html

Passenger or Livestock Alpaca bus - $3500 (Woodinville)

This unique bus was retrofitted to carry seven people (including the driver) and four to five alpacas. There is a catch pen made of 5 foot tall chain-link livestock panels with doors at the front and back. There is an extra panel that can be swung out to divide males and female alpacas.

The bus is a 1999 Ford SuperDuty E450. It is a diesel. It is a retired bus from Kitsap county, Washington. It has 298,000 miles on it. Diesel engines run a long time. In the current configuration, it carries 7 people, including the driver. The cage can be removed, and there are two fold down bench seats in the back that can carry 6 more people. I also have a single seat that I removed. As we understand it, in Washington state a special driver's license is needed only if the bus can carry more than 15 people. This one can't.

This bus has a roof air conditioner in the back. We wanted that for going to alpaca shows if the weather was warm. We never needed it. There is also a rear heater, which we have disconnected so it doesn't start a fire. This could be re-connected if converted back into a bus for people only. The bus was handicapped accessible, so it has a hydraulic lift in the back. We had planned on building a cage around it and using that to get the alpacas in and out of the bus, but we were always able to train the alpacas to go up and down the front steps. The bus has seat belts (not for the alpacas), which we wanted for our kids, and this was hard to find. There is A/C and heat in the front where the driver sits.

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Hehe this would be interesting to bring home to the wife.

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2012, 10:54:47 AM »
My brother had a few goats and here is what i found. He had them here in the Sgagit valley. He had 6 at one time on about 2 acres that was filled with brush and stickers. they did a pretty good job over the summer of beating the stuff down, but where they really had an impact was during the winter months when stuffwas not growing very well. if you want to keep trees then move them when forage gets lean or wrap them in wire. they will strip the bark off trees and kill them. He used  wire fencing to keep them contained but they were hard to keep in the fence. IF done again i would try the eletric netting fence, becuse 2 strings of normal eletric fence didn't stop much.  I think its best to do like someone stated and dput a couple on a small section and move the fencing around. I would also say that lamas are pretty good at protecting goats from coyotes, and dogs. If you have a dog don't get a lama :twocents:
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Offline fillthefreezer

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #22 on: September 07, 2012, 11:27:34 AM »
I recently acquired 6 heads of Kiko goats and got them in a half acre plot for about 2 weeks now.
Needless to say they are doing their job too well and I may have to give them new forage property in a couple of weeks.
They are in portable electric net fence circle of about half an acre of thick western WA brush.
When I set it up, I couldn't see through the perimeter.
But now I can clearly see from one side to the other.
At the rate they're going and possibly producing twins from my 5 does next year, I'm really nervous that they may run out of food.
I've been doing some research on food plots and came up with a Sun Hemp for a summer crop and Brassica for the fall/early winter.
You guys got any experience with big game food plots for the western side?
I figure goats and deer eat just about the same stuff.
where are you at? i would donate some foraging land for a few months! :tup:

Offline Roundhead

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #23 on: September 07, 2012, 10:46:05 PM »
I recently acquired 6 heads of Kiko goats and got them in a half acre plot for about 2 weeks now.
Needless to say they are doing their job too well and I may have to give them new forage property in a couple of weeks.
They are in portable electric net fence circle of about half an acre of thick western WA brush.
When I set it up, I couldn't see through the perimeter.
But now I can clearly see from one side to the other.
At the rate they're going and possibly producing twins from my 5 does next year, I'm really nervous that they may run out of food.
I've been doing some research on food plots and came up with a Sun Hemp for a summer crop and Brassica for the fall/early winter.
You guys got any experience with big game food plots for the western side?
I figure goats and deer eat just about the same stuff.
where are you at? i would donate some foraging land for a few months! :tup:
PM sent

Offline steen

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #24 on: September 16, 2012, 03:46:31 PM »
I'm really considering a couple of pack llamas for brush suppression and lower impact hiking/packing.  Rinella's brother has an old Chevy van he carries 3 in and they packed a pretty nice camp from what I saw.

Reminds me of the time my lady's mom captured an emu and put in the canopy of their pickup...

I saw/read about one of their trips. I'm not sure about packing llamas in a van. Man that would be ripe. I still like to ride in, but for those that don't want the misery of taking care of hay burners.

I've seen a van used to haul minature horses but I don't know if they had separation from the drivers.

Offline JakeLand

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #25 on: September 28, 2012, 04:43:41 PM »
I grew up on a working beef  ranch and we used Alpine goats for keeping the blackberries,nettles and everything else clear . The Alpines are more hardier of a breed than sanaans,nubians etc... plus they are much quieter . You must be carefull for the trees that you want to keep cause they will strip the bark off and kill the tree. If you wait till April or May you can get weathers fairly cheap and good place to go are the fairs where they shoe them in 4-H.

Offline dscubame

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #26 on: September 28, 2012, 04:56:41 PM »
City of
Liberty Lake contracted goats this year and has them move around the city.  Just moved them to legacy ridge where they expect them to work for the next two weeks.  City said they are doing it as a green alternative to weed control.
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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #27 on: February 21, 2013, 07:16:21 AM »
Don't forget that hogs do a fantastic job also, especially with blackberries as they root up all the roots. Besides, pork tastes a hell of a lot better then goat after you have your place cleared!  :twocents:

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Re: Brush Clearing Goats
« Reply #28 on: February 24, 2013, 06:45:30 AM »
Possum is right 2 hogs will clear faster and better easy to have Mobile hog pin so you can move them around and have great pork when done

 


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