Meat Goat Blog

Pasture Management - Quick Tips

While you should monitor your pasture all year long, be sure to pay extra attention between now and Spring. The plants haven't been growing for a while and your goats may be running out of things to eat!

How Many Goats Per Acre of Land?

Whether you're starting into the goat business for the first time or expanding your herd, there are a lot of factors to consider for how many goats your property can sustain. While the general rule of thumb is between 2 and 10 goats for every acre of land, that is a pretty big range. So here's what you need to evaluate.

First you should look at the amount of vegetation on your land. Goats require plenty of weeds to do well. If the pasture is mainly trees (or even grass), you'll need to have fewer goats per acre. If you plan to use a pond or creek as a water supply, you should be careful not to have more goats than water.

The important thing is to constantly manage your pasture. You can't just throw the animals out there and never come back. Changes in weather year to year can change a perfectly suitable pasture into a desert. So to answer the question of how many goats your land can sustain, that's up to you!

The Solution to Wildfires

With all the wildfires that are tearing across the country, it has left many people wondering how to protect their houses, and land from these devastating flames. The solution is simple! Get some goats! Goats clear the weeds and underbrush allowing dead limbs and debris to fall to the ground. The limbs will decay much quicker in the dirt and won't catch fire as easily. Without this dry tinder, the likiehood of fires decreases a lot and your house is much safer. Goats are nature's solution to a very important problem.

Goats: The NEW Weapons of Mass Destruction

    As summer approaches, many people begin looking at their quickly sprouting yards thinking: "wish it didn't grow so fast." Well we've got the perfect answer: GOATS!  This year our little weed control experts went to work next door clearing our neighbor's back pasture. To quote another happy landowner: "it looks like they hit it with Napalm."

Brush Clearing Company Has New Owners

Fosters Green Industries Goat Trimmers is the new owner of a goat clearing business we wrote about a few months ago. The owners, John F.Foster & Kat Foster (daughter in-law co-Owner), use primarily Savannas due to Oklahoma's worm  and parasite problem.They  have approximately 100 goats available for  large jobs and for small ones have found that 20 can easily clear up to 5 acres. In order to keep the goats from wandering away, they use electric netting around the work area. The fence holds the goats in the area and has enough power to keep wild dogs away. The Fosters charge $1.00 per day per goat on the property plus a set-up fee and a transportation fee  .75 cents per mile up to 50 miles. The guarantee they give is "We  don’t leave until the customer is satisfied."

You can reach them by e-mail at  [email protected] or by telephone at (918) 340-0867

The Role of Goats as Biological Control Agents Is Becoming Increasing Important

"In addition, the role of goats as biological control agents is also becoming increasingly important due to environmental concerns and elevated costs of other control methods such as mechanical cutting and herbicide application," according to the Center For Environmental Farming Systems. Research conducted at N.C. State University has demonstrated that goats have significant economic value in biological control of weeds and brush invading pasture lands. Therefore, the foraging habits of goats has important environmental implications by ultimately increasing the sustainability of production systems.

Jean-Marie Luginbuhl, Ph.D. says, " Goats also play an important role in organic and sustainable farming systems from the standpoint of nutrient cycling, soil improvement, income generation and conversion of fibrous resources into value-added products, to name a few."

For more information about how goats play a significant part in farming, see the full story. http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/main-what-we-do/meat-goat-production.html

Goats Used For Flood Control

How many goats does it take to prevent a flood?  "About 400 of the four-legged weed-whackers stripped vegetation this week as part of a Goat Grazing Trial Study sponsored by the organization Parents for a Safer Environment with the cooperation of the Contra Costa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District. The goats grazed a one-third-mile stretch of the creek bed extending north from Henry Avenue and skirting the perimeter of Collins Elementary School." according to Tom Lochner
Contra Costa Times.

Normally herbicides are used to control the foliage, but goat are part of an experiment to avoid water contamination. Of course you do get a few goat pellets in the water.  "The experiment includes measuring fecal bacteria contamination in the water and other parameters and comparing them to water pollution from a vegetation-abatement effort of similar scope using herbicides."

We applaud trying goats over chemicals. Hopefully others will see the project and goat will increase in popularity for brush control. http://www.goats4h.com/Goats.html

Oklahoma Goats Go To Work Clearing Property

Ok Goat Clearing is a new Oklahoma brush removal business using goats rather bulldozers, chemicals, or other unnatural methods of controlling problem plants. The web page for them states:

         Poison Ivy? Poison Oak? No Problem! Goats eat a wide variety of noxious weeds and plants, such as star thistle, poison oak, blackberries and dock. Although the goat's digestive system is similar to that of other ruminants, such as cattle and sheep, who are "grazers" and eat grass, goats are more related to deer, who are "browsers". As browsers, goats are designed to eat, and prefer, brush and trees more than grass. It is natural for them to nibble a little here, and a little there. Because of this, even if you have poisonous plants on your property, if they have plenty of "safe" browse, they rarely eat enough bad stuff to cause any real harm.

How It Works:   Clearing Land With Goats

With their four-chambered stomachs and insatiable desire to nibble on anything even resembling a plant, goats have gained credibility as land clearers among Oklahoma-area government agencies and private developers. Skeptics, we've found, quickly become converts. Once the hooves hit the ground, few can question the tenacity of these ruminants to devour unwanted foliage.

Bringing goats into the city to do what they do best has its advantages: They're cheaper than manual laborers, chemical-free and popular with parents and children. Even the critters' droppings are in demand.

When it comes to steep slopes covered in blackberry vines, goats are faster and cheaper than human crews or heavy equipment. Goats can't compete with herbicides for speed, but can work in wetlands and along stream banks with minimal threat to water quality or fish habitat. If allowed to return to an area for a couple of years, they can almost entirely remove English ivy, Scotch broom and blackberries.

Unlike people with weed-whackers, goats can clear vegetation from steep hills and other hard-to-reach places, and they'll eat the seeds that pesticides leave behind, keeping next year's generation of weeds at bay.

If you need some land cleared or just have some pasture that needs a little weed control, you can find them at www.okgoatclearing.com.

Meat Goats Give Live Demonstration Of Brush Clearing Skills

Goats breeders make a point about the benefits of brush control with goats in a live demonstration that will take place August 2nd from 1:00pm to 4:00pm where visitors can watch them work. Nicole Fuller of The Baltimore Sun Reports on the munching power of 40 goats. She goes on to say,

In the past, county officials had used manpower and heavy machinery to clear undergrowth and vines and allow for the growth of the native oaks and hickory trees on the site, but they wanted to use a more environmentally friendly method, said Karyn Molines, supervisor of cultural resources at the county Department of Recreation and Parks. Molines described the area where the goats will graze as "very challenging."

Isn't it great how people are using fancy, new ways to address problems with goats!! Who would have thought about using goats to control weeds!!

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bal-md.ar.goats21jul21,0,5192596.story