HELP NEEDED- Goats, Sheep or Alpacas, small cows ?

Permies,
            I am on the mid north coast NSW, Australia.
We have 4 acres of a mixture of grass & weeds.

Primarily we want some animals to mow the grass as it browns like crazy, & to clear lots of weeds down to our river.
we may need a mixture ? However I think the size of our place would be maximum 4 animals.

We hear that goats maybe hard to manage with fencing ? We do have fencing but not sure adequate.

Any advice would be so appreciated.
H

I have dwarf goats and Kunekune pigs.  While fencing needs to be in place, it is not the headache I have had with full size goats and pigs.  Last week I left the gate to the pig enclosure unlocked, they never left the area.

It sounds like you have maybe only recently started to manage this land?  If you want animals to clear the weeds, you may soon find that the nature of the vegetation changes and another species becomes more ideal.  It depends what sort of weeds these are, as to what animals would be best.  But anyway, maybe it would be better to get someone else to bring their animals for a short time, and then you do not have the problem of being left with animals that are no longer happy/thriving on the land (and that you may have fallen in love with) and that decide their best interests lie on the other side of the fence!

If you are going into owning livestock, there are more considerations than just "what animal would be best/easiest".  How much time do you have to devote to their care, for example? You need to really like the animals you choose to keep, or like the taste of them or their products!

Excellent advice from John & Hester.

I'd add ... fail small.  The cost & complexity of animal systems is much lower with smaller animals - so I would suggest removing cows (even small ones like mine) from the list for the moment.  And I'd suggest considering smaller pigs meant for grazing ... so short-nosed breeds such as the KuneKune or AGH (if they even exist down under), and as John suggests using dwarf breeds of goats (or perhaps the fainting breeds ... they basically can't jump so they're easier to fence).  You're stepping into new territory here, and as Hester says you're going to start shifting the local ecosystem with the grazing so think of this as a series of steps, not a single giant leap.

I'll just sort of underline Hester's advice ... you have a small piece of land, you need the animals to "mow" it, probably just for a season.  This means they are helpful for maybe two months of the year (?) and a pocketbook drain the other 10 - so they need to have some other purpose, even if its just your enjoyment at watching them.