goat for clearing future pasture(s)… +what companion animal

Hello! I’ve been setting up our homestead for about 3 months now— going quite well; my partner wants our own fresh milk so I’ll make sure she gets it

I have about 1 1/2 acres of productive homestead space available and another 3 1/2 acres of SC woods on the back end— I’m thinking long term I’ll just start chopping smaller trees throughout the back as I need building materials and eventually create 3 different semi-wooded pastures.

I’m considering getting the billygoat first and sticking him in the large space (three open pastures) to start chomping down the growth for me; what would be the easiest, most affordable companion animal for him?… I have chickens and ducks and rabbits already; was thinking about just sticking a rooster back there with him.

Thoughts and tips would be greatly appreciated.

You should just get her a milking goat and a zebu 🥰

Most folks get female goats and find someone with a billy to service the girls.

A billy might be fine if it lives back there.

Why?  Billie goats stink.

Why not just let the chickens do it with a chicken tractor?

@Monika I'll get you all the animals you want

@Anne -- we plan to eventually have 2 goats and two zebu so we can freshen without leaving the property. Longterm I plan to have both males in one pasture and both females in another at any given time-- I'd like to get the female goat when she is young, and be able to freshen her with our own billy.

I figure it's far enough behind the house that a billy could chomp down much of the smaller trees and shrubs and I won't feel like I'm losing out on milking years with the billy-- as well, a higher quality billy will be less start-up cost than a high-quality lady-goat

Anne Miller wrote:Most folks get female goats and find someone with a billy to service the girls.

… & we don’t have a great means of transporting goats just yet either… so that’ll be something to figure out too… 🧐

Chris Vee wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:Most folks get female goats and find someone with a billy to service the girls.

… & we don’t have a great means of transporting goats just yet either… so that’ll be something to figure out too… 🧐

I wouldn’t recommend transporting goats in a passenger vehicle, but this sheep rode home with me just fine..?

Also.. if you do get a billy goat, please don’t try to milk him.. haha!

Chris Vee wrote:I figure it's far enough behind the house that a billy could chomp down much of the smaller trees and shrubs and I won't feel like I'm losing out on milking years with the billy-- as well, a higher quality billy will be less start-up cost than a high-quality lady-goat

It depends. I got six commercial Kiko does for $250 a piece and later splurged for a registered buck for $700. If you're keeping any of the kids, the billy is certainly the one invest in, since he'll be passing on to half the herd. Also, since I was new to raising goats, I figured in might be easier to unload a registered buck if I decide the project's not for me.

Dynamics might be different for dairy breeds; though I should add, Kiko make decent milkers since they have lots of dairy in their lineage. They're not as high yield as specifically dairy breeds, but if you're mostly going for pasture clearing, they might be a good option.

I started off with the six nannies, and then added a buck later. It worked well for me.

Karel Soukup wrote:

Chris Vee wrote:I figure it's far enough behind the house that a billy could chomp down much of the smaller trees and shrubs and I won't feel like I'm losing out on milking years with the billy-- as well, a higher quality billy will be less start-up cost than a high-quality lady-goat

It depends. I got six commercial Kiko does for $250 a piece and later splurged for a registered buck for $700. If you're keeping any of the kids, the billy is certainly the one invest in, since he'll be passing on to half the herd. Also, since I was new to raising goats, I figured in might be easier to unload a registered buck if I decide the project's not for me.

Dynamics might be different for dairy breeds; though I should add, Kiko make decent milkers since they have lots of dairy in their lineage. They're not as high yield as specifically dairy breeds, but if you're mostly going for pasture clearing, they might be a good option.

I started off with the six nannies, and then added a buck later. It worked well for me.

I'm going to have to start paying close attention to my local options and see where the price points are... 7 goats feels like a huge number to me, I'm still wrapping my head around having 1 or 2... I was completely against it at first because I know they can be quite mischievous, but since Monika wants fresh unpasteurized milk for the kiddos, so fresh milk she will get

Since you got the 6 commercial does; does that mean they are all registered?

Chris Vee wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:Most folks get female goats and find someone with a billy to service the girls.

… & we don’t have a great means of transporting goats just yet either… so that’ll be something to figure out too…

Do you not have a pickup? If not do you have a flatbed trailer?

When people came to buy my goats they came with pet carriers:

One like this for large dogs


source


source

DIY


source

Goat kid hauler


source

Goat Hauler


source

I would start with a doe, not a billy, and get more than one. Goats are herd animals, and while companions are nice, they still do best with other goats (we have goats in with several other species and they still prefer the other goats, and secondly the cows, but you don't have enough space for a dairy cow). Have you looked into rotational grazing? It takes more manual labor, but the benefits to the growth of the pasture are huge! If you manage your pasture right, you can have way more animals on it, and it will be healthier in the long run. Sheep are another option, although goats do better on woody things. Make sure you pay attention to the breed you get. We have Spanish and Nubians, and we did a ton of research before we got them. Nigerians are small, more cold hardy, and produce less "goaty" milk, but they have more kidding problems and the billies smell really badly. The Saanen's are one of the more traditional dairy breeds, but they burn in the sun and their milk has less fat and tastes way more goaty. The Nubians are quieter, escape less, and produce less goaty milk, although they produce less of it and aren't as cold hardy. The Spanish are a dual purpose breed that grows a cashmere coat in the winter, so they're really hardy, but they don't produce as much milk and they've been selected more heavily for meat production, so their udders aren't as nice. Goats do sound like a good fit though! Let us know what you end up deciding to do!

One goat alone will be highly stressed and miserable. Two is better. Four or five is best.

(Caveat: I have sheep, not goats. But I imagine this is true either way as they are both herd/flock animals with no real defense against predators except to be part of a large group.)

If you can get a few does I'd recommend starting there. If you've never had goats I wouldn't worry about milk right away, I'd start with young does and figure out a) whether you actually like having them, b) how to keep them alive and in good health, and c) how to keep them inside your pasture (since they're known for being escape artists). You can also train them to come when called (a very important skill for them to learn) and to stand quietly on the milking stand long before you actually need to start milking. Once you're comfortable looking after the does, then get your billy & learn everything else that goes with that (breeding, pregnancy, birth, milking, etc).

Since I'm here - I might as well mention a few regrets I've had since getting my first ruminants:

I didn't have secure perimeter fences up. I am using electric netting to rotate my sheep on pasture, but if the fence isn't hot enough (due to grass touching the strands) the sheep will chew on it and/or stick their heads through it. I've had a sheep pull the fence down, I've had them run through it a few times when they were feeling frisky, and a couple times a strong gust of wind has blown it over when I couldn't sink a post deep enough in stony ground. I really wish I'd done perimeter fencing first. Sheep aren't even pushy about fences the way goats will be. For goats good fencing is a definite must.

I didn't take the threat of parasites seriously enough. I originally wasn't rotating my sheep as often as I should have, and one of my ewe lambs got very sick as a result. I spent $400 getting her treated for bottle jaw (anemia) and what the vet said was the worst parasite infestation he had ever seen. If I hadn't had Katahdins (which are an exceptionally hardy breed) he said I'd have lost the sheep. Goats and sheep both suffer from the same parasites, and it's impossible to truly eliminate them, so you have to stay on top of it. The best way to do that is to keep them moving around the pasture so that they can't ingest new parasites from the eggs that they've shed in their poop.

I didn't research veterinarians in my area before buying sheep. I had an emergency soon after bringing my sheep home - a lamb choked on pelleted grain and started to bloat - and I had no idea what to do or who to call. Fortunately we got through it and the lamb survived, but that was a traumatic experience for both of us. I looked up farm vets afterward and found that the closest vet who treats small ruminants in my area is about two hours away...which is not ideal. For him to come to me it's $300 just for the travel alone, never mind the cost of any treatments. It's not a dealbreaker for me owning sheep but it's something I should have known beforehand.

I didn't have a decent winter pasture stockpiled. My sheep eat a lot more than I ever realized they would or could. Katahdins will eat browse as well, and they'll eat weeds that cows and horses won't. But I still wound up having to buy hay in mid-winter to supplement their grazing so that they didn't run out of pasture too soon. Goats will be a slightly different story as they eat more browse than grass, but keep in mind that they'll probably eat more than you expect, and you'll need to know what's going to be available to them when nothing is growing (depending on where you are and what your growing season is).

Good luck!