> From: Mike Bloor <admin@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:admin@xxxxxxxxxx>>
>
> i. It's important to understand that showing a goat a fence is like
> showing a person a crossword puzzle. It's simply something that needs solving.
> ii. You don't have to milk the females. We had female goats for years
> and never milked them.
> iii. None of the females we had ever had the offensive smell you get
> off some billy goats.
Yea, what Mike said!
Further regarding fencing, the key to fencing goats is to make life more
attractive *inside* the fence than outside it.
If your fence runs along a bare gravel driveway, they're unlikely to get out.
If it runs along your vegetable garden, say "goodbye" to your vegetables!
Aggressiveness is the result of poor genes and/or poor training. None of ours
are the least bit aggressive. I get rid of any that are, and breed for sweet
disposition. Intact males (bucks) are much more likely to be aggressive than
females (does) or neutered males (wethers). What some think is "aggression" is
generally affection! They love to rub their heads on their favourite humans!
Only the bucks stink, and only during rut, which runs from September through
about March. Neither does nor wethers smell bad, although if kept in unclean
conditions, their house may smell bad.
The biggest challenge in using them for brush control and lawn-mowing is indeed
fencing. We control ours with three strands of electric. We have five paddocks
that we rotate them through. When they start getting out, we know it's time to
move them to a new paddock — see my first point, above!
If you don't do quick rotational grazing, they will over-graze the stuff they
like and not bother with things they don't like, living you with a field of
weeds. So you do need to rotate them. Also, things that sting (nettles and
thistles, in our region) are not that attractive, but if you go knock them down
with a scythe, they'll gladly eat them after they've been cut for an hour or
two.
Jan
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