Goats and Cows?

[Kathy'sKID]

We've been thinking about getting a cow, and I was wondering if we could pasture it with our goats? They would have about a 2-acre pasture, and most likely would be boer goats, if that makes a difference. I'm just wondering how things will go between them? Never had a cow before, lots of studying to do before hand, I'm just afraid she (the cow) might beat them up? We would love to get a miniature cow, but I don't think we'll be able to find one in our area or for a price we can afford, so most likely we'll be going with a Dexter. Any thoughts? Experiences? All appreciated!

[chas]

18 cows and 34 goats all of varying ages simply ignore each other in my pastures.
The horses are a diffrent matter.My boar/mancha buck kept chasing our quarter gelding till he had enough and caved in the bucks right eye with one well placed kick!
The kids crawl all over the gelding when he lays down,We laughed once when he had 4 of them on him at once.
Oh yeah the first year the gelding came the goats chewed his tail down to a prickly looking club .Now he protects his tail, and the mare they ignore completly
Chas

[prairiecomforts]

I don't know about goats and cows - but I will tell you about my expreience with sheep and cows. (We have both sheep and goats - but we run them seperate.) Anyway - every year the neighbor who lives north of us, gives the kids a bottle calf to raise. It is usually one that needs a little TLC - one that won't suck off mom, something like that. Once the calf is about a month old, we let it go in with the sheep. They kind of adopt the calf into their group. It's actually kind of cute! I have never had any problems with doing this. The calf usaully stays with the sheep until it (the calf) is about a year old (that's when we sell it) and it has worked well. I have never had a calf in with the goats, but I am sure it would be much the same. I will however warn you of something - it is imparative that you never let lambs or goat kids in the same pen with a heifer and her new calf. One year some lambs got in with a bunch of the neighbor's first time heifers and the results were very very bad.

[Shazza]

I have a Saanen buckling and a Toggie buckling that live with my Dexters and Red Polls (17 head)...and they quite happily all live and eat together. We have a lot of Gorse along the creek so the boys are always in that....but they soon learnt to keep out the way of the horned Dexters when all the heads are in the Hay troughs.

[MillsFarmFamily]

The only time we had any trouble with our cows and goats was when we were feeding them in the winter. Cows and goats would run to us at feeding time and some times there was a "traffic jam", and cows would try to "push" goats out of the way. In general, they don't even act like they see each other. We actually have several fields separated and cows and goats are the only ones that share a pasture. Good luck )

[lgslgs]

Our herd is 8 goats and one bottle raised heifer who's now about 18 months old. The herd adopted Connie and one of the goats (Sandy) acts like the calf's mom.

They seem to know she's a different kind of animal, but they also knew as soon as they saw her that she was a tyke who needed a family.

The goats do a great job of training her to be gentle and they all bed down together in the same shelter. Connie doesn't step on toes (goats or ours) or whack anyone with her tail - the goats taught her plenty of good manners. They've also thunked her enough that she doesn't rush in first at feeding time and they all share the same big bowl - there's some nudging, but she knows not to sass the senior goats.

We let them out on 15 hilly wooded acres during the day, and sometimes Connie goes off on her own to do cow stuff for a while. Most of the time they eat and travel together, and if Connie wants to find them she gives a big moo and then puts her nose to the ground and finds them by smell!

She also no longer kicks when she runs unless there is absolutely no one else around. And when she comes running down the hill, the goats have trained her to put on the brakes and walk the last little bit to join the herd.

Now that she's bigger and has pretty good goat manners, the goats don't thunk her much and just have to make ears at her or raise hackles to give a correction. They also touch foreheads to her head or side as a "thunk reminder" and stand in front of her and guide her around to reminder he of her place in the herd.

Buddy the wether halter trained her for us! We'd go for evening walks and tie her halter rope to his collar. He knew when she was unsure and when she was just being a bit willful and knew just how to keep her moving.

Lynda

[lgslgs]

Here's a pic of the mixed herd from earlier in the year Mixed herd photo

Lynda

[ozark_jewels]

We run our Jersey milk cows with our herd of dairy goats. The only big drawback I see is that you *must* have an area where the goats can get into the barn and the cows cannot. We do not use a barn for our cows so we just ran our electric fence up high enough around the barnyard that the goats can go under and the cows cannot. The barn is inside the barnyard, obviously.
Oh, and I do get nervous when the cows have new calves and are in the protective mode..........Personally I would rather rotate the cows and goats, one after the other, but until I can afford more fence and a better watering system, this is not going to happen......So our cows and goats co-exist quite well as long as the goats can get into the barn and the cows cannot. The goats are also fed inside the barnyard away from the cows.

[glenberryfarm]

Our Jersey cow hangs with our Nubian goats and sheep. They pasture nicely together-they all like something different. The goats love to sleep with the cow-I guess because she is like a furnace in the winter.

[ozark_jewels]

Originally Posted by glenberryfarm

Our Jersey cow hangs with our Nubian goats and sheep. They pasture nicely together-they all like something different. The goats love to sleep with the cow-I guess because she is like a furnace in the winter.

Be very, very careful if you have little kids if your goats sleep with your cow......I speak from experience....

[Sher]

Dexters and goats run together here. In one pasture we have part of our horned Dexters, including Woody the bull and part of the boer herd, including Micky the buck.

All seem to get along quite well. If a Dexter doesn't like something..they shake their head at the offender and the goat skips off..that's about it.

We do however, have places that are accessible only to the goats..they have a "short" spot in the fences to get away if need be. They also get their hay fed there so there isn't compitition between the cows and goats for it.

Good luck .. and enjoy!

[Bearfootfarm]

Id think that unless you plan on feeding them a lot of grain and hay that 2 acres isnt enough for a cow and more than a couple of goats A cow eats about as much as 6-8 goats.

[pokyone42]

we have two steers that we raised from day old calves...
One is a holstein, who is absolutely FINE with the goats.. the other is an Ayreshire, who would kill any goat given the chance.. (he would kill us, too.. lol)

SO, we do not keep the goats with these steers.. We refuse to raise an Ayreshire again......He is just too hard to handle... (He acts too bull-ish.. attacks us, the goats, etc.) The vet "dehorned" him as a calf, but he is now a gorgeous Ayshire with 8 inch horns... and he will use them every chance he gets.....

I am happy to hear about other people's stories of raising cows with goats... that is encouraging! Maybe in the future.....

[Kathy'sKID]

Thanks for all the replies!

I was concerned that 2 acres wasn't enough for a cow, but have been told it is possible, so thought we'd give it a shot. That said, we do have a heard of 15 goats (7 adults - 8 kids @ 4 months) on 3/4 acre, and that seams to be plenty for them.

Again, thanks for all the input!