11/24/06, 05:04 PM
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Southeast Ohio
Posts: 1,429
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Our calf was raised as part of the goat herd and started bedding down with them for the night after we weaned her. (She had her own night hutch until then, but spent day time interacting with them once she was a few weeks old.)
She's now 1.5 years old and still sleeps with them in a group calf hutch (sized for 4 calves) and is very aware of and careful with her body movements and hooves. Aunt Sandy ("the enforcer" - 2nd in command goat doe) was in charge of thunking proper etiquette into Connie the cow and taught her a lot about not being boisterous.
We just spent a lovely afternoon in the sunshine at the top of the hill today, chewing cud (humans chewing gum), with goats, humans and cow all sitting in the sun together. When Connie came to lie with the group, she gently tucked all 600+ lbs of herself in next to me and Sandy. She can do this without bumping or stepping on anyone and just gently tucks herself in. She doesn't flop down carelessly and she places each hoof very carefully so she doesn't step on anyone. The goats don't even pull their hooves away from her as she does this because she is just so gentle and body aware.
This could be quite a different situation if we hadn't brought Connie in as a tyke who was small enough for the goats to guide and train. You should also know that we don't breed our goats, so we don't put goat tykes into the mix. The shape and size of our shelter would have too many walls and corners where a baby goat could get accidentally squashed or smothered by another goat or by Connie.
In my opinion, for animals with such size difference to sleep safely in fairly close quarters requires that the animals truly understand how to interact with each other. A baby goat wouldn't have the mental facilities to sort that out and is at risk of injury until it grows in size and wisdom. A baby calf doesn't have the mental facilities either, but it's size protects it while it develops it's thinking and it's herd social skills.
There's certainly ways to make it work, as well as a lot of ways it can go wrong. Our vet is always amazed to see that the cow doesn't push, nudge or toss the goats - not even when they are fed from the same bowl. But that's only because she's a full member of the herd and the goats were able to thunk the rules into her when she was small enough to be intimidated by them and young enough to view them as parents and teachers. If we had started by putting a mental teenager cow into the herd, I'd expect we'd have a very different experience.
Lynda
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