Brush Eaters in Missouri Wanted

[BJ]

We are looking for 3-4 brush eating goats to run with our cattle, hoping the goats will eat the multiflower roses and other noxious brush that the cows won't eat.

What large breed do you recommend? Does anyone in the Kansas City surrounding area have any they want to sell??? We'd like to find some to buy to use for the summer & some that perhaps the owner might like to buy back in the fall.

We hope to find some that can stay with the cattle that don't need to be put up at night, but perhaps that isn't possible with goats? Guess we need some of those wild Ozark/Arkansas goats that run the mountains!!

[Scrounger]

You are in prime goat country - there are tons of them in Northern Missouri. If you do get some, they will need shelter from the weather. Mine have a favorite French food. It's called:Multiflora Rose....

[MandersGoaters]

BJ where are you located? I live about 30 mintues north of KC, I might have a few boer goats to sell, they are yearlings ready to kid in about a month, they were bred at the end of jan.
If you don't want bred yearling does, you can go to the St. Joe auction, june 13 (i belive it's the second thursday of every month) at 6pm
but if you don't want to deal with the kidding part, you can just get a few weathers..hope this helps!!

[sgian]

Thing about goats, breeds that are hardy in one region might not be so hardy in another. Also, some breeds are better escape artists than others. Older goats in my limited experience tend to eat more of the branches, whereas younger goats tend to focus on the leaves. I haven't seen a goat yet that does not love rose bushes. Also, for brush and small trees, it is better if they have well developed horns like in the pic below, so they can break off branches and tear up bark. Notice the chips in the sharp edge between his horns, that is from trying to break things with his horns.


If it is just for brush and not for meat or milk, then I'd recommend a spanish goat. Since they ran wild in North America for centuries, they are acclimated to this environment and hardier here. The disadvantage of Spanish goats is that they are excellent jumpers. 4-5 strands of barbed wire like some cattle pastures have will not hold them. My Spanish buck can clear a 4-5 foot fence with no problem. If he was feeling lazy, he would jump in between the strands of barbed wire I had above the field fencing. Now I have two layers of field fencing that brings it to nearly 6' tall, and it is containing him so far. However when I have some brush or poison ivy to clear, he and what i suspect is his daughter are my go-to goats. I stick a leash on them, try to tie them where they are less likely to get tangled, and periodically go out to untangle them since some goats will find a way to get tangled on a leash when it doesn't even seem possible. (I would not recommend leaving a goat on a leash permanently, that is one way to get them killed.)

Here is an example of his work, I think it is a pear tree but it won't bear fruit this year. He will stand up on trees, bend the branches so he can reach them, and he will use his horns to debark and snap branches. (Also notice that it is outside of his pasture but he still managed to get at it.)


Fainting goats are also hardy for this region since they were developed in Tennessee about two centuries ago, and they are smaller so I've heard that they aren't as good at jumping out of pastures. However, they do collapse when started, which might not be a good thing with cattle and large pastures.

Boer goats tend to be easier to contain with typical field fence, although there are exceptions. I have one Boer that will climb any fence I have except for the 6' fence so far. I have another boer that is terrified of leaving the pasture, and will try to get back in when I let her out. They are beautiful goats and popular for meat, but here in my area of the Ozarks they haven't been very hardy (too wet).

The Nubians I have won't try to escape unless they are following the herd. One seems very hardy, another isn't so hardy.

I've had mixed results with Kiko mixes. Both were very sweet goats and easy to get attached to, they were friendly and had lots of personality. The one with LaMancha ears was very sweet (except to dogs and any female goat that tried to boss her around, she was the only goat that my guard dog was scared of). I don't know what one died of, the other died of her and my stupidity. She would only stay in the pastures at night, during the day she would climb or jump her way out. So I leashed her, and she got her leash tangled in her own legs next to a pond and fell in.

There are other breeds, but I'm not familiar with them.

[BJ]

Originally Posted by sgian

Thing about goats, breeds that are hardy in one region might not be so hardy in another. Also, some breeds are better escape artists than others.

Wow...Thanks Sgian for the great information. Never having had goats I find it so fascinating that they spend so much of their time trying to get to the other side of a fence! My only experience with animals trying to leave their happy home is with a bull...who looks for more work once his assigned herd is bred.

We have 40 acres and a LOT of multiflower rose, poison oak and ivy and buck brush. DH and I have spent years handclipping and mowing brush...I've got the scars from the roses and ivy breakouts to prove it! So...we've now come to the conclusion that we are never going to get ahead of the problem without goats.

I also didn't realize how goats used their horns....amazing!! Our property is fenced and cross-fenced with field fence w/barbed wire on top. We think goats with horns would be added protection against possible predators, however, we have heard they will get horns caught in fencing pretty easily. Since we don't yet live on our acreage, that would be our only concern. DH visits about every other day to check cows and calves, but don't want anything to get caught in wire.

So...you've given us several goat breeds to consider...now we will have to see what we can find in this mid-Missouri area at a reasonable price. We are anxious to get some soon to start fighting the brush problem for us...now that the ticks and chiggers are in full swing, I won't be spending much time in the woods.

[sgian]

Getting the head stuck depends on the size of the hole, the size of the horns, and the shape of the horns. The Spanish goat I posted a pic of has horns that are too big to get through a field fence. Goats with horns going straight back can usually get themselves unstuck, and goats with horns almost straight up (like a Kiko) can't stick their heads through once the horns are big enough. It is the horns going back at an angle that give a goat trouble. I have one goat (a boer mix) that occasionally gets her horns stuck.

You know the phrase the grass is always greener on the other side? Some goats are like that. Other goats think they are people and want to be near the house (or inside if the door is open) rather than stuck in a pasture with other goats. And some goats are just stubborn and contrary, so they will do exactly what they aren't supposed to do just because they think they can.

Goats tend to prefer running than fighting predators (except my Kiko who would try to charge my guard dog whenever she saw him). However, a horned goat that feels like fighting can really mess up a dog. They will either ram at full speed, or raise up on their hind legs and put all their weight through the horns into their target. If the horns stick out like a Spanish or Kiko, they may also hook with them.

Personally I prefer horns because they provide a good handle when moving or treating them, for their self defense, and because it seems cruel to my wife and I to dehorn a goat. We have one goat who was badly dehorned, and once in a while the thing growing over the spot over the horn comes off and bleeds. However, for goats who won't be getting much supervision and for whom there is a danger of them getting their heads stuck if their horns are at the right angle for getting stuck, dehorned goats are certainly understandable.