Questions from a goat novice

[PhilJohnson]

I have been seeing cheap and free goats everywhere. It seems like with all the job losses going on goats are finding themselves without homes too. Anyway I have been looking around my place and there is tons of long grass everywhere. Having looked around the net I haven't found much on real goat info so I figured maybe I'd see what ya'll could tell me.

I had the idea of maybe using goats to keep it down. First off are goats a fan of an all grass diet? From what I hear they like brush better. Most of my land is open. Obviously I'll need some sort of mineral stuff things but I have no idea what goats need. All my experience is with cows and chickens as far as farm animals go. Also can I get away with plain ole meadow hay during the winter? I can get all I want for free and would rather not buy hay if I can help it. I also have access to lots and lots of pine trees, from what I hear goats love pine trees. Are goats picky about water? Someone told me they don't like dirty water or dirty water troughs.

I have a few old out buildings including a three sided lean too. the dirt gets a little muddy in there so I want to put in a wooden floor so the goats are dry. It was built for horses so I figured it oughta be good enough for goats.

Any diseases to look out for? What do I have to do for maintenance for goats? Is de-horning them a good idea? I would like to start out with three to five of them. Eventually I would like to start milking them but I figure best to try and figure out how to take care of their basic needs first.

Thanks

[kreddish]

Hi there. Glad you are thinking about couple of goats.. There is a lot of information posted about goat care and health on the top five threads. Generally easy... do have deceases... smarter than you think... What about your enclosure... these little critters will take off... when they feel necessary? Good luck

[Backfourty,MI.]

I would not disbud an adult goat. If you have dry doe's or wethers they can live on the type of hay your talking about, if you want to breed or start having milking goats then there's a little more to it & they need more.
All goats need a loose mineral that is high in copper content. Like for example 200 ppm's of copper. Most goat minerals don't have that but you can use cattle minerals.
I think worm loads are the worse thing for goats & if you have a fecal done on your goats & take care of that with the right wormer for your area then your on the right track
Goats all in all are fairly easy to take care of & fun to have around, they can also get into trouble if not in the right enclosure for them, they have alot of personality & HATE to get wet.
They need a place in the winter to stay dry & out of the wind especially & I always make sure mine have a good warm shelter with plenty of straw to snuggle in.
My goats like the bark off the pine's here but don't eat the needles. They also love the poplar, apple & birch tree's.
Well you asked for alot of info & I'm sure I didn't answer all your questions but there will be others to jump in & help out too.

Fiascofarm.com is a good place for info too.

[Minelson]

Backfourty is missing a zero in her copper ppms...2000 is the number to look for. Don't get goat/sheep minerals that they sell...it's low in copper because sheep will get sick form too much but the goats REALLY need it.
Yes they need clean water and clean water buckets...but I believe all animals do. They like to sleep and rest elevated so put an old table or something in their shelter. I'm not sure what meadow hay is...it should be a good quality grass hay like for horses.
My goats eat grass but not enough to mow it down. The horses are better for that.
And like Backfourty said...www.fiascofarm.com is a wonderful website for information...
Good luck! and you will have fun with them!

[PhilJohnson]

Checked out that FiascoFarm site. Tons of good info I wonder how I didn't find it before. Thanks everyone for the replies. I am leaning more towards pygmies just to get my feet wet. They seem like they would be easier to handle but don't have much practical farm use. Not sure how they would do in my 4 foot tall grass I have that is everywhere.

Minelson, meadow hay is what people around here call hay that isn't seeded. Mostly native grasses. I don't think I would get a horse to mow my grass. Too much work, would rather get a cow



That is what I was thinking of housing the little buggers in with some modifications of coarse. It is about 20x12 I think.



Type of fencing I was thinking of using. There is loads of it around here in various piles and it the squares are about 6x6 inches so there is no way any goat is going to sneak out of that. Around the goat pen I was thinking of using a bunch of pallets for fencing.

[Goat Servant]

Go ahead & get yer fet wet with pygmies, just dont let theirs get wet hehe.
Its hard to tell about the shelter...it looks good from here but if that one part is totally open, unless it's away from prevailing wind you might want to enclose part of it.
Yes goats hate to get wet. They can handle cold weather pretty well so long as their shelter is dry & reasonably draft free. For young kids it needs to be completely draft free.
We are in the process of changing over to cattle 12:12 minerals.
Pygmies (as well as other breeds of goats) can be used for meat. In fact I believe they were originally bred for meat.
The potential problems with free & cheap goats of any kind is that you never know what you are getting into!
You dont want to get someting that may have CAE or CL (read the stickies here) then down the road decide to move up a little & find out its still in your soil.

[chamoisee]

My honest opinion? Make a "goat tractor" out of stock panel and get the free goats. Fatten them up on your grass and move the pen around. As soon as they are in good flesh, sell them at the nearest sale barn. Do not keep them any longer than it takes to get meat on their bones, and try to send them to the sale barn in batches so as to minimize your gas costs. I think if you do it this way, you should make a tidy profit.

Frankly, they are not worth keeping. You don't know if they're diseased or what. Feed 'em up on that free grass and then sell them.