raising goats in Montana

[dbarjacres]

I posted two threads today in CF and GH about possibly moving to the Livingston/Bozeman MT area soon. I'd like to know if any of you goat people are near that area or what it's like raising goats as a hobby out there (we are in WI).

I have a herd I try to keep under 15 of Nigerians and Mini Manchas.

We were out by my mom near Livingston a couple weeks ago and I just drooled over the hay they were feeding their horses. It was green, green, green, looked to be orchard grass (or similar to what we have for orchard) with a tiny bit of alfalfa. No big stems, all looked very edible. I wanted to eat it myself lol! Any idea what kind of hay that'd be? It was local to SW Montana off irrigated fields. Or what kind of protein levels something like that'd carry?

We have two standard donkeys here that we probably won't bring with. They are seperate from the goats and I think they would probably kill any goats that got in by them because of their actions. I've tried a llama before but the darn thing was aggressive to me, but thinking that'd be an easier thing to keep with the goats and then we'd tie our farm dog out near the goats too (or maybe put him in there - he is a Bernese Mtn. Dog and very gentle). We don't have any predator losses right here, altho we know there are wolves moving in the area.

Thanks!

[Steph in MT]

I live just outside of Roundup, MT and have a small herd of pet Pygmies, a few meat goats, and a few sheep that happily free-range on my unfenced 20 acres and never leave. They survive the winters fine with dog houses to escape the weather. We call the place with all the little shelters our goat ghetto as it's a mish-mash of yard sale dog house finds.
They could survive nicely on the browse that grows here, but still come running to steal the horses' and donkeys' hay- especially if it has alfalfa in it...
Good luck on your possible move to Big Sky Country!