Using goats to clear one acre of forest

[Pinetop Hunting]

How many I need to clear an acre of undergrowth with goats and how long u reckon it'll take em?

[o&itw]

How many goats you got?

[jwal10]

Too many variables to know. Where are you, how much brush, rainy area or desert. 1 MAY do it IF you wait long enough....James

[Pinetop Hunting]

Western tennessee. Hilly hardwood forest land with lots of underbrush

[Alice In TX/MO]

Get ten or twenty and then watch.

[SeaGoat]

Depends on how fast you want it done.
I have 4 adults on a 1/4 acre since December and they still havent cleared it.
Its a mix of blackberries, honey suckle, small trees, poison ivy, and an assortment of other vines and junk.

Weve had a super wet summer so things are vigorously growing.

[Pinetop Hunting]

I'd say within 2 years cleared out. My property sounds the same as what you described.

[mygoat]

If you just want the ground cleared I'd talk to either another goat raiser in the area and ask if they want free grazing on your property. You'd have to have good fences, and take good care of them and do whatever the owner wants, though. Or, I'd go to the auction and buy a whole bunch of cull goats, overload the land, and then sell them as soon as the area is stripped. GOOD FENCES are necessary! If it's just an acre it will not take long. Then resell at auction. I do NOT suggest the auction if you want to KEEP goats or raise them - auctionhouse is about the worst possible way to start with breeding stock. But for clearing land only, it probably doesn't matter.

For an acre, I think you could put out 10-15 and have it pretty well browsed in short order. But it will vary depending on your situation.

[Bret4207]

To really clear an acre of heavy under brush will take a while. I have 130 sheep and half a dozen goats I'm moving through dense underbrush in a 164' square enclosure. That's a little over half an acre. They will eat everything up to 4 foot or so high in 2 days and trample anything they don't eat. In 3 days they'll start stripping bark off trees, 4 days they'll be pawing the ground for roots and looking for a way out. Thing is if you come back 2 weeks later the grass is growing, the brush has new leaves, the briars are sending out new growth. You have to hit it over and over again for a couple years. And a bush hog or chainsaw, even a couple kids with loppers, is a big help.