Goat Questions! HELP!!

[mcmichael8]

Hi,

I am looking to purchase 2 goats. I know nothing about goats but would like to learn and are interested in raising them on about an acre. Could you please give me some direction as to what type goat would be best? I have heard for cleaning a lot a "scrub" goat would be best.

Thank you for any help that you can give.

Sincerely,

R.T. Mcmichael

[dale anne]

Originally Posted by mcmichael8

Hi,

I am looking to purchase 2 goats. I know nothing about goats but would like to learn and are interested in raising them on about an acre. Could you please give me some direction as to what type goat would be best? I have heard for cleaning a lot a "scrub" goat would be best.

Thank you for any help that you can give.

Sincerely,

R.T. Mcmichael

a pygmy is a great goat to start with..they will eat just about anything they can get ahold of.....i raise them and they tend to have a good nature if handled as babies...if you can find bottle raised babies go for it...get unregistered goats first till ya learn a bit about them ...no since in spending good money and possible kill them or have them die on you...a good book to read is called goats guide 101 might be able to pick it up on halfdot.com if not i think caprinesupply has it...or amazon.com......any goat will eat weeds but be careful what it is they are eating it can kill them...if i were you i would first learn basic care of them such as taking care of bloat,what they eat,how much to feed so on...i was thrown into the goat world when 2 bloddy babies were put in my lap and I was told by a so called friend lol....tend them or they will die...well i knew nothing about them...found this website and took off from that...now i currently have 8 goats...2 nannies due to kid in august.....2 does that will be bred next heat they come into....when getting goats also start with does...bucks tend to like to break down/jump/climb/eat fencing and they smell bad...wethers are also good to start with...horns can hurt ya!...so might wanna consider a polled[dehorned] goat...mine have horns but we also have coyotes/bobcats/and a number of wild animals that eat goats...the two kinder bucks i have are going to be disbudded[dehorned] and castrated[wethered] cause i want them for packing and cart pulling but not to breed...good luck...alot of good folk here that will lead ya in the right direction with good info...dale anne

[Eunice]

What type of goat you would need depends on what you would like to use them for. For dairy goats, it depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for quantity of milk and kids, Alpines are a good choice. For taste, Saanens are good, or Nubians, but both tend to be rather noisy. Nubians more so than Saanens. For meat goats, Boers are a very popular meat goats, and ideally suited to the purpose. As for 'scrub goats' to eat brush and weeds and such, any old goat will do. Pet goats, small ones such as Nigerian Dwarfs or Pygmys do well. Be careful, though, and know what you are getting yourself into. Goats are like potato-chips. You can never have just one.