Anybody on HC raise goats?

[GoodOlBoy]

My wife and I are thinking about fencing off 3 acres of the property to put some meat goats on I was wondering if anybody here already raises goats.

GoodOlBoy

[royinidaho]

Had angoras for a few years. Used them to train my border collies and catahoulas.

For meat I'd recommend going with a Boar cross breed or straight Boar goats. They are meat goats. Problem is that those that have them tend to think they are worth too much.

There's a growing demand for goat meat as the illegal influx continues.:mad:

[M.T. Pockets]

If you were talking cattle I could help you. I've got a cousin that raises goats, awful cute when they're little but don't turn your back on a billy. There is a profit margin in raising them. I had a buddy raise them for a couple years and they were really no problem and they're much easier to keep alive than a sheep.

[GoodOlBoy]

If it was cattle I wouldn't have to ask :p Unfortunantly when my great grandmother lost her ever lovin mind some years back she sold off most of the farm (IE we have 5.5 of the original 38.5 left) before anybody realized she had gone off the deep end. How far you ask? She apparently now has several hundred autographs from different movie/sports/music stars that she sent from $500 to $1500 for their birthdays. . . . . I am one of her grandkids and the last time I got a present from her I was six years old and if I remember correctly it consisted of a set of dollar store crayons and a coloring book.

ANYWAY we can section about 3 of it off with no big deal (Other than the freakin cost of fencing. . . sheesh) and I figure it can support more than a couple of goats. I was leaning towards boar and or spanish.

Thanks guys. Any other advice is WELL appreciated.

GoodOlBoy

[M.T. Pockets]

Many times when I was working cattle I wish we had goats instead, I think I'd stand a better chance with them than a black angus mama protecting her new calf, I could jump a fence faster than any rodeo clown on the circuit.

3 acres seems like a good sized pasture area for goats, I'd sure do it if I were you. What kind of fencing are you looking at ? Is an electric fence practical for your area ? A good 3 strand electric fence should handle those goats and if they're well fed I wouldn't think they'd go far if they did get out. One fencer could handle a 3 acre pasture easily, you can get them solar powered if you don't have electricity close by. I know a good electric fence will keep a bull's respect, it may be a little much for a smaller goat but I wouldn't touch it to find out.

I don't know what feed costs in your area, but in Minnesota corn is under $2 per bushell, oats are much less. With livestock prices where they are I think it would be a good time to raise some.

[skeet]

Hey GOB...Used to raise goats.. meat and milk goats. Milking was a pain in the butt but there was a lot of profit in that milk... at least around here. Goat milk goes high here..as does meat goats..but we're getting a bunch of Mexicans here and they buy the heck out of them....as well as free range chickens(I'm talking half wild chickens). I have gotten 10 bucks apiece for the larger ones. An electric fence is good for goats but you have to have more than one or two strands. They'll crawl under or jump over. Do it...they are easy to raise. Watch out for rustlers. Some of my chickens got rustled. The expensive ones too.:rolleyes:

[GoodOlBoy]

Actually what I was looking in to was a field fence with three strands of barbed wire. Electric fence isn't practicle at all where I am and roughly half of that three acres is hillside leading down to a spring fed creek that hasn't run dry in anybodies memory. I raised cattle, chickens, and rabbits with my grandfather when I was growing up. Mostly we raised hereford cattle, although we had a few brangus cattle as well. I will take hereford over crazy danged brangus any day of the week myself :p

Anyway. I think I will give it a shot, if I can come up with the cash to refence the land. Thats going to be the big expense as what is there now is 60+ year old 4 strand barbed wire that is completely down in places.

What about shelter? Do I really need to worry about that in East Texas? I mean for petes sake it is 78F out today, and they are predicting 80F+! And this is typical! I had thought about putting up a three walled shed for them witha roof anyway, but I don't think I need to go alot further than that.

Opinions?

Thanks much again!

GoodOlBoy

[TreeDoc]

Interesting take on goats....

Out here a few are raising hords of the small little guys. With all the environmental concern crap about our tributaries and small rivers, & waterways our Department of Fish and Game will not let you clear them for flood control fearing one might step on a Red-legged frog or Tiger Salamander or damage their habitat. The goats are being released in the creeks and kept inbounds by temporary fencing. They're like locusts as they move down the waterway clearing vegetation as far up as they can reach. The handler just spends the night in a nice 5th wheel trailer and slowly moves the barrier fencing a little bit each day. It's pretty effective for short term growth.

[Valigator]

My Dad got a few many years back on his place, said they were a pain in the you know what....all I know is they were there one day when I visited and the next time were gone...

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I seen a goat given away as a ...self-propelled ...lawn mower one day.....the guy with the grass sure was supprised when it was delivered.....goat milk fudge...mmmmmm

[DaMadman]

a three walled slant roof would be more than sufficient for a few goats I have two goats at the house now. they are dwarfs goats and are the easiest thing to take care of.

our actually stay in a 20 x 60 chainlink enclosure and eat straw and Heffer feed (mixed oats from the amish mill)

We have a fenced in acre field but these spoiled dwarf goats would rather be in the 20 x 60 enclosure (dog run)

I built them a tin slant roof enclosure that is only enclosed to about 5 foot up and then there is an opening from the 5 foot mark to the roof for ventilation. so basically it is like a stable for the two of them my enclosure is maybe 10 foot long and maybe 5 foot wide, hay covered dirt floor and corrugated tin roof.

you really should look into the types of goats and what you are planning on doing with them and how you want them to respond to humans.

The first goat we got was from the amish down the street, she was 7 weeks old and stayed in a large pasture with her mother an 20 other goats. Even though we took her home at 7 weeks and handled her every day, even brought her inside for the first few weeks, that goat stay wild as a march hare for as long as we had her, she wasn't friendly, wouldn't let a human touch her unless you trapped her in a corner and held her down it was impossible to milk her or trim her hooves.

anyway enough of my rambling. They are very easy to take care of and if you have any specific question feel free to email me or PM me and here is another website you can go to, there are almost as many informative "goat" people on this site http://www.goatweb.com/coffeeshop/index.php ,

as there are informative hunters and gun people on huntchat.

signup for their forum and read and ask lots of questions. You will find out however raising goats is not an exact science and there are as many different "OPINIONS" on how to do certain things as there are opinions on the perfect rifle caliber.

Hope this help

[DaMadman]

BTW one last thing, if you are thinking about milk goat I would seriously recommend the Siberian Dwarf.

They are milk goats and I have seen on Siberian dwarf give as much milk as two or more full sized milk goats of a different breed.

they are small but produce lots of very good milk

[GoodOlBoy]

Preciate it DaMadman. I am looking just for meat goats at this point in time. I think I have settled on a boer(boar?sp?) mix breed.

Guess I will give it a shot as soon as I can come up with the hen scratch for fencing. Probably go with field fencing with three strands of barbed wire on top.

Anyway thanks again.

GoodOlBoy