Goat breed questions

[KristyHall]

I love goats milk and goats cheese. I have determined I will not get goats because I hear they are difficult to contain. I have neighbors with goats and those things are always getting out, even with electric fencing.
I will consider getting goats if I can find a milking breed that is not an escape artist and won't climb everything it sees.
Also I have heard of hobbling them. What is that? Is it like hobbling horses to prevent them from running off on camping trips?

 

[cattlecait]

I've always had a soft spots for Toggenburgs. They're sweethearts and from my experience they're not as Houdini-like as some like Nubians and Pygmies. On the whole though almost any goat is going to test the fence. Toggs have great milk production and I've heard its nice for making cheese, I've never tried myself.

Off topic but where'd you get your signature? It was on a poster in my FFA advisor's classroom but we didn't know who it was by.

 

[freemotion]

The only goat hobbles I know of are for kicking when being milked, not for grazing. Goats can be contained in proper fencing. The only escapes we have are when we (read: I) don't latch the gate properly or try to carry too many things through the gate at once and get mobbed and run over!

You may have more success with a mature, heavier goat. My mature dairy gals don't jump. Electronet fencing is highly praised by almost everyone who uses it, too, and it can be moved.

Fencing is not just to keep goats in, it also needs to keep predators out. I use 4' woven wire horse fencing with electric on top.

Bucks are more determined to escape if kept apart from does in heat. But they usually want to get INTO the pasture, not into your neighbor's yard!

I've had many neighbors over the years who were terrible at keeping their animals either contained, properly fed, properly housed, or healthy. That has no impact on how I keep my animals. So research what you need to do to keep your goats contained, and determine if it is something you want to do, based on what works for experienced goat owners, not based on your neighbor.

Goats are wonderful, as long as you keep them safe and healthy. They are so enjoyable, funny, friendly, cute, and the dairy products are amazingly delicious and healthy. Go for it!

 

[KristyHall]

Off topic but where'd you get your signature? It was on a poster in my FFA advisor's classroom but we didn't know who it was by.

I picked it up off the e-mail signature of a friend. As a child i spent a lot of summers on the powwow trail and he and his family and my family traveled together a lot. He is a big supporter of returning to the old traditions including sustainable farming.

 

[helmstead]

Escaping is not the fault of the goat, but rather the fault of the fencing. We have never had luck with electric - SOME HAVE but we haven't. Our goats rarely get out - we use field fence, woven. I have one doe who learned how to open gates, but a snap fixed that (unless we forget to snap it!)...so unless Hottie lets her pen out that way, our goats are contained.

 

[LadyNai]

We have alpines (And had them when I was a child as well) - and they can be escape artists. In fact, I have not met a goat that was NOT an escape artist. (They were ALMOST as bad as the Shetland I had as a kid, and that was bad)

What works for us are cattle panels from Rural King wired down to fence posts. The nice thing about this is that you can move your pasture around as you want, reshape, use old pasture areas for spring gardening, etc... They are not heavy, easy to move (they are awkward so I do reccomend two people) and last for YEARS. (One friend has some that have lasted since the 1970's and are STILL in use right now.)

We have only had two issues with escapes since I've been home and it's because the wiring had gotten loose (Due to undoing it to send in the does for a quick date with the buck) and the other we still haven't figured out - one of the wethers somehow got in with buck, we still don't know how he got out (we suspect the buck aptly named Butthead, simply put his head between the back legs and flipped him over the fence. Butthead is now described as Brats though mostly due to his inability to deal with humans and the fact he tried to attack the two hands that fed him)

So that's my recommendation. Cattle panels are your friends. And goats are big fun!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Escaping is not the fault of the goat, but rather the fault of the fencing.

I have 48" woven wire with a single strand of electric 6" off the woven fence. It works wonderfully and I"ve never had anyone escape.

I love my Oberhaslis. They're calm and don't challenge the fence much. June never has. Theo, my buck did at first, but he was in the small pen with no electric.

 

[rebelINny]

Haha! Butthead is a good name for a buck LOL. We use cattle panel also for our adult goats however if you want kid goats to stay in I would suggest some real good heavy duty goat paneling as I have had kids jump up past the small squares and right through the larger one's higher up much like a lion jumping through a ring of fire

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

We use field fencing. Mine don't make an effort to escape from a secure fence. Just be sure shelters small enough to jump on top of are far enough from the fence that they don't have an obvious route over the top of the fence. Even my buck stays put.

 

[lilhill]

Never had an escape here in 6 years. We did have one incident when hubby walked out of the pen and left the gate wide open. A couple of the does walked thru the gate and just stood there because they didn't know what to do. I had to go up to the barn and they were so happy to see a familiar face they followed me back into the pasture and the gate was shut behind them. I totally agree that if you have proper fencing, you won't have escapes. Oh, yeah, you need a hubby that remembers there's livestock behind that gate, too.