When I first became interested in the thought of raising a commercial goat herd, the first thing that came to my mind of course was “Where is the money?” as well as most people starting in the livestock business know, you don’t instantly make a dollar this is where the long nights checking your stock to make sure all is well come in.
But not for me I wanted to raise as self sustaining animal as I could, I did not have a lot of money and needed to purchase something that reproduced fairly fast with multiple offspring and were easy to manage, all signs pointed to goats.
I had researched various breeds previously and realized that for what I was doing I didn’t need registered grade “A” stock in the beginning. I would start with crosses and work up by introducing registered bucks to improve the grade doe’s and their kids keeping replacements yearly till the herd was at what I thought it’s “Peak.”
So now four years down the road my herd is finally where I want it, I have customers for meat, and breeding stock.
But there is one service these wonderful animals have to offer that is unsurpassed by any Machine or livestock species.
Brush Management, these animals are not grazers like cattle, sheep or horses, they are browsers, meaning where Sheep and cows prefer to act as mowers clearing all grass in their path, goats prefer to go for brush, weeds and other plants cattle and sheep have no interest in. So look at it in this prospective you’re a rancher who owns 100 head of cows but the ground you own is becoming overly infested with Thistle, or Wild Rose. There may still be grass that the cows can eat but when you take the cows off the field what remains? WEEDS, their still there, now to better benefit you’re herd and allow more benefit from your land use goats!
Now I’m not saying you need to run out and buy a herd of goats. There are usually more then a few people who raise goats that would be happy to let you use them to graze your pastures, it’s benefiting to parties, you as the rancher will have expanded your grazing area and the person with the goats just saved himself a few more days on his own pasture by cleaning yours.
When figuring how many goats it will take to do the job, will depend on the size of you pasture but also how badly infested is it with obnoxious growth. Five goats will eat roughly the same amount as an adult beef cow. So figure how many head of cattle you normally put out to pasture and arrange to have that many or even a few more goats put out before the cattle graze or even while the cattle are on the field.
The best thing I have seen done to show the actual benefit of goats by a good friend of mine, is to build a small square pen 4’x4’ and setting it anywhere in your field before you put any type of livestock out to graze, thus after the livestock have grazed the pasture, they were not able to get to the enclosed area showing you a before and after affect.
ATV’s and Horse back spraying work to a certain affect, they allow ranchers to control weeds within a certain area but not along steep hillsides and rocky crevices, this is an area where goats have adapted for and feel at home, so to better your control strategies allowing goats in area’s where it is near impossible for any other being to get to, this is another of the goat’s advantages.
In the end I finally decided I would put the word out the benefits of Goat Pasture management and allow ranchers to benefit from the use of my own herd. I run around thirty head of commercial meat goats, to help control Wallowa Counties constant battle with Obnoxious Weeds.
So if this is something you believe you may be able to benefit from feel free to contact me with any questions. Kade B. Goebel 75469