Re: Goat pasture. What to do with waste hay?

Larry Caldwell wrote:
In article <c0ikb2t11e2lmjdveu1i00dfnna0k4ej0b@xxxxxxx>, Bill (Bill) says...


I don't really know goats, but our renter has goats and cattle. His
claim is they basically don't compete for the same food much, and
goats can eat down things competing with the cattle foods. He says
they also save some cost on herbicides since they eat weeds down.


It's true. Goats think thistle flowers are gourmet items, tiny artichokes with thorns. It was fun to watch them turn their heads upside down to get at the base of the thistle, nip the bud off with their front teeth, and chew it up without getting poked. Like sheep, they can even tolerate tansy ragwort in their diet, though they don't care much for the taste. They will eat the blossoms.

Past that, most graziers think a weed is just something the cattle won't eat. Birdsfoot trefoil, clover, grass, lamb's quarter, pigweed, Queen Anne's lace, it's all good pasture. I don't know of any graziers who use herbicides on their pasture.

I cleared several acres of brush one time by running an electric fence around it and turning half a dozen feeder pigs and a herd of goats loose in it. Three months later you could walk anywhere. You couldn't run pigs with cattle because the rooting would mess up the sod for the cows.

Goats are certain death on young trees, and can severely damage older trees by girdling them. They're great for brush control, though.

Don't know if OP is still reading and/or interesting, but here's a link for you: http://www.caprinesupply.com/
I haven't had goats for a while, and didn't know for sure if they were still around. Thought they would come up in the first search I did, but they didn't. They have good products, and good info. Their catalog is a keeper - or at least, it used to be.

SueK
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    (misc.rural)