1 of the people at Saturday's River Country RC & D grazing conference said he gets a couple dozen baby goats each spring, lets 'em eat brush all summer & then makes a profit selling "em before winter for meat.

I agree. I also have ginseng in my woods. I wouldn't want goats to eat that. It would take several years of goats eating the small plants before they would be eliminated because they will come back even after they've been eaten. I prefer to spray the new emerging plants and cutting the larger ones and painting the stumps with undiluted Crossbow.

I will say wintering goats has been a learning experience. I babied the goats with a nice shed and was rewarded with pneumonia for my efforts. Goats need good quality feed, they did not do well on hay my cows got fat on, I'm now feeding silage and alfalfa and they're doing better. I would like to go to a tmr ration but I need to find a cheap tmr first. The goats are healthiest and happiest in the woods, next year their winter accommodations will be much more spartan and I expect then to do better that way.

and I'll bet his place is full of coarse invasive stuff, nothing of value, not a native plant other than what grows out of the reach of goats. No thanks, goats are bigger problem than they are a solution.

If he just concerned about money and screw the place thats OK I guess as he owns it. Overgrazing causes real damage. Had a neighbor that grazed 4 horses in about 1 1/2 acre pasture. It looked horrible every year he had them on it. The grass was as short as any putting green except for the invasive weeds (Musk Thistle, burdock and few other lovelies that the horses wouldn't touch). When he moved out the pasture was a disaster area choked full of thistles, burdock, curly dock and on and on for at least 3 years. we moved after that point so I can't say how long it was destroyed.

Look into some of the arid areas of the world that used to have lush growth till sheep and goats got cut loose and grazed full time. No thanks.

This is a before and after of some of my property, you guys can judge for yourself if it works.

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and experience on what works for them. If goats are working for you, wonderful. Your before and after photos look good, but unless you have been using the goats for several years, your before photo will be a replay come spring. The plants in your photos are small plants. I have some plants that are 2-3 inches in diameter. One person I know who has used goats to control his buckthorn says goats don't get the larger plants. You have to take care of them yourself.

One other thing about buckthorn is that it's too bad there isn't a market for the wood. It really is a beautiful wood. One guy I knew made some really nice ornamentals out of it using a lathe.

It makes nice walking sticks.

How much $ are goats selling for right now? I need to get some by June. My 5 acres is so overgrown that I would never be able to fix it myself even if I was retired.

For the big stuff I have great success w/ cut stump treatment using Pathfinder II. For the little stuff, it's so thick I'd have to carpet bomb it w/ Roundup, which I won't do.

Luckily the price of cattle panels has dropped from last year..$30 now for 16 footers.

The experts have offered to do a formal grazing plan for me but I might (at least starting out) just try some test areas using their advice.

Proper grazing is so important that WDNR has actually hired a full time statewide grazing expert.

Good boer goats are $3 lb. You can find pet quality goats pretty cheap, under $100 a head for someone's pet they got sick of and don't want to see butchered. They'll clear 5 acres faster than you think.

I can get you the number for a guy in central mn who raises good goats when your ready. His goats have done the best for me, they're cross bred meat goats and seem hardier than others I've gotten.

Donner, consider feeding them All Stock.

https://www.theisens.com/products/prosper-all-stock-feed-55-lb

I feed silage and hay. I'm lucky to have the silage and the goats thrive on it.

The price varies throughout the year here. During Ramadan the price tends to spike. You could sell to Jews if you don't like Muslims.

Beautiful!

Give them Redmond's salt or some brand of loose mineral. Salt blocks don't deliver the minerals fast enough.

Try using diluted Crossbow for the little stuff. It says on the insert it will only kill leafy plants, not grass. I've had good luck on the little, new growth. Round Up kills everything.

I should get some Crossbow. It's on my list to look into b/c I heard it works on honeysuckle. I didn't know it works on small buckthorn.

Do female goats work just as good as males & are they any harder to care for than males?

I'll probably release my goats onto the buckthorn 6/1. I've never seen a property with so much bed straw though so I hope they don't just eat that weed instead of the buckthorn

Your response reminded me of a joke....


Two friends were hiking and came upon a big hole in the ground. One guy picks up a rock and tosses it into the hole and stands listening for the rock to hit bottom. Slam!

He turns to the other guy and says "That must be a deep hole... let's throw a bigger rock in there and listen for it to hit bottom." The men find a bigger rock and both pick it up and drags it to the hole and drop it in. They listened for some time and.... Slam!

Again, they agree that this must be one deep hole and maybe they should throw something even bigger into it. One man spots a big log nearby. They pick it up, grunting and groaning, and throw it to the hole, listening intently...... Slam! All of a sudden, a goat comes out of the woods, running like the wind, and flies past the men and jumps straight into the hole. The friends are astounded.

Tired of their hike, they walk back through the woods, and a little later meet an old farmer who asks the men if they had seen a goat. One man tells the farmer of the incredible incident they had just witnessed of the goat running out of the woods, and run and leap into the big hole. He asks the farmer if this could've been his goat.

The old farmer says "Naw, that can't be my goat, it was tied to a big log."