# Goats and Turkeys sharing pasture?



## Amaggio (Nov 19, 2019)

Hi everyone, I'm new to turkeys and goats but I'm playing around with the idea of having them share pasture. I know housing chickens and turkeys together can come with its own challenges, such as them sharing diseases, especially Histomoniasis/Blackhead. Then I had this idea that perhaps I could have my turkeys and goats share pasture, since goats like weeds and turkeys like grass. Does anyone know if something like this would work? I wouldn't think they could share diseases and having turkeys and maybe even a few guineas with the goats would protect them from the tick population in the area. I could also rotate the turkey's pasture ahead of or behind the goats, similarly to what others have done in order to have goats and sheep share pastures. My biggest concern is that perhaps the goats would get aggressive with the turkeys but if they were around fowl from a young age maybe it wouldn't be a problem?

PS: I am also posting this question on the sister site Backyard Chickens but wanted to get some experienced goat owner's opinions.

Thank you in advance.


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## farmerjan (Nov 19, 2019)

I would look to do some sort of rotation, "lead/follow" but cannot tell you which should go first.  But I rather think the goats would be first so the grass is shorter, which will allow the turkeys to find the bugs closer to the ground.  lus the goats will be less likely to graze where the turkeys have pooped;  the turkeys will have no qualms about scratching through any animals manure....The only problem I see with them together, which in general I don't think would be that big a deal;  EXCEPT for coccidiosis in the  younger animals.  "Supposedly" , coccidia is species specific.... but we have seen too many cases of coccidiosis in calves when raised in a stall that had turkeys  years before.... it is easily treated, but I just don't believe the "experts" on that.  The turkeys will be  agile enough that the goats shouldn't be able to hurt or bother them much unless they are too crowded.  Turkeys were often run in orchard pastures to keep down the different "bugs" that caused problems in the fruits.  Today, they would rather use chemical sprays etc.....
We have cattle and sheep and the chickens can get out with the sheep.  Plus I used to free range chickens at a cattle pasture to use them to help spread the cow patties etc..


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## Amaggio (Nov 23, 2019)

Thank you for your response and sorry for the late reply. I like your rotating suggestion and i will have to look more into the potentual coccidia problem. If I rotate them I wouldn't think that would be a problem, as you said they wouldn't get down to the turkey's manure, but I'm still learn ng so i will take some time to research it. I appreciate you sharing your experience.


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