Free Roaming Goats

[warthog]

Not sure if this post is in the right category, sorry if it's not.

Does anyone let there goats have free roam?

We are in the process of fencing off our bush area and making a pasture area for our goats.

We thought we might try supervised free-roaming.

We have three cats and two large dogs!!

Today we let our chicks free-roam, (they have been confined to their pen up until now).

We have not had any problems with the dogsd and cats trying to attack the chicks.

Any thoughts or suggestions out there please!!

 

[trestlecreek]

Well, it really depends on where you live, who your neighbors are, etc... a lot of variables.

 

[lupinfarm]

Lots or variables. I'm very wary about letting any animal free roam here not because of coyotes, or foxes or anything like that... but because of this stupid LGD that keeps coming over here!!! ... There is an enormous Akbash from a farm 2 roads over that keeps wandering over here (he roams about 700 acres with free roaming cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) and he comes at night which scares the crap out of me now.

For the chickens I put up some plastic hardware clothe/plastic chicken wire on step in plastic posts which allows me to "fence in" a large area so they won't wander off into the dog area (the dog is on a chain).

For goats, I'd be training/putting up electric to rotate around a large brush pasture.

 

[freemotion]

You might enjoy the book "Goat Song" by Brad Kessler. It is about his and his wife's first year with goats. He talks a lot about the history of herding and of taking his goats into the woods to browse every day. It is a sweet book. It just came out this year.

 

[beefy]

i would love to let mine free range but they wont unless i stay right with them. if i try to sneak off they start crying and come looking for me. so i have to put them in a fenced in area.

 

[skyesrocket]

"We thought we might try supervised free-roaming."

That is one of the joys of goat keeping. It does depend on your goats and how friendly they are towards you. Actually as long as your alpha female is people friendly and will follow you the rest of your herd will follow her.
Maybe you could let us know more about what it is you want to do and how many goats you have.

 

[fadetopurple]

-

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i'd say fence just to protect them from dogs and such... you could do mobile electric and move them around???

 

[warthog]

The book sounds wonderful, I will try and search it out.

I was hoping to try the free roaming today, but had to be out most of the time, 6 hour round trip getting hay. Ah Belize is wonderful

I will give it a go over the next few days, I am concerned about all my lovely plants and flowers I have around the house, but we will see.

I am lucky in that our neighbours are quite a distance away and that we don't get any stray dogs, our own dogs will not allow that.

Our dogs are quite fiendly to all our animals, and I am sure they will be with the goats once they are used to them roaming free. But all will be supervised.

If things don't go as I wish, I will consider using a portable fence of some sort, electric is not really an option for me, we are solar powered and completely off grid. I don't think we could support the extra load and I would be worried if for some reason the solar failed when we were not about.

This is all going to be a learning curve and a little scary

BTW what is a LGD and an Akbash, just curious.

I will let you all know how we get on.

 

[lupinfarm]

Livestock Guardian Dog

andd.. This is what an Akbash is, they are a type of LGD.

We have a breeder 2 roads over whose breeding stock roam the 700 acres with his animals.

And also roam onto my property -_-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbash_Dog