Goats - how noisy?

[Onyx]

I know that goats can have a loud cry. But I'm more wondering, on average, how often they would vocalize this way.

I'll have a one acre parcel and the last thing I want to do is move in and immediately start annoying the neighbours, even if it is a rural area where livestock would reasonably be expected. From what I've seen from google maps, doesn't look like anyone else in my area actually has any livestock. I've never actually been able to lay eyes on the land, as we are on the other side of the country and won't arrive there till later in the spring.

Is there any difference between gender/age as far as noise level?

Are there certain breeds that are quieter? I was hopefully looking at a few smaller dairy breed goats.

 

[Hens and Roos]

I think it will depend on the individual goat- we have Nigerian dwarfs-1 doe was very quite and now that she has kidded she is more vocal- at least during the day- especially at milk times.

 

[Southern by choice]

Our Dwarfs started out quiet but over time they have become much louder. Some that never made a peep became very vocal after kidding, and for a few, got worse with each consecutive kidding.
For a long time most of the does were only loud during heat for those 3 days every 3 weeks they would holler! Feeding times and milking times they always holler... they want to get milked and they see you with the feed.

2 of my dwarfs that were with us til 15-18 months never made a sound. Once they were in their new homes they screamed constantly. I have no idea why.

They are not screaming all the time but much louder now.
We have one Nubian, which are known for being loud all the time... our girl never makes a sound except when she is in heat and then she sounds like a dying cow. LOL

The bucks are quiet... we have a lot of bucks too. We only have one wether and he is quiet.

I think it depends on the goat. I would say the dwarfs aren't loud goats. Our quietest goats are Lamanchas and so far our mini manchas have been too.

 

[babsbag]

My Alpines are quiet, most of the time. I have one that is a screamer when I go to feed. Nubians have the bad rap of being noisy all of the time. And while I haven't been around many NDs on farms at goat shows they are obnoxious little screamers...all of them. Louder than the Nubians. But I haven't been around any on farms for any extensive time so that probably is not a fair judgment. Boers can be obnoxious too.

 

[OneFineAcre]

As you can probably tell from the responses, it varies from one animal to the next. I can tell you for sure, goats all have there own unique personality.

My Nigerians are pretty quiet most of the time except feeding time. And then, it's usually 2 or 3 making the noise out of the whole group of 24 animals.

 

[Honest Omnivore]

We have a half dozen NDG and one Nubian/Alpine mix doe (and her Nubian/Alpine/NDG twins). Our girls are quiet 95% of the time. When we separate them they cry to each other; does call to thier kids, kidds to siblings... This spring I'm planning on splitting the herd, the dry does and weathers will go back to help clear the brush out of our back pasture, while milking does will stay up by the house. I'll also keep our leased buck back with them while we have him and take our does out to "visit" when they're in season (NDG come in year round). I expect I'll have a lot of loud complaining when we split up the herd. The remaining kids will be together but calling to their mammas, and the full size doe will be calling to her kids (my NDG does are SO OVER their kids!). The full size mix has a very soft sweet voice, she can "yell" but generally she's very melodic. Our kids are yellers, and my NDG does are pretty quiet unless they're upset but even then they rarely get loud. Every once in awhile (less this past week with our new GP puppy out with them) something will happen, like someone repositions into someone else's space- and the kids will bang around, start talking and generally fuss for maybe five minutes in the middle of the night. Other than that you probably only hear them at milking time, and if they see us bringing feed (goaties and our LGD are convinced that the chicken scratch is THEIRS and the ducks and chickens are dirty rotten THIEVES!!!)

 

[Jenn27]

We have two Nubian Pygmy's and they are actually very quiet. They will "talk" to you when you walk up to them, or when want to be fed, but other than that, they don't make any noise at all.

 

[cybercat]

Goat vocies carry over distance. Our neighbor a few years ago had Nigerians and they were across the street. Our drive way is over 700 feet long so we are talking about a 1200 feet from our house. We could hear them clear as day. I now have La Manchas and my other neighbor can not hear them since we have them down in our valley unless it is breeding time or sometimes feeding time. La Manchas tend to be less noisy than some other breeds but they are larger tan Nigerians. But they can hear our roosters that are in the same place as the goats. I would say on a acre your neighbors will hear them no matter what.

 

[Sweetened]

All of my goats have been quiet with the exception of our biggest girl, Gladys, whos nubian/toggenburg/saanen cross. And does she BAWL! She does t even sound like a goat, but everything is a huge irdeal worth yelling about. Sometimes she drives me batty.

 

[Southern by choice]