Portable electric fence?

[freechicken]

Hi all!

We currently keep a heard of dairy goats but due to our commitment to raising as much of our own food as possible, we are considering selling the goats and investing in a cow instead. We have a small homestead and use portable electric net fencing to rotate grazing areas for the goats. Will that same fencing hold a cow and her calf? Or should we replace it with something else? Thanks in advance!

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Any fence that will hold goats should hold a cow and her calf. As long as the top wire is at nose-height to your cow (not your calf), you should be good.

 

[freechicken]

We need to invest in more to expand the pasture size. Is the electric net overkill for cattle? The fencing we have is 44".

 

[Latestarter]

Ummm just throwing this out there for thought/consideration...

If you're about self sustainability/sufficiency, why would you trade out goats in favor of a cow or cow/calf pair? Cows are much more expensive to buy, are substantially larger, need more space, more food, are more expensive to keep, cost more to fix if something goes wrong, make way more waste that is much less readily usable (wet patties vs dry pellets), take much longer to mature, much longer to gestate...

If you want milk, a cow will make substantially more milk than a goat (can you use 3-5+ gallons a day) but the gestation period of 9 almost 10 months for a cow vs 5 months for a goat means you'll either need a second cow in milk (doubling everything mentioned above), or do without for a much longer time. If for meat, a cow/steer is going to need 18-24 months to reach reasonable butcher weights.

I hope it all works out for you! Good luck!

 

[babsbag]

I agree with @Latestarter. If you want beef for meat get a steer, keep the goats, and raise the steer on some of that goat's milk. You can eat goat meat too; it is really good.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

I missed the part about *selling* the goats. I would agree with Latestarter, but I would really want to know: WHY do you want to sell the goats other than for self-sustainability purposes (and as Latestarter put it, doing so may be counter-intiuitive or setting you back instead of going more forward)? Why not sell some of the dairy goats and get some meat goats if you want to add animals for meat as well?

 

[Latestarter]

From the sig line, she only has 2 French Alpine dairy goats. That info may be out of date/incorrect, no way for me to know, but yes, a couple of meat goats could be purchased rather cheaply or maybe a couple of cross/dual purpose breeds. Then get a buck to breed with them and produce offspring for milk and meat, far cheaper/sustainable/cost effective than milk cows or cattle in general... IMHO

 

[Pastor Dave]

...but yes, a couple of meat goats could be purchased rather cheaply or maybe a couple of cross/dual purpose breeds. Then get a buck to breed with them and produce offspring for milk and meat, far cheaper/sustainable/cost effective than milk cows or cattle in general... IMHO

Ahh, that sounds exactly like what I want to do. Had a good typed "conversation" with samantha drawz earlier today about the same topic, but still having to wrestle with it and throw it around more in my mind.

 

[freechicken]

Well, we have added to our herd and now have four Alpines and a Nubian. We raise 4-5 pigs each year and feed them milk along with making our own dairy products for our own use. Boer goats are very expensive in our area so breeding our dairy goats to a boer would be very expensive- much more expensive than breeding them to a Dairy buck or even paying for AI on a cow. We attempted to raise our spring kids this year for meat but very quickly realized that in doing so we didn't have anywhere near the amount of milk we need. And I dream of butter and sour cream....

 

[Latestarter]

I do wish you luck with your decision, choice! I hope it all works out for you! Hope you'll let us know how it turns out/works for you.