Tennessee Fainting goats Qs!

[secuono]

Put up an ad wanting free critters to help eat my 4 acres of weeds. Got some emails. One is for 2 goats. I'm wondering, how big are these adult males? Will they cause issues with my sheep? They are castrated and no horns, but I'm still wondering...


"I have two male whether goats that are about three years old, they have dehorned and are healthy. You would have to come get them. They are beautiful animals, blank and white Tennessee Fainting goats but are very friendly. They answer to their names, Cowboy and Cosmo."

 

[Pearce Pastures]

They are probably a good sized goat since fainters are a meat breed. Sounds like a good deal to me but I would definitely want to see them first, then if I got them, isolate them for a good month or so and have fecal tests done before putting them in with the sheep just to make sure they are not going to pass on anything.

 

[SillyChicken]

I've heard that goats and sheep have different mineral requirements.. goats need copper and copper is not good for sheep (dangerous in fact).

 

[npacynski]

We have fainting goats - one buck included - and they aren't that large. I think it's the Texas fainters that are bigger. Our guys do have that double muscling thing (they rate 5 on the myotonia scale) but they are gentle and friendly and on the smaller side - our doe probably goes about 35 lbs. and our buck maybe 75. I wouldn't think that wethers would get as big as bucks anyway.

If Cowboy and Cosmo come when called, they sound pretty darn friendly. Wethers don't get the hormonal surge that bucks and does do, so they're very even-tempered. Fainters tend not to climb, either, so they won't be climbing your fences.

All our goats have horns - and some pretty big ones; we have 5 bucks - and I find that they're good handles and the goats never threaten people with them. Still, the absence of horns on these is a plus if they're going to be staying with the sheep.

I agree with Pearce Pastures on the isolation and fecal count thing. Goats do carry more parasites than sheep as a rule and it's a good thing to keep them on some sort of worming schedule and keep an eye on them so they don't start getting pale (we have both goats and sheep and we used to keep them together but the goats like to play a little rough).

Goats and sheep do have different mineral requirements. Goats need copper and copper kills sheep. Do you bring everybody in at night? Can you give the goats a little area of their own so you can supply their minerals there?

 

[npacynski]

One more thing - the goats that played rough were not the fainters. We have a lot of different and bigger varieties (we raise meat goats; the fainters are our pet line) that are more rambunctious. Our fainters were always easily intimidated.

 

[secuono]

The deal fell through.
I have all the ruminants out free 24/7. I don't feed anything other than hay, so if they needed copper, I would have to pen them and feed it straight. All the goats around here are too expensive, $150-600....I just want 2-4 to eat pasture, not show, not breed, not anything else...Just not worth it at those prices.