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Oz Jon

Just curious -

What is the main pay-back from keeping goats?

The wool? The meat? or selling the stock increase from breeding?

There's also the milk, of course.

(I just don't see you milking goats every day Paul - so that's out! -Lol!)

 

Re electric fences - I guess that after an animal has got a couple of shocks off a fence, they keep away from it.

So, later, it may not matter if it's "on" or "off" as long as they think it's "on"

ie. Animal psychology at work - or are animals very slow learners?

 

ps. maybe just keeping the grass and scrub under control? I understand that goats eat just about anything.

Edited by Oz Jon
afterthought
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andy
3 hours ago, Oz Jon said:

maybe just keeping the grass and scrub under control? I understand that goats eat just about anything.

 

Not as much has pigs, they will root-up the land for you too.

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Parrothead
5 hours ago, Oz Jon said:

Just curious -

What is the main pay-back from keeping goats?

The wool? The meat? or selling the stock increase from breeding?

There's also the milk, of course.

 

Well, I have never personally checked on anything regarding selling goats, or any other livestock here, to be honest. I am in it solely for the self-sustainability aspect of homesteading. As long as I am alive, there is no need to sell any of the animals. Now is the time for us to build our livestock numbers. I just want to make sure our flocks reproduce enough each year after I am gone, that she could sell in order to support herself.

 

If she has enough calves being born each year or two, for example, she will be able to sell X number of them (if necessary) to support herself, while still maintaining the herd size. This applies to any and all livestock we end up with. It just so happens goats and pigs (not really what she wants), and maybe a goose or two (if isolated from each other) is what I would like to have next. 

 

Unfortunately, with both goats and pigs here, it seems as though an electric fence is about the best (and only?) way to keep them confined within a given area. I have also read that, as long as goats are happy in a given area, they will not try to escape. Please keep in mind, I am going only by what I have learned from talking with other people. 

 

5 hours ago, Oz Jon said:

(I just don't see you milking goats every day Paul - so that's out! -Lol!)

 

I think you know me all too well, sir. I am best here in a supervisory capacity - in a hammock with a drink in hand. :D :rofl: 

 

5 hours ago, Oz Jon said:

Re electric fences - I guess that after an animal has got a couple of shocks off a fence, they keep away from it.

So, later, it may not matter if it's "on" or "off" as long as they think it's "on"

ie. Animal psychology at work - or are animals very slow learners?

 

I think most animals probably learn, especially if you put some sort of flags on the fence wires, so they will associate them with the pain of touching the fence. They should learn their boundaries fairly quickly. 

 

As @andy has mentioned and from what I have heard others say as well, goats (and sheep) have thick coats(?), thus being able to handle the jolt transmitted from the fence wire, more than a thin coated animal would. But, I understand they are also little versions of Houdini and are escape artists. So, you cannot leave them any way out. If you do, you will be rounding up your goats from other farms in your area.

 

Pigs, apparently, will always "test" an electric fence. If it ever is off, they will be gone like a shot. 

 

This is exactly why I intend to add a relay to my fence charger mains circuit. Mains will be its primary power source, with a single solar panel, a small charge controller and battery, attached to the 12vdc input side of the fence charger. If mains power is cut, solar will automatically continue powering the fence charger. 

 

5 hours ago, Oz Jon said:

ps. maybe just keeping the grass and scrub under control? I understand that goats eat just about anything.

 

Many years ago, I heard that you always rotate cows into a paddock, before goats. Supposedly, the reason is the cows will bite the grass down to the ground only. The goats will pull the grass up by its roots, thereby destroying a grass paddock. No idea if this is true or not. Again, only something I heard, ages ago.

 

 

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Oz Jon
20 hours ago, Parrothead said:

 

............ Now is the time for us to build our livestock numbers. I just want to make sure our flocks reproduce enough each year after I am gone, that she could sell in order to support herself.

 

If she has enough calves being born each year or two, for example, she will be able to sell X number of them (if necessary) to support herself, while still maintaining the herd size. .....

 

 

Ah! ... I can relate to that concept.

Getting required income from "capital gain" while preserving/growing the capital! Just what I've been doing for years in the stock market

That's how capitalism works (and it works very well).

 

Cheers

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