THE Goat Thread (merged)

[alokin]

oxj,if you move your goat in your yard,this must be a decent sized one - how big?

[EcoLayla]

Oh, I'd love to have sheep and goats!!

I researched a bit already, for where I live, your best bet is probably to go to a forum where goat keepers hang out (sorry don't know one in English language) and ask the breeders/farmers, ideally some that live near your area..

So far I've learnt yup, goats can wreak havoc of your trees and garden, they can injure one another (there are ways to prevent/minimize this), and different sorts are better in milk or meat production and some have better manners too!

It depends what kind of land you have - so far I read sheep may prefer grass and goats may prefer shrubbery.

Here in Slovenia even sheep wool is not highly priced currently, some farmers even bury or burn it due to low prices.. Sheep and goats are mostly kept to 'clean' steep terraine and such.. Some for milk or meat.. Haven't heard of goats being kept for fibre yet except online (briefly) and that's depending on the sort.

Costs - yup, fencing, worming, maybe vitamins/minerals.. Food - depends on how much land you have and how much can be homegrown.

Then again, also depends on what you had in mind - how many goats you'd have, would you do some brand awareness marketing, etc.? Would you sell these as luxury objects to trend-aware people who can afford it?

[kuidaskassikaeb]

Quick question for you all.

I want to buy some kind of heater to keep ice off the water bucket. Is there a photovoltaic and resistance heater combination you could reccommend.

[kuidaskassikaeb]

Okay no replies. My wife looked into it also and couldn't find anything that anybody liked. I have some ideas and if what I build works will post it.

[kuidaskassikaeb]

I did go and build the solar stock bucket. It was a 5 gallon black bucket. I placed it in a wooden frame and bought 2 used car windows. The car windows were placed in the frame with polyuethane foam (great stuff) and the frame was insulated using foam insulation and great stuff. The idea seems to work as in the water won't freeze all day, but will at night. The temps here are often below zero at night. So the bucket only needs to be refilled once a day, which you would do anyway. I did make the mistake of assuming that cold days would be sunny, not so, but the insultation alone seems to do most of the work. The whole thing cost about $75.00 cause I payed way too much for the car windows.

Anyway my next question is does anybody here know how to tan hides. We slaughtered the lambs and have some skins. They have been salted, but nobody knows what to do next.

[careinke]

Anyway my next question is does anybody here know how to tan hides. We slaughtered the lambs and have some skins. They have been salted, but nobody knows what to do next.

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+tan+hides&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=

[wisconsin_cur]

We fenced the front yard this year as well as some shrub land we wanted the goats to clear. We also added some Icelandic Sheep to the mix.

So far they haven't killed themselves; though one did try.

The sheep are for meat; the goats are for milk. Wool goes to the garden as mulch.

So far we have never had a problem selling the female offspring and putting the males in the freezer.