Getting goats.....?

Question

I am going to get a few goats to keep the horse pasture mowed down.My question is...

What breed of goats are THE BEST at keeping feilds mowed down.I dont want the type of goats that just eat whats around the fence line.

Answer 1

Goats are hard to keep in,i would be more swayed towards getting a few cast ewes they will keep the weeds down including ragwort roots as it doesnt affect them like it does cattle/horses.

Answer 2

If it's a weedy pasture, any kind of goat will keep the weeds down, provided you have enough goats for the size of the pasture.  The reason goats eat around the fence line of a pasture first, is because that is usually where the most weeds are found.

If it's a grass pasture, I recommend you consider sheep instead of goats.  Sheep do a very good job keeping grass short.

Goats are "browsers", meaning they browse the pasture, eating weeds & leaves first.  Sheep are "grazers", meaning they eat grass and keep it short.

Answer 3

Goats don't tend to eat pasture; they are more likely to go after landscaping and trees!  They are boisterous and like to roam - while they are incredibly fun and funny pets to keep, I wouldn't recommend keeping them in a horse pasture.  They will slip through your fencing so fast you won't be able to stop them.  

That being said, though, all goat breeds eat basically the same thing.  I had an alpine wether, and that is a very nice medium size breed.  Pygmies are cute but in my experience are often a lot more pushy than larger breeds because people raising them tend to coddle when they are kids.  I love nubians (the lop-eared kind) and they can be medium- to large-sized.  Toggenburgs are smaller than alpines but larger than pygmies.  

MAKE SURE that you get a neutered male (called a wether) or else a female (a doe).  Unneutered males are VERY stinky.

Answer 4

Prior to horses, I raised goats for ten years. If you're wanting grass eaten down, goats aren't even the correct animal to get. Goats eat more bushes and trees. If you want the grass eaten down, sheep are actually going to do the best job.

Answer 5

We have a saanen goat in with our horses to keep the grass down to hes got a keenel and attached to a chain coz boy can they jump but he keeps it down well

sheep youll find will graze u out completely

Answer 6

I actuary don't recommend getting a goat simply to keep the fields mowed. Goats can be problematic in my experience, they are amazing resilient to the eclectic fence and often get out, they don't eat the long grass that the horses leave, and you can have a few problems with aggression ether from the goat or the horses. If your looking for an animal to take the long grass that the horses leave, get a cow, they are pretty good at taking the grass the horses leave, but they have a bad habit of chewing horses tails. The better option is to pend off the pasture, letting the horse grass it in sections, that way they mow the grass more evenly.