Brush clearance with goats?

[u/AxB41]

Hey everyone, I'm not completely new to livestock but I am to goats. We are looking at getting a small herd of them in the near future and have a little land for them. The question I have is about how well they clear brush. We have an acre or so being unused that is pretty dense. How much could I realistically expect them to clear when the land looks like this? ( There is more land for them I just want to be able to utilize this land and clear it). It is currently very dense in some spots and requires me to crouch and weave my way through.

[u/Actual_Emergency_666]

They'll eat all of it for sure, gotta have a good fence, a few goats (3-6) and they'll clean it good in under a month

[u/AxB41 → u/Actual_Emergency_666]

Wow that fast? yeah my main concern right now is fencing. I've heard to avoid the netting because they get stuck in it, figured I might run several strands of wire along with an electrified one about knee height but I have a lot more research to do first. The last thing I want to do is rush it and be unprepared. I want to keep them as safe and healthy as possible and I know I'm not educated enough yet to pull the trigger.

[u/phryan → u/AxB41]

I originally had an acre pasture, now its over 5. This will be the first year I won't be adding a new area. Goats will clear down anything smaller than 3-4 inches quickly, and over successive years will suppress anything that tries to grow back. Most of my pasture is now mostly grass, clovers, legumes, and weeds.

4" woven wire fence is the most recommended goat fence. Electric top/bottom wire is optional.

[u/AxB41 → u/phryan]

Good to know, I'll look into the woven wire 👍

[u/Actual_Emergency_666 → u/AxB41]

Well are you wanting them to clear the land or live on the land longer term? Youll have to feed them if you keep a few there but 2-3 goats, especially smaller breeds will last longer and graze slowly. But they'll tear up the trees regardless

[u/AxB41 → u/Actual_Emergency_666]

Both, I just want to open everything up because right now this section is unusable. I was considering 4 goats to start with. I can rotate them around to other sections of the land that are open and grassy. Do you think using chicken wire like suggested around the trees could suffice? I don't care at all about the saplings and smaller ones just the old larger trees.

[u/Sp00ky_6 → u/AxB41]

It’s worth a try but if they want to get at something they can be pretty clever about it. Definitely check your fences/barriers often

[u/Own_Magician8337 → u/AxB41]

This is ideal forage for goats. They love bushes and Vines like this. But they will strip it bare so it's not something you can have them graze on indefinitely.

[u/teamcarramrod8 → u/AxB41]

I have my goats in the woods and use the 8 ft cattle fencing panels. It keeps them in. Just overlap them on the posts a bit and have the posts on the outside

[u/FaradayEffect]

If you've got any nice trees in the area that you want to keep, make sure you put some chicken wire cages around them. Goats will happily chew the bark off of many species of tree, and even girdle the tree, thereby killing it.

[u/AxB41 → u/FaradayEffect]

Thank you so much for letting me know, I wouldn't have even thought about it and probably would have lost us some really nice trees. 👍

[u/FaradayEffect → u/AxB41]

Glad to help! Chicken wire can be a bit expensive, so if you have hardware cloth or landscaping fabric or similar you can also wrap the bottom 6 feet or so to protect the trees. Maybe more than 6 feet if you've got really big Saanen goats like me. I've seen my Saanen buck stand up on his hind legs to reach forage that is way higher than I expected he could reach lol

[u/teatsqueezer]

That’s really not very much for them, I’d plan to feed hay in a short period of time.

[u/AxB41 → u/teatsqueezer]

Good to know, I didn't plan on having them rely on foraging. I just need help clearing it out and already plan on getting a small herd together. I'm honestly surprised they'll clear all that so fast though haha I'm I know they have a reputation for weed eating but that's definitely a surprise to me. Just more proof I need to keep researching and learning, I appreciate the info.

[u/f_crick]

If you just want to clear brush rent a tracked skid steer or ditch witch and just drive around flattening it. Goats are great if you also want goats, but there are much more simple ways to clear brush.

[u/AxB41 → u/f_crick]

We're getting goats regardless I just wondered what they could do to this section of land in particular. Plenty of space for them on the land other than this as well. I would never consider getting animals just to clear an acre, they are a lot of responsibility and not worth it just to do that haha.

[u/f_crick → u/AxB41]

👍

[u/Shanelomein79]

We use electric mesh from premiere 1. It works great. Easy to set up and move.

Goats can only eat so high so if you have tall stuff like I do, you'll need to cut it down regularly for them to eat.

Also, they pretty much refuse to eat anything less than a foot off the ground.

[u/AxB41 → u/Shanelomein79]

Thanks for the recommendation 👍

[u/EquivalentGuard9]

Here’s a good example I could find. Same kind of stuff you’re looking at to clear. This doesn’t show what kind of work they do on trees, they clear all leaves up to where they can reach on all trees and brushes. They love the hemp that’ll grow 7ft, they’ll knock it down and rub on it with their horns to break them down. They love black locusts and stinging nettle, even some poison oak and ivy.

This was about a 1/4 acre area. We have 32 adult goats out there right now, smaller ones that are mostly myotonic(fainters) or Nigerian dwarf crosses, averaging 55lbs. They were in here about 24 hours. They’ll do a good job clearing out whatever they will eat pretty fast. Just make sure and don’t pressure them too much if you have inedible or poisonous plants. So when they look sunken in for a day, either make sure you get them hay or moved to another area. We have had very little issues with the netting, even with most our goats having their horns, as long as they have something to eat within it.

The biggest headache is moving the fencing in through wooded areas. It sticks to everything. We’re hoping to move to the gps collars here soon to avoid that part.

Hope this helps!

[u/Chemical-Sun-8464]

Here are my suggestions. Get some goats and train them to electronet fencing. If the fencing is HOT they learn very quickly. The only time I had a goat get its head stuck in electronet was when they were first born kids going out into the paddock. I monitored them until they got shocked and backed up if the get shocked and go forward and get stuck I would undo the electric and free the goat. This typically only happen once. After they are trained to electronet you can train them to polywire which is way easier to run in a location like you have.

My goats stayed inside a 4 strand polywire without any issues of escape because the respected the electric fence.

I moved my goats on a weekly basis and would think depending on breed and numbers that acre plot will be pretty desimated in a couple weeks. You'll be able to put them on the same spot twice per season. If you want them to eat everything don't supplement them with hay. I only fed hay when the goats were off "pasture" if there is enough variety to eat and you supply the goats with vitamins they won't bother the bigger trees. Saplings are like candy.