Answering Some Comments About Our Goat Little Joe

We got a wether the other day and named him Little Joe. I posted just a bit about him and got some terrific comments. Several people asked good questions, so I thought I would address them in this new post.

We have never owned a goat before, so this is an exciting new venture for us. Here is Little Joe for those of you who could not see my first post:



justme commented "I know very little about kudzu but I was thinking a good freeze would kill it? Do the goats like kudzu?"

We have a tremendous hillside of kudzu and it has grown up over tall trees and advanced closer and closer to the barn. We have lost some nice trees to it and it will take the barn out if left to itself. There are places nearby that the kudzu has covered entire houses to where you cannot tell there is a house there anymore. Freezing temperatures do not kill it here. As a matter of fact, it still grows through the winter, even though it is not green. It can grow up to a foot a day in the summer, but in the cold it only grows a little. We have been told that many goats love it, so we are hoping that Little Joe will, too.

OklahomaJamie asked, "What kind of fencing are you using? I've got to get a pen built too."

This will be a new endeavor for us, so I want to try to do it right. I am going to use the more expensive Red Brand welded fence with the small 2 x 4 rectangles. Some people use woven wire with bigger squares and can keep the goats in most of the time, and I've been told electric works, too. Most people I talk to say that a goat will get out of most fences if they want to. I will keep you posted on how it goes. The fence was expensive. It was almost $30 for a 50 feet roll. Here is a picture of the fence I got:




Sheryl was concerned about wild dogs and coyotes. "Do you have anyway of keeping stray dogs and coyotes away? We have coyotes here on the farm. There are a lot of coyotes in my neck of the woods."

As a matter of fact, just over a couple of hills from us a pack of wild dogs nearly wiped out an entire herd of goats! We are supposed to have coyotes around, too, and bobcats! We have not seen any predators, though. We have a Great Pyrenees dog, Chief, that patrols the hollow and they are bred to keep predators away. Hopefully he is doing his job.





(He liked the snow) A Pyrenees can fight off the fiercest predator. One problem is that Chief does not stay up in the hollow where Little Joe will be, but he does run the hills at night. He sleeps most of the day close to our house, but at night we hear him barking all over. We are thinking about getting more guard dogs in the future, also.

Sheryl also asked how many goats we are planning on getting. Right now I would like to get one more, just to keep Little Joe company. Later we would like to get a nanny and a billy and see if we can grow our own herd and become official goatherds.

Finally, Lynn asked, "Is he an alpine? I can"t tell from the pictures. He kinda looks like that, but it's hard to tell."



Actually, I do not know what kind of breed he comes from. I need to ask his previous owner what they think. All I know is that they use the goats mainly as hill clearing machines, but have also used them for meat occasionally. I will have to do some research on goat breeds to decide what kind we would want in the future. Some day we think we would like some milk goats.


Thank you, everyone, for your comments. It seems there are many people who enjoy goats. Hopefully our experience will be a good one, as well. I will try to keep the blog updated with our progress with Little Joe. I have the fence to put up and yesterday I bought some material to build a small building for him, so I will hopefully be able to show you all what we did in a few days.


5 comments
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sheryl on February 20, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I can not wait to see the fence when you get it done. I have enjoyed seeing all your pictures. I have gotten some great ideas from you. I am wanting to get a couple more goats and I need all the ideas. Oh I never thought about bobcats. I am not sure if we have any here or not. I have a friend who raises goats and she has four of the Great Pyrs and she said they are really good at watching out for them. I had one offered for $50and I wish now I had gotten him. He was full-stock but had no papers. I am seriously thinking about going back to the lady and if she still has him and pick him up. Good luck on becoming future goatherds. sheryl
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Organic Farm & Garden on February 20, 2007 at 5:25 pm
I have read that when you have a GP as a pup and raise it with your livestock they will become family and your GP will fiercly protect your livestock (even chickens!) Great pics. I can't wait to see the fence.
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Kitty on February 20, 2007 at 5:42 pm
First I would like to say thanks for posting such great pictures to share with us. I had a goat a few years back that acted like a dog. He would come into my house and sit on the sofa with me. I loved him dearly, but he has since died of old age.

Secondly I would like to thank you for adding my blog to your friends list. That means alot to me. I look forward to reading your post often and checking in.

Have a great week.

Kitty
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Lynn on February 20, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Thanks for sharing your goat story with us. If Little Joe has any alpine in him, he will have some dangly things hanging from his neck. (I don't know what those dangly things are called. LOL) From one of the pics it looks like he may have them, its just hard to tell.

Keep us posted on Little Joe, he is a cutie. And Chief is beautiful. I have a GP, he is in the house, very easy house broken. I know he should be out with the goats, but I wanted him to be more protective of the kids. I have many reasons why. I have read that they will give up their lives to protect what they are trained to protect.

Good luck with the goat. Sorry for the long comment.

Blessings,

Lynn

Purewater adds:

Yes he does have dangly things on his neck! When I asked his previous owner about it he said that some of his goats had that and some didn't. He didn't know why.

And thanks for the "long comment". I appreciated it!
Edited by Purewater on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at 8:34 AM
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Meme on February 21, 2007 at 12:28 am
Your goat and dog are just beautiful…I had a goat for a very short time since he was really mean..I would go to feed him and he would butt me all the time…So he stayed only a short time on our homestead….lol…Loved the pictures….Debbie