Has anyone thought about releasing goats into the "wild" for sport hunting. I know this is how the hog situation got helped along, but I don't think goats would be nearly as destructive. May also help to keep unbelievably thick underbrush (in Louisiana's semi-tropical environment at least) under a bit more control. I was at the sale barn today, and I could have bought all twenty or thirty goats through the sale for less than a grand, tempting. I'm just picturing a high fenced area of a few thousand acres that had some recreational out of season hunting ops that involved horns over rooters. What do ya'll think?

In Hawaii and Texas, you'll find good numbers of free-ranging Spanish goats.

In certain areas, you'll also find, albeit in much lower numbers, ibex and catalina.

When folks want large areas of brush cleared without using heavy machinery, they drop a numbers of goats in -- and they leave it looking like the aftermath of agent orange.

Daniel77,

I stand to be corrected but I believe exotics were first brought to Texas at the turn of the 20th century(1900). They were brought to large ranches here in Texas. As time went on many of these ranches became high fenced ranches and the exotics were a source of revenue. In areas of the hill country, the land will only support 1 cow per 25 acres, but sheep and goats thrive. At one time there was a mohair subsidy and ranchers could raise sheep and goats on land that only grew cactus and rocks. Consequetly about 80% of the US mohair industry was in the Texas Hill Country and was subsidised. There are many exotic ranches in Texas where you can hunt sheep and goats. I haven't hunted with him since the 80's but Thompson Temple had a deal where one could take a Ram for $180 to $360. You would show up at his place on friday afternoon and hunt through Sunday afternoon. You brought your own food, beverages and bedding. He would take you out in the morning and evenings. Basically he was recreating a hunt for those who couldn't big bucks that were charged at the high fenced exotic ranches. I have hunted on low fenced ranches in the Texas Hill Country since 1999. On these ranches I have taken rams with bow, pistol, rifle, and even ran over one with my F-350. All were taken in what I believe to be fair chase. None had ear tags, none were tied to a post. Here are some examples.
GWB

They make better barbecue than free range hunting. If you have unprotected goats close to civilization the local dogs will shortly kill them all. This isn't such a problem in West Texas where GW is talking about since the dog population is quite low out there. In East Texas, you'd be pissing up a rope just turning goats loose.

Unless you've already got a high fenced place available, high fencing a few thousand acres will cost you a minimum of about $200,000 and that is probably a low ball estimate.

OTOH, for $30 apiece they cook up great as cabrito.

We used to raise sheep and goats, and it was a rather small operation. Nonetheless, we did have more problems with dogs than coyotes. I killed quite a few dogs trying to get them (and a few succeeded when they came during the night or when no one was home).

Dogs aren't efficient killers and do more maiming than anything else, but they won't stop until they get bored. By then, they may have killed/severely injured dozens of animals. There is no way to stop them other than to kill them. I know it probably will offend some, but when I saw a dog chasing livestock, I didn't stop to ask questions. I simply shot them on sight.

On another note, here's a corsican taken nearly a quarter-century ago and a young aoudad I took with a Contender pistol in .257 JDJ in the 90s. The aoudad is eagle-eyed and spooky and was one of the toughest hunt I've ever been on.

And while corsican in general can be a challenge, this particular ram was, for lack of a better description, dumb as a stump.

The aoudad made excellent table fare, by the way.

Is ANY of that goat meat good to eat.

I shot a mouflon once, it was a great, fun hunt, but the meat was terrible.

Even the meal the landowners wife cooked for us was terrible. And they were of German background, so IF she could not cook it good....

Lora and I did one of the hunts at Thompson Temple's that Geedubya was describing.

I would not try it again, but for archers it is a lot of fun.

We bought 5 of the carcasses from TT, ones that people only wanted the trophies, and it was all really good eating.

These were the "Hair Sheep" animals, not the "Range Maggots = Rambo Rams".

The problem I don't think anyone has mentioned, is that the goats compete directly with the deer, where the feral pigs eat anything and while there is some competition it is on a different level.

I appreciate your point about the competition with deer, but in my neck of the woods, food isn't a problem, but woods soooooo thick you can't see 10 ft. are a problem. I was kindof thinking the goats might help thin the underbrush, but it would take a whole lot of goats to make a dent.
The dogs do make me wonder. I think I read or heard somewhere that goats go feral PDQ, and since I'm talking about horned animals I guess they could take care of themselves. If not, they are pretty cheap.
I've had goat several times, not a whole bunch, but it has always been pretty good. Are some better than others as far as table fair. I wouldn't want to kill them just as pests, I'd like to salvage the meat if it's worth eating.

Goats will clear out underbrush, green briars, etc but in spite of what you think there is only so much browse available for deer and goats eat it as well. Finally, in spite of their horns, goats run from dogs, etc. and I can assure you dogs kill them with great glee and in quantity. Of course it depends on the location but if dogs are around you won't have very many goats for long.

Based on my relatively limited experience, I've found all goats to be good, but younger ones are better.

As an aside, to NE 450, I am not sure where you get the impression that Germans are good cooks. Not referring to transplanted ones who have been here for a while but I put German FOOD, not beer, just behind English food, which makes it edible but just barely.

I shot over some dogs today that were trailing deer across my driveway. They were 3 medium-large dogs with golden retreiver in them. They would be killing sheep or goats with no problem. In another month, the shots will be closer to vitals.

If I wouldn't have to go around the place and put up a completely new fence I would turn a few loose on my little 10 acres in a heart beat. Let them clear out the thick stuff like out around the hill country, and pull them out and go back to feeding the deer. There is plenty of browse around our area that the deer wouldn't be even bothered by them clearing out my place, but I do know the results of them in western areas.

It does however make some of those hill country places look so finely manicured with all of the trees and such trimmed up about 6 feet high. Of course for the dogs, you just have to add in a male Llama, a mule or donkey, they make pretty decent dog catchers. Seeing more and more of them in with the livestock in E.Tx.