Well, I may have sold my horse. If so I figured I would populate my empty pasture with goats. Why? Well, they are damn tasty and since they are small, easy to manage and not as dumb as sheep.

There is just one small problem. I know there are lots of goat breeds, like white toothy goats, angora goats, milk goats....

Do any of you know of a suitable quality meat breed? BBQ goat is awesome.

I can recomend Boer Goats bloody top eating .I've been getting a few Ferals around our way.But I've just got back from having a look at a Contract on Camels & clobbered a couple of Boers whilst Iwas away & their really meaty& tender

Careful Dan, Ann's on the prowl!!!

BTW, where is Dan today? Dan? DAAAN?!?!

OMG, the horror!!!!...

ann - horses are pretty good eating too. had a friend that years ago had something like 7 kids, no job etc. saw an add in the paper for a horse for $10. Frank figured he had heard horse is good to eat so he went out to the farm. The guy lived and breathed horse, but this one was really mean. He kept apologizing for selling him the horse since it was so mean. Well, while this was going on franks brother was sneaking around the back side of the barn with a 12 ga. Frank finally hands the guy a $10 bill and the shotgun goes off,. Well this guy goes totally bonkers. They load up the dead horse and off they go. Guess it was pretty good to eat, because about the time the meat ran out the guy had another add in the paper. Frank headed out there, but not only wouldn't the guy sell him the horse, he just about ran him over as well.

The Klipspringer variety should be good too.

I have a local farmer that milks goats.
I get young ones ( billys ) to eat .
He raises the standard milking goat.
Great eating

He just about gives me old goats ,ground into sausage and burger they are good also

Johnch

quote:

BBQ goat is awesome.

Crat, It's what's cookin'.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

http://www.CanISleep.Inside?

Ann,,,be shure to put a 12' chainlink fence around any plants or trees you really like,They're damn good jumpers and climbers,especially things that stick out of the snow during winter,And once a goat puts it's mind to it,,,They're darn determined,,Other than that,,,goats are goats,,big or small,,,I've had some personal experience with the critters,,Clay

Goats sound like good pets. When you get tired of them or they piss you off, you just shoot and eat. You never have to buy food for them either and they will keep the weeds under control. Sounds a lot better than cats.

The Spanish or 'meat" goats are very hardy and are favored by many when served up as cabrito, a very popular thing here in Texas. But they don't offer anywhere near the size/quantity of meat as the Boers do.

But keep one thing in mind: NEVER, EVER park your vehicle in a goat pasture and leave it unattended. They'll hop right onto it and scratch the devil out of the finish!

quote:

Originally posted by Old Elk Hunter:
Goats sound like good pets. When you get tired of them or they piss you off, you just shoot and eat. You never have to buy food for them either and they will keep the weeds under control. Sounds a lot better than cats.

We have had quite few goats on our farm in the past and they were not all that great of a pet. The damn things like to get into things that make them sick and they can be a real pain to keep up with even when they are behaving.
Ann, if you get a couple to milk, do not get a Billy for breeding, hire that duty from another owner. It is the Billy's that can give goats milk it's stong smell and taste. derf

derf,

Do not "milk" the Billy

Hog Killer

Actually I would speculate that all goat varieties are pretty good to eat, like cats.

quote:

Originally posted by Hog Killer:
derf,

Do not "milk" the Billy

Hog Killer

Wise guy! Just having them danged Billy Goats on the same farm was enough to contaminate otherwise real fine milk. Fred

Thanks for all the input, guys! I knew I could depend on my small game hunting friends.

GOAT- The other, other red meat.

I have a goat on my small acreage , but she is chained to a long wire running from one end of the paddock to the other because - Harry Houdini has nothing on Miss Bunty!!!
The day I came home from work to see my goat wandering up the sidewalk convinced me that goats are cool but have to be restrained . Even electric fences dont stop this one , and she has a liking for rhododendron leaves , which is near fatal so far, next time we may have an ex-goat ..

But goats are way smarter than sheep , and dont smell the same , although my Australian associates tell me that goats feet are rough on the tops of your feet when you have the goats legs stuffed down your boot tops for other extramural activities.....

Bobby Tomek ,
A friend of mine found one of his wife's newly purchased goats standing on the roof of his new car a few years back . He removed it with a 12 guage .

quote:

A friend of mine found one of his wife's newly purchased goats standing on the roof of his new car a few years back . He removed it with a 12 guage .

As well he should. Such behavior is not condoned by the AGHA. That's "American Goat Herder's Association" for those of you not in the know. Be careful not to let stray pellets strike the paint, they are more harmful than Billy's hooves.

Muzza, life down under seems...a little different in your area. Your honorary membership in AGHA is in jepardy.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

http://www.Nervous.Goats

We used to have goats. They will climb on anything. I made the mistake of parking the tiller next to the goat shed one day. Next thing I knew there were three goats on top of the goat shed. The other one was standing on the tiller gas tank waiting her turn. If you have regular field fence they'll stick their heads thru to get the "greener grass" on the other side. Trouble is, the way their horns are shaped, they can't get back out and you'll have to get them loose. I used to have to do that at least 4 or 5 times a week. They do keep the pasture down though.

My fencing is electric wire at about 4 inch intervals from the ground up. Even a real intrepid goat would most likely avoid it.

All the trees are real big but there is some brush which I don't care if they eat it.

Anyone got a photo of a boer goat they can post? I don't even know if they are available around these parts.

Are goats aggressive towards preditors? Will they attack coyotes?

Ann, I dunno about goats but a full grown mountain sheep will ruin a coyotes day. Met a fella in middle GA some years back that was raising various exotics for the like of Colorado G&F, Michael Jackson...that kinda stuff. Asked him about 'yotes, as in "Do they give you any trouble?". He laughed, "Naw, the ram and the emus run 'em off every time they show up." There was more to the story but I can't relate it like he did, and it's all in the telling ya know. Suffice it to say that it was one helluva visual, and the sprint from the barn to the tree line was probably the longest, bloodiest 300 yards Wiley ever ran. The ram was a bit over full curl, and he had 3-4 ewes as well. Gobs of goats too, so maybe you need some diversity? He also had some llamas, said they pitched in on occasion as well.

One of the emu tried to eat my wife's diamond ring. I thought that was hilarious BTW, she didn't.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

http://www.Strange.Bedfellows

I find it hard to believe that anyone can out-do you in story-telling, DD; though we may have some honorable mentions here.

I am amazed.

Our Goats never seemed bothered by the yotes, , But I will tell you from experience, Llamas are pure hell on them song dogs. The llama will actually stalk one if it gets in to the same pasture and will spend the next week or two createing a frisbee out of one! derf

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
ann - horses are pretty good eating too. had a friend that years ago had something like 7 kids, no job etc. saw an add in the paper for a horse for $10. Frank figured he had heard horse is good to eat so he went out to the farm. The guy lived and breathed horse, but this one was really mean. He kept apologizing for selling him the horse since it was so mean. Well, while this was going on franks brother was sneaking around the back side of the barn with a 12 ga. Frank finally hands the guy a $10 bill and the shotgun goes off,. Well this guy goes totally bonkers. They load up the dead horse and off they go. Guess it was pretty good to eat, because about the time the meat ran out the guy had another add in the paper. Frank headed out there, but not only wouldn't the guy sell him the horse, he just about ran him over as well.

I grew up in the next town over, almost, from Butch's Faribault so I probably know the "Frank" he's written about.
A friend was a deputy sheriff in another MN county. The local bikers were going to have a wedding at a park. They knew they were going to have trouble when the booze started flowing so they hired my buddy as off-duty security.

He said he saw things that absolutly amazed him. Someone was supposed to buy a side of beef for the barbecue. The morning of the wedding they discovered no one had bought a beef, everyone said someone else was going to do it. As the argueing progressed one of the guys kept staring at the nieghbor's horses in the adjacent field. Finally he crawled through the fence, grabbed a pony, opened a gate, lead it around behind the restroom building and shot it. They skinned out the pony and through it on the grill. Everyone was very pleased with the "beef", especially the pony's owner, who, in following the tracks behind the restroom found the head, hide, entrails,etc. of his kid's favorite pony. The demands for retribution were pretty vigorous until a hat was passed around and the farmer got several hundred dollars for the "beef". The farmer also calmed down when he realized how drunk the guests were, after all it wasn't a Sunday School Superintendant convention.

My friend said he watched a beer drinking competition break out between a little aggresive guy and a huge fat floundering whale. The drinking went fine until it began to dawn on the little guy he was going to lose, there was no way he was going to beat his opponent. Bob said the look on poor guy's face was desperation until someone behind him began to vomit. He whirled around, held his glass under the foaming hurl, whirled around, drank the puke down and yelled out "Beat that as-----!" His opponent and everyone else agreed he won.

Now about that guy named "Frank"...