[Roxy]

in regard to what they eat, the care they need. etc.
 
 
I am constantly asked if I will loan out a goat  "to eat the weeds in my big garden" or "my field is overgrown with brambles, nettles and docks".  Not for one minute would I dream of "loaning" my goat for such purposes, but I ask the usual questions like "Is the field fenced?" and "Do you realised what owning a goat entails as in feeding, care etc?!  Their usual reply is along the lines of "What care?  Goats will eat anything"
 
Goats don't  eat just anything.  They need feed and shelter for a start.  And company!!  I will never, ever, sell a goat on its own, unless the new owner can prove them have other goats.  And then there is the CPH number etc.
 
I do wonder if these people then just go off and get a goat anyway, regardless of my advice
 
 

[Dogwalker]

Probably depends on the person and what they can provide but I think I'd loan a pair or small group of goats to eat someones weeds down... presuming they'd finished eating mine of course.

[happygolucky]

Its funny as I have no idea what it entails to keep goats either but certainly learnt a lot from here.....people used to tether them to areas to clear them...not sure that happens any more. I know in Austrailia there are a hell of a lot of huge ferrel goats that "escape"
One thing that I kept thinking about after you posted, can sheep and goats and other herbivores, "just" eat grass/weeds, providing there are enough for them or do they need suppiments?
 

[Lesley Silvester]

If I had a £1 for every time people have said to me, "Goats eat anything" or "You don't need a lawn mower then" I would be rich.  I have taken a goat round to eat someone's weeds but I stay with her and take her home again later.  I wouldn't just leave her.

[bigchicken]

yes some folk have funny ideas about goats and think they are some kind of a supernatural entity. many years ago I had a couple of young goats that I intended to milk a large number of folk asked me whey I kept goats, I told them that there was money to be made hiring them out to Masonic lodges for there rituals and some of them fell for it so funny made me chuckle.

[naynay]

i woild love  to have goats however in a city back yard is definately a no no. Also I would want to do a goat keeping course as am obsessive about doing it all properly.  But the bit about loaning them out to the Masonic Lodge made me giggle.  Do you lend out your sacrificial lambs too??? :

[MAK]

I was told that goats are very selective about what they eat. They start with your ripe salad, then move on to other vegetables then fruit trees. Weeds are at the bottom of the list. Please correct me if I am wrong.
It is a shame but we often see goats in the "Giveaway" section of Angloinfo.com  My guess is this is becuase people have " funny ideas about what they eat".

[Dogwalker]

In a couple of years I'll tell you how effective they are at clearing thistles.
 
In my worst field the goats waited for me to cut down the tall thistles and stack them to burn then decided the flowers were the best things around.  The creeping thistles are a forest of bare stalks in the snow, and they've been checking for any dry leaves left that they'd missed when they were green.
 

[Lesley Silvester]

MAK you are wrong.  Fruit trees first, then runner/French beans, then the roses, followed by the salad and brassicas.  If they are still hungry after that lot, they will pick their favourite weeds out.  I fyou have none of the former, they will eat grass.   

[jinglejoys]

I always say if you can't be bothered to mow a lawn you can't be bothered to keep a goat!

[Lesley Silvester]

I turned my lawn into vegetable beds so it isn't an issue with us.  When it was a lawn and very overgrown, I uysed to tether goat on it but she spent the entire time trying to drag the corkscrew thingy out of the ground so she could get to the plants.

[HelenVF]

Before I got goats, people were telling me that you can't keep them in and they eat everything, including my washing.  Not mine!   I took the advice of the breeder, and not had any really trying to escape, just running along the wall. 

Helen

[plumseverywhere]

One of mine listens out to the click of the fence and knows if she can jump it (ie. battery low - must get mains fencing!!)  very rarely.
I occasionally bring them out on to the veg patch to finish off pea/beans at end of season or to chew some weeds off!

[fruitfarm]

We were once asked if it was true that goats mainly ate cigarette ends and newspaper. These people were looking for good milk yields on that nutritious diet!

[jinglejoys]

My Black Nan used to love cigarettes (Great wormers aid)a friend used to bring her a box of Turkish cigarettes every time she visited