PREPPING FOR MORE GOATS

[@SamuelHouston-ns8bm]

Sam in California. Great video.

[@addisonranch]

Thanks Sam!

[@pecivilwaterandenvior8318]

Excellent video. Lot to learn you used Goat -TUFF 1348-4-330 hightensile fence before. Now you prefer Electric fence. What about perimeter fence ?

[@addisonranch]

I still want the Goat Tuff for the perimeter. I've just realized they respect the electric more than I expected. Also 1 reason I'm using more electric is because I can raise the wires and mow under the fence. The goats are not keeping up with the brush in the net fence.

[@gregkilgour4545]

Brett here in Queensland Australia ,the info that I garnered from our Dept of Primary industries when I enquired several years ago was that a rancher should be able to run the same amount of goat pairs as what they carry in cow /calf pairs. There were some provisos as to what sort of country you would be running them on, was there plenty of browse and brush for the goats or would they be in direct competition with the grazing cattle. Some of the really big goat ranchers don't run any cattle one runs 30,000 goats so they would be guided by how the feed is standing up to all the goats and what the weather is doing, is it staying dry or is there good rain on the way. I love the little gadget you have on the skid steer have not seen one before.

[@addisonranch]

@@gregkilgour4545 thanks for the info Greg. That’s pretty much what they say here if you run cows. That gadget is called a Marshall tree saw. It works really well for cutting and piling trees. Unlike the circular saw ones, this has no chance of starting a fire and can cut trees out of barb wire without ruining the wire. I bet they have something similar in AUSTRALIA.

[@puresouthpasturesfarm6460]

In winter… Do your pastures have cool season forages that supply adequate protein? Or are your cattle just extremely efficient? It looks like you have similar forge to ours which are predominantly warm season forages I just don’t think I could make it without a protein supplement.

[@addisonranch]

@@puresouthpasturesfarm6460 I watched your video this morning. I haven’t commented yet. Your cattle look good….Better than mine. We have some native winter grass and a tiny amount of fescue. The key to our program is when we calve and cattle were created to loose weight in the dormant season. We can use these truths in sync with nature to not feed.

[@puresouthpasturesfarm6460]

@ I was thinking about the calving when I sent this message. I’ve got to get mine timed right. Thank you for always helping me learn!

[@addisonranch]

@@puresouthpasturesfarm6460 I did a fairly detailed video about how we do it and why. Let me see if I can find the title.

[@addisonranch]

“Calving Season 2020”

[@puresouthpasturesfarm6460]

@@addisonranch okay! Thanks! I’ll check it out.

[@coyroberts8356]

Thanks 😊

[@addisonranch]

Thanks Coy

[@themaroonbuck3422]

Is your electric pos/neg? If so, is your middle wire the neg? And how effective is it keeping the goats from going under the bottom wire?

[@addisonranch]

@@themaroonbuck3422 all +

[@diamondbackecological]

What if you hired a competent herdsman who could walk across the landscape keeping the goats in a tight mob and employ the herdsman to coppice brush down to ground level for goat forage while also creating more ground level forage for cattle. You could potentially save on fencing costs, increase long term forage for both goats and cattle and create a more viable multi story photosynthetic layer oak savanna habitat all at the same time. .

[@diamondbackecological]

Seems to me that coppicing brush and trees that are not leafed out and available for immediate grazing by goats is a forage loss in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

[@asacozad7209]

@@diamondbackecologicalI think the struggle we al deal with in agriculture is finding those employees/herdsman that are in it for the long term. Because you can’t have just one, you’ll probably need at the very least 2 if not 3 herdsmen to be efficient with man powers and just life occurrences for those employees. Herding is 24/7 as you know. Building fence especially electric fence and clearing brush is NOT expensive relatively. The materials and technology for this type fence have made massive strides for longevity, and permanence. I trust robust infrastructure way more than employees. That being said a good employee is worth their weight in gold as well, but they’re difficult to find and train for the long term.

[@addisonranch]

@@diamondbackecological I’m sure that would work if you could afford to hire someone. They’ve got some electric collars for cows and goats that are starting to get almost cost effective. This might be a future option also.