Adding 500 Goats to Our Ranch - Regenerating the Ranch Ep 5
We have a huge brush encroachment problem. Utilizing several different methods to correct it, we decided to add goats to our Oswalt Ranch. On our native range ranches, good portions are not grazeable by our cattle, so by adding these goats we are looking to generate another enterprise on the same amount of acres by also slowly increasing the amount of grazeable forage for our cattle.
Check out this article - www.noble.org/regenerative-ag...
"We want to manage for diversity in pastures. There needs to be more than just grasses. There need to be forbs, trees, etc. Cattle prefer grasses. Sheep prefer forbs, and goats are browsers. See what resources you have on your land and see how they can graze it.”
- Joe Pokay
00:00 Introduction
01:12 Benefits of adding goats
02:46 Our problem with brush
03:38 Water for 500 goats
04:37 Guardian dogs
06:14 Fence and paddocks
07:19 Adding a portable charger
08:41 Moving 500 goats
09:55 What we have learned about our goats
The primary goal in a Goats life is to let you know where you have fence issues.
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Twist, tilt and shove ! That’s what you need to know about goats and fences . You can put the goats out to pasture and go inside and come back out 30 minutes later and and they’ll be on top of your pickup and other high places lol
LOL exactly... I saw a video on here that said goats are like water... they will get out anywhere... EXACTLY!
secondary goal is to test how much your neighbours like you
We added goats to our small ranch to keep the pastures clean of brush. They did a good job and what started out as nine does and a buck wound up as 200 breeding does and 6 bucks. We rotated the breeding so we would have several kid crops a year. We found a market through a local butcher shop that liked our clean animals (free of desease), and they bought all we could supply. A good supplement to our cattle production.
That’s great! Would you be interested in sharing your story? If so, please send an email to articles@nobleresearchinstitute.org
Nice. How many are you selling a year?
@@asherfamilyacres1698 goat meat mmmmmmmm
Should sell them to Kosher butchers. Would probably earn more money for the same goat if you can meet their standards.
🤤 goat meat
*I really enjoy watching the goats roam freely in the pasture, they are happy goats*
Whoever produced this series is wicked talented.
Are you from the northeast?
Our city of Rocklin Ca uses goats and sheep every year to clear hills, wetland preserves, and every place that has brown grasses or weeds. So far, fire non-existent in our city. Plus, they are wonderful to watch when they attack those hills, etc. it’s been our eco-friendly way of not using herbicides to kills the weeds. Now, lots of neighboring cities are finally using them also.
Yup, same here In San Bernardino. Hills close to Downtown are currently being stripped by about 150 goats. The incline of the Hills doesn’t bother them at all. Lol.
Yep same here in Placerville.. Goats just mow down brush to reduce the flash fuels and reduce fire danger and lower rates of spread.. it’s a win win for all.
That is FANTASTIC. I love it.
Wonderful! I have been shouting for years, "California needs to put goats out there! They'll deal with those fires in no time!" So happy to hear it's being done. And goats provide multiple benefits and streams of revenue. Not only can their controlled grazing reduce the spread of fires and regenerate the land, but their milk is delicious and can be sold as itself and used to make artisan cheeses. And more, if enough are bred, some could be butchered for meat, which is also delicious (and better than lamb, in my opinion).
We need a large scale version of this to reduce western forest fire danger.
It used to be more balanced... but selective hunting of species has left everything unbalanced... add drought and Global warming... and the western forests are going to GO AWAY...
100%.
As someone who lives in those states. Goats ain't gonna fix it. Controlled burns and government allowances for thinning harvests and maintenance are what's needed, but the USFS have their brains unplugged for the past four decades.
To eat the underlying brushes. We have horrendous bush fires in Australia . I wonder if it would work here .
It would work, and does work in many places. Trying looking up some regenerative or permaculture ranches and farms in Australia. I've seen plenty of videos of Australians using goats for just that purpose.
Goats will eat near anything. Years ago a family we knew had some goats and one day after coming home they found two goats which had climbed up a tree next to their house and were laterally eating their roof - cedar I believe.🤣🤣
Oh no!! Hahaha! They do like eat crazy things for sure. They do eat some of the cedars on our ranch at different points of the year too.
@@NobleResearchInstitute 🤣🤣Yep they are critters
No wonder they are GOAT.
Here in San Antonio they put about 500 goats in one of the parks down the street to do the exact same thing. It seemed to work. The park looked great afterwards.
Of course I'm drawn to the dogs.❤❤❤❤❤❤ such beautiful ladies
Sameee
Goats are an excellent tool for land management as well as a financial benefit as far as a livestock enterprise. We started with just a few and now run well over 250 head on primarily leased land and primarily utilizing electric fence. In areas as little as 2 acres all the way up to areas as big as 40 acres at one time. Moving them on to the next area as they clear it down. Keeping our land owners happy while the goats clear their brush that is other wise not utilized by their cattle. All the while keeping us happy while the goats pack on the pounds!
That’s fantastic! It’s a great opportunity to get some positive impacts for people that don’t want to invest into their own herd.
Do the goats get poisonous weeds etc too or only higher things like bushes and brush? We have wooded land to clear out as well as land that used to be wooded that no longer has trees but is still super full of all kinds of poison Ivy, brush, etc.
@@MFaith777I am about 90% sure goats can eat poison ivy.
Wow, that was eye opening, the goats eat the brush and then that allows the grass to grow…..for the cattle to eat…..win-win!
goats eat brush sheeps eat grass
Dog choice: A fantastic animal protection dog is a Kangal. We use one that is like a cruise missile at predators but kind and gentle to everything else. BIG. Hardy. Fearless. Dedicated. Gets along with chickens goats hogs and cows. Even the barn cats like her. And when strangers come to farm (delivery) no issues with her around new people.
Dogs are a gift from God.
Anatolian Shepard according to the 1992 U.S. Kennel Club. 🥰
Would like to see where they sleep. Amazing work!!
Glad to see this. California is starting to catch up, finally using goats to help clear underbrush that makes forest fires so hot.
This is so amazing to see such great ideas flowing thru the cattle industry.. Locally I have seen goats below a canopy of trees.. The goats eat all the underbrush and other vegetation to completely reduce fire issues in central California foothills.. The grazing acts like and under burn and cleans up the flash fuels in way many thought was not possible.. When I see goats turning the vegetation back to grass and making great grazing for cattle is off the charts.. Many great things are happening with out herbicides too.. a win win situation.. great video guys.. keep them coming..👍😁
We are located in North Texas just across the border. We worked with Dr. Rohla on our Pecan Orchard. You guys are a wealth of knowledge. Thanks for sharing.
That's awesome! Dr. Rohla is pretty great!
Goat meat is a must for many Indian dishes .Thanks for growing them
I recently say a an old saying... (I think author was unknown) It read: "Make your fences horse high, bull strong, pig root proof, and goat wire size... " meaning tall, strong, push proof and made to keep dogs out and small livestock in.
THE COLOR and health goats,.. amazing goats,...
Goats are as mischievous as they are cute. You have to protect everything around while dealing with them. I wish you patience.
Right? They are forever 3 year olds going through the "why" face.
All the Indians in DFW will love this fresh meat!!
Thank you KZhead. Great interesting content. Love to see people of the land working smarter, not harder.
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for sharing.
Cool video !!! NF goat cowboy now !!!! Goat and sheep are new fertilize and Forbes and brush control and plus new enterprise $$ !!!
Absolutely Kevin! Pretty great seeing the impact these sheep and goats are creating on our ranches.
My mom didn't want me to take out one of our goats when I was little, but my dad overrode her . The goat took me out as I recall and I didn't have to be dragged very far before I let go of the rope. Ahh memories.....
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In a Maxwell Smart voice: Ah, the old "Mum, can the Great Dane take me for a walk" trick.
You had a great Dad. I bet he gave your mom one of them looks "he 'bout to learn some let him do it" lol We had about a dozen goats when I was a kid. A turbulant kid. I was fitting right in with them. The buck would attack my sister and everybody else. But for some reason he liked when I came around fornsome trouble 😂
Thank you for this video, we really enjoyed it! So similar to our experience over the past year, figuring out hot fences and paddock sizes. 11 kV sounds just perfect 🤣
Thanks Jodi!
Absolutely fascinating. Great video! What you're trying to achieve is so important, and it's a learning process, so keep on keeping on guys.
Thank you! Will do!
Interesting project. Much success.
Goats are SO useful!
Absolutely! So far we are loving them!
They work well, used to graze 1000 to 1500 on brush here in northern Alberta when we had the goat and lamb feedlot. Much easier to keep in with electric fences than sheep. Sure helped the grass production for the cow herd.
Hey Chad! Thats great to hear! We have sheep on one of our other ranches and are having some good success with them too. It's been fun adding these new enterprises to our cattle ranches.
Is there an income stream from the goats?
@@roddraper9921 Yes, we will keep some of our kid crop as replacements, but we will sell off the wethers after weaning as well as some of the nannies. And just like any other livestock enterprise, we will cull any animals that are not thriving in our environment.
Where do you market them? Livestock auctions?
@@dirtymikentheboys5817 yep, we had good markets around any major cities where most immigrants are located. You want to eat what you are raised on it seems. Mostly cattle now as we we’ve gotten older and goats and sheep are very labor intensive. But they are a good way to start farming. That’s how I got started.
I remember way back when we used to deride "Goat Herders" as not being real cowboys. Here from an old hand I am saying these boys are just as busy and just as concerned for their charges as any cowboy of his herd. My apologies my friends I have been shown the error of my old ways. Well done and keep up the great work !
Were they scruffy looking? Oh wait that's nerfs.
Yep when I was in school they made fun of me and my goats but I had money and they were broke Still got goats at 72
thanks for an excellent series!
Such an inspiring video. The way you taking video is amazing.
"Goat Wrangling"! Knowing what little I know about goats and having had the thrill of briefly herding a small 75 - 80 herd, I do know that goats have an uncanny proclivity for trouble. They can go from " everything's OK" to complete chaos in a blink of an eye. I didn't have the luxury of a lot of electric fences but I did have some fairly decent Shepard dogs. Sure looks like these here are working out good for you.
So far so good! Thanks!
It’s never easy for me. 2:39-2:43 That’s exactly how I feel when my work day is progressing smoothly. 😂🤣😂
It’s never easy because you say it isn’t. Apply the Bible principles in your life and walk with God and you’ll see not just your work life flourish but have ever lasting life ‼️
@@walakirk5270 The way people use god to enrich themselves and or brainwash people into following how they fell about issues. I’m good. Combat those devils. leave me to myself. And maybe I’ll return.
good work gentlemen
Great video! I have dairy goats and they are helping change the landscaping for the better also. Goats are a great resource.
Yes they do! Thanks for sharing!
How much milk can your goat give per day?
Thanks for the video!!!
Brilliant! I just now subscribed 👍👍👍
This was a good learning video
Good on you. What you're touching on is what Alan Savory pionered and proved to reverse Desertification
We know.
oklahoma goat ranchers.. whoed a thunk.. im just teasinnn.. weve raised goats, sheep, even camels and llamas with our cattle.. well done yall.. doc johnny vmd texas and italy
I've got a little herd of 29 San Clemente Island goats that I'm using for fire hazard mitigation in the Napa/Sonoma/Lake County area of Northern California. They are wonderful in steep brushy terrain!
... Plus two Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix dogs. Keeps the coyotes, mountain lion, and bear away.
That's fantastic! Were you already having problems with fire and then starting using them to solve that issue, or did you know it could become one and got them as a preventative?
We've had major out of control wildfires the past several years throughout this whole North Bay area. I'm getting cranky about having to evacuate and decide which things are precious and which things I may lose forever. I'd heard the phrase "regenerative agriculture" several years ago and the concept of making sure there are animals on the land as well as plants. That lack of balance pretty obvious here in this human populated part of the world...with super high land values. It seems like herds of goats if carefully managed can do something like the large herds of deer and elk did for hundreds of not thousands of years. It's my small start in solving a big problem. I need to learn how to manage all aspects of this business; the goats, the dogs, portable electric fencing, truck and trailer and finally the customers! It's all good and very interesting :-)
Did PG&E ever hired you to clear under the power lines.
Impressed with the water setup. Wish it was connected to a well somewhere? Wouldn't have to worry about refill. A+++ job.
Y los políticos en el gobierno (Pedro Sánchez y sus seguidores) están al servicio de Soros y otros en el "deep state" o el cabál...Existe mucha corrupción e intervención para separar a Cataluña de España...No tienen bastante de haber hecho tanto daño que lo siguen haciendo todavía...Espero que los españoles despierten...Ya es hora de protestas y de defenderse...
In maine I had trouble with the fence in the winter. Seems like cattle weren't ground because of snow. I split the two wires, kept the top line hot and ground the bottom with an old copper pipe. Solved the problem, I've told others that were having the same trouble, worked for them too. One thing is don't get yourself hit because its worse than a normal hit, you feel it go through you from live to ground almost like two hits.
Would love for this goat ranch to be an on going ep! Like Tom Pemberton UK farm videos lol
Point your solar panel south for optimal sun coverage. Nice video. Thanks for sharing.
Great suggestion!
Those are some good dogs! Great ranch dogs.
Yes, I am impressed with those dogs, they are also hard workers lol
Turkish kangal dogs...
I have cliffs on my property that are impossible to mow or graze cattle. I got goats and its hilarious to look at my property and my neighbors.
Finally a pleasant video on You Tube
It not easy you are right on it work iv got sheep but I enjoy it like you do but it will clean up your farm
Good info ❤️🙏❤️
so cool.... you love your animals....
Well, that was a lot more interesting than I expected. Thanks.
Whoop ! like the look of this. 1:17 in and I'm going to go find Ep. 1
Thanks! Hope you enjoy the series!
Goats rock and they are cute.
Nice beautiful farm Congratulations Greetings from Philippines ❤❤❤❤🙏
Great job guys...
Thanks!
Thank you 😊
I read somewhere that goats turned Three pounds of feed into one pound of meat and cattle are like 8 pound's of feed to one pound of meat. Not really sure about the numbers for cattle but you get the idea
goats are houdini,s escape artists . that,s why they need always somebody to watch them . same in the midle east . but strong animals and eat everyting what nobody want to eat!!
Good video thanks
have ya'll thought about creating ponds or reservoir along the land for water retention? I have seen great restoration of land and biodiversity just with the introduction of water bodies.
Our city obtained a 13 acre cemetery, it was overgrown. That was my suggestion.
An all we have I see for a ground rod on that solar charger is 6'" of a T post?? 🙆♂️👌 impressive. Great video. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it! We have added a copper ground rod, at the time of the video we didn't have one yet We did run a ground wire in the 3 wire fence when it was super dry. We ran it on the bottom and did have success with keeping them in using that. After we got a shower we went back to grounding with a copper rod.
The baby goats sure are cute.
Awesome!
Goats are the GOAT
They are such characters!
Consider installing a Screech Owl nest box. Owls will eat rodents which host ticks and attract pit vipers.
Beautiful
I've been trying to talk my husband into goats for Years! Now that we've moved onto 29 acres that was clear cut 5 years ago...and the 4 cows aren't eating down the brush as quickly as he'd like...he's entertaining the thought of goats. ...but I told him if he'd have gotten goats 5-10 years ago when I suggested we would have gotten them sooo much cheaper! What kind of goats are y'all running?
Hey Bonnie! Looks like you got a plan a brewin! They are becoming more and more popular and the great thing about them is that you can add small ruminants like goats to use the forage the cows won't, add another enterprise to the same acreage to help become more profitable, and do some great things for the land and soil as well. BTW we run Spanish cross goats.
@@NobleResearchInstitute , I was pretty sure those were the old fashioned Spanish goats. But I'm not expert enough to tell for sure. Here in Deep East Texas that used to be what people ran. It's kind of difficult to find them here, now.
@@NobleResearchInstitute ...and by the way, hubby is thinking of keeping the young, Brangus bull and one Angus/Jersey heifer for milking. Maybe trade the 2 older jerseys (one is ancient and quite cantankerous) for goats. We'll see.
It looks like the South African boer goat. Adapts well to almost any conditions. However, any goat will do a great job if you're only looking to control weeds.
Many people are using boer or boer cross goats. They have a meatier body frame and you don't have to milk them. However, boer goats are notoriously bad Mommas. You must cull, and sometimes drastically until you weed out the bad moms. Bad moms often produce more bad moms. One cross that I accidently found producing really good mommas was fainting goat x boer. If you don't cull the bad moms out you'll find yourself swamped with bottle babies. Cute, but very time consuming.
Spanish goat and keko are are great on pastured as well as closing with boar goat makes good meat goat I’m 72 and slowly getting less goats every year and down to only 45 this year It’s hard to stop after a lifetime of goats
Great job and great video, hey would it be possible to use a 18" plastic drain pipe, 20' long, cut it vertical in half, seal the ends, and have a long water troft?
Love them Goats
11:09. Is that a before and after shot? Awesome to see you guys using different technics and resources to manage the land
Hey Scott! I am guessing you are referring to the paddocks at 10:09, and yes, that was what the pasture looked like that they left and the one they went into.
Best meat ever salute from somalia
well you give us more information on the solar set up .and ruff price of setup . Please and Thank you .
You should have the Norwegian Nofence system on your goats, fence free. Can adjust the fence on the map/app
I looked it up, that's a pretty cool idea. Well done.
Do you get aerial predators? Do your LGDs prevent losses well enough?
Nice Kangal. Super strong.
If you want to learn the fast way talk to Spanish goat farmers, they are the best, you may find some here on KZhead. Goats are really fun and eat everything, milk is the best for cheese.
Goats are way to smart for their own good. They will sit there and study an issue and work out a solution. Watching them work a fence line to find a way out will amaze you. That said, you got a field of crap and briars, put goats on there and you will end up with a great pasture field in no time.
Had a herd of goats, kept them in electric netting, then in 3-line wire. They kept trying to escape... Now i have sheep :)
Our sheep are a little more chill than our goats for sure.
Hey I remember a Warner Bros cartoon in which the goats kept right on eating everything. 😂
Ever thought of using donkeys as guardians? We have used donkeys for guards, on our 4000 acre farm in Florida for our sheep & cattle for at least 3 generations. They are superb against coyotes n predators.
Did you add a ground wire during the drought? Keeping them in during this drought has been a problem. What will shock our calves won’t even shock the goats
We did run a ground wire in the 3 wire fence when it was super dry. We ran it on the bottom and did have success with keeping them in using that. After we got a shower we went back to grounding with a copper rod
Watched this video and your sheep video, and now I’m hooked. New sub to follow the journey! I was actually just studying regenerative landscapes for my landscape architecture major and found a ranch here in OR that uses bison to restore soil systems. Have y’all considered getting bison in the future?
Awesome! Thank you! We actually have some employees that have their own bison ranch, but we do not run them ourselves. Who knows what the future holds. There was a time long ago we said we wouldn't run anything but cattle, and look at us now!
@@NobleResearchInstitute very true, who knows and with the amount of land y’all manage, maybe that’s something that could become a possibility. Either way, I’ll be along that journey to see it through with you all.
Respect your lifestyle. Strong work ethic, having a good partner…
amazing... love video... hhmmm maybe lads can have a bit more hooo haaa... gents are tooooo laid back for me... great content...
This video was not too baaaaaad. 😉🤣😂✌️
love goats
So mamy questions... Does every goat need to be trained to the hot wire? Just how do you do that? In an earlier video y'all mentioned not needing to deworm or vaccinate as often. Could you expand on that? What size lots are you running 500 goats on? How do you determine how many you need or can support?
Great questions! We did train a huge majority of our initial herd. But they learn from each other and when a fence is hot enough, they learn by experience that is a barrier they don't want to come across again. It becomes more of a mental barrier. If there is a situation they feel merits crossing that fence, like a threat, or danger, they will cross it for sure. We want to refrain from using any dewormers on our sheep and goats. We do vaccinate them (by Oklahoma law), but we have learned that the parasites that they come in contact with have a 21 day cycle, so as long as we move them often enough they are way less likely to ingest those parasites and get infected. We generally move every 1-2 weeks. Our goats currently are on 10 acre paddocks. We know that we have enough forage in those areas for them to eat. The paddocks will vary as forage availability changes due to weather or topography etc. We started off with a little over 100 goats, but since we have such a huge area not grazable for cattle, we wanted a quicker impact. We may not sustain 500 goats forever, so we will determine each year to see how our landscape changes as we manage this way. Start smaller than you think what you might need and you can always add more goats. Starting smaller is better for fence training and acclimating to behaviors and so on, as well.
I thought there can only be one G.O.A.T.
Love NF.
Thanks Deborah!
"Come on, Joe. One time for the camera." Joe: "Hell to the No." 🤣🤣🤣 I agree with his statement 💯💯 👍🏼👌🏼shit gone hurt
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Goats in my area of Australia 🇦🇺 are a hot commodity atm ! We have a halal meat 🍖 works and the goats are wild 😎
I've heard several times over the years that goats, as opposed to sheep, need shelter (from rain?). What is your experience not using shelter? Death loss % every year? Thanks
We rely on the canopy cover of the paddock where we graze for shelter from rain, and for shade. We have had very minimal death loss.
Goats don’t like getting wet feet and get foot rot if they are are in areas where they are getting wet feet a lot of the time.And they do like shelter out of the rain as well. Where as sheep can handle being out in the rain a lot better and can handle cold winds a lot better than goats. But a new born goat is a hell of a lot tougher and gets to its feet a lot quicker when it’s born compared to a new born lamb. And goats do not like electric fences and soon learn what they are and tend to stay away. We ran both goats and sheep here in New Zealand and these are things we observed.
And goats are a lot smarter than sheep and quick learner’s.
Goats hate rain, I have shed all over the place and protect them in winter also Use electric water tanks heaters in winter and salt blocks I feed corn and wheat planted for winter
Does anyone know which breed of goats are these ?
If anyone is interested, Will Harris, a regenerative farmer from GA was on Joe Rogan recently, very interesting conversation.
Yes! Some great information in there.