I RAISED GOATS FOR A YEAR (and THIS surprised me) 🤯 Homesteading Farming Sheep Goat Comparison
Are you looking for a sheep vs goats comparison for your homestead ventures? A year ago I bought goats, thinking they would be pretty much the same as my sheep... and there were a few things that surprised me!
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Are you looking for a sheep vs goats comparison for your homestead ventures? A year ago I bought goats, thinking they would be pretty much the same as my sheep. In this video I discuss some of the things that surprised me as I raised sheep and goats side by side. I talk about the differences between sheep and goats, how goats have an advantage over sheep, and how goats are at a disadvantage compared to sheep.
-the Shepherdess
0:00 Sheep vs Goats for Farming and Homesteading
0:58 Goat Advantages over Sheep
2:17 Goat Disadvantages over Sheep
4:58 Goats or Sheep, which is better for you?
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#sheep #farming #ranching
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About this Channel: This channel chronicles my journey as a sheep farmer from the very beginning. My primary occupation is in business management. In 2020, I discovered the principles of regenerative agriculture and embarked on a journey with the end goal of building a profitable small farm on 23 acres by 2027. Thank you for joining the journey!
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The best description of why goats? I work in kitchens in a rural area and we were talking about goats, and a coworker walked by and said 'its hard to hate an animal that's always smiling".
Goat milk uses for my family: cajeta, ice-cream, eggnog, feta, mozzarella, potato soup, yogurt, kefir... also I give a modest amount to my dogs and cat, plus I leave a jar out on the counter to clabber for a few days and feed that to my chickens. We don't raise pigs cause we eat Kosher animals, but lots of people use excess milk in growing pigs.
Goat cheese and even goat milk was getting popular for awhile. It might sell well, and I think cheese can be sold without USDA/FDA/cia/FBI involvement or approval.
@@djja8844 only as pet or craft (soap or paint) milk. Needs to be made clear that it's not marketed as being for human consumption to save your farm.
Are you full blown kosher or just prefer those animals?
I have 16 Nigerian dwarf and Nubian/Kiko/ Nigerian crosses. I also have 6 Katahdin and cross sheep. 2 ewes, 2 ewe lambs and 2 males. The 2 males, 1 ram and 1 wether, are crossed with St Croix and some wool type sheep as they do not shed as well. I also have a breeding pair of lowline Angus cattle, waiting on a calf due soon. They each do their own thing when I let them all out together, from their individual pens, on our small acreage and they all eat different things. They keep the grass mowed and the wooded areas trimmed. I enjoy them all. I milk the goats and their raw milk is sweeter than any cows milk I've ever had, it also cured my daughter's lactose intolerance. It needs care and cleanliness to not get 'goaty' or skunked as I call it and cannot last more than a week raw before it gets that flavor. My experience is that the smaller goats are easier to keep contained and my does do not climb or jump as much as bigger breeds that I've had in the past. I've not had to do much for the sheep as far as health or worms, the goats have needed more medical attention over the years. Goats need monthly hoof trimming, more if the hooves are pale colored as they grow faster.
I’ve raised 100 plus katahdins. Now we raise Nubians and Lamanchas for milk. I enjoy the goats better. They have good personalities.
Can I get involved
I'll be at 100 cross-Kats this winter. We're finally hitting our stride. Lambs in 2 weeks.
Wouldn’t the Katahdins be better for meat producing?
I had a couple goats years ago (very small scale) and just recently bought a 50 head herd of goats. Mostly dairy crosses. 75% are Nigerian Dwarf and I laughed out loud when you showed the two strand electric fence. ALL GOATS ARE ESCAPE ARTISTS.
We raise katahdins, which are considered the ‘goats of sheep.’ They are excellent foragers and land clearers. Ours will clear the bottom levels of trees while there’s still perfectly good pasture around. We’ve had goats before, and we find that sheep are much easier to work with/contain! We also REALLY enjoy our katahdin sheep milk & meat! (In regard to the milk, consider how goat milk has a ‘particular taste’ compared to cow milk. IMO, cow milk has a ‘particular taste’ compared to sheep milk. Sheep milk is so smooth and creamy. Very delicious!!)
We put molasses on the fence when we started goats in 5 strand polyrope and once they licked the energized fence they never messed with it again. Also it seems that the kids learned from the parents and never tested the fence either. One note though is that they seemed to know if the fence was off or low. It was a good indicator if they started looking like they were going to test the fence that your fence isn't operating correctly. So for us teach them that the fence is bad and keep it hot, keep enough food/water in the areas and knock on wood we never had any break outs in the 4 years we ran goats. We've decided to get back into them since I've retired from the military and the property we have in East Tennessee needs a lot of clearing to create pastures
Awesome. I’m considering this as well once I retire.
I have heard goat milk is great for cheese making because of it's high fat content. You can also do feta :D As a kid we had a female nubian named Baby and a companion mini pot belly goat named Dingle Berry :D We used a standard large sqaure woven wire fence, but Dingle Berry was a master escape artist and I think taught our milder mannered Baby to escape once in a while. I believe we fed them mostly hay/alfalfa, occasional oats or pellet feed(?), and some limited browsing of oak. We eventually got a really stinky male nubian, lol, that we kept seperated by a fence. Baby gave birth to 2 or 3 kids one year (which were adorable), and we enjoyed milking her by hand and drinking the milk :)
🤣🤣Yes! I whole heartedly agree with you! Personality is hands down more fun! Yes, they ignore 2 strands of electric fence. I started out trying 5 strands of electric, but if there was a fault, they were through it. Got an LGD to run with them and now they just free range. I pen them up at night, but they are free to roam my very brushy and hilly property. They always return home to chew their cud and hang out. I raise Kiko's (commercial), but I also have a Sanaan that I have crossed with a Kiko. I really like the combination, so far. Her first daughter born here is due to kid in about 2 or 3 weeks. Part of me regrets selling the buck I bred her to, but it was time for him to move on. We use the goat milk for my husband and I. I do buy half and half for my coffee, but I am hoping that the Kiko/Sanaan cross will produce a higher butter fat than the Sanaan. The extra milk, when I have it, is fed to the chickens. I love my goats. Would like to raise some sheep for my freezer, but I haven't been able to do that, yet. I don't eat the S.A.D. anymore. I have gone carnivore and am doing very well on it.
Very interesting. I knew chickens are just about anything, but I did not realize chickens consumed milk. Any insights on that would be appreciated.
@@marcus3457 Protein and calcium. It stretches the chicken feed. I just put it in a shallow pan and they clean it up. Sometimes I'll add mash to it. The goats won't try to steal the chicken feed if I add milk to it.
I crossbreed kiko and Spanish goats with nubians. The kiko in particular are very parasite resistant and much more independent. The result is larger offspring that are decent milk producers and meat producers but the key thing is the parasite resistance
I'm in NE Texas as well. I attempted to run. Goats with my sheep, and containment was constantly an issue. I sold my goats because we favor the lamb meat.
We raise Boer Goats at Lucky M Boer Goats here in Nebraska (we have a few videos here on youtube). Our circumstance is a little different as we are stuck without pasture in our living situation, ours are fat and happy so no attempted escapes and we have mainly just cattle panel fencing. Ours get alfalfa starting a month before kidding and then up to the last week or two before weaning to help slow milk production down. They're all on some level of grain as most of the herd is some level of registered show style stock. The rest of the year they get native prairie hay baled here on the farm. Depending on feed load you can almost guarantee some level of hoof trimming and the fact they will kill every tree you thought you liked. Subsequently they also will love you if you keep your Christmas tree fresh and then toss it to them afterwards. Our biggest challenge is management. I usually preach a good mineral program for the goats can be more important than the grain aspect, we like Duraferm concept aid Goat loose mineral and their protein tubs. Many issues with parasites, hooves etc can be directly linked to genetics. Our newest buck's hooves are much more sound and the trimming is less even with the grain load for maintenance he carries. Parasite resistance will also follow some blood lines. We copper regularly but we buy the bovine boluses for cost savings and then measure them out into a syringe with yogurt for a parfait and then we reduce them spitting them out. Also in our area we supplement Bo-Se for selenium based on our feed etc. Also our goats are very picky and I have a couple in a pen with some weeds in it and they won't even look at them. Ultimately, the advantage to sheep is that you will have veterinarian support and product support for sheep at a multiple factor greater than goats. Most still see goats as $150 per head annoyance. Most products you will use will be off label for some other animal and you only learned that through a connection you made of other goat people.
Love your insights even though I'm a goat lover over sheep and wished you'd delve more into the goat world. Incidentally, I do watch all your videos despite the heavy sheep rotation. I find them very informative.
I have Nubian and Alpine goats. This year I have not started milking yet and am letting the babies drink all of it until I wean, then I will start milking. I used a Kiko/Boer buck last year and my kids are growing great with all of the extra milk that they are getting. About electric netting, DON'T USE THE GOAT/SHEEP NETTING!!!!! Use the chicken netting instead. I have had goats get stuck in the goat/sheep netting and almost strangle themselves. the holes are too big and the fence is not tall enough.
The hoof issue is related to the copper. I find that giving a good goat mineral with adequate copper (even many goat minerals don't have enough) takes care of the problem. SweetIix Meat maker or Purina has a good one. But if you're running sheep and goats together you'll have to rely on boluses, which isn't as good as steady consumption..
Agree 💯 also if you grain goats or sheep you’ll have to trim hooves I’ve learned recently. A lot of the commercial farms are grass fed only for that reason as well
We raise myotonic (fainting) goats and have found that they generally don't climb and have not had any escape. Except for a kid who discovered he could fit through the electric fence when it was off due to a dead energizer. We use Premier1 Permanet 48" fence. Goats in general do have a death wish though.
At Iron Quail Ranch we raise 100% New Zealand Kiko goats in Arizona. We use a 4 inch field fence around the perimeter of our ranch. The goats stay in a 115'x115' dry paddock during the dry/hot season (Apr-Aug). When monsoon rains green up the riparian we rotate the goats using 300' of electric netting fence along the permanent fence line. Kikos are very intelligent and very hardy. We don't have copper, feet or worming issues, primarily because the dry arid environment. Kikos are a hands-off breed. Arizona is the copper state and there is sufficient copper additives naturally and in the supplemental feed used during the dry season. I rarely clip hooves as they will typically break off naturally. Sheep would not work here as we don't have sufficient pasture. Goats have no problem foraging through thorny vegetation. Goats also don't have a high water consumption. Maybe 1-2 gallons per day, per goat. This minimizes the amount of water hauling needed to get water to them. They are also very heat tolerant as long as they have shade. Temps here are currently 110°F+ everyday.
Kikos are great, we also like breeding our kiko bucks with Nubians (fantastic kids with good size & build). I like to offset a single hot rope along the field fence about 30” high. This lets them keep the fence line clean but not rub on it. The netting it a necessity on training the kids to electric & start early for success so they learn to jump back - not forward. We have plenty of forage in NE Kansas and never a mineral issue using free choice cafeteria style mineral feeders. One tip, the goats with white hooves need trimmed occasionally. The goats with black hooves , rarely.
@@masejames4906 Yes, the Kiko breed is very versatile. They are a full size goat that is very close to how mother nature intended. The does are very nurturing, require no assistance in kidding. They are decent milk producers, but not as good as a true "milker". They are great meat goats and we often see other ranches cross breeding with boers or spanish goats with the hopes of retaining the kikos natural parasite resistance and fast growing characteristics. Perimeter fencing MUST be strong and tight! My Kikos will throw their entire body weight against the fence to rub their sides against it. I have a buck that weighs over 200lbs and without a strong fence he could easily push through it.
Yep, we chose kikos for the parasite resistance also. They gain so well on forage alone. We only feed protein when breeding in fall/winter to increase kid crop.
I have the steep, overgrown brushy land that is absolutely best for goats - they are helping me clear land and create pasture for the future. As for electric fencing - yes, initially goat will absolutely go through on their first shock. The way to work around this is have them in a pen you know they can't get through, and run electric INSIDE the pen... Then attract the goats to the hot wire with feed or treats.... You'll have to do this for several days (I needed to go 3 days for my worst escapee that was teaching the others to go through the hot wire).... Once they learn (the hard way of course) that going through upon shock does NOT work, they develop the habit of backing away instead. Even my worst offender, once trained this way, stopped going through. For the younger ones (like when I weaned the bucklings by placing them in the boy's pen), you can do the same training, or, like me, I just watched close the first few days and immediately returned the escapees through the gate - they learned fast that getting shocked going through only got them put right back where they started. Nipped it in the bud and have had no challenges since. Even the bucks are trained to stay within electric. I use a combination of poly-wire and poly-rope for most of my fencing as I transition into actual high tensile electric fence. The goats will stay with only 3 strands (10" from the ground, 10", 10"), but I keep a fourth line (12" above the last one) to keep in the LGDs who easily jump 3 strands but won't risk the 4th. This, in my permanent fence, gives me the added benefit of not needing to change much once I have pasture and can have horses!
I have kikos. They are super hardy. They are not big jumpers when they get big. I use the net fencing to forage on neighborhoods property. I still have a waiting list. Would be a whole different game if it was just me and my 5 acres.
We run our goats on 4 strand polywire. I'm not a big fan of the netting, but we do train the kids on the netting. I believe that goats in our area (Hill Country TX), and that the choice between sheep and goats depends on your land and browse situation. I fully expect that one days our goats will have transformed our ranch from weeds and woody browse to the original grassy savannah that this area was 100+ years ago. As that happens we will transition to sheep, but I'm sure we will always have some goats as they are just so personable.
I have nubian goats and love them. When young they are more energetic and escapy but don't stray far from the herd. Once they are moms they settle right down and don't cause trouble. Their personalities are wonderful and each is unique. I find goats to be similar in a lot of ways to dogs, very interactive. Goats are all about ROUTINE! I am glad you tried them and liked them.
I have Kiko goats. I can keep them in with two strands as long as the voltage is above 5k and they have lots of forge to eat. I had to play around with the heights of the two strands to get them at the perfect height so they don’t go under and over.
Oh what a glorious life you live, ma'am. I miss the farm life, so much. Because of the day after days of instant gratification of good things done on the farm.
Hey, a couple of things you may want to consider with your goat milk is making various cheeses - and, as you mentioned, making soap. Also, as you have already discovered, goats are the "Houdini" of the animal family - if there is a way to get out, the goats WILL find it!
I have heard that goat meat has a milder taste then lamb. I know you cannot throw lamb on a skillet and cook it like beef. My wife knows how to cook lamb. She just made a lamb roast in the rotisserie. When lamb is cooked right, I prefer it to beef.
I started with sheep, and ended up with goats. They are a very challenging animal to keep. The saying goes, "if you can pour water through it, they can get out." But I love goats. They are my favorite animal now. (And this is coming from someone who DESPISED them at one time.)
We raised boar goats along side our sheep, they were great because they can eat the brush and weeds but fencing was a major problem and ours were terrible mothers compared to sheep. But I’m told that is a boat problem.we ultimately sold them because I couldn’t keep them fenced in.
Goats are masters of escape lol. I worked on a goat farm that raised Oberhasli goats and there was almost never a day without somebody getting out, usually it was the bucks but if the does found a way they'd go looking for greener pastures so to speak. Definitely personable, I would buy myself some milk goats in a heartbeat if I had the land for it. You can feed the extra milk to pigs if you raise any, also dogs or cats, the farm I worked at sold raw goat milk for pets sometimes. Also goat kefir smoothies are a great treat in the summer, I'd highly recommend trying that. Super good for you.
We have a grassroots herd with Nubians, mini Nubians, and Tennessee Fainting goats. I’ve considered sheep once we get more land? So far I have loved having the goats. Had a good giggle at your two strips of tape for a fence 🤭 Goats are incredibly intelligent and have very good memories. It’s been very interesting seeing the differences between the sheep and goats… I knew they were similar but it seems like goats are more dog like and sheep are more cow like? I have not spent a lot of time around sheep, but my goats have really shocked me with how smart they are, how personable, and how hardy they are. I had a 3 week old doeling get lost in the woods for 2 weeks on her own before I found her again. She’s still our resident escape lead, but apart from a bit of deficiencies in minerals? Girl was living her best life out there. Judging by her tracks she had started running with a herd of deer for a little while? Everyone told me she was “coyote food”, but we found her. She was just over a mile from home, actually circling her way back to the homestead based on her trail path lol It was crazy. I hope you continue to keep them as pets and update us on how they’re doing!! Goatherder here just trying to blend in with the shepherdesses…. 🫣💛✨🐐
We raise both hair sheep and Spanish goats together. We prefer the Spanish Goats over our sheep mainly due to thier effectiveness in controlling/clearing brush/weeds and their hands off reproductivity and market value year round.
I have no experience with sheep but have been raising goats for the past 8 or 9 years started with the large breed myotonic and now I do registered kiko and kiko cross myotonic goats. I have high tensile electric fence and training the young kids to electric early is good way not to have trouble as they get older. I also process and sell goat meat at the farmers market with great success. The meat is very lean and does require some practice with cooking. I also love the personality of goats. Great video thanks
How many strands and how far apart?
Do you need any license/certification to process & sell goat meat? We just started with 17 goats this year.
@@thesmiths629 I run six strands of high tensile and the spacing is 6 inches from ground 6 inches 6 inches 7 inches 8 inches 9 inches for a total of 42 inches high 6-6-6-7-8-9 and I make all of them hot I don’t want to be rude to this post or promote myself but I have a KZhead channel with a videos on this subject
@@3lbm3 yes in North Carolina we need a meat handler license to sell goat meat and it must be processed by an state or USDA inspected facility
I believe the goats do much better on brushy, overgrown hillsides and forest. No matter how much rest I give to my pastures, there’s always still quite a few with parasite problems, even if the grass is high.
I raised Nigerians for 3 years. They were easy to raise and rarely lost any kids despite not being assisted. I didn't have any parasite problems. Electric fences don't work well on sand, so I divided 21 acres into 3 paddocks with field fence for goats. I have Post Oaks, Blackjack and Hickory trees which the goats eat. I find the grass grows better if it gets afternoon shade. I switched to Boer goats which I'm crossing with Spanish for better hardiness. I also plan to add a Kiko sire at some point. Meat goats bring a good price at the auction, while Nigerians are mostly pets. I like goat meat and goat milk, but I can't milk easily due to hand tremors so I'm sticking to meat goats. I would advise people to thin trees, but not clear them. The extra shade helps protect grass in the hot afternoons, and the goats prefer trees to pasture any day. I am interested in St. Croix or maybe Royal White sheep since they eat brush, but I am afraid the goats would bully them. In my case, it's better to have a sheep that's cheap to feed, even if it takes longer to reach 100#. I am slowly enriching my sandy soil. My goal is to get a mammoth donkey and some Amish farm equipment so I can spread compost, have a dump cart and plant cover crops. I watch Horse Progress Days videos, and it looks like the animal powered machinery with small engines is cheap and efficient. I would prefer a mammoth donkey because it eats the same food as goats, and is resistant to infections, even if it isn't quite as strong as a mule. However, it can be a struggle to keep donkeys from overeating. Thanks for your useful videos.
We raise Katahdins and Nigerian Dwarfs. I much prefer the goats! They are so much fun. All but one of our sheep had singles and we got quads, triplets and a few twins from our goats. Our sheep actually escape our fencing more than our goats. The netting is definitely key for keeping goats in! I adore my goats and am indifferent to the sheep lol
I'm so glad we went with sheep for all of the reasons you outlined! I don't find sheep to be entirely unpersonable, they still keep me entertained and, so far, they are playing their role here flawlessly. Goats are too much trouble, and I already have my hands full!
I have about 40 boer /kiko cross goats. I have a 5 strand high tensile fence on the perimeter but I use a single strand poly wire moved once or twice a day. They stay in about 90 percent of the time as long as they don't run out of pasture. For the copper problem I use the free choice enterprise mineral feeder like Gregg Judy . Now that I'm using that I would never consider using anything else.
We started with Saanan milk goats and had a good experience, I will say that the milk is not nearly as good as the milk we get from our brown swiss. I got tired of tying to contain the goats. Sheep are much easier to contain and stay together as a flock if they do get out. We raise dorpers and the meat is used interchangeably with beef. I love how much fat is in the meat, adds so much flavor
We raise registered Savanna goats. This last year we averaged 200% kid crop. Had three sets of quads and 15 sets of triplets out of around the 80 that had kids. Ended up averaging right at 200% even with first time mothers. Parasites are tough to handle and we dry lot more. We started to get fences figured out. Our bucks rammed our metal gates until they broke. We will be building them out of heavy pipe now.. we like them and last spring we had some 66 pound kids being $4.15 a pound. Market can be strong certain times of year. Was right before Easter and Ramadan.
I just got two savanna does this week to get started with them slowly. Looking forward to this adventure. I’m in west tn. Where are you located?
@@sarajean9637 Central South Dakota. We like their mothering ability.
We raise Oberhasli and Oberhasli/American Alpine goats. They are very intelligent and opportunistic. I love their milk output (1+ gallons per goat, twice a day milking, with kid on if you want that much) and dog-like personalities. They kid extremely well, are superior mothers and are very cold hardy. It was -50 at one point here in the Black Hills of SD and my girls were in a run in with a foot of straw bedding just hanging out. I'm pretty sure I heard some swear words under their breath as I walked back to my cozy house, but otherwise they were just fine :)
We raise primarily dairy goats (Nigerian dwarf, Nubian, la mancha and crosses of those). I'd agree with you're take on the goats. One thing I will add is goats will thrive in the woods, we've found if they don't have the option to browse rather than graze (being on primarily pasture vs woods/brush. Your parasite load will go up. Closer their mouth has to get to the ground to get forage the higher the parasite load. However, good rotation will mitigate this as well.
Love the coloring on those goats!😍
Great timing for this video. I just started with Kiko goats in September 2022. I have all the same opinions as you! Which is why I am getting out of them and focusing solely on my dairy sheep operation. The one thing I don’t have problem with is them escaping but I use electric nets. Having said that when I fence in our woods I will bring a couple back to help us clear them. The wooly dairy sheep just get too tangled. I’ve come to the conclusion I’m a sheep person and not a goat person 😅
Im running Kikos, I love sheep meat but I prefer goat meat hands down. I will say we have experimented with running goats on hay & pasture and others on mostly feed. We find that the goats on the feed have many more problems with their hooves and the meat tends to be more gamey. How ever the goats on feed grow more quickly. We use (red brand) metal sheep and goat fencing broke into different paddocks and never had any issues with escaping. So happy to see you are raising goats
Refreshingly REAL. Wow. I, and on behalf of many others that don't comment, THANK YOU.
Wow all the videos I've been missing! I was blessed with long work weeks and chores roughly the last 3 weeks so I haven't been watching much KZhead.
There's a quote fromc the book Adventures in Yarn Farming by Barbara Parry, "goats are born looking for trouble, sheep are born looking for a place to die". As we were raising and homeschoolimg or children on 5 acres we began our goat adventure. Boar cross. Eventually we got alpines to milk. Lactose intolerant... and give a little sweet grain we love the milk. We also added a few Romney -southdown sheep.... I wanted the fiber and we liked the meat better. My children are grown and married. I found the goats were harder for me to care for on my own. My son is the goat master. They love him and do everything he says. He doesn't have property yet so I sold 2 to a friend who has the breeding buck we used. I was planning on keeping 1, Greta. She was saanan-alpine. Wonderful milk and personality. She also loved the sheep. Sadly we lost her to a fluke ruptured uterus at birthing. Something our vet of 20+ years had never seen. Several other rumanat animals in our area died from the same thing...year of the COVID. So I'm down to sheep. I introduced Corriedale which improved the wool and is great meat. We have a yearly family slotter day and divide the meat. I find the sheep easier to handle for most the time just me. I have a small heard,5 breeding ewes which we are going to reduce a bit since we have been more drought prone lately. I handle them from birth and train them to be lead by a leash so I can move them easily to a neighbor's to help rotate pasture.
i raise nubians and they are a legit nightmare, they did an ok job of clearing some brush land but tbh it would have been just as much work to do it with a brush cutter (their ability to clear land is drastically overstated), most likely ill be switching to sheep because they are much better at grazing and because equipment and meds for them are just far more available in the uk than they are for goats.
When I had goats and sheep together the sheep would run to the center of the pasture while the goats would clear the fence line. Also if a fence won't keep water in, it won't keep a goat in.
I’ve been raising Katadin sheep and had really good luck with them
I would like to start by saying I’m surprised at how much I like my goats. Their personalities and the fact they enjoy being brushed is so much fun! I have 2 ewe lambs and alpine weather that were bottle babies. They have fantastic recall and can free range on my property-they even have gone back into the fence at night! We are replacing some of our perimeter fence so they are “locked up” with 2 of my naughty alpine/Boer mix goats. The smaller mix goats jump like deer and the absolutely DO conspire to get out and run off. Lol The larger two mix goats can’t scale the electric net so they stay put. The Premier One Pos/Neg netting works best for me in my CenTex sandy, dry soil. We Love lamb! However we are heavily wooded with oak trees and covered in Forbes…alll great for goats. I’m looking forward to running them in the woods soon!! On our farm the sheep will need to keep at the minimum, total of 5. That should supply us with lamb meat and have a little extra to sell and help offset hay cost…it’s mid July and we are on hay already since it’s 25+ days of zero rain and triple digits. I would love a few more Alpine goats and some Nubians for milk.
Kudos to you my sister, seems you are really doing good with farming.
you got those ethereal, hyperborean A10 eyes. you are destined to leave a major impact on the world.
I love goats, I am planning to raise them and make cheese. Probably will go to your site and see what you offer. I just love all the animals ❤.
I have more goats than sheep right now. I have...in varying numbers...Lamanchas, Nubians, Boers, and crosses. I'm breeding and developing my own kind of goats for this climate, land, and feed base. Strangely enough, I get more lambs than kids. Twins and triplets versus singles from my goats. So at some point I'll have more hair sheep than goats based on the lambing numbers. You are doing it right, Grace. For 4 years I was raising purebred goats, and the vigor was lacking. I have a strong cross-breeding and selection program now, and my resulting kids look great. I like the Boer influence in them. Nevertheless, sheep are better adapted for the high country and cold winters like we get in mountains of NorCal.
I raise both sheep & goats, currently I've got about 50-60 of each but I'm getting ready to increase my sheep flock to a few hundred. I honestly prefer goats over sheep but I do contract grazing & the jobs I currently have require more sheep then goats. One disadvantage I do find with goats though is raising wethers, my lambs do fine when they're castrated but my goats seem to have 50/50 chance of survival... I'm not really sure why but that's definitely been a problem for me so I normally try to get rid of billy kids a soon as I can & just raise the does.
What age to you band at? I know your supposed to wait longer in the 8-10 week range with goats but with sheep you do it asap. Maybe that’s issue?
@@sarajean9637 I do both my sheep & goats around the 12 week mark. About a week or 2 after banding my goats seem to start losing condition but lambs do just fine.
I've gotten rid of most of my painted desert sheep after several years and have transitioned to Kiko goats and Nigerian dwarfs that the kids show. I keep our goats in with and 8 joule charger and 6 strands of 14 ga high tensile
Our goat experience has been that nigerian dwarfs are mystical escape artists and I won't own one again. I currently have mostly nubians, plus 1 boer, 1 spanish, 1 lamancha, and 1 kiko. All of them are way better than the nigerian nightmares. Those tiny rascals are only cute in videos. My husband and I have issues digesting most cow milk, so goats milk has been great for our diet. I don't have a good local source, so I am my local source. East Tx is a parasite haven. My kiko is no lore resistant than anyone else, my lamancha is most susceptible. I use netting and it's a major burden to hand clear fence trails and maneuver through youpon/briar thickets with netting regularly. I fantasize about a forestry mulcher cutting paddock layouts one day $$ ahh, but a hand saw, and loppers gets it done. I feed close to 2lbs of grain per doe perday on the stanchion, but other than that they browse and have mineral available. Oh and I move a calf hutch and an ezhutch a frame around to each paddock for their housing. And I keep my buck in an apron to avoid unwanted breeding.
Great video I think it was a very good breakdown 😁and I tell people not to even compare them with each other sheep are like small cows goats are more like dogs too smart for their own good and they will find your last nerve and play on it🤣
Well done it has been quiet while Respect
Great content. Agree with you, sheep are better for me. I love mutton.
We are raising Nigerian Dwarf Goats. We have a 4 strand electric fence, with the bottom strand only 4 inches from the ground in order to catch their nose. I have only had one goat jump through it when zapped, and they immediately jump back in to be with the herd. We only have 8 currently, but one doe is pregnant, so we will see what it's like to have babies running around. Sheep will be our next flock once we get our goat herd up to about 20.
Nigerian sheep 🐑 are different from Western sheep 🐑
Did you have any luck getting them to graze the pasture grass? What varieties of grass do y’all have? I’m trying to find out if they’ll graze fescue and crabgrass. I have weeds, but I want pasture I can cut for hay at least once a year
We have goats. Mixed breed. We use 3strands of electric wire. Very high juels charger(300 mile charger for 25 acres) is manditory
I have Nigerian dwarf goats and I just got a small herd of Alpines. I love goats and wouldn't have it any other way. I live in the desert so they do better than I think sheep would.
I've been raising mini nubian goats for two years and a bit. I love hate them. They're cute and personable and silly. Murphy's Law is their religion. It's been a steep learning curve to keep them alive and enclosed, but I've been tweaking my management practices as I face problems and it's gotten much easier.
I have 120 goats on trees. I cut some down every day. They have been in a double steel hot wire for a month and have no trouble so far. I run the sheep in a separate pasture. I don't want pure boar goats because they tend to need a lot of nursemaidng.
5:39 You could make goat cheese and sell it. Camembert, cheddar, Stilton. There are lots of cheese types that goes well with goat milk. Plus they are highly valued so its a good investment.
Ijust got a few registered Savanna goats to breed for meat which are the second best breed for meat after boers. They have already got stuck in the electric netting 3x in a week so yes I agree keeping them in is a challenge for sure but excited to see how well they do. I have half a pasture of white Dorper and half a pasture of Savanna goats both for meat is my goal. The Savanna’s are supposed to be better than boers for parasites and for kidding ease. Starting out small to see how it goes. Still trying to figure out who my market will be here in west tn since I’m also new to the area
I love my goats! ❤ We have Nigerian dwarfs and Oberhasli. I love both breeds but the Obers are so easy. They don’t try to escape and they are really quiet. Win - win! However, my Nigerian had triplets her second kidding. My Ober had only one at her first kidding so we shall see how she does on her second kidding. Yes very good at clearing land! We have new pastures to create so plan to use all the new bucks to clear while they live their best life here on the farm. Lol
You should do a video from your dream with a walk through from your dream step by step to where you are at now love your videos
I hate the webbed electric fencing for goats etc.use stock fence with electric line on top.
This is spot on! We’ve had Katahdin sheep and Mini Lamancha goats for 3 years now. The only thing - our milk is awesome! We’ve had several very skeptical friends try it and be shocked that it just tastes like milk. I think the Nigerian mix for creaminess makes a difference.
I notice if the milk is immediately chilled to 35f and not allowed to get warmer before use I can't tell the difference from cows milk, but let it get warm for a little bit it tastes goaty
@@safffff1000 That makes sense too. We’re always careful to chill it right away. Before goats, we bought cows milk from the Amish, but during the summer it was hard to keep the taste since it wasn’t cooled right away. We tried to pick up early and get it on ice, but it was inconsistent.
I raise Spanish goats but this fall I'm getting a Boar billy just for a little size . I use them as lawnmowers Eco frendly , but I don't have to worry about an HOA either . In the past few years there were some issues . But as of now I have a handle on it . I enjoy your videos . short and to the piont 👍
Our Nigerian Dwarf goats do not mow well at all. How do the boar goats do with that? We do wait till the grass is longer than 6 in before putting them on a pasture. I want to add either meat goats or sheep with my dairy goats and want to keep the grass shortish. The NGs love our brush though
My grass gets mowed once a year. Right now it’s only 2-6 feet tall. No kidding. No HOA here 👍
Ive been considering mini goats either nigerian or pymgy. Thinking for farm tour / therapy / yoga type reasons to justofy the cost.
The boer are the only ones I've seen not to really be much on getting out once there older lol. I'm up to 11 sheep and 24 goats 1 year in after seeing your first video
love it!
Also we use the goats to clear other farmers land
Old goat guy told me years ago..if you want to check your fences throw a bucket of water at it.. where the water goes through so will the goats..😂
We raise 100% pure boergoat. We also use portable netting, there is no way 2 or probably 3 strands are going to hold a goat. And all goats climb everything all the time.
One of my Nigerians like.showing me how to use the latch to open a gate, needless to say, I had to come.up with my own design that she is still trying to figure out... But the hardware store ones... No problem for her.
I’ve only dealt with goats, in rural parts of Europe and all over India, as a traveler, on a budget, and they are as sweet as can be. This is likely useless information, but I just couldn’t resist. They stole my heart.
They are one of Mother nature's best creations!
My first year with goats went great, I have about 30 Boer, Boer/Nubian, boer kiko, and a Spanish buck. Great until this morning that is, hottest day of our Minnesota summer and my does decided it would be a good time to come in heat. My Spanish buck blew right through a cattle panel like it was made of paper, beat up my NZ Kiko buck, and along with my boer Billy a breeding frenzy ensued… 😭 P. S. I love the milk and no longer need to buy cow milk. 😊
I've owned sheep and Goats on multiple occasions. Goats are like drunk teenagers who have found the keys to dad's liquor cabinet. So we have sheep.
I raise Boer-Anglo-Native Philippine goats. Small backyard here in Northwest Philippines, Nueva Vizcaya.
I have Nigerian Dwarf goats and they sound just the same as yours.
We have Kiko and Kiko-nubian cross. We just started last year, and I'm most surprised at how goats' milk tastes exactly like cow milk. We have a lot of work to do and a whole whole whole lot to learn. We're just trying to follow what we feel that God has laid out for us, and as long as we do that, we know that He will bless our work.
We have Kiko goats and love them. They are the best moms and they have the best personality.
I live in Pakistan I am having and trying to multiply goat bread which is a cross between goat and wild buck it has no horns, white color ears are like buck and walk just like buck.
I do dorper sheep, and Nubian goats as well as a boer. Goats are a lot more friendly than sheep, you do have to worry more about suppliments with goats, but goats a re more hardy. I sell my goats milk to local farmers for their baby deer and other animals. I think that the real choice comes down to a few things.. As you said, goats will eat pretty much anything, so if you're trying to clean our brambles, goats all the way.. Goats are vastly harder to contain though, so you might spend less on food but more on fencing.... The other decision maker in my view is where your food is, goats aren't very comfortable eating from the ground, their necks are meant to be eating from above them, so if you have brambles and weeds they are happy, but a pasture will have your goats on their knees the entire time they are eating. So for your land, which is beautiful clean pasture, pretty much sheep all the way, but if it looks like that area you showed the goats gnawing on a tree on most of your land, goats all the way.
We raised kiko and spanish cross. We did this for parasite resistance, SE Ok gets too much rain and still had issues. 100% goats are insane on containment lol.
P.S. i have even had a goat ride a pig and use it as a ladder to jump out.
My brother has sheep and I have goats.. I believe goats have more character and that too me is a plus.. they are more independent and seems to have a stronger will.. I am a team Goats 🐐
I have been raising goats since since 1992. Nubians, fainting, and Boer when they arrived in the USA. Boer only since early 2000's. Goats do not do well on grass pastures. That leads to a lot of worm issues and a lot of hoof trimming. I was in Clay County north Central TX. Grass, weeds, cactus and mesquite. Mesquite can cause paralysis in goats mouths if they eat much of it. Eventually my goat herd built an immunity. Since 2019 I have been in the woods north of Paris, TX. Not much grass but tons of weeds, brush, briars and trees. No hoof trimming anymore, huge difference with worms after 3-4 years of being in the woods. New kind of worm here from white tail deer, meningeal. They go for brain not a stomach worm. Only had problems with them for a couple years. Haven't had any new cases in 2 years. I love my goats! I normally run around a hundred head of breeding does.
Thank great info
I raise nigerian dwarfs, alpines are one of the trickiest goat breeds to keep as they are probably the most athletic.
Been raising goats now for 19 years. Started with pure myotonic and have mixed in kilo and boer over the year to improve growth rate of kids. Still trying to learn what fencing will contain a goat. I have not had luck with electric netting; goats with horns get terribly tangled in it. 5 wire electric seems to work ok, if REALLY hot, 10x the joule rating for the length. Field fence with barded wire on top and bottom works best. I “pasture” my goats in dense wood land.
Do trained goats occasionally get tangled in the netting as well, or just those that are new to electric netting?
@@timsenjem8337 I would agree, I was helping a neighbor with his sheep and he has premier netting and it has more and better stays than mine
We have Icelandic and Navajo Churro sheep and I love them, but also run a few Lamancha and nubian mixed goats. The goats definitely give the personality of the flock besides my Icelandics. But the sheep are more independent while my goats just love attention. I love both sheep and goats! However, we intend to grow our sheep population and staying with 4 milking goats. I have bottle fed an orphaned sheep off the goat milk and find its just a better option than store bought milk replacer. And the whole farm gets raw goat milk, so my girls contribute to feeding everyone while helping to tackle the weeds our sheep do not like on pasture. Oh yea, definitely have electric netting with a good energizer :)
Long-time goat person here: Alpines are not really designed for what you've got them doing. I can see that most of your does REALLY lost condition over the time you had them, and unless the videos of the copper and the lamb nursing are outdated, both of those does are in pretty poor shape. Swiss dairy breeds need really good (horse-quality) hay, quite a bit of grain, and usually supplements; your extension agent can help you work out a ration if you want to keep going with Alpines. Feeding dairy goats is a lot more like feeding dairy cows than like feeding sheep. If you want a group of goats that can thrive on forage alone, with a little bit of grain to make them slick and shiny, you want Spanish or boer/spanish.
Great insite, thanks for the vid. I don't have as much experience with sheep as I do goats. I love goats and hope to always have them around. In my experience the #1 problem with them is their ability to escape, #2 their insatiable appetite and #3 their being very picky eaters, needing higher quality, pristine hay that is 2nd or 3rd cutting. They won't touch 1st cutting hay. They'd rather scream at you so you go to the store and get what they really want. Alpines definitely are more athletic and driven to escape than other breeds. Some people down the road from us had a pair of Alpines that were always getting out. We would see them standing in the road or out on someone else's property. I don't see those goats anymore so I think they got rid of them. When my Alpine cross doe was only 3 months old she could easily leap over a 5ft fence like a deer.
Most goats should have some grain during breeding and for the last six weeks before kidding. The supplement during breeding time will give more kids and the time before kidding will provide larger and more energetic kids. This can vary by the type of goats and season of kidding but is a good rule of thumb to follow. I keep my goats in with a three strand standard electric fence. The key I have found is ensuring the fence stays hot and is not covered with weeds to make sure they feel it and second they must know where the fence is.
Upping grain at breeding I've heard called "flushing" to help with multiples. On my first timers I prefer twins to an uncommon large single just for an easier first birth experience.
All goats are very curious and they will climb anything and everything and they will sneak out through the smallest crack they are a little Houdini's. I love my goats they are awesome but you have to tend to them a lot.
Goats do climb everywhere they are allowed... give them an area to climb, and they will make use of it. Goats do love 'interesting' foods to browse over... they really love the crazy stuff, ours particularly, eat the heck out of poison ivy. They do like getting out. We have a heavy hogwire fence, and no matter what we seem to do, at least 2-3 of the 20+ that we have find their way out, and back in again sometimes, seemingly at will.