I purchased two nanny goats kids last week. No kidding!
The land needs an organic or natural way of tackling the brambles and ever encroaching scrub like Gorse.
I have read that in Australia and New Zealand goats are used to tackle wild places. Farm animals have tamed the countryside over many centuries and it's good land husbandry to use animals for grazing purposes. It is after all the animals that have made the countryside look like it is.
I try not to use chemicals to spray but rushes in particular are a big problem in rural Ireland. I think they like the acidic peaty and very damp soil. I have read that rush seeds can live for up to sixty years in the soil and living on a windy peninsula like ours they spread very easy.
Any way here's my new four paw drive weeders/browse grazers:
They are eating their way through a bramble patch at the moment. Number one son cut out openings in two old plastic heating oil tanks to make hutches for the girls and I made them straw beds inside the hutches.
Goats like donkeys originate in Asia and do not have oil in their coats to protect them from the Irish rain. The Roman's called Ireland, Hibernia. Meaning the land of eternal winters. They were good weather forecasters along with making straight roads and building sanitation..?
I have Christened them Beyonce and Gaga. One is calm and one is a bit highly strung.
We bought them a bag of goat food and it cost me fourteen Euros. I wish I had shares in a farm store at the moment.
Do you have an organic approach to taming undergrowth or would you clear it with a digger and spray the weeds? May be even lime and reseed?
Anyone else keep goats? How do you deal with rushes? Do you spray them or do you top them before the go to seed? Perhaps I could strim them?
More livestock photos soon.
I have goat envy - loved keeping them
ReplyDeleteOh they are lovely. I hope they do their job well.
ReplyDeleteI love goats. The first time I went into a goat milking parlour I laughed out loud, everything is so dinky, but my favourite goat memory involved visiting someone who had set up a small nature trail on his land, for local children, with signs saying what they might see if they were very quiet as so on. As we came back towards the house there were goats in a paddock and he explained that one of them was due to give birth any day. We stood and watched them for a few minutes - and out the little kid popped, right in front of us.
ReplyDeleteYes Veg artist they are good to have around the smallholding. I will have to build a goat and donkey house or field shelter. Great goat memories.
DeleteBeyonce and Gaga are great names for your two girlfriends. They will never say "No!" or claim they have headaches.
ReplyDeleteYou are always acting the goat YP. I don't start tapping my toes until I have had at least 6 pints. I don't need no beer to play the air guitar though.
DeleteGoats are great characters Sue. They are doing a mighty job clearing (eating) thr brambles. Wish they would eat the rushes. Only St Brigid made use of them.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like them JayCee. They are doing a great job and BlackBerry leaves are full of vitamin C.
ReplyDeleteMy human has goat envy too. Couldn't agree more than with your land management plan. Not sure about the rushes. If even goats don't eat them then take a leaf out of St Brigid's book. We hear that handmade rush matting fetches good prices in upmarket homes these days.
ReplyDeleteThey originate like the donkeys in Asia Tigger. So they have oils in their coats to protect against the wet and rain. St Brigis made crosses out of rushes. My dad use to weave bull whips with them when he was a child.
Deletehttp://www.waveneyrush.co.uk/Rush-Matting.php
ReplyDeleteThanks Tigget for the link. Those rush mats are beautiful. I bet they are not cheap to buy?
DeleteWe used to have goats when we were children. Will you be staking them or letting them roam? We used to stake and move them at intervals during the day. Goats milk makes lovely custard.
ReplyDeleteYou should write about your goats Rachel. We tether them with big dog tethers which screw into the ground. My wife buys goat milk soap. Great for skin conditions like Psoriasis. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMy father cleared 7 acres of land with two nannies and 3 kids goats. One of our nannies was extremely high strung. She got me cornered in a barn and butted me everytime I tried to move. Up on her hind legs and BAM! My sister walked in and raced back out. "Saved!" I thought. She rushed back in and screamed "dad said you better stop being mean to the goats!" Oh...and what started it? I was feeding the kids and she wanted the grain in their bin not hers.
ReplyDeleteA amazing to think the goats cleared seven acres Debby. You get some devil goats and some are like Angel's. Great goat memories.
DeleteIt was land that had not been lived on for years and was completely over grown, too. They saved us a lot of labor. We staked the two nannies, and the kids stayed close to their mothers.
DeleteThat goat? She also climbed onto my Kharrmann Ghia.
If you've got pigs, did you know you can use them to till your garden?
Goats and pigs can tame wild land Debby.
ReplyDeleteKharrmann Ghia cars are beautiful.
Yes the pigs have cleared an area for next years crops or maybe another polytunnel?
I have been trying for days to comment on your goats. How could I not. The Internet man is here today so we shall see if he can make a difference and persuade Mr google to let me have my say.
ReplyDeleteYour goats are cute, nothing like our smelly wild goats with huge horns. They ravage any olive trees that are not fenced in and plough through thistles and thorns. I hope your goats develop a taste for rushes. Have you learnt how to milk them?
Thanks for your blog comment perseverance Linda. We have had goats before and I did try to milk one. Supposed to be good for you.
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