Goat Rental

[Dobish]

I just got a quote for a goat rental. This has been a year long process, and finally the company is ready to bring their goats by to clear away some of my brush. I'm pretty excited about this, since I haven't been able to get to the back back yard as much as I would like. I also feel much better about feeding goats than dumping this stuff into a landfill!

Does anyone have experience with goat rentals?

Also, not sure if this should go in the GEAR forum

 

[begreen]

Good for you. Goats are great at clearing a lot. They are quiet and entertaining. We've had a local goat rental person here for 14 years. She has expanded it into a pretty good sized business, even doing work for the county and city of Seattle. She now has a few hundred goats I think and can the can tackle serious acreage. A neighbor hired a small squad of her goats (maybe 10?) and I'd walk by and greet them daily. They decimated a thicket full of blackberries in about a week. The other cool advantage is they work long hours on rough terrain that equipment would have a hard time with.

She's been in articles locally, in Newsweek and even on the Colbert Show. Her goats have even be used in commercials.

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[brenndatomu]

I've heard about this...mainly government entity's renting them to clean up ROWs.
Hafta give us some before and after pics...

 

[Dobish]

i will surely do that!

 

[Ashful]

This is funny, I was joking about creating a goat rental business with some friends a few years ago, I didn’t know it was actually a thing. My reasoning was the same, trained to a wireless system, they could be tracked, monitored, and contained while trimming alongside highways, under high power lines, and other such danger zones.

I also feel much better about feeding goats than dumping this stuff into a landfill!

Where will the goats dump it? ;-)

 

[begreen]

Where will the goats “dump” it? ;-)

That's a great side benefit. They fertilize the land while clearing it.

 

[Doug MacIVER]

That's a great side benefit. They fertilize the land while clearing it.

everything you gain, looks like more Co2?

 

[Doug MacIVER]

everything you gain, looks like more Co2?

since I brought it up, doesn't include industrial or recreational use of small ruminants?
Table 6. Global production, emissions and emission intensity for small ruminants Species Production (million tonnes) Absolute emissions1 (million tonnes CO2-eq) Average emission intensity (kg CO2-eq/kg product) Milk2 Meat2 Milk Meat Milk2 Meat2 Sheep 8.0 7.8 67.4 186.9 8.4 24.0 Goats 12.0 4.8 62.4 112.5 5.2 23.5 Totals 20.0 12.6 129.4 299.4 6.5 23.link, did not see a date?http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3461e/i3461e04.pdf

 

[MikeK]

http://www.goatsonthego.com/

 

[Dobish]

for a while, amazon was saying that they were going to be offering a goat rental service. There are a couple of companies around here, but they don't really do small areas like my yard.

I would love to have goats, but the city says that I cannot due to my location.... Also, i'm not really sure the sheepdog would be very happy either.

I had to get back there with the string trimmer to try and mow it down a little bit so they could even get back there to where i wanted them to start. I did leave quite a bit of the super tall grass around the fort, so it is still over my son's head when he heads to his secret hideout

 

[Ashful]

Well, this whole goat rental thing sounds too fun to not try it, just once. But if that doesn't pan out, have you considered just buying or renting a 3-point rotary mower, a.k.a. "brush hog"? I just picked one up for $300 in rough shape, that needed a little rehab, but you can pick them up for $500 - $600 in really nice shape. Mine will mow down saplings, rose thickets, and anything else you run it over.

This assumes you have a tractor... but there are also self-propelled smaller walk-behind brush hogs, if you don't have a tractor.

 

[Dobish]

No tractor, and i have a walk behind string trimmer that does a decent job. It would take a lot of work to get a tractor on the other side of the creek anyway. The yard hadn't been touched in 20 years, so some of the roses are 20ft around. And 15 feet tall. Once it's cleared out a little bit. I can get to it to maintain it. There are a ton of rocks and concrete chunks that are poking out, which i can't see until i hit them.... we will see how this goat rental works. It won't be a regular thing i don't think...

 

[begreen]

It's hard to beat goats in rocky, uneven terrain where a brush hog blade would be messed up quickly.

 

[CincyBurner]

Watch out for the coyotes and coy-dogs.

 

[Dobish]

well, they brought it 2 goats, and 2 goats tried to escape. They had issues with the electric fence because there was so much brush that it was shorting out i guess. They are going to think about some other options, but they will be back next weekend!

 

[Dobish]

 

[sportbikerider78]

I have done a bunch of land clearing. All I can say is that after all the work, I wish I had just rented a bulldozer.

 

[Dobish]

I have done a bunch of land clearing. All I can say is that after all the work, I wish I had just rented a bulldozer.

i am pretty close to buying a big kubota (i have a good lead, but still not sure if i really need it), but the problem is I have no good way of getting across the creek to where I need to clear! I can probably reach some of it with the boom, but the majority of it is too far back.

 

[Ashful]

Anyone watch Shaun the Sheep? The goat episodes are always my favorites.

 

[brenndatomu]

Anyone watch Shaun the Sheep?

Hilarious!

 

[sportbikerider78]

Anyone watch Shaun the Sheep? The goat episodes are always my favorites.

My kids love that show. No words, so it makes having it on in the background tolerable.

 

[Ashful]

My kids love that show. No words, so it makes having it on in the background tolerable.

If you are describing that show as “tolerable”, you really need to sit down and watch it with them, sometime. I think I enjoy it more than the kids, half the stuff goes right over their heads.

Find the episode titled “mower mouth”, to keep this one on-topic.

 

[Dobish]

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[Dobish]

i now have 2 nigerian dwarf goats in the back yard. We gave them some toys to play with:

 

[Ashful]

If your car keys go missing, start hunting for shiny poop.