Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Goats eat weeds

If there is one thing that we truly need to properly master is proper husbandry of our animals and plant community.  Here we discover just how useful a herd of goats can be.

What is abundantly clear is the mono culture pasture is good enough for one animal but then gives you the problem of crop renewal which must happen often.  Yet a wild range in which you  use goats to suppress the robust weeds allows ample grass to fill in for your cattle.

Surprisingly the goats wonderfully grind up weed seeds as well.

They still require dogs and goat herders as fences are rarely proof against goats.

The money is still in the meat so charging for grazing services is surely counterproductive.

One border collie and one herder per thousand head actually does it.  That is a quarter million of stock or thereabouts.  The economics look good and it is no issue to set up a local circuit for landowners if you do not charge grazing fees either way.

Right of the bat i would focus on all the local reentries that machinery cannot touch.  Let the farmers learn about the circuit and become comfortable before he times his fields or pastures to that advantage of this.  A rough pasture can be hayed of a couple weeks before to allow some regrowth.  Certainly during the dry summers the grass is often idle while the weeds are seeding out.  Then you want goats.









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