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You are here: Home / Blog Post / How to know if goats are right for your farm, a satire

How to know if goats are right for your farm, a satire

09.01.2019 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

You’ve heard that goats are great browsers and can add a lot to the diversity of your farm and land management practices.  

You’ve got brambles and thistles and thorns and poison ivy all along the borders of your farm and have read about goats for rent to tackle problem areas just like yours. 

You’ve seen hundreds of #goats on instagram and they really do seem so sweet. You have neighbors who raise and milk goats – theirs seem so tame and sweet and silly. 

Maybe goats would be a good fit on your farm too?

 

We’re all about disseminating information here on the farm and want to both impart our hard-earned wisdom and help you learn from our mistakes experience.  In that spirit, here are a few questions we would encourage pondering carefully if you’re wondering if goats might be right for you.

 

1. Is your fencing game Olympic gold-standard? Good fences make good neighbors and good goats. And by good fences I mean woven wire goat fence secured with t-posts no more than 8 feet apart with no less than two additional electric fence wires strung along the inside perimeter.

We don’t. No big deal, we thought.  Worst case, we can tie them to a cinder block and move them around as needed. So if you don’t have great fence (it’s not a deal breaker), and you’re on board with free range goats – go for it.

 

2. Do you need a little excitement in your life? Goats are smart. And wily. And infinitely creative. They fit through chicken coop doors and loooooove chicken feed. 

Also, they love to snack on cardboard. Those Amazon deliveries that came to your door today? Consider them munched. They’ll chew on anything – feed bags, tarps, buckets of nails, poultry netting, kids’ shirts and shorts and socks. 

And you’ll find them in the darndest places – in the back of the truck, stuck in the fence, on the front porch rocking chair, in the van (those sliding doors are just so tempting…), on the four wheeler seat, in the utility trailer, up on the workbench… well, you get the idea. 

If things are a little drab around your place and your day to day needs a little spicing up, goats could be a good idea.

 

3. How do your little ones feel about open field tackles? I admit, the goats we see on social media are irresistible, even though a disproportionate amount of them are clearly less than a year old because #cute. 

But eventually, all goats grow up. And they’re wily and precocious and smart. They’ll figure out really quick who they can push around and intimidate – guinea fowl – yes, barn cats – yes, toddlers – yes, turkey tom – no.

Not that they intend to be mean or even aggressive, but in the eyes of a goat (and his buddy) it is kinda fun to knock over the littlest human in the barnyard and strut about it. 

For sure, there are strategies to prevent the early childhood trauma that is being mauled by a goat (curtailing the free range policy would go a long way), and if your kids are middle school linebackers or top-shelf reachers, not much else stands in the way of your goat-owning dreams.

 

 

You think long and hard. You hem and haw. You do your research. You make a list of pros and cons. Your friends are on both sides of the fence – enthusiastic yes and aw hell no. So maybe you decide to try it out for a few months “just to see how it goes.” 

And maybe that convinces you once and for all, but you still need to get rid of those briars and thorns and thistles.  Use a weed eater, friend. It won’t poop on your porch or get locked in your car or chew on your packages or knock over the toddler.

Boom. Problem solved.

 

Categories // Blog Post Tags // fencing, goats, homestead, misadventures

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belvederefarms

This time of year I worry about too much grass gro This time of year I worry about too much grass growing too fast before I can get the cows over to eat it down and make the most of it.
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As a grass farmer, it’s the very best kind of problem to have: grass tall enough to get lost in.
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Speaking of which: can you find the baby? Comment with a 👍 when you do!
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#grassfarmer #grassfedbeef #iamyourfarmer #farmraisedkids #intensiverotationalgrazing #grassfed #grassfedbutter #farmlife #homesteadlife #supportlocalfarmers
That milk pail foam tho 🤩🤩🤩. . Those firs That milk pail foam tho 🤩🤩🤩.
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Those first few weeks hand milking can be disheartening. Dribbles and squirts, milk running down your wrist, sticky fingers, and sore forearms. 
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Milking is a skill. No one is good at it right away. It takes practice. The more you practice, the better you get. The faster you get, the more sure and even your squirts.
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And then one day, there will be foam in the bucket and you’ll know you’ve arrived. Your squirts are fast and firm and sure and the sustained pressure of all that milk hitting the pail makes the most gloriously frothy foam.
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Keep at it friend. Whatever skill you’re working on now. Just because you’re not that great at it right now doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing or that you won’t get better.
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Keep working. Keep trying. Keep learning. The foam will come.
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#farmlife #milkmaid #modernmilkmaid #milkmaidlife #milkcowlife #handmilking #rawmilk #homesteadskills #traditionalskills
Transcript of a real-life conversation we had this Transcript of a real-life conversation we had this morning:

Me: Whaa? Why is there a frozen turkey on the counter?!

Seamus (4): Because I like turkey and chicken meat.

Me: So you went out to the barn…

S: …and got in the freezer. And brought in a turkey.

Me: Oh, love. We can’t cook a turkey until we have a stove [kitchen reno still on going 🤦‍♀️].

S: Well, then you can cut it up and cook it piece by piece in the microwave.

Me: Actually, that’s not going to work.

S: (looks outside) Well, it’s raining today but tomorrow when it’s not raining we can make a fire and cook it outside on the fire.
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Ever the problem solver, he was full of ideas. 🤣🤣
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I did finally convince him to put it back in the freezer and wait until we have a stove - with the caveat that we cook it for his birthday.
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#kidssaythedarndestthings
#farmkid #farmlife #homesteadmama #lifeonthefarm #farmraisedkids
We have two cows in milk right now: Sandy (old fai We have two cows in milk right now: Sandy (old faithful and best friend, there on the left) and Clara (new to our farm and momma to Ruby).
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How much work is two cows vs. one? I was so nervous about adding a second cow because the additional time/labor was an unknown, but when it comes right down to it, it’s about 20 mins more time milking. That’s it.
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Everything else is pretty well the same. It takes the same amount of time to bring them in to the milking shed. The same amount of time to move them to fresh grass. It still takes under an hour door to door to milk & do what needs done, and even less for evening milking.
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And since our oldest boy (14) helps milk the majority of the time, that extra 20 minutes doesn’t often figure in. Many hands (and even just one extra pair!) make light work.
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It does take a little more time to deal with the milk: more time straining, more time washing jars, more cream to skim, more butter to churn. But if more cream and butter are the cons, I’m here for it.
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What would you say is the biggest obstacle holding you back from getting a family cow?
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#familycow #milkcowlife #keepingafamilycow #milkcow #homesteadlife #rawmilk
Mud pie hearts. . Just because this day or month o Mud pie hearts.
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Just because this day or month or season or year is hard does not mean you are not heard or seen or loved. There is beauty all around, if we have eyes to see it, hearts open to feel it, and wild, barefoot, dirty, outdoor-loving farm kiddos to deliver it.
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#farmkids #wildandfree #mudpie #mudseason #springonthefarm #homesteadmama #farmmom
My cup - ahem. shirt - runneth over. Same same. . My cup - ahem. shirt - runneth over. Same same. 
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I gather eggs every morning and again every afternoon. Farm life is a constant reminder that there is #alwayssomethingtobethankfulfor 
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#farmfresheggs #farmeggs #rainboweggs #farmlifebestlife
Hello Friends! Jordan here, and it has been a hot Hello Friends! Jordan here, and it has been a hot minute. I went to Las Vegas last week to visit my brother and we made beef tongue tacos. I love using the whole animal and this was a fun process with a delicious outcome. You can check out the blog to get the recipe. Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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#wholeanimalbutchery #wholeanimalcooking #beeftonguetacos #tacosdelengua  #cincodemayo #grassfedbeef #homesteadkitchen
T-minus 3 days until our first frost and we’re s T-minus 3 days until our first frost and we’re spending these lovely fall afternoons gathering in the last of the garden.
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Today: dried beans (Christmas Lima and Cherokee Trail of Tears), Reagan’s sunflowers and luffa, the last of the tomatoes (gah! they just won’t quit!), and the rhubarb.
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Tomorrow: chopping, freezing, cooking, and canning.
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Months from now: bellies full of homegrown garden goodness.
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#homegrown #gardenlife #farmlife #preservingtheharvest #garden #fallgarden #ohiogarden #growyourown #sunflower #familygarden #kidsinthegarden #gardeningwithkids #happyfall #harvesttime #harvest #fallharvest
Hello, fall. 👋 You’re long overdue and oh so Hello, fall. 👋 You’re long overdue and oh so welcome.
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This morning was the first I stayed in a long sleeve shirt to milk and didn’t have sweat dripping down my face.
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It’s the first the temperature has dipped below 60* (even though the humidity is a resilient 100% what with the rain, mist, and fog).
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Technically, our first frost date should have been this week, but Ohio’s holding out and it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen for another two weeks at least.
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In any case, it finally (finally!) feels like fall and oh am I ever so here for it. So much so that once the must-do chores are done (yogourt, butter, beans and laundry), I fully intend to curl up on the couch with a cuppa and read.
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#fallonthefarm #hellofall #fall #fallleaves #fallscene #farmlife #farm #ohiofarm #smallfarmcharm #simplehappycountrylife #homesteadmama #home #ilovefall #october
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