# Goats don't mow yards



## tydakfarms (Jan 2, 2015)

Proof that goats won't mow your yard. We mow our goat pen every week.


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## MoKa-Farms (Jun 19, 2013)

It's so funny how people think goats mow lawns like sheep. We don't have to mow our goat pen because we have sheep, too- and sheep are lawnmowers. Patches have gone dead for a month from being pulled up by the roots :grin:


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

We have to mow too.


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## J.O.Y. Farm (Jan 10, 2012)

I always love the expressions on people's face when I say we mow our goat pen :lol:


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

lol..glad we are not the only ones mowing the goats paddocks lol


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## tydakfarms (Jan 2, 2015)

People say....I've been thinking about getting "a goat" so I won't have to mow. I just look at them like "are you kidding me" :banghead: and then I proceed to tell them how picky goats really are.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Yep....same here..my favorite post...."Last years hay, not good for horses but good for goats!" :veryangry:


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## tydakfarms (Jan 2, 2015)

Noooo.  ......my goats only want the sweet smelling hay. They'll starve before they eat last year's hay. We use that for bedding. :thumbup::thumbup:


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

My goat yard for 3 Kiko cross wethers (anyone want them?) is almost waist high! I have to use a scythe on it. Silly goats just won't eat the tall grass. Goats just aren't the lawnmower type!


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## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

Not only do I have to mow, but we are letting the cow guy round bale the rest for his cattle...... people never seem to understand that even animals don't like to eat where they poo - so they are never going to have a "mowed" lawn!:faint:


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Wow, you guy's goats are picky :lol: Not only do mine keep the yard mowed down really nice they have killed most of the grass in the back.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I'm with Goathiker.... My goats do a fantastic job mowing the lawn. I do have 3 sheep, and they do eat further down, but my 2 bucks ate all their grass down in a few weeks without the sheep...


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## SeventeenFarms (Dec 10, 2013)

yeah, I always like it when the hay guy says take that old hay for your goats, its cheaper! people just don't know....

after having goats for these years, I have to wonder where some of these "myths" come from, especially eating myths, as I have not seen them do what people tell me they are "supposed" to do...except be curious like most other animals.


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## LibertyHomesteadFarm (Feb 1, 2014)

goathiker said:


> Wow, you guy's goats are picky :lol: Not only do mine keep the yard mowed down really nice they have killed most of the grass in the back.


I rotate my pasture, so my goats aren't in a paddock any longer than 2 weeks at a time... any longer than that and the grass will go extinct!
My goats LOVE it when they move to a fresh paddock with four-foot high grass in it...but within 1-2 weeks it is 4 inches tall! LOL! Then on to the next and by the time they come back around, it is four feet high again!

Granted they won't mow the lawn, the paddocks are rather choppy when they're finished, but the do love their grass. I've considered raising a calf next year to help utilize the stalks and grass the goats won't eat.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

The OP's shelter looks like mine! Except for the coloring of the cover. I like them, easy to clean, open to the winter sun. They would not do for Yukon or MN winters, and they don't LOOK the best, I grant you....


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

New and confused
Why mow?
My understanding of intestinal worms is that the worm larva climb grass blades to the hight of three inches. Goats that eat the top three inches of ten inch tall have lower intestinal worm counts.
So wouldn't mowing cause higher worm counts in your goats?
Why mow, if mowing can have such a negative impact on your goat health?


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## tydakfarms (Jan 2, 2015)

My goats aren't wormy. And I mow so it doesn't look trashy and so that I can see and enjoy my goats


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## LibertyHomesteadFarm (Feb 1, 2014)

fivemoremiles said:


> New and confused
> Why mow?
> My understanding of intestinal worms is that the worm larva climb grass blades to the hight of three inches. Goats that eat the top three inches of ten inch tall have lower intestinal worm counts.
> So wouldn't mowing cause higher worm counts in your goats?
> Why mow, if mowing can have such a negative impact on your goat health?


If they aren't eating any of the grass, than they won't pick up worms, so you mow.

If they are eating the grass, no need to mow. (you may want to rotate them however to prevent overgrazing)


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## Kcanyon (Jul 14, 2015)

Proof positive you have working goats - a weed and thistle free lawn in your pasture! You need sheep or cattle to eat grass :laugh:


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## LibertyHomesteadFarm (Feb 1, 2014)

Kcanyon said:


> Proof positive you have working goats - a weed and thistle free lawn in your pasture! You need sheep or cattle to eat grass :laugh:


My goats will eat all the grass and forbs in my pasture down to the ground EXCEPT for the thistles...I have to chop them myself! :grin:


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## LadySecret (Apr 20, 2013)

My goats love grass. See all those goats grazing grass?









But I still have to mow. I've got too much grass for them to keep it all down.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Mine will nibble on grass but nothing serious...we have to mow! well at least this year since we got so much rain....


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## Patch (Jul 1, 2014)

Where I keep my goats I don't have a thistle in sight, but my neighbors on both sides are always fighting them! :grin:

As I understand it, goats actually destroy 99% of the seeds they eat from the thistle so they are not only gone this year, but they become extinct over time. 

I can't wait to fence a back field of 5 AC because this year it looked like an alien landscape with all the thistle after all the rain we had. I think I need more goats........

Patches


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## WitchHazel (May 5, 2015)

Lol, our goats won't touch thistles, but at the farm where we got them, the goats can't get enough! Ours won't eat grass stems, either, but they love the seed heads!

Our wether would prefer to pick through the chest-high grass looking for plantain, and my doeling bites the head off every flower she can find. Including foxgloves. Darn thing!


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

My goats will eat the grass......................but not until they have devoured the fruit trees, grape vines, mustard, the jade and my prize rose bushes. 
So they stay in the back where here in hot sunny CA the grass dies back in summer.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I leave the mowing to the horses. The kids will nibble any grass that is brave enough to grow in the pen, but the adults don't bother.


My goats refuse to go anywhere near thistles but boy do they LOVE burdock. I let it grow and then machete it down and haul it to them. They got a feeder full of it today, just before it starts to flower.


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## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

My goats like to eat grass, thistles, rose bushes and all the other good stuff but they don't eat the grass down to the ground they leave about 4 inches. But they have plenty so they don't need to eat it all down. We will be rotating them with the cattle in a week or 2. So the cattle will get the grass they have not eaten yet and they will get all the thistles and other stuff the cattle don't like.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Green grass... Ohhhhhh, what my goats wouldn't do.... Usually it's like that here, but it's been hot so everything is brown..


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Yep, everything is dead here too.


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## AncientBlue (Dec 21, 2014)

We have to mow the goat area too. What's nice is all the goat poop does make the next shoots of grass greener and nicer. I was letting them in my garden until Sabatina decided she really likes tomato plants. Now I have it where I rotate gardens and let them go eat and poop in one while I close off and plant the other. It helps. Florida soil is really just sand, so anything they add to it is a great improvement.
I have had a lady ask me if I actually had to mow due to the goats. I told her that goats don't mow the lawn. I'd need a sheep or cow for that. With the price of beef, I'm not overly opposed to a cow.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

Mine will graze, but they prefer to graze tall grass. They chop off the seed bits. They also pick favorite grazing areas, for who knows what goatie logic. :lol: We mow here too.


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## Goat_in_Himmel (Jun 24, 2013)

I can't believe you guys mow. My goats have turned their formerly vegetated yard into a drylot--grass, weeds, bushes, trees--gone. When I take them out of their yard to browse, they like to stay in one same area and eat down everything, rather than cruise further to juicier browse.


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## margaret (Aug 30, 2013)

fivemoremiles said:


> New and confused
> Why mow?
> My understanding of intestinal worms is that the worm larva climb grass blades to the hight of three inches. Goats that eat the top three inches of ten inch tall have lower intestinal worm counts.
> So wouldn't mowing cause higher worm counts in your goats?
> Why mow, if mowing can have such a negative impact on your goat health?


We don't mow because of that. I try to get my goats on to new pastures as soon as they eat them down,or else they start getting parasites.

If they aren't in a place with lots of brush and stuff to be cleared, they will eat all the grass and weeds.


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## margaret (Aug 30, 2013)

RPC said:


>


This is what our pastures look like, except with a few more weeds, and the goats love it.


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## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

And that's only 1/2 of this field they have plenty to eat.


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