Goats do roam

[texaslawchick]

I'm sort of surprised that this is a new approach to the kudzu problem. I've heard that goats have been used a lot in various places across the country for general highway cleanup. They're environmentally friendly weed whackers, and they'll eat pretty much anything, so it stands to reason that they'd be useful against kudzu. I'm amused, though,

Comments

[popgurlie]

why llamas are more effective guard dogs than donkeys, or dogs for that matter

i thought the same thing. i feel like more investigation needs to go into this... and if i should get myself a llama to protect my home.

[raithen]

llamas are AMAZING guardian animals -- our Bruno ran off a bear once, and we routinely have coyotes and cougars in the area, but so far, between Bruno and the dogs, we have not lost a single sheep.

Plus, having a llama around is good for keeping one humble, as they have this LOOK of PURE disdain that reminds you that you are most CLEARLY a lower being.... ;)

[stexgirl2000]

Great pictures. As for the guardian thing, I never knew that about llamas.

[raithen]

there is great info about llamas as livestock guardians here, http://www.llamas.co.uk/Pages/livestockguards.htm, if you are interested ;)

what goat theives end up doing with the goats once they're stolen

[charlayne]

Cabrito. Yep, they eat them. They might sell them to other farmers or use them in their own lawns.

We had a goat herd when I was young. We had milk from them and they ate down the prairie grass (along with their goat food) and there was a large ram that was pretty good at convincing the coyote's and wild dogs that came around that this was really not the place to hang around.

We also had a male goat named Billy (I know, clever but hey, I was about 10) who loved riding in the pickup with us on the way back to town. All you had to say was "go Billy" and he jumped into the truck. We used him instead of a lawn mower. We had chicken wire to put over the garden to keep him out of it.

My dad and step-mom gave me a good education on dealing with animals and farming. I'm glad to have it.

Oh, and the bar-b-que goat, cabrito, isn't that bad but I haven't had it since I was about 17.

[aka_becker]

I feel like lawgeekgurl should have something to say on the subject of llamas with all the ones in her new neighborhood. ;)

[pecunium]

Llamas are nasty