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Goat Rental – Hire Goats

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Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#271

Post by leaflets2 »

tlavoie wrote: post #258
leaflets2 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most goats don't have sinister ulterior motives! Except for one goat but probably that's not the one in your garden Meaning, I'm guessing it's about happy incompetence and thoughtlessness?

Goats' motivations are mostly to eat tasty tree bark and (some) other plants. Hardly incompetent or thoughtless, they're relentless if not contained. I have three, and the only incompetence at play is when I accidentally don't contain them well enough. From my last event: https://fractaldragon.net/posts/2022-05-09_bloody_goats.html

Interesting read :-) With cats, apparently one can spray water on them when they're at the border to ones garden, and eventually, also when you aren't there, they still think they'll get water on themselves if they go outside the garden. So they don't -- a border has been created in their mind.

I wonder if that works with goats, instead of the gate? I guess not.

Maybe also doesn't work with smarter cats, hmm.

(I suppose it's not your boy in the video?)

> the stripped area can be bridged with thin shoots embedded into the bark on each end of the open wound

Didn't know, I was surprised to read that it actually worked :-)

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#272

Post by tlavoie »

leaflets2 wrote: post #271
tlavoie wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goats' motivations are mostly to eat tasty tree bark and (some) other plants. Hardly incompetent or thoughtless, they're relentless if not contained. I have three, and the only incompetence at play is when I accidentally don't contain them well enough. From my last event: https://fractaldragon.net/posts/2022-05-09_bloody_goats.html

Interesting read :-) With cats, apparently one can spray water on them when they're at the border to ones garden, and eventually, also when you aren't there, they still think they'll get water on themselves if they go outside the garden. So they don't -- a border has been created in their mind. I wonder if that works with goats, instead of the gate? I guess not. Maybe also doesn't work with smarter cats, hmm. (I supp…

I don't know if it would work on goats., They aren't fond of being rained on though, so maybe? They are really motivated however, and smart enough to figure it out.

The bridge grafting worked great! The tree never lost any leaves or flowers, now has plums on it. For what it's worth, the shoots I spliced are now brown on the outside like the regular bark.

And no, not my kid, but made me laugh.

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#273

Post by semi-extrinsic »

Aperocky wrote: post #215
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Northern Europe they just use GPS-enabled electric collars on the goats, and do literal geofencing with that. Then you don't have any cost of setting up physical fences. Of course you have to accept that the fence position has an inaccuracy 5-6 meters, so it only makes sense for large areas where there is nothing that will kill the goat if it strays a little outside the fence.

What if the goat wanders into the wrong direction and get lost? Would it die of electric shock or would the collar run out of battery.. eventually

I'm pretty sure the collars can't cause deadly harm, just discomfort. I don't know anything about implementation details, but I assume that the shock strength varies such that the goats figure out they have to turn around.

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#274

Post by widowlark »

leaflets2 wrote: post #257
widowlark wrote: post #205

My wife and I hired goats from a gentleman on Nextdoor to help clear our backyard in our newly purchased home (like ~10000sqft of overgrowth) - he dropped off 7 goats, and they performed admirably, were extremely calm and well behaved until they ran out of food, at which point they turn into food-hunting, petulant children. If you do this, make sure to get only as many as you need!

> they turn into food-hunting, petulant children What more previously do they do then? (When in petulant children mode)

Well, they broke down my wood fence to get to the neighbors garden, hopped over the chain link fence on the far side to get to the public park, and started climbing onto my roof

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#275

Post by jknutson »

vitiral wrote: post #173
chongli wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goats are anything but placid. They’re tricksters and bullies. They won’t hesitate to charge you from behind and knock you down. They will also happily chew on people’s clothing and long hair. Goats are jerks! They’re also just really funny and lovable.

Rascality and loveability are intertwined and inseparable

And thank goodness for that, otherwise I would be completely insufferable ;-)

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#276

Post by d_rc »

h2odragon wrote: post #151
d_rc wrote: post #84

Another story from a fellow hacker with a backyard goat - It actually starts in a very subtle way. Goats have different tastes and moods, and it's not like they eat everything right away unless the density of a goat per backyard m2 is too high. I started giving mine some free "roaming" time with the chickens every day before the sunset. It looked very innocent - first few days she ate just some weeds, nettle and some…

> won't be able to escape I suspect you may be falling to overconfidence there. Also, single goat? That's tough, I've done it by running the goat with a pack of dogs and treating it as a dog, but witha lone goat, who doesn't feel they have herd, keeping them happy is difficult.

You're right. I am aware of this, and we're planning to get one more goat and also a dog. Right now, the goat seems to be pretty happy roaming around the backyard with all the chickens. It even waits with them while they lay eggs, etc. Pretty cool. But sure, you're right :)

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#277

Post by d_rc »

Jedd wrote: post #177
d_rc wrote: post #84

Another story from a fellow hacker with a backyard goat - It actually starts in a very subtle way. Goats have different tastes and moods, and it's not like they eat everything right away unless the density of a goat per backyard m2 is too high. I started giving mine some free "roaming" time with the chickens every day before the sunset. It looked very innocent - first few days she ate just some weeds, nettle and some…

Do you mean the goat is eating the tomato fruit, or the tomato leaves? The latter are toxic to (AIUI) all monogastrics, same as potatoes and other Solanum family plants - you may want to reign that behaviour in, assuming the animals are still alive.

I am aware of this and I was monitoring the behavior when she started approaching that part of the backyard. The goat is somewhat pretty smart because it does not touch the leaves at all. Just the fruits.

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#278

Post by philjohn »

toast0 wrote: post #224
philjohn wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is - because not only is it hilarious, it also highlights just how difficult modern farming has become - razor thin margins, at the whims of the weather, dealing with vandlism from local youths with nothing better to do etc. etc.

When was farming not on razor thin margins at the whims of the weather? At least US history is full of sharecropping where the farmers barely making ends meet and those with enough capital to own their own small farms not doing much better. Some of those who owned a lot of land with sharecroppers managed to do ok though. It's similar today, except sharecropping has gone out of style, I think. Big farms and little far…

He makes bank on the Diddly Squat Farm Shop though - great produce, but not cheap. His hot sausage is AMAZING if you're a heat fan.

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#279

Post by meken »

samatman wrote: post #139
KingMob wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there was ever a win-win situation, this is it. Say what? She lies via omission to the parents, forcing them to make an uninformed choice. Instead of letting a rabbit loose in the wild, they might have sought another home for it, because they didn't want it to die. Your sister's lies mislead them into thinking they can safely return the rabbit.

They can, in fact, safely return the rabbit to the stew pot. They're food. Rabbits. People eat them. It's not better for the rabbit to be turned loose to be mauled to death by a housecat or eaten by a coyote. A shelter is going to euthanize, wasting good meat. This is squeamishness masquerading as morality.

The part which seems relevant is if the parents (or a random person) had the information that the rabbit would be made into stew, then that would likely change their decision to return the rabbit.

Re: Goat Rental – Hire Goats

#280

Post by leaflets2 »

widowlark wrote: post #274
leaflets2 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they turn into food-hunting, petulant children What more previously do they do then? (When in petulant children mode)

Well, they broke down my wood fence to get to the neighbors garden, hopped over the chain link fence on the far side to get to the public park, and started climbing onto my roof

Wow! Petulant? Riot children :-)
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