Sheep or goats or other?

MD1983

I have a garden with a substantial enough lawn area, little under the acre. boundry is all fenced and hedged with beech and laurel.

i am interested in getting a small number of sheep or goats to eat the grass to save me mowing it, however, i am concerned that the animals would eat the leaves off my hedging or the bark off my trees. has anyone any experience in this regard?

can you recommend a breed of sheep or goat (or other) that would be appropriate for what i am looking for?

i have kept sheep before years ago but have no experience with goats. there are a number of fields of grass i can put them out to over the winter when the lawn stops gorwing

thanks for the help

arthur daly

I don't know about sheep but goats will eat anything including hedging,brambles,maybush,flowers
You could put I'm a electronic fence to keep them away

arthur daly

I don't know about sheep but goats will eat anything including hedging,brambles,maybush,flowers

Askim

Goats will eat the hedge first, they love woodie scrub and will strip the bark off any tree

A

Aghoney

One issue with keeping goats is that it is very hard to find a veterinarian who knows anything about how to treat goats. My experience with goats, mostly nubian, but also a few saanen, is tat they do prefer eating grass to anything else. But yes, they will also eat leaves from some hedging, especially blackberry/blackthorn. They also eat the ends of any small tree branches with new buds. But I see the same behavior from the Dexter cattle that I have. I did not see any goats eating bark. They tend to respect electric fence, but if there is something on the other side that they really want, they will learn to go under or jump over.

bonzodog2

Goats will eat most things. If its possible to get tangled up on a tether, they will. They can jump 4 ft+ easily. If you don't have good fencing, a running tether, with swivels on the lead, coming from the flat of a wall/fence, not from a post, is best. Keep hooves trimmed.

ferrete

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Goats will eat most things. If its possible to get tangled up on a tether, they will. They can jump 4 ft+ easily. If you don't have good fencing, a running tether, with swivels on the lead, coming from the flat of a wall/fence, not from a post, is best. Keep hooves trimmed.

Try letting out rabbits r guinea pigs

tattycat

Don't let them eat laurel. It will give you a dead goat!! Nd quickly!!