Goats and tieing them.

kingbhome

I have a 2acre garden and was going to but a siton lawnmower but my wife has suggested we get a milking goat instead. Is it legal to tie them to a post or something similar so they don't leg it into my neighbors garden and eat all his veg. I would also like to get some milk from this goat aswell.

anthony500_1

Not sure about the legality side of it. We keep a got here on the farm for years. The old ppl here recon a goat was lucky in a place so we have always kept one or two. The way we keep them is tie them to the like of a landrover rim n tire with a chain, not a rope as they will eat it. Leave it long enough to give it room to move, but not long enough that it can jump the wall n hang itself. Use a swivel just before the neck to allow the chain and goat to rotate independent of each other. Only other thing then is something for around his neck, either a wide leather strap or a good heavy rope, it's not for strength, it's so it doesn't dig in to the back of the neck.

On the milking side, she will need to have a kid every year, you will need to find a boyfriend for her for a couple of weeks in your locality of further afield otherwise your goat will run dry. And then you have a kid every yesr to deal with.......

3 options for the kid, keep them, sell them or rear it for meat.

Base price

anthony500_1 wrote: »

Not sure about the legality side of it. We keep a got here on the farm for years. The old ppl here recon a goat was lucky in a place so we have always kept one or two. The way we keep them is tie them to the like of a landrover rim n tire with a chain, not a rope as they will eat it. Leave it long enough to give it room to move, but not long enough that it can jump the wall n hang itself. Use a swivel just before the neck to allow the chain and goat to rotate independent of each other. Only other thing then is something for around his neck, either a wide leather strap or a good heavy rope, it's not for strength, it's so it doesn't dig in to the back of the neck.

On the milking side, she will need to have a kid every year, you will need to find a boyfriend for her for a couple of weeks in your locality of further afield otherwise your goat will run dry. And then you have a kid every yesr to deal with.......

3 options for the kid, keep them, sell them or rear it for meat.

My late Uncle always kept a nanny goat for the house. At certain time of the year he would tether her to stop her wandering after she kidded. He put the rope inside a bicycle tube to stop it chaffing her neck and it worked perfectly. She also had access to a shed.

Lady Haywire

Any goats I've seen tethered have had a dog collar on!

Genghis Cant

This tying up a goat seems to me to be more trouble than its worth.
A few run of electric wire on them mobile white plastic posts and you'd contain a few goats.
One goat on two acres would have no great impact either.

kingbhome

Genghis Cant wrote: »

This tying up a goat seems to me to be more trouble than its worth.
A few run of electric wire on them mobile white plastic posts and you'd contain a few goats.
One goat on two acres would have no great impact either.

I can make it 3/4 acre and let rest grow wild.

Genghis Cant

kingbhome wrote: »

I can make it 3/4 acre and let rest grow wild.

We've geese here on half an acre and they have it like a lawn. Grass eating machines. Good as a dog around the place too, they kick up a racket at anything new or out of the ordinary.

kingbhome

Genghis Cant wrote: »

We've geese here on half an acre and they have it like a lawn. Grass eating machines. Good as a dog around the place too, they kick up a racket at anything new or out of the ordinary.

Are they ok around kids.

Dakota Dan

kingbhome wrote: »

Are they ok around kids.

They should be alright around goats once they get used to them.

Genghis Cant

kingbhome wrote: »

Are they ok around kids.

Yeah the finest. Especially geese hatched in an incubator they're very friendly.
Around breeding time the gander gets a bit protective. Some to a greater degree than others.
In general though no real issues.

Graces7

anthony500_1 wrote: »

Not sure about the legality side of it. We keep a got here on the farm for years. The old ppl here recon a goat was lucky in a place so we have always kept one or two. The way we keep them is tie them to the like of a landrover rim n tire with a chain, not a rope as they will eat it. Leave it long enough to give it room to move, but not long enough that it can jump the wall n hang itself. Use a swivel just before the neck to allow the chain and goat to rotate independent of each other. Only other thing then is something for around his neck, either a wide leather strap or a good heavy rope, it's not for strength, it's so it doesn't dig in to the back of the neck.

On the milking side, she will need to have a kid every year, you will need to find a boyfriend for her for a couple of weeks in your locality of further afield otherwise your goat will run dry. And then you have a kid every yesr to deal with.......

3 options for the kid, keep them, sell them or rear it for meat.

I had a goat for 9 years on the north sea island I lived on. Never put her in kid as the only billy available was her father and they would kill the kids at birth. Milk would decrease in winter but she never went dry and increased in spring.

I never bought milk all those years and made cheese and butter.

Yes to tethering. Swivel and chain,.She loved to roam and eat my garden and round up any sheep she could find, and lurk in ditches to leap out at cars

patsy_mccabe

Passed the neighbours one day and there was the goat outside the wall with it's head held up high by the chain. It had jumped the wall and nearly hung itself. Nobody home so I just pulled the chain and wheel rim to give it more slack.

zoe 3619

Goats are actually terrible on tethers.They'll always find a way of getting caught up around something.
You can't just tether them in the middle of a field.They hate rain and need a shelter.Need shade from the sun,and obviously need a water container(which they will tangle their rope around)
If you have to tether use a wide greyhound collar with a swivel attached, but electric fence might be kinder.Ours are loose,come when they're called, and never go more than a couple of hundred foot from the house.
Also,it's fairly easy to stimulate a goat to produce milk.They don't really need to have kids to do so.

kingbhome

Graces7 wrote: »

I had a goat for 9 years on the north sea island I lived on. Never put her in kid as the only billy available was her father and they would kill the kids at birth. Milk would decrease in winter but she never went dry and increased in spring.

I never bought milk all those years and made cheese and butter.

Yes to tethering. Swivel and chain,.She loved to roam and eat my garden and round up any sheep she could find, and lurk in ditches to leap out at cars

Any pics of how to swivel and chain? And what's best goat to get.

RogR

kingbhome wrote: »

Any pics of how to swivel and chain? And what's best goat to get.

https://www.ie.screwfix.com/unbranded-standard-swivel-snap-hooks-pack-of-10.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjw1tDaBRAMEiwA0rYbSDRnlFC1wf1LC6v_M_DTC44kzgX1R5ph9iqpZeE57JM1FPbgvYteABoC_isQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Something like this but stronger to attach the goats collar to the chain. Get a good wide leather greyhound collar. We use this system for our two dairy goats. Ideally they need to be trained young to tether. Toggenburg or the typical irish type hairy goat suit us here in far southwest because of wind and rough weather. They will need year round shelter we use one over sized dog kennel per goat for summer. They usually go to their pens in November and get out a bit by day when the weather improves in February march

Markcheese

Goats are social animals, it'd be best to have more than 1.
Two tethered goats will get tangled... Unless you can keep them a distance apart... Easier to go with electric fence....(milking goats hate the rain so you'll need shelter)