Moral of the story - keep an eye on the goat.
We don't expect the fox to be any good at guarding the chickens, but the goat could plausibly start out as a good gardener ("mowing" the grass and eating the weeds). But then through enthusiasm and love of the work end up ruining the garden...
Bold assumption there. As they say, "if it doesn't hold water it won't hold a goat."
Not a goat farmer so not sure if goats do that. Anyone know?
What she does not tell is that our brother-in-law is a chef and happily makes rabbit stew of the returned rabbits. 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'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.
Have you seen how much litter people throw on the ground? I think you might be giving the average person too much credit.
I have a friend who just acquired a ball python because the frat house behind her left the snake tank, with the snake inside it, out with the trash can. Many people have no regard for animals and even less regard for their impact on the world around them.
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.
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.
Apparently they find it super tasty, but it's not vegetarian, so they shouldn't eat it. The chickens get into much less trouble and can roam mostly unsupervised; but we've got a lot of aerial preditors to watch out for.
Two friends meet in a bar.
Says one: "I've bought a goat."
Says the other: "A goat? Where do you keep it?"
"In the bedroom."
"In the bedroom? What about the smell?"
"Well, the critter will have to get used to it."
if you don't have any problems, buy a goat
I love these types of bugs. If these guys are going for a "Goat Simulator" vibe (notoriously buggy, part of the charm), they've nailed it.
Hiring goats is one of the best methods to fight bush growth, especially if you clamp the high ones so the goats can reach everywhere. Sawing down on the other hand only gives more sprouts and stronger roots for the next years.
Unfortunately, for smaller lots, it just isn't feasible - the way the pricing is structured, the setup fees get you. They are really for multi-acre lots where they set up significant fencing and leave the goats for several days.
A friend of mine runs "https://www.scapegoats.net/"
And the head of HPE Sales has something like several hundred goats, but I dont know their site info.
What more previously do they do then? (When in petulant children mode)
I've often seen this done. The Hetch Hetchy pipeline operator uses it to clean up their right of way, which goes up, down, and through hills. Someone puts up a temporary electric fence around the right of way, and they truck in about a hundred goats. The goats graze everything down to bare dirt, and are then moved on to the next section.
I've seen this done with sheep, too. Those are easier to herd but not as agile on rough terrain.
https://www.rotterdam.nl/wonen-leven/grazers/
I'm kind of surprised someone would use goats for this purpose instead of sheep. Sheep are dumb, docile and easy to manage. Goats are impossible to manage.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/local-goatsc...
(A nice example of comments drifting away from the putative topic)
But there were 2 problems: Sheep can be somewhat picky eaters, so they let some grass stand. But the bigger problem was, that while his prospective customers liked the idea of having their lawn cut "biologically", they pretty much did not like the sheep droppings the sheep left behind in practice.
There's truth that goats will put most things in their mouths. Almost every time I bring something new into their pen, they check to see if it's food. They'll even check me every now and then just to be sure I haven't become food in the past week. So, sure, you might see a goat pick up a tin can for a brief moment, but you'll also see it spit it out 5 seconds later.
I agree goats are picky the point that if you keep an on them you can catch them before they tear up anything you want to keep(apple/peach trees). Another thing is goats are just dang fun. Pigs and cows are friendly in a dull sort of way, goats have character & personality. One of my goats will come out of his pen nightly just to hang around with me and the kids. When it gets tired of us he puts him self back in the pen.
If you're using goats to clear land, you put more goats per space than the land can sustain, but just for a few days or weeks. The goats will eat their favorite things first, but then also other paletteable stuff. They'll also trample things down pretty good.
Not animals you want around flora you care about.
In Germany, I came to realize that many cities have unpaid "employees" to tame the city gardens, namely wild ducks, gooses and rabbits.
Thankfully people leave them be, back home they would have been snaped in less than a week.
However as they are used to humans, it also means they make themselves invited guests to any picknick if one doesn't pay attention to the "teams" taking care of the grass.
And, yes, my cousin's goat business is listed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32191666
They have an amazing home in Auburn, and they have a LOT of goats. My friend, who is married to the ex chief of staff for Cisco also bought a ranch in auburn and they have ~100 goats or so. They rent them out for ~$800 per acre to clear bramble and what not. I spent a week helping them move goats between projects earlier this summer and its a hell of a lot of work.
There are a lot of tech people that went and bought land with goats and have started goat businesses.
If you put them in a small space, you'll pretty much get bare earth either way though.
And cities are starting to do this more regularly too. E.g. NYC's Riverside park was cleared with goats this year. (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/goats-released-new-york-cit...)
The problem with goats for your nice landscape is that they will nibble at everything including your trees and any shrubbery.
The only thing I wonder about is whether the weed seeds would regrow. But I’d imagine clearing it on the second round would be easier.
You're welcome!
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sheep-and-goat-keepers-how-to-re...
(Yeah, I'd once looked into using a 'goat and cart' as a from of transport!)
Pesticides are dangerous and still leave a dead plant, machines jam (and lop off fingers,) doing it by hand takes a long time and can risk major rashes from poison ivy or cuts from thorns.
Part of my back yard is impenetrable from the kinds of plants goats eat.
I'm not saying they are bad, I'm just saying you're being a schmuck if you pay someone to have their goats graze on your land.
Get your own grazers or let them do it for free.
Where I live they get used a lot on highway embankments.
You'd just have to compare the cost per acre per month of machine maintenance vs the cost to maintain a well fed flock for a month; including land costs and property taxes if you own the land.
