Forget What You’ve Heard About Goats!

Many people have negative notions about goats–-that they are smelly, dirty, blind creatures who eat tin cans and butt you in the behind when you’re not looking. In fact, in addition to being great pets, goats are a very social, versatile and useful animal.

They are useful and valuable in the following ways:

**STARRED ITEMS EXPLAINED IN MORE DETAIL BELOW

1. GOATS ARE IDEAL FOR BACKPACKING/HIKING IN THE WILDERNESS **

2. GOAT HERDS KILL NOXIOUS WEEDS**

3. FOREST SERVICE USES GOATS TO CARRY EQUIPMENT

FOR TRAIL REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE

4. GOATS ARE BEING USED IN BIO-TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH IN CREATING VACCINES

5. UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA USES GOATS TO PRODUCE A SCORPION ANTIVENIN AND PROVIDES IT TO HOSPITALS AND EMERGENCY CLINICS

6. GOATS PROVIDE MILK FOR HUMAN BABIES ALLERGIC

TO BREAST MILK AND COW MILK. GOAT MILK IS

A GOOD ALTERNATIVE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE LACTOSE INTOLERANT. THE FAT GLOBULES ARE SMALLER AND EASIER TO DIGEST

7. GOAT S PRODUCE EXCELLENT CHEESES. SEE US FOR THE BEST! **

8. GOAT MEAT IS A DELICIOUS FOOD SOURCE

9. YOU CAN MAKE GOAT SOAP

10. GOAT FUR IS VERY SOFT AND WARM AND IS USED TO MAKE CLOTHING, SUCH AS ANGORA SWEATERS

11. GOATS CALM HORSES AND PROVIDE COMPANY FOR OTHER FARM ANIMALS

12. GOATS RECYCLE! NAMELY CHRISTMAS TREES.

THE OLD DEWEY HOUSE COLLECTS THEM EVERY YEAR AFTER THE HOLIDAYS. IT BREAKS UP THEIR WINTER DIET OF HAY AND THE EVERGREEN NEEDLES FRESHEN THEIR BREATH. IT ALSO CLEANS UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF ALL THE DEAD TREES LYING AROUND AFTER THE HOLIDAY.

*STARRED ITEMS ARE EXPLAINED IN MORE DETAIL BELOW

BACKPACKING/HIKING ON THE WILDERNESS

Goats are loyal and hardworking, carrying 25% of their body weight, making them ideal pack animals. Their sure-footedness is just one of many trail advantages.

Goats can travel 5-10 miles a day, with no lead. Properly bonded goats enjoy human companionship and will follow along readily like the family dog. Unlike the family dog though, you do not need to pack food.

Goats eat brush, leaves and weeds along the trail, but prefer to nibble here and there, moving on the next plant, leaving little noticeable damage where they have fed. Due to high desert ancestry, goats can go up to three days with no water.

Goats create less compaction and leave little or no trail indentation on all types of trail soil including muddy conditions, thus leading to less trail erosion. Goats prefer to NOT step in muddy or wet spots(marshes and wet meadows) and step from rock to rock or will walk on trail side logs wherever possible. Their tracks are similar to a deer and this is true for droppings as well.

Goat droppings are less offensive than horse scat, have virtually no odor, don’t draw flies and introduce less weed and seed than other pack animals, partially because caprine animals are ruminants and can breakdown plant material more completely during digestion.

The size and shape of the cloven hoof makes goats less likely to crush the vegetation alongside and off the trails. Goats are smaller than the llama, leaving even less trace.

 And, unlike llamas, goats won’t spit on you.

Goats are easier to transport than larger pack animals. They fit nicely into a small pick-up with a shell. They are easily trained

( or bribed with grain) to jump into the back when you lower the tailgate.

Goats are ecologically sound, easy to train and love the human contact associated with packing. Plus, they do a lot of the work, carrying your load. You can eat better and stay in the woods longer when you include a goat or two on the trail.

2. GOATS USEFULNESS IN ERADICATING NOXIOUS WEEDS

Goats prefer weeds over tin cans and will eat the hard to control species with gusto: Dalamatian toadflax, spotted knapweed, hound’s-tongue, and all species if thistles, including the seed heads.

Goats help regenerate the land by trampling grass and seed into the dirt as they feed, and they add lots of organic fertilizer wherever they are.

If noxious weed are left uncontrolled, they create a chain reaction of ecological and economical disasters. The weeds eliminate native plants and possibly lower the water supply, harming the wildlife that feeds on those plants. The land can then lose its value for future development, for farming and ranching, and for recreational uses.

Lani Lamming,  of Alpine, Wyoming leases his weed-eating herds to the City of Denver and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. "It’s the oldest weed-control technique known to mankind."