![]() “ Kiko “ means meat in the language of indigenous people in New Zealand. I had heard of Kiko goats, a breed that originated in New Zealand from feral goats. While they are by far the meatiest goats there are, they too have a sensitivity level that limited their use for my purposes. Besides dairy goats, I also ruled out Boer goats. However, I needed a hard ier breed of goats. They do a fine job if they have access to a barn whenever they want. Most dairy goats fall into this category of sensitive breeds. My knowledge of goats also meant that I was aware of the wide range of available goats, and how sensitive some goat breeds can be to hot and cold weather as well as rain. I n addition, I owned Boer goats when I farmed in New Jersey. ![]() When I tended sheep in the mountains in Germany in the 1990s under the transhumance system, goats were use d in flocks of sheep to help eliminat e brush and weeds in open pastures. I was long familiar with the grazing and browsing behavior of goats. Spraying herbicides is an option to control we e ds, but I don’t use herbicides anywhere on the farm. M y White Dorper sheep, known for being good browsers compared to other sheep breeds, wouldn’t keep up with keeping the vines at bay. Manual removal of the vines proved cumbersome and time consuming. That was particularly true after a rain, as t he voltage dropped by several thousand volts when the wet vines leaned on the hot wire. A few years after the woven wire fence was erected, these feral vines had grown so abandonly on the fence that they started choking out the electricity by touching the upper hot strand. When I attach my temporary electric nettings anywhere on the farm, I can electrify it by attaching a power link to the nettings and this hot wire. My perimeter woven wire fence includes a hot wire on top, powered by a plug-in unit in the barn. The seeds that these birds depo sit wherever they perch cause these vines to grow in great numbers. What is the cause for so many feral vines ? The many vineyards in the Finger L akes region of New York suppl y plentiful bird food in the form of grapes. I live in an area where feral vines are growing abundantly. Browsing means that these goats like to feed on higher growing vegetation, like leaves of tre e s and bushes, vines, and tall-growing weeds. So, why do I have goats? Goats have a different grazing behavior than sheep. “Why do you have goats ? ” they most often ask, if they can spot them. People who pass by my farm are often surprised to see goats in my flock of White Dorper sheep.
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