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Story time - My dad asked the local school which had a goat if he can borrow it for a weekend. It was to tame his backyard. As the backyard was enclosed with no
by yitchelle 4y ago
Story time - My dad asked the local school which had a goat if he can borrow it for a weekend. It was to tame his backyard. As the backyard was enclosed with no chance of the goat escaping, we left it by itself. The goat was be extremely hungry and ate everything insight including the roots, leaves and bark. By Monday, the backyard is barren and took months recover.
Moral of the story - keep an eye on the goat.
- vitiral 4y agoGoats are excellent land management if you have enough land and don't mind everything getting eaten to near the ground
- briffle 4y agoour state DOT has rented goats to clean the sides of roads along highways in some rural areas, especially when there are large amount of noxious weeds. The person they hire strings up a bunch of short fiberglass poles for a mile or two along the highway with some wires, puts out some water, and then lets the goats in. Comes back and picks them up a couple of days later, and moves them to the other side.
- drjasonharrison 4y agoNot just some wire but a portable electric fence.
- vitiral 4y agoGoats LOVE poison ivy and oak, and it doesn't hurt them. Don't let them near hemlock though (it will do the same to them as it did Socrates)
- tlavoie 4y agoThey seem to like Scotch broom as well. Some red-leafed garden ornamental is brutally toxic to them though, and it can be a slow, agonizing death.
- jagged-chisel 4y agoWhat I see is months of not needing to operate a mower.
- tlavoie 4y agoYou need sheep for that. Goats don't much like grass. I have to mow our paddock, except for when I borrowed a friend's sheep for a few days.
- 29athrowaway 4y agoNote that if tree bark is eaten all around the tree circumference, the tree dies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdling
- yitchelle 4y agoYes, a couple of the trees needed replacing.
- leobg 4y agoIn German, there’s an old phrase: “Appointing the goat as gardener”. You use it when somebody is being made responsible for task for which he is not just incompetent, but where he will actually cause damage - for instance because he has ulterior motives.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rkagerer 4y agoIs the emphasis of what will cause the damage more about the incompetence, or about more purposeful nefarity from the eg. ulterior motives?
- leaflets2 4y agoI think most goats don't have sinister ulterior motives! Except for one goat but probably that's not the one in your garden Meaning, I'm guessing it's about happy incompetence and thoughtlessness?
- tlavoie 4y agoGoats' motivations are mostly to eat tasty tree bark and (some) other plants. Hardly incompetent or thoughtless, they're relentless if not contained. I have three, and the only incompetence at play is when I accidentally don't contain them well enough. From my last event: https://fractaldragon.net/posts/2022-05-09_bloody_goats.html https://fractaldragon.net/posts/2022-05-09_bloody_goats.html
- leaflets2 4y agoInteresting read :-) With cats, apparently one can spray water on them when they're at the border to ones garden, and eventually, also when you aren't there, they still think they'll get water on themselves if they go outside the garden. So they don't -- a border has been created in their mind. I wonder if that works with goats, instead of the gate? I guess not. Maybe also doesn't work with smarter cats, hmm. (I suppose it's not your boy in the video?) > the stripped area can be bridged with thin shoots embedded into the bark on each end of the open wound Didn't know, I was surprised to read that it actually worked :-)
- mikk14 4y ago> with no chance of the goat escaping Bold assumption there. As they say, "if it doesn't hold water it won't hold a goat."
- vrc 4y agoMy town stopped its annual “goats clear the park” setup because one goat would consistently escape and wreak havoc on traffic. Pretty solid enclosure, too
- Floegipoky 4y agoSounds like they should replace it with "goats clear the park and BBQ"
- Victerius 4y agoThe same goat each time?
- tlavoie 4y agoAn electric fence goes a long way, and can be portable. Works great as long as you remember to close the gate. cough
- bsza 4y agoAnd if it does hold water, they’ll climb it anyway. https://youtu.be/RG9TMn1FJzc https://youtu.be/RG9TMn1FJzc
- throwaway0a5e 4y agoAs long as extracting whatever food there is is less effort than circumventing the fence the goat will remain...
- mikk14 4y agoI think modeling a goat as a rational agent is also pretty bold :-)
- richardw 4y agoMany years ago I heard of a family whose goat ate through the thatch roof and then started eating stuff inside the house. Don’t leave the goat alone. Not a goat farmer so not sure if goats do that. Anyone know?
- pagade 4y agoOk, I have to ask. Why did the school have goat?
- yitchelle 4y agoIt was a progressive school in the country side. I think most of the students are from the local farming community.
- dcastm 4y agoLooks like she goat herself in trouble
- ryanlitalien 4y agoPerfect Reddit comment ;)