permaculture

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>]

Hi Lisa,
You've got some useful replies already. By the looks of it there are
quite a few 'pc goatkeepers' - one of them is David Holmgren by the
way. :) Outside of the breeding season
you can keep the buck with the does but he needs removed well in time
(we had the odd accident with young bucks ...) or else you'll have to
keep the young does locked up for a while. We don't usually keep
a buck but borrow him from a neighbour for a few weeks and time it so
the kids are not born too early.
As to pc keeping of goats? Well, a little bit, I guess. Our goat
paddock is 0.5 acres, divided into 7 plots and one access path
connecting all the plots. The plots are grazed in rotation, allowing
for good regrowth in between grazings. The goats have a stone shed which is
always open to the paddock and a yard where they are fed hay in winter
so they can go in and out as they wish (it rains a lot here...) and
can decide whether they want to sleep outside or in the shed.
Fencing on the outside is 5 strands of 12 gauge wire, charged with a
strong mains unit. The plots are separated with electric string.
The paddock also has a drystone wall on three sides
and I have kept a bit of space between that and the electric fence and
planted plenty of trees (willow, ash, dogwood mainly) as goat browse
which I cut and throw into their plots in late summer. The trees and
shrubs also shelter the plot from the prevailing winds. The goats also get
all the tree prunings (fruit trees and bushes etc.). They debark them
nicely and when they are eaten up and dry I chop them up for kindling.
As the paddock is too small to keep them fed througout the season I
also employ electric sheep netting and move them around to other
places on the farm as weather permits. Unfortunately we have to buy in
all their hay (about 100 bales per winter). So it's not a closed
system. We also buy in organic grain and some seaweed meal for them.
The goats yield us milk and meat, manure for the garden, and much fun
too. I would not want to miss them. Our oldest girl is 13 now. She was
born in the wilds of Glenveagh National Park in Donegal in the
Northwest of Ireland and came to us as a small kid with her doe. She herself
has given us 20 kids over the years. It would have been 23 this spring
but she miscarried very close to term. She is getting very old now and has 
gone into
official retirement after her miscarriage. I can hardly imagine not having 
her around.

Greetings to lovely Oregon.
Ute (in Ireland)

Wednesday, April 20, 2005, 4:05:41 PM, you wrote:

LiO> I doubt this list contains many goat herders, what with Mollison
LiO> being kind of anti-goat, but just in case: we separate the buck as 
LiO> everyone does.  We have a new buck and he's lonely.  It would be 
LiO> nice to have a more natural herd with the buck living with the does, 
LiO> but how would one avoid having very young does bred?  Anyone here 
LiO> raise goats permaculturally?

LiO> Lisa in Ashland Oregon