Goats Follow Cows to Manage Pasture

By Curt Arens

Nebraska Farmer

November 2007

Centerfarmer, George Wagner, knows all about the high country. He grazes his 90-headgoatherd following cows, in some of the most remote country in Knox County.Wagner built goat fencing successfully over steep ridges and deep valleys,utilizing the goats to manage forbes, brush and cedar trees, and ultimately, tomanicure his land.

"Differentanimals provide different land impact." While cows prefer grass, goatsclean up plants that cows disdain.

"Insteadof a rotation plan, I've developed a rest plan that produces more grass andimproves the soil," says Wagner. "Nature wants a certain amount ofcover." Goats work in harmony with nature, because they thrive on forbes,which produce more protective litter on range land.

Withmany ranchers running hundreds of goats, "George runs relatively fewnumbers, and is doing a lot to manage the land," says Knox CountyExtension Educator, Terry Gompert. "He proves that we can deal with fewergoats and still get some of the same results. Proper animal impact and grazingis good, if it is done correctly."

"Goatsare browsers, not grazers," says Wagner. "At times they will reallyhammer western ragweed for instance, and at other times, they won't touchit."

Wagnerhas assisted his goatherd in the management of brush and cedar trees on therange, cutting large thickets manually and using herbicides along with goats tocontrol regrowth. "It's that one-two punch that offers the long-term solution,"says Gompert.

"Marketinggoats is not a problem," says Gompert. "Knowing how to keep goats inthe pasture, how to keep coyotes from eating them and knowing how to overwintergoats are the real challenges."

Fencingand water are the keys to managing goats on rough terrain. His paddock dividingfences are made up of four-strand plastic electric wire with step-in posts thatWagner moves from his ATV.

Heinstalled perimeter fencing around his 340-acre pasture, that is a combinationof woven wire, electric high-tensil wires and a single strand of barbed wirebelow the woven wire along the surface, not only to keep goats inside of thepasture, but also to keep predators out. "Depth of barrier is thekey," says Wagner. "You need several barriers to keep coyotesaway." Wagner is also diligent at predator control during hunting andtrapping seasons each winter.

Installingthe fence hasn't been easy. Wagner has cut and removed brush and fenced oversteep hills and down through deep gullies that occasionally take on highrunning water during extreme rain events.

Wagnereven overwinters goats on this land, although it is located eleven miles fromhis home. In the wintertime, goats are particularly prone to eating cedartrees. Although he provides baled forage to the goats through the winter, hesaid that they typically turn away from hay, and work instead on trees, forbesand weeds.

Lastyear, Wagner began experimenting with K-Line irrigation. With hydrantsinstalled at strategic locations for watering in varied paddocks, Wagner hadthe luxury of being able to move his irrigation lines and water some of thehighest ridges during drought periods, to provide additional forage for goatsand cows.

K-Lineirrigation, a grassland and forage irrigation system first developed by a NewZealand dairy farmer, is known to be flexible, adjustable and durable. The lowcost system consists of a series of small irrigation "pods",protecting individual sprinklers, that are set up along a line of heavy-dutyplastic tubing at customized intervals.

Wagnerhopes to eventually irrigate not only the ridges, but also meadow on his lowerground, and increase the number of cows and goats grazing the pasture.

"With the price of landtoday, the more we can create on the land with what we have, the better,"says Wagner.