Keeping goats from eating my plants

Question

I have a couple of goats I like to let run around my yard, problem is I have a few flowering plants out there too. The goats seem to target these heavily, I was wondering if there was some way to keep them from eating specific plants/groups of plants? They get all the free choice hay they want at their pen, so I know they're not starving.

Answer 1

Goats are browsers rather than grazers. That means that they prefer to eat woody shoots and stems of trees and shrubs (including your flowering plants) over grasses like hay. In this regard goats are more closely related to deer than to other domestic livestock like sheep or cattle, which are both grazers.

Like Tea Drinker mentioned they also like variety and will try pretty much anything if left to their own devices.

Answer 2

Sure: a 6-foot high fence. Preferably with some electrification.

Given that goats will, on occasion, eat things as diverse as cardboard, newspaper, clothing and cat food, nothing you can spray on your plants is going to dissuade them.

Answer 3

Some goats are immune to electric fences. I usually chase my goats out of the roses and various other plants with a stick. I have also resorted to waving my arms and rather ugly words. I never touch them (well today I whacked the female for the first time) she had just finished off the last of the newly potted plants, in our enclosed anti-goat terrace. They are lovely but the male goat pisses on the children's toys. Yes, he is a goat, not a dog. I have a 3 foot wooden fence and it is just something fun to jump over. I also have a four foot electric fence that deters all other animals but goats.

My advice is to love your goats more than the plants because they will eat all your favorites, perch on everything like parrots, bleat early in the morning and their mating habits are not good morning material.

Answer 4

Good quality electric fence will do the trick. It only needs to be 32 or 36 inches high. It will also keep them from standing on your car.