The truth about goats

[silverbullet555]

After a recent all night packout my wife would prefer me to have pack animals.

So, I'm looking for the truth about pack goats.

Cost, training, pros/cons?

We have 1.3 acres with a couple pastures. Live in Southern ID. Have considered goats to help with weed abatement anyway.

So, what's the truth about pack goats? Maintenance, cost, socialization, etc?

If I were to go down that road, how many do I need to pack elk sized game?

 

[jelly.fishbri]

We have 19 goats (packgoats plus breeding packgoats). I don’t think they are high maintenance. You need to trim their feet about every 4-6 weeks. Give them a vaccine once a year. It’s cheap, easy to find and give. Feed is kinda pricey in their first year of life because you’re giving them extra nutrition to help them grow as big as their genetics will allow. After that it’s not too bad. As far as socialization, the most important thing you can do is bottle feed your goats. It’s fun, cute, and becomes an annoying chore towards the end but it’s short-lived and well worth it! They will bond to you. That’s also the best way to train them IMO. They will stay with you wherever you take them after that. You are their parent now. Getting a big 200ish lb goat who is conditioned should be able to carry approximately 50 lbs. Even having 3 or 4 good packgoats will be a huge help packing out an elk. 1.3 acres is plenty of space.

 

[silverbullet555]

We have 19 goats (packgoats plus breeding packgoats). I don’t think they are high maintenance. You need to trim their feet about every 4-6 weeks. Give them a vaccine once a year. It’s cheap, easy to find and give. Feed is kinda pricey in their first year of life because you’re giving them extra nutrition to help them grow as big as their genetics will allow. After that it’s not too bad. As far as socialization, the most important thing you can do is bottle feed your goats. It’s fun, cute, and becomes an annoying chore towards the end but it’s short-lived and well worth it! They will bond to you. That’s also the best way to train them IMO. They will stay with you wherever you take them after that. You are their parent now. Getting a big 200ish lb goat who is conditioned should be able to carry approximately 50 lbs. Even having 3 or 4 good packgoats will be a huge help packing out an elk. 1.3 acres is plenty of space.

Thanks for the info. Sounds fun and helpful. We've been looking for pets and stock for the kids to be a part of too.

Do you trim the feet yourselves?

Recommendations on breeds?

What should we expect to spend per head to purchase?

 

[jelly.fishbri]

I trim them myself. If you get good shears and keep up on trimming it is pretty quick and easy. They get alfalfa pellets to distract them and are pretty well behaved for it.

There are lots of different breeds to choose from. We own Alpine, oberhalsi, lamancha, and a lot of hybrids. Some have a percentage of boer, a meat goat, which gives them some serious muscle mass. There’s lots of possibilities.

You can find really good pack goats for probably around $300-$500. There’s a lot in the $300 range which is pretty damn good since I hear llamas are a few thousand. That’s for babies. You don’t want to fully load them until they are around 4 years old. We took our two year olds this year and they each had 20 max. You invest a lot of time in your goats the first few years so it’s good to make sure you’re buying quality goats. I would recommend buying from a breeder that will show you the parents Who are onsite when you pick up your babies. Get an idea of what you’re buying. Ann at Skalkaho in Hamilton MT has really nice alpines and Linda at Circle 33 has awesome oberhalsis. I have one of each of their goats. Our hybrids are all Dwite Sharp goats from kansas. The boys that were born at my place this last spring weighed 120 at 6 months old.

There are a ton of options and some people have gotten lucky buying cheap goats on Craigslist but I think it’s a gamble considering the time investment.
Check out napga.org and packgoatcentral.com

 

[silverbullet555]

Thanks for the info @jelly.fishbri

 

[PNWGATOR]

Here’s an option for you to ‘try before you buy’:

Home

www.rentpackgoats.com

 

[washingtonalpine]

Goats have worked really well for me. 4-6 goats to pack out a bull and camp, 2 to pack out a mature buck. A good goat can to 50-60 ibs, my best can do 70-75. The most expensive initial cost of owning goats will be the fencing you need to build. Also good panniers and saddles will cost more than the goat itself, I get my saddles from packgoats.com, far and away the best IMO. You will need to spend quite a bit of time training your first set of goats, repetition is the key. Once you have the first few goats trained the next batch of young goats are very easy to train, they do whatever the rest of the goats do. My goats don't talk on the trail, they follow single file behind me, they load in the truck on command, they don't run from gun shots, they stay behind me on the hunt, they will cross water and follow anywhere I can hike. Mine have packed out 13 animals over the last 3 seasons.

The downsides- They have no sense of personal space, they will step on your gear, you can't ride them, they won't go 30 miles in a day, although I have seen them do 20.
You have to keep them in shape, honestly its probably 60-80 trail miles to get them in working shape for the season and about 200-250 trail miles in a season to see there actual fitness potential.