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Posted: 7/3/2015 5:44:46 PM EDT
Gents, I'm looking to buy a ten acre plot of land. It has a nice variety of trees but a ton of vines, prickler bushes (the single strand purple kind) and knee high random weeds. I'd like to open the land up a bit, right now it's so thick it's almost inaccessible in certain areas. I'm wondering what's the best way to do this (best as in least amount of work). One friend suggested goats. He said I could tie it up with a 40 foot or so leash and let it go to town, then periodically move it and let him do the work. I don't know shit about goats, is this a good suggestion? Any other ideas? |
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Tying goats up is a bad idea. They tend to strangle themselves in that situation. If you can fence the property off and put twenty to thirty goats on it for a year, you would see a pretty good difference.
You could then sell the goats and a shitload of kids to offset the fencing costs. It is not an overnight proposition though, they will take a while to get desperate enough to eat everything they can reach. Around here that would be $5-10k in fence and $1500-3k in goats. You could get lucky and make nearly $10k on the goat sale, when you are done, but it's safer to say $5-7k. Hiring a clearing crew will definitely be faster, have better results and may be cheaper. You will not have a fence when they are done though... |
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There are actually companies that rent goat herds for this very purpose. They could clean out 10ac in 2 days
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Why not get a brush hog and spend a long weekend going to town?
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If you want to have some fun with it get a tracked skidsteer with high flow and a brush hog to go with it.
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Hire somebody with a tractor and bushhog. Done in one day. View Quote You can't mow in and around 10 acres of trees in one day. If it was open land with just brush, sure. The trees make things problematic. What I have found to be the best solution for clearing some decent walking/hunting paths in an overgrown woods is to use my bobcat. Over tire steel tracks, put on the bucket. Drive with the bucket set just about an inch above the ground. I can bulldoze through multiflora rose that rabbits can't run through. Leaves a nice clean patch about 6 feet wide. Cleaning up an entire woods is difficult. Goats and a fence may be the best solution. |
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Yeah i wouldnt tie the goats up. You could do a smaller fence that you can move and have them work a smaller area at a time.
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It's actually amazing what you can do with just the bucket when clearing brush in a woods. No need for the addition of the brush hog. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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If you want to have some fun with it get a tracked skidsteer with high flow and a brush hog to go with it. It's actually amazing what you can do with just the bucket when clearing brush in a woods. No need for the addition of the brush hog. There is if you want to see how much shit you can mow down with a rented brush hog. |
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A friend of mine did the goat thing at his house, but it didn't have quite the weed problem you are talking about - it worked well for him.
A side effect was that it turns out goats were a "chick magnet", he would often put a rope around one of the goats and take it downtown to an outside cafe and he got tons of dates from gals who thought the goat was adorable..... Personally, I think a Brush Hog would be the better idea. |
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Would they leave it on my doorstep like my other Amazon packages? FWIW, when I was stationed in Italy, we would open the ASP to the local farmer's goats. They kept the place mowed for us. |
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Lol a goat. Do you have 10 years.
Manual labor with machinery is the way. Edit. A goat is good for keeping it clear. |
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I have a couple boer goats and sheep, the goats will fuck up a fence in quick order so keep that in mind. If I had it over I'd just go with sheep, they don't climb like a goat, but they won't fuck up your fences either.
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How much goat shit are we talking about clearing 10 acres?
Or do the goats eat their own shit? |
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Gents, I'm looking to buy a ten acre plot of land. It has a nice variety of trees but a ton of vines, prickler bushes (the single strand purple kind) and knee high random weeds. I'd like to open the land up a bit, right now it's so thick it's almost inaccessible in certain areas. I'm wondering what's the best way to do this (best as in least amount of work). One friend suggested goats. He said I could tie it up with a 40 foot or so leash and let it go to town, then periodically move it and let him do the work. I don't know shit about goats, is this a good suggestion? Any other ideas? View Quote Fence in the property, or build pens you can move. DO NOT TIE THEM UP!!!!! Goats are very stupid. They will walk in a circle around a tree or bush until they run out of rope and strangle themselves. They work great for clearing land but you need sturdy pens. We used to use 20 sixteen foot cattle panels and move them about once a week. Tie the lens with strong wire, they will eat rope. |
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View Quote They eat everything. The 5 acres we cleard with them was infested with poison ivy, they did not care. |
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They eat everything. The 5 acres we cleard with them was infested with poison ivy, they did not care. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
They eat everything. The 5 acres we cleard with them was infested with poison ivy, they did not care. they're using them to clear scrub oak here. Scrub oak. |
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Remember the Arfcommer that posted this years back? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/sirbordsalot311/image_zps8724ce69.jpg View Quote Not my ad, but there is seriously a Beulah about 15 miles from me.... I wonder if its the same as in the ad. Real rural place too..... Hmmmm |
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Sure as long as there are no wolves/coyotes in the area. Why not try it?
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Quoted:
Gents, I'm looking to buy a ten acre plot of land. It has a nice variety of trees but a ton of vines, prickler bushes (the single strand purple kind) and knee high random weeds. I'd like to open the land up a bit, right now it's so thick it's almost inaccessible in certain areas. I'm wondering what's the best way to do this (best as in least amount of work). One friend suggested goats. He said I could tie it up with a 40 foot or so leash and let it go to town, then periodically move it and let him do the work. I don't know shit about goats, is this a good suggestion? Any other ideas? View Quote Goats will clear it,you will need sturdy fencing(preferably electric) a shelter of sorts,access to water,free choice of minerals specifically for goats,baking soda(helps digestion),and a guardian animal of some sort,either dog,donkey or llama. |
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10 acres in two days? That's a couple hundred goats. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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There are actually companies that rent goat herds for this very purpose. They could clean out 10ac in 2 days 10 acres in two days? That's a couple hundred goats. 270 goats + 4 days cleared 22 acres of scrub oak saplings here, on terrain you wouldn't want to walk across and you certainly couldn't drive a tractor on Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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