The origins of the phrase “getting someone’s goat” is uncertain, but one popular version has to do with a practice racehorse trainers used. In order to settle down an anxious horse before a race a goat would be stabled with the horse.
If someone got the racehorse owner’s goat, then the horse would become unsettled and run badly.
To get someone’s goat is to irritate them. Some explanations say that the annoyance has to be clever and indirect.
I will be direct so I won’t technically be getting anyone’s goat.
It will take an open mind for ranchers to consider a business enterprise involving goats.
For years now articles have been appearing about the idea of multispecies grazing. This will be applicable mostly to private land, but might have application to public grazing lands.
First let’s look at the dietary preferences for different livestock species.
Species Grass (%) Weeds(%) Browse(%)
Horse 90 4 6
Cattle 70 20 10
Sheep 60 30 10
Goat 20 20 60
Source: From “nutrient management in mixed specie pasture for goats”, An Peishel, 2005 Nutrition Conference, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; quoted in “Multi-species can improve utilization of pastures”, Progressive Forage website.
While browsing brush may be the best use of goats in a targetted grazing strategy, using them for the control of invasive species (weeds) has been the focus of interest for public land owners in recent years in B.C.
Prince George, Kamloops, Chilliwack, and St. Mary’s reserve in the Kootenays are a few examples where large herds of goats have been run to tackle invasives where herbicides were not acceptable, say, where children are playing.
The prairie provinces have been looking at complimentary species being used on grazing lands. We are not sure of the results of trials, but it is clear that knowing how to manage the various species is critical.
Two main reasons point to multispecies grazing: one, it is good for land stewardship by ultilizing biodiverse pasture crops; and two, more money can be made by grazing species that don’t really compete for the same forage.
Some say you can run one sheep free for every cow you run, as it eats what the cow doesn’t.
We have been doing some targeted grazing on a silvopasture trial where we are growing trees and grass using intensive management of cattle to reduce brush in favour of more forage for the cows.
It is clear to me that goats or sheep might do a better job of clearing the brush (cheaper than machinery) between the trees. And, there just might be income additional to the cows. We all know the margins on cattle these days are minimal to non-existent.
The other day the TRU Applied Sustainable Ranching class hosted a guest speaker, Conrad Lindblom. He is Peace River (Alberta) rancher who has been using a herd of 300-400 goats to target weeds on forestry cutblocks and more recently a park in Kamloops where he spent four years.
Conrad is promoting the training of young people to take up goat grazing as an enterprise. He makes the business case like this: being paid for goats attacking weeds is one revenue stream.
The other stream is from the sale of the goats for meat. At $1,000 plus per day for the herd’s work for over 120 days which is $120,000. Add to this $300 per 70 pound goat (300 of them) at live auction in Alberta (or the lower mainland) is another $90,000.
Since the students are to look at different enterprises including cattle of course, they will be running the numbers for themselves about goats and sheep.
Conrad has helped several people start goat-grazing enterprises since he says he can’t keep up and would like to retire. The demand for targeted grazing and goat meat is tremendous now. Eastern cultures are a great market for both sheep and goats.
Getting the training especially for the herding skills is difficult in North America.
Herdsmanship (including shepherding and goat herding) might be the next course TRU should offer. Schooling would include experience and study of multispecies grazing.
I hope my rancher friends don’t throw me out of the cattlemen’s association for having an open mind. It was not my intention to get anyone’s goat! But I sure don’t want to start a Multispecies Grazing Association just so I belong somewhere.
David Zirnhelt is a member of the Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association and chair of the advisory committee for the Applied Sustainable Ranching program which started at Thompson Rivers University in Williams Lake this January.