Can Goats Be Helpful on a Pheasant Farm?

Trudy DeRemer, MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc Center Farm Manager, brought these adorable goats to the Center Farm on May 18, 2019. They were born on April 1, 2019. Trudy got these two Nubian bucklings from her friends at Raspberry Hill Farm in Monroe, WI and brought them to MacFarlane Pheasants to see if they could take the place of lawnmowers to control the grass and weeds in the pen lanes. She ran a ballot vote on the farm to name the goats and they became known as Goose and Maverick.

Goose and Maverick were first placed at our Center Farm and though they had a slow start, by August, they were keeping the lanes clear. The goats and the birds interacted just fine. They were separated because the lanes are in the middle of the set of pens. We use the lanes to drive the birds comfortably into the catch pens. Birds are not in that area until we are ready to load them for deliveries. The goats were moved out of the lane before birds were pushed out for shipments.

We ran out of grass for our goat friends to eat by the beginning of October. Trudy made what she described as a “risky call” in October and moved them to the French RedLeg pen lanes. French RedLegs can be easily spooked, but they were not bothered by Goose and Maverick, who did a great job keeping the pen lanes clear by eating down the grass! There was even an episode where the goats opened the latch into a hun pen and neither species seemed to be bothered by the other! Just to be extra safe, though, Trudy zip-tied the latch so they couldn’t get back into the pen.

Once the snow hit this year, Trudy moved the goats off the farm and into a friend’s barn. There is a very good chance that she will bring Goose and Maverick back to the farm in the spring. Please contact Trudy at t.dremer@phesant.com if you want to get more details about how goats can be helpful on a pheasant farm.