Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Using Goats for Clearing Plants

I recently saw a brilliant new device for livestock that works similar to "invisible fencing" for dogs.

The animals wear a collar, that starts beeping when the animal gets close to the boundary, and then delivers a shock if the animal continues to get even closer.

The difference is, the new technology is based on the owner setting the boundaries by GPS on a map. No fencing required! Basically, you can create a "lot" of any dimensions, and the goats would stay inside the boundaries.

This would potentially provide an almost infinitely variable way of fencing goats (or sheep) to graze unwanted vegetation on any portion of your property.

I created this new thread specifically thinking about responses to the "mowing too close to a dangerous edge" thread.

However, I am sure the members can come up with many other more beneficial applications. Please feel free for anyone with more knowledge of these types of products to add additional information to this thread, OR people (like Fire Is Hot) that have lots of goat experience can also add to this thread.



P.S. The collar technology is kind of expensive right now, and some companies require a monthly subscription fee. I assume costs will decline in the future.

It was a while ago, but I’m sure technology has improved for GPS accuracy, we bought one for our dog since invisible fence was impractical for the larger area we wanted to cover. Simply put, she found area where the GPS signal didn’t work so well and would sneak out. Under trees and brush, the GPS was just too weak to work. We wound up returning it.

Tried another one that used WiFi ranging, and that was far worse. It turns out a Ham radio operator down the road from us had a repeater on a tower at those frequencies, and interfered with us. His tower since blew over in a windstorm, but by then the dog was trained. Now she is too old to wander much beyond the yard proper.

Based on my fitness watch I bought this year, I think the technology is good enough now. This watch gets a signal downstairs under a roof and first floor. My original fitness watch was hopeless indoors.

Thanks for the valuable input liquid! I did not know how much overhead cover was capable of degrading the GPS signal.

My dogs generally do NOT want to be "escape artists", but would rather do things with me. I can't even imagine how much a goat would try to be an escape artist when he has eaten 90% of the palatable forage in his GPS "pen" and can see and smell tasty victuals just across the boundary!

George used goats to clean up around his pond. There were pics on here at one time.

When my pond was new I Got a couple of goats. When cattails started growing I pulled the new plant and fed them to the goats. 6 years later and still not a single shoot has grown

Have seen a few goats wade in and consume shore pond weeds like water primrose and American pondweed until there was none left.