When people think of goats they might imagine a cartoon animal with horns eating an entire 3 course meal, including the plate, silverware and tablecloth! The concept of these creatures chowing down anything from bark to tin cans isn’t a recent idea, its been around for many years. “The saying that goats can eat anything is false.” Said a staff member at Allegheny Goatscaping, a non-profit which sustainably aids in weed and grass trimming with an effective method: goats!

Allegheny Goatscaping hosted a Bleat and Greet in June where they pointed out how they know first hand about this myth’s falseness. The staff member explained how the team has to survey the place the goats will be eating before they enter the area. “They [staff members] check that there aren’t any plants that would make the herd sick, removing them if there are.”. The herd can’t eat milkweed, so that's important to find. But since it’s vital for local butterfly populations, they leave it to grow and fence it off so the goats can’t eat it. One of the most surprising plants goats can eat is poison ivy!

The myth of them eating anything originated, most likely, from how good goats are at foraging. They’ll dig up all kinds of treats when they’re roaming on their own, leading to people to think they could anything in the world! They love to explore new places and are famously curious creatures. Other farm animals, like cows and sheep, will graze collectively in a meadow fill of grass, however goats prefer a more varied diet. Goats kept on farms or in zoos are fed many different foods like grain, hay and tree bark. Goats’s curiosity means their keepers will give them variety of snacks for their inquisitive minds. This includes clippings of tree branches, or “browse”, which they tear the leaves off of and eat the bark. Petting zoos housing goats also give them salt blocks.

Goats have a four chamber stomach which is designed to digest grain, hay and leaves. It’s important for them to get vitamins and minerals, the salt block works great for that. However these animals like the salty foods, not the sweet side, since sugar can be very harmful to their digestive system. Human food can be bad for goats and all farms advise strongly against visitors feeding the goats themselves. But some have grain dispensers which the goats love! Goats also love hay and it will be their main meal most of the time since too much grain can cause obesity. The ratio of calories to fiber means they can’t have it all the time or they’ll become unhealthy.

Allegheny Goatscaping, located in Pittsburgh PA, has found a very effective way of managing invasive species or overgrown plant areas. Goats! The herd loves to explore and are always up to a snack, especially when they’re helping to clear unwanted vegetation. Goats normally eat as much as 2-4 pounds a day. While goats are curious creatures, they aren’t curious enough to eat tin cans! Instead they’ll stick to foraging for veggie snacks, their favorite.

Sheep are beautiful fuzzy animals. Their fur is soft and used in things like hats and gloves. The great thing about sheep fur is that the animal stays alive and it does not physically harm the sheep to get its fur. Some might not know that there is a season for shearing sheep. It has to be done at a good time when the sheep are getting too warm with all their wool on. I Interviewed with Jason Warfe about sheep. He had insights about it because he likes to wear clothes made out of wool.

“We get wool from sheep” He said, referring to him and his family “one of my favorite clothing materials is Merino wool which has special heating and cooling traits.". If you are interested in sheep a great show to watch is Shawn the Sheep. It is about a sheep named Shawn and things that happen on the farm he lives on. This show is made with stop animation and will very entertaining for children. Many people like sheep because of their funny appearance when they loose their wool. They look like completely different animals after that! Sheep shearing is a planned event on the island of Sardinia in Italy. This place is home to very cute sheep which have to get their wool sheared for their comfort. After sheep are sheared they will not produce milk for a few weeks because the shearing process is a lot for their system and is a little traumatic. In Sardinia there are a lot of sheep and they have a specific shearing process.

Shepherds in Sardinia help each other during shearing time. Sheep shearers in Sardinia learned how to shear because it is an ancient process passed down. The process is called the toss a turo delufcate. It is healthy for the sheep to get sheared because they will be too hot if they do not get sheared. The sheep milk season is November to May. They shear the sheep in May. If they sheared the sheep in winter time the sheep would not be content. Their wool keeps them warm like a winter coat, so its important to keep it in May. These shepherds are experts on when to shear their sheep, ensuring the sheep are never too covered in wool but also that they aren’t freezing.

Down

1.Hare

2.Pengin

6.Reindeer

Across

3.Polarbear

4.Donkey

5.Partridge

SNAP Ed - Information

Diretta Sardegna - Information

Zoo Atlanta - Information

Jason Warfe - Interview

Allegheny Goatscaping Staff - Interview