8A | WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS
terday for the next round of
property clearing.
“Utilizing the goats have
been a great way to control
the nature,” Goehring said.
“They quickly cleared an
old stump and climbed all
over it. It’s just fun to see
and hear.”
Austen has pasture lined
up for the herd after they
complete work on Dowells
Peninsula.
“For me, the goats are
obviously joys and I love
them, but they’re this inte-
gral piece of a larger process
that I’m developing towards
holistic land management,”
he said.
GOATS from page 1A
“Within the herd, I now
have six generations,” Aus-
ten said. “When they run
together, they establish this
family hierarchy, and ev-
erybody kind of learns the
Ps and Qs. People think of
bucks as more aggressive
and such, but really within
the herd, they are kept in
line by the does.”
This year’s kids are four
months old and weigh 40
pounds. They gain about 10
pounds a month.
“From May to August, the
next three months, they’ll
more than double in size,”
Austen said. “Right now,
they are miniature goats.
They have a little more en-
ergy and are a little more
skittish, but they are fully
functioning goats. You’ll see
them finding their own food
and running in their own
little groups.”
The goats will spend the
next months eating. It’s one
of the things they do best.
“Goats are neat because
they eat everything, in a
way, but they’re also pickier
than people think. They’re
real selective. But given
time, they will eat just about
everything down to the
ground,” Austen said.
Unlike grazers like cows
or sheep, goats will browse
shrubs, bushes and trees.
“Goats are well suited
for our region. They like to
move from bush to bush, se-
lectively browsing,” he said.
In August, the goats will
breed and the dams will
spend most of the winter
Western Lane
Ambulance District
COURTESY PHOTOS
Above, Justin Austen (background) cares for his
goats’ new kids in January. Right, a kid clambers
over property near Mercer Lake, joining the rest of
the herd in eating their way through undergrowth.
pregnant.
ing goats on
“The life of a female goat the property,”
is super energy intensive Goehring said.
because, for the most part, “They’ve been
they’re either nursing a baby out two weeks
or they’re pregnant with a so far and it’s
baby. It’s kind of half a year p h e n o m e n a l
spent nursing one baby and what they’ve
the next half is spent being cleared.”
pregnant with the next set,”
Austen in-
Austen said.
stalled an elec-
The goats often have twins tric fence on the property
or triplets, which means that to pen in the goats. They
numbers can double rela- cleared a quarter acre in the
tively quickly.
first two weeks.
Austen’s goal would be to
“Becky says people love
move the herd throughout it, that she gets six to 12
the year. Not only will this
help provide for the herd’s
nutritional needs, but it
can also benefit people like
Goehring and the Swensons.
“I loved the idea of hav-
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Austen owns EverWild
LLC, which partly focus-
es on landscape, forest and
habitat restoration.
“The background goal
has always been land man-
agement,” he said. “Using
livestock to do ecological
restoration and then man-
age it. The first five years
was really about learning
the goats and the herd, and
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