A8
Ag Day
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
The organic, juniper-seeking goats of Silvies Valley
Goats easy on
riparian areas,
work well
with cattle
By Rylan Boggs
Blue Mountain Eagle
A Peruvian goat herder
opens a barn door to release a
flood of brown and white Boer
goats.
He steps out of the way as
the goats swarm to several cut
juniper trees in their pen. Like
piranhas, they will pick the
trees clean in a matter of hours.
Once put out on rangeland,
the goats will seek and destroy
junipers, eating the foliage as
high as they can reach.
“It’s like candy,” Silvies
Valley Ranch owner Sandy
Campbell said.
The ranch, just south of
Seneca, started their goat
herd to establish an addition-
al source of income from the
same rangeland on which they
graze cattle.
Goats can graze the same
Eagle photos/Rylan Boggs
A Boer goat looks up from feeding at Silvies Valley Ranch. The ranch started the goat
herd to establish an additional source of income from the same rangeland as cattle.
pastures as cattle and don’t
share parasites. While cattle
focus on grasses, goats are
drawn to shrubs and bushes.
The animals are great brush
and weed control, according
to Campbell, which helped the
ranch avoid chemical weed
control and become certified
organic.
“We’ve really been im-
pressed by how well the goats
work with the cattle,” Camp-
bell said. “They have improved
the rangeland in a lot of places
by getting rid of the weeds and
cleaning up the underbrush in
our forest areas. It’s been real-
ly good for fire suppression.”
While grazing, the goats
are managed by three Peruvi-
an goat herders working under
temporary agricultural visas,
Campbell said.
“They’re very knowledge-
able and great herdsmen and
hard workers,” she said, add-
ing it’s hard to find experi-
enced goat herders in the Unit-
ed States.
Border collies help the
herders, while Great Pyrenees
mountain dogs protect the
goats from coyotes and rap-
tors.
Originally from South Af-
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A doe rests in an indoor pen at Silvies Ranch. When in
labor, mothers are brought indoors and give birth onto
heated floors where they stay with their offspring for
one to two days. They then move to the family pens and,
when ready, back out to the winter barns.
rica, the heavier Boer goats
were initially bred as show
animals in the U.S., which re-
moved many desirable range
goat traits.
Since then, Campbell has
been working to breed them
back into “the Angus of goats.”
They’ve crossbred them
with some Spanish goats and
another South African breed
called Kalahari red. The end
goal is to develop their own
breed of hybrid range goat.
“We’re breeding for big
babies that hit the ground
strong and grow really well on
range,” Campbell said.
The goats spend the major-
ity of their lives on rangeland
but are brought into barns
during the winter months.
When in labor, mothers are
brought indoors and give birth
onto heated floors where they
stay with their offspring for
one to two days. They then
move to the family pens and,
when ready, back out to the
A newborn kid takes
a few shaky steps at
Silvies Valley Ranch. Kids
normally double their birth
weight in the first month of
life, Campbell said.
winter barns.
The kids normally double
their birth weight in the first
month of life, Campbell said.
Goat meat, or chevon, is
catching on in restaurants and
health food circles because it is
high in nutrients and low in fat,
Campbell said.
The meat will be a staple on
the menu at Retreat at Silvies
Valley Ranch when it opens
in July, and they hope to sell
chevon locally in the future.
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