Our rhôs pasture needs grazing to maintain it and to keep the brambles and willows under control.  In good years the horses graze here in the summer, but in wet years that simply isn't possible and it just isn't enough to look after it.  We were puzzled what to do until we discovered Old English goats.  This breed is closely related to wild goats and they can therefore cope well with the wet conditions in Wales, unlike other goat breeds which need to come in in wet weather.  There are only around 100 breeding females in existence, so this is a very rare breed indeed.

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Effie, Esme, Frida abd Heulwen are breeding nannies and Ezra a wether (castrated male).  We also have four kids born in March 2025, Heidi, Helga and Hector.  THector was recently accepted for registered as a breeding billy and will be off to his new home shortly. This year we have added to the flock a wether, Valentine, who was sired by Hector and will be staying here, twins Iris and Ivy out of Effie, and Isabella (Izzy) out of Frida who will be sold to a breeding home after weaning.  The long-term plan is to leave the kids with their mums and take a small amount of milk just for our own use which we trialled this year and has been working well.  The girls will be added to our breeding herd up to around eight nannies, and the boys, unless we get any others good enough to be registered for breeding, will be either eaten or sold for conservation grazing.

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The goats' grazing is controlled by NoFence collars, a sort of audible electric fence which can be moved on an app.  This means we can control exactly where they graze on a day to day basis to maximise their positive impact on the rhôs.