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 200 breeding females in existence, so this is a very rare breed indeed, and we are priviledged to have the largest breeding herd in Wales, and the fourth largest in the country.

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Effie, Esme, Frida, Helga, Heidi  and Heulwen are breeding nannies, and Ezra a wether (castrated male).  Black Orchard Hector,whom we bred last year, was recently accepted for registration as a breeding billy and has recently left us to form the backbone of a new breeding herd. 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, Isabella (Izzy) out of Frida who will be sold to a breeding home after weaning, and Indy, a wethwer, who will be sold for conservation grazing.  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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Goatlings are occasionally availble for sale as either breeding nannies or wethers 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.