The Goats at Notgrove Estate in the Cotswolds

OK so we know we shouldn’t have favourites but please who could not be besotted with our newest fluff ball arrivals….they are beyond cute!!

The goats came to us from Rob and Vicky Grinnal who breed a variety of livestock including sheep, cattle, goats and chickens. Some of their livestock are destined for the table (in fact don’t tell him but that is where Rufus was headed) and some are sold to people such as us!

Rufus and Diego are Boer goats – English Boer goats are bred for their lovely lean meat, but they are also known for their friendly and kind temperaments making them ideal pets. Rufus is 6 months old and can be quite shy – unless food in involved when he seems to manage to be a little more sociable. Diego was born in August and so is around 3 months old now, he is already the cheekiest of the bunch and will always be the first to run over to you – especially if you have food.

Wallace and Gromit are also around 3 months old and are Pygmy Goats, Pygmy’s are a Dwarf breed which only grow to around 23″ high making them perfect pets. They are incedibly nice natured and love fuss and cuddles (and food) – what they lack in size they definitely make up for in the cuteness.

Coming from a large breeding farm the goats only human contact prior to arriving at Notgrove was to be de-budded (have their horns removed) and castrated….needless to say they definitely saw humans as the enemy for the first few days. But with lots of fuss and quite a lot of food the boys soon saw the nicer side of humans and are now very happy to see us and our guests.

They are living with the donkeys Magpie and Wren in a paddock and spend most of the day escaping, eating things they shouldn’t and bossing the poor donkeys around…..yep firm favourites! They look forward to meeting/eating you soon!