Goat's on the Hill?

Our fellow avid goat fans will be happy to know that the Geifr Gwyr (Goat Club) project is making great progress. Farm CEO, Kate Gibbs, along with Conservation Grazing Consultant Emma Douglas have completed a feasibility study and we are now beginning a community consultation with residents around the use of a site in Townhill, with the project launch, ‘Goats on the Hill’.

What’s been happening?

Since launching the Geifr Gwyr project in October last year, some of our grazing champions have been testing the waters at various places across Swansea. In November we were approached by an interested party about clearing their garden on Gower, so Gladys joined them later in the month to kick off the project. This was a very useful winter site and helped us monitor how quickly young goats can clear a confined area.

In the same month two of our goats headed to ‘The Dranges’, a Wildlife Trust site on Gower. This site provided some challenges though with no shelter and an inability to add more fencing so the goats were placed with No Fence collars. This has helped us with some useful insights into future-proofing similar sites.

Some of our goats then headed to Ammanford where a field of brambles needed to be cleared. The field belongs to smallholders who impulse bought a single goat and wanted to borrow one of ours to keep it company. A win for both parties!

Media Coverage

Earlier this month we were lucky enough to appear on BBC Radio 4’s Country Focus, to talk about the project. Farm Operations Manager and fellow goat enthusiast Katharine talked enthusiastically about the project. You can listen to it here.

​What next?

As we approach spring we are launching our exciting ‘Goats on the Hill’ project. Hillside in Townhill, which is potentially the most exciting site as it has a large area that has been lost to scrub, is very urban and is surrounded by a housing estate (not to mention the brilliant views across our city). Local councillors joined us this week to discuss the project in more detail and what will be involved, which was met with some positive feedback. You can find out more information on our website here.

We really hope local people will be proud to host the goats and connect with their environment because of them. Let's make Townhill the GOAT!

If you have any questions about the progress of the project, please do get in touch with the team. You can email: Info@swanseacommunityfarm.org.uk or call us 01792 578384.