Decisionmaking

I have browsed this site quite often over the past few months to find answers and information about adding a new member to our property. Thank you all who have put so much useful information and effort into this site, it's a great resource.
I, Andrea live with my Husband and 2 little children and dog in central nelson where we have roughly 4000m2 land. we have had chickens for quite a while and are now considering adding to our animal family. We are tossing up between goats, donkeys and sheep but still have a lot of questions before making a final decision. Some of them are:
What are council regulations on livestock in Nelson? What fencing to set up and where? Our bush/weed/grass area has quite a mixture of plants, which ones are poisonous?
So I am hoping to find some of the answers to these on this forum/site.
I am looking forward to meeting/hearing from you and exchanging info and stories.

Welcome to the forum! I can't comment on Nelson area regs, but whatever fence will suit donkeys and sheep will suit goats, but only if you add electric outriggers to keep the goats off the fence. If you get sheep, do not graze with goats, as they have different grazing habits, but share the same parasites. Goats never build a tolerance to a worm load, while sheep do, and goats will be eating shorter grass than they favour, and eating worms and eggs at the low height at which sheep graze grass.

I would think donkeys and goats or donkeys and sheep would make good grazing companions.

Have a look at archives and articles on this site, there are some pretty good lists of poisonous plants, as well as links to other lists of poisonous plants.

It would be really good if you can identify everything you've got growing, so you can look up the ones which may be toxic.

Hi and welcome.
Phone the city council and ask what the by-laws are for domestic animals. I think that roosters are not permitted, and suspect that donkeys may be frowned on.
Never have just one of a species. That is unkind to the animal.
On 1 acre you will be having to buy food for 2 donkeys, 4 sheep or 5 goats.
Don't run sheep and goats, or donkeys and goats together. The donkeys will make the grass too short for the goats.

Thanks for your useful tips already. No,we will definitely have at least 2 of each. The latest thoughts are to maybe start with a couple of lambs, feed them up and eat them after a few months. This might be a good intro (appart from the killing) and the current fences are probably ok for sheep.
Interesting about not mixing goats and sheep. I thought that having different eating habits would mean that they could compliment each other in using all the food available. Can't you just be very diligent at keeping on top of the parasites with rotating paddocks?

Goats never build a tolerance to worms. Sheep eat grass to the ground. Goats eat long grass (prefer it, anyway), longer than 4 inches. If you were extremely diligent about following the goats with the sheep, and not letting the sheep graze too closely, and closing the paddock back up till the grass re-grew to a 4-6 inch length, you might be able to get away with it, but you'd really also have to keep on top of FECs for your goats and drench when necessary. You can't just drench willy-nilly with goats because you run a high risk of developing drench-resistant worms. Sheep shouldn't need drenching that often because of their ability to develop a tolerance to a worm laod.

Goats are affected by the same worms as sheep carry. Sheep can often develop a resistance to sheep worms. Goats usually cannot develop a resistance good enough to protect them. Goats and sheep are not worried about horse worms, or cattle worms, and vice versa. Donkeys are affected by horse worms, but not by sheep or cattle worms.
In NZ, 90% or more of the worms are on the pasture or just under the ground, waiting for the right conditions to attack. They can survive for many months and probably for years in the NZ climate. At Brightwater we have a drier climate than Nelson. Our worms last for months or longer.