Yeah, I've had goats a couple times and eating the lawn is last on their list. They prefer your most expensive or favorite plants first. About four years ago I'd planted some Lilacs in the forest below our house in the Spring. In October I took my four Pygmy Goats down there for a walk and as soon as they got through the gate they literally ran 150 feet, past all kinds of forage, straight to my lilacs and started eating them. That's just one example.

Goats are amazing escape artist. When I was a youngster we had a big male goat who, after about a year, had eaten all our, and our neighbors, plants and gardens, so we decided to give him away. One of our friends had begged us to give him that goat so we called and offered it to him. About a month later he came to visit and tell us he had to get rid of the goat too. He told us the goat had eaten his neighbor's yard which included several thousands of dollars of landscaping and he was vigorously invited to pay for it all. The unhappy neighbor was Steve McQueen, who commented that the goat was welcome to eat his lawn, but since it never even touched it he thought it might be better if the goat was relocated.

Our burros are a little better, and they will eat our lawn, but they too have a varied palate and right now they've devoured my 5 acres of pasture and hay will be hitting close to $10-$15 a square bale soon, so I'll be paying dearly to keep them fat and happy till next Spring at least, and I'm not even sure I'll be able to buy any hay, even at that price.