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I'd like to put a hedge in along the front of our property, and possibly other areas as well as the garden fills in.

However it needs to be:

- cold tolerant (Z5a - I'm not covering it in the winter!!)
- salt tolerant
- non-poisonous but not yummy for goats! (does that exist?) - no cedars they LOVE them - it is going to be on the outside of the fence but the goats would stick their heads through and eat it
- fast growing.

I'd like for it to be evergreen if possible or at least dense enough to provide privacy in the winter as well. Dense so it will back up our existing fence to keep animals in; and I'd like a formal hedge for the look...

Oh & it has to be okay with partial shade...

Does such a plant exist?

You are asking for too much but look at hemlock other then that it will be deciduous.

Poncirus Trifoliata (japanese bitter orange) is a cold hardy shrub that is good for privacy hedges, as well as grafting citrus onto it to make citrus plants more cold tolorant. BUT it has large sharp thorns, so that may not be good for goats, or maybe they'll learn quick to stay away from it

Hemlock is pretty seriously poisonous to livestock.

Big thorns is just fine! I'll have a look into the Japanese Bitter Orange .

Really cedars would be great for what I want, and cheap too, except that my goats think they are just delicious!

By formal hedge, you mean you WANT to periodically trim them to keep them in some kind of geometric shape? (trying to pick an emoticon for here....)

So, why not plant something the goats will like and benefit from, and place them just far enough that they'll keep the backside along the fence nicely trimmed?

REALLY, Nes. You spoil your animals. let them WORK for their room and board.

'Cause I don't want to encourage them to break out of the fence to go eat the delicious things on the other side we already have that problem!!! (Ask my poor flowers trying to poke up through the ground only to be munched back down by the incredible escaping goat crew...) .

We've got enough weeds for them to keep down on other areas of the farm, the area I want to hedge is for my garden .

I'm not totally set on a formal hedge, I'd be happy with something pretty that fits the bill but is informal too .

We've go lots of high-bush cranberry that make a great snow-barrier and wind-break along the sides that need those things.

Goats are nuts and smart. A bad combo. I'm not going to get too deep into this one because of the animals unpredictable nature, but good luck. I do have a strange little story about a goat I saw ten feet up a tree standing in the crotch. The strange part was that there was NO branch below this crotch and not one thing within thirty yards of this tree. I have yet to figure out how it got in that tree. Also Dad as a child had a goat as a pet. It died jumping through a plate-glass window. Very strange animals. lol

Hmmm....I'm not sure what you selected, but consider a hedge of emerald arbivatae. You can plant them as close as you like and let them go as tall as your willing to shear them. It's evergreen, cold tolerant and should be safe for the goats to eat!