# Goats



## gebhardsdairy72 (Oct 20, 2014)

What's thee average cost for young kid goats...


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

It really depends on what kind of goats you want. It can be as little as $10 for a "brush" goat of any kind of ancestry, more for a half or 3/4 bred or in the hundreds for purebred milk or meat goats. I would guess that the average is probably between 30 and 75 for a quality animal, since you are asking.

One word of caution, buy goats where you can see the whole herd. It is definitely a buyer beware transaction. You can tell from looking at an operation whether the animals are generally cared for well and less likely to introduce some diseases into your herd, like CL. Most goat herders or breeders are really interested in their reputation and won't sell you an animal that they shouldn't, but there are some out there that will, particularly at auctions. 

Welcome to goats! You'll enjoy them when you aren't cussing them!


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## drgnhntr37 (Apr 13, 2012)

$10. Where are you at. The cheapest I've seen around here starts at $65. Whoops central Ga.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

We recently bought a 2yo nanny and her triplets, 2 does and a wether for $400. The nanny is an Alpine/Nubian Cross, and the babies are 1/4 Alpine, 3/4 Nubian. She is a great milker and a good momma. We've had them at our stead for about 3 weeks now and they are adapting great. That price included the milkstand, and current feed that they are on. We went this route so instead of feedking kids, till fall and breeding them and waiting till spring to get milk. We have milk now to taste and test drive for our use, cheese, butter, cream and everything else. The babies are 8 weeks old and separated at night we milk 1x day. In another week or so we will separate them entirely to wean and milk momma twice a day.

we love it so far. There are plenty of folks out there with good intentions and information and some just the opposite!


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

A registered dairy goat doe kid normally starts at around $250-300, but with excellent bloodlines it would go up to about $500-800.

Unregistered but "purebred" (take that with a grain of salt, if there are no papers to prove it), would be maybe $150-250. Unregistered bucklings can be had for $50, but they're mostly bought for meat.

Adult goats generally do not cost as much as a kid.

When buying dairy goats, try to get them from a "clean" herd -- tested for CL, CAE, and Johne's Disease. This will likely add $10-50 to the cost of each animal. Nubians need to be genetically tested for G6S.

ETA: I don't show goats, but this has been my experience of what to normally expect in purchasing good dairy goats.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Starcreek said:


> Nubians need to be genetically tested for G6S.


:dunno:


Ahhh....interesting:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/livestock-forums/goats/411018-g6s-herd-wide-test-results.html

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/hobby-far...eaver/test-nubian-goats-for-g65-mutation.aspx

http://www.freewebs.com/calmgentledairygoatfarm/g6sarticle.htm


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

LincTex said:


> :dunno:
> 
> 
> Ahhh....interesting:
> ...


Testing for most diseases is about $15 per test (CL, CAE, etc.), if you draw the blood yourself. That G6S testing costs more, which is why I never did it. But buying a kid from parents that were tested for G6S is a selling point for me. It means the kid is clean from this genetic defect.

As I understand it, G6S is primarily among Nubians and Nubian-cross goats, and it causes the animal to be unthrifty and "slab-sided" and prone to premature death. Something they just discovered maybe 8-10 years ago.


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

One thing about goats that most people haven't thought about is if the SHTF for real, they are going to _really_ go up in value.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

Even with a small herd, the cost offset for products given can be huge. We are getting almost 1/2 gallon of milk per day from 1 doe. We made butter tonight for the first time and it tasted incredible. We've been drinking the milk for over a week and once we have several gallons set aside we will start making cheese. We'll breed momma doe and her 2 girls this fall and will have even more milk next spring.


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## SwordsandSaddles (Mar 14, 2015)

$150 here. Apparently, every time they eat our grass they get sick and die.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

Balls004 said:


> One thing about goats that most people haven't thought about is if the SHTF for real, they are going to _really_ go up in value.


I remember listening to a radio broadcast a couple of years ago, when the economy in Greece was tanking, and they interviewed a man who was nearly in tears. "I can't even find any milk for my children," he said.

If you can PRODUCE food or other essential items, you will be in high demand when tshtf.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

Starcreek said:


> I remember listening to a radio broadcast a couple of years ago, when the economy in Greece was tanking, and they interviewed a man who was nearly in tears. "I can't even find any milk for my children," he said.
> 
> If you can PRODUCE food or other essential items, you will be in high demand when tshtf.


I agree, growing a garden, and raising a few animals will make you a target, and potentially put you in a position of power. Depending on the area, circumstances of SHTF and prior planning for your defenses with groups.

We are getting 1/2 gallon a day from 1 goat. What we don't drink can be made into cheeses, butter and separated into cream. All other dairy parts can be feed back to the chickens, pigs, goats and dog/cats. We'll be breeding her again this fall along with 2 doe kids. Breed 3 does and potentially have at least 6 new kids to add to the herd, and you are milking 3 does instead of 1.

Any male goats can be raised for meat and the herd grows and you have stuff to barter with or sustain your own family.


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

Starcreek said:


> I remember listening to a radio broadcast a couple of years ago, when the economy in Greece was tanking, and they interviewed a man who was nearly in tears. "I can't even find any milk for my children," he said.
> 
> If you can PRODUCE food or other essential items, you will be in high demand when tshtf.


It's sad when today's kids are so far removed from where their food comes from that they think it just magically appears in the grocery store. If the SHTF, I'm guessing that the starving kid in Africa we always heard about has a better chance of making it than most of the kids in America today.

Even sadder, I can't come up with any good way to fix the problem, short of letting Darwin's theory work itself out.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

Balls, I think you are right there are going to be many hard lessons learned when the SHTF. It's terribly sad that children will suffer the worst at the hands of their ignorant parents. Those that blindly live their lives like nothing is wrong, or the world will be just fine. I have no doubts that the world will keep turning just how many people are left on this ride will be another matter.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

*Goat Milk Benefits Are Superior to Cow Milk*

*Goat Milk Benefits Are Superior to Cow Milk*










If you're a regular Dr. Axe reader, you might have noticed that, even though it's one of the most popular drinks out there, I'm not a big advocate of cow milk. For example, *is milk helping or hurting your bones*? Also, this dairy drink can be a challenge for our bodies to digest. For some people, it's even more inflammatory than *gluten*.
But I don't stay away from milk altogether. In fact, goat milk is one of my favorites drinks. Read on to learn why this drink is far superior than its cow counterpart.

*Goat Milk Nutrition Will Surprise You*

While it's not very popular in the Western world, goat milk is actually one of the most widely consumed milk drinks in the rest of the world and with good reason - it tastes great and it's chock-full of nutrients.

*More*.


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## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

Milk is getting a bad rap these days and it's a shame. All these reports of lactose intolerance fail to distinguish between the two protein types in cow milk. The solution is to either get a goat or buy a milking breed like the Jersey instead of the standard Holstein. Do this, and the lactose intolerance goes out the window. Simply drinking raw or just plain non homogonized milk will also do the trick.

I know this, from because I can feed raw Jersey milk to people with lactose intolerance who normally use milk as a laxative. (you learn something new every day) They are surprised when the milk doesn't have its usual effect.

Good old unsupported and unsubtantiated trial and error research brought to you by the not so great unwashed, who have been eating farm crud since birth and feeding it to the uninitiated.


Disclaimer: Don't drink the poison white stuff :radioactive: . It will kill you quicker than a bucket of round-up which has been deemed safe to drink by those who know better than us back woods yokums.


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## Homestead Gal (Nov 25, 2008)

Make sure you have plenty of refer storage for your dairy products! I had to get a second fridge to hold the milk, yogurt and cheese! 

As an aside: Two of my Alpine does are giving me right at 2 gal of milk daily.I now have my "micro flock" of 3 does and a buck. This will allow me to rotate breeding of my does so I can have milk year round. The plan is to have one doe bred each year. Alpine goats can milk for well over a year per lactation, so you can average breeding a doe every other year. My senior doe comes from a home dairy line that her grandmother is now in her 3rd milking year on just ONE lactation! My goal is milk and not a lot of kids so this breed works well for us.


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## ClemKadiddlehopper (Aug 15, 2014)

I had to get a second fridge as well. A double wide commercial fridge doesn't cost much more than a residential fridge that doesn't hold diddly. 

The commercial fridge sounds like a semi truck, but holds almost as much as one. I usually have around 12 gallons of milk in the bottom, cream waiting for churning, around 25+ doz eggs, veggies ect… and I never have to worry about where to put all the left overs from Christmas dinner.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

We raised goats, Nubians and the biggest producer of milk was a Alpine-nubian cross. I mostly made kefir because it digested better for me, but the studies I did on goats milk were surprising, especially that the calcium in goats milk is far more bio available than in cows milk. When we milked the goats we placed a clean cotton cloth over the bucket, it kept dirt and hair out and we never had bad tasting milk, it kept much longer in the fridge as well. You do need very good fences, they will jump them just about as well as deer do. One other great thing is they clean the brush off your property, almost too good.


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