# Goat's Milk



## THEA

I want to get a goat for it's milk. What would you say is the best kind to get for it's milk purposes?


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## carnut1100

I grew up with milking goats. 
Fantastic animals. If you get only one, be sure to spend time with it as they are very social animals. Get two if you can. 
Anglo-Nubians give a lot of milk but are often fair pigs of animals to handle. I have never met a purebred Nubian I have liked. 
British Alpine and Toggenburgs are both lovely animals and give good milk but probably not the highest volume. 
My favourite variety is the Saanen. Beautiful nature ( although I have met cranky ones) and give a good dose of milk. We have probably had around 10 Saanens over the years. 
We had a British Alpine-Saanen cross who was a lovely goat until she met a snake and lost the argument.
The best goat we ever owned though was a Saanen-Nubian cross who was the daughter of a 12th generation show champion. She was bloody expensive but gave over 3 litres of milk a day regular as clockwork and the best milk I have ever had. We were quite sad when she died.

get a young one if possible and get here used to being milked fairly early on. The worst goat we ever had to milk had been left running wild till her 3rd kid, and did NOT want to be milked. She had to be legroped on both legs or it was impossible to milk her. 

Be sure they have a good supply of fresh water. They are quite fussy about clean water and if you want a lot of milk they need a lot of water. 

When milking give them supplementary food. We used to give them a tub of horse feed called Completo which was a mixture of chaff and grain and some molasses. About one to one and a half quarts per milking session is good and they are happier being fed while milked. 
Makes the milk sweeter and gives more of it. 

They need shelter from rain and wind. 

Goats are incredibly intelligent. We lived for some years on a 3 acre block surrounded by a sheep farm and the goats would go through every fence on our block but never once left the property. They can jump quite high fences and get through most wire fences except mesh. 
If we wanted a certain area grazed we would drive a peg into the ground and tether the goat to it during the day. 
Electric fences work well but they soon learn if you turn them off. 
We had a collar on each goat and a rope to a car tyre so they could roam the paddock freely but if they jumped a fence they could not drag the tyre with them. 
they learned quick, until they wore through the rope on the tyre and tehn got into the garden.....
Another thing that works well for controlled grazing is to get a large car tyre, put some plywood in the bottom and half fill with concrete, nice dry concrete so you can mold it. Fill the hollow of the tyre completely so you now have a big dish, then build up a pedestal in the dentre and set in a short peg, about 18 inches long. 
You can tip it up on edge and roll it where you want it then fill the centre with water and slip the chain over the peg ( end of chain welded to a few inches of pipe) and clip the swivel on the other end to the goat's collar and you have a water dish they can't knock over and a tether they can't move but you can. Also when it is moved the water dish is emptied and clean for a refill. 

Good luck with the goats, I would say go Saanen but I may be biased. 
Enjoy!


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## Soggy Bottom

*Goats Milk*

I too am interested in purchasing a couple of milking goats, mainly because I don't want enormous amounts of milk on a daily basis, and because we could transport a goat for stud purposes easier than a cow. We had a cow but could not get her to a bull (For a variety of reasons).
My main concern is how do you keep the goaty taste out of the milk. I had some friends who kept goats for a while and sometimes the milk they used was great tasting and other times it had that distinct goaty smell and taste. I know that hygiene in the dairy is of paramount importance but is there anything else that sends the milk 'off'?


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## mandiex4

We always had Nubians and I loved them. They had character, but they were sweet.


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## mona

Make sure to get 2 goats. They are herd animals and feel more comfortable in a group. I have always enjoyed nubiens. They give rich milk.

If you plan on getting a buck, remember that a buck stinks really bad. They pee on their face to attract the females.


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## Expeditioner

Never been a big fan of goat's milk but if it is the difference between living and dying the taste can be ignored. How much care do goats need on a day to day basis?


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## hillbilly

carnut1100 said:


> I grew up with milking goats.


Fantastic animals. If you get only one, be sure to spend time with it as they are very social animals. 
I agree with you totally they are lovely social animals if you spend time with them.



carnut1100 said:


> sure they have a good supply of fresh water. They are quite fussy about clean water and if you want a lot of milk they need a lot of water


Agree again need plenty of fresh clean water.



carnut1100;217 milking give them supplementary food. We used to give them a tub of horse feed called Completo which was a mixture of chaff and grain and some molasses. About one to one and a half quarts per milking session is good and they are happier being fed while milked.
Makes the milk sweeter and gives more of it.[/quote said:


> We also give feed when milking Sweet horse feed.
> But if my goats only give this much milk I sell them at the local auction,We have Saanen,Nubian crosses that we bred and we get about 2 quarters of milk per milking 2 times a day.The reason for our cross breeding is for a lot of milk and good meat per animal.
> 
> 
> 
> carnut1100;217they need shelter from rain and wind.[/quote said:
> 
> 
> 
> We live in Pa and only have a three sided barn that our Goats have lived in now for 10 yrs and never had a sick animal including newborns that were born in the pasture in the deep snow.
> 
> 
> 
> carnut1100;217goats are incredibly intelligent.
> Enjoy![/quote said:
> 
> 
> 
> Very intelligent we have one that if she gets out and wants the rest out will lift and slide the latch to let them all out.And because they are so intelligent are easily trained and handled.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Click to expand...
Click to expand...


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## hillbilly

Hope the last post can be understood something didn't work quite right


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## *Andi

Expeditioner said:


> Never been a big fan of goat's milk but if it is the difference between living and dying the taste can be ignored. How much care do goats need on a day to day basis?


This post is a little old but ...

feed and water every day ...

milk when in season ... It takes me about 10 minutes to milk each goat ...(Ellie is a slow eater)

check feet and worm twice a year ...

This is the 'basics' 

Time in play with the baby/babies don't count... :sssh:


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## Woodchuck

Soggy Bottom said:


> I too am interested in purchasing a couple of milking goats, mainly because I don't want enormous amounts of milk on a daily basis, and because we could transport a goat for stud purposes easier than a cow. We had a cow but could not get her to a bull (For a variety of reasons).
> My main concern is how do you keep the goaty taste out of the milk. I had some friends who kept goats for a while and sometimes the milk they used was great tasting and other times it had that distinct goaty smell and taste. I know that hygiene in the dairy is of paramount importance but is there anything else that sends the milk 'off'?


When we raised goats (french alpines) we noted the goaty taste at times. Best way to reduce it was to quickly chill the milk after milking. Also some plants, notably some weeds and leaves from brush will cause stronger tasting milk. Also pasturing with the buck. A friend told me that it varies with the breed and he said toggenburgs were worse (don't know if that is true or not)


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## hillbilly

Woodchuck said:


> When we raised goats (french alpines) we noted the goaty taste at times. Best way to reduce it was to quickly chill the milk after milking. Also some plants, notably some weeds and leaves from brush will cause stronger tasting milk. Also pasturing with the buck. A friend told me that it varies with the breed and he said toggenburgs were worse (don't know if that is true or not)


WE have toggs and saanen/nubian mix and the milk never has a off taste unless they happen to get out and eat certain weeds.But we go through the pasture and pull the foul weeds.Our buck stays with our nannies at all times and it doesn't effect the milk.It makes the buck more gentle and he actually excepts the kids better without any pushing.But our buck won't push at people and will listen just with voice commands but we work with our goats at all times and will even let them out just so they can run and play around humans.My personal opinion about the foul tasting milk is that most people were raised that goat milk is foul and that is what they have in there mind.People that come to our house and drink goats milk without knowing like it.


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## fobhomestead

*I am just about ready to purchase my goats*

Here is what I hae learned. 
If you are going to be using the goats soley for milk (and not for food), and you hae enough property that they can forage on, then go with the saneen or alpine. 
:bullit:GOATS ARE FORAGERS, NOT GRAZERS

If you are thinking they will be great lawn mowers, you may want to rethink. They will eat weeds, bark, shrubs, and your garden (the day before you are ready to harvest it).

If you have a smaller property (a couple of acres), then go with the new breed of mini-nubians. Or, go with Nigerian Dwarfs. Mini-nubians are a female nubian mated with a nigerian buck. The results are a smaller goat (that eats less) but who puts out almost as much milk as the normal sized ones.

Everyone says that there are three reasons the milk will taste "off". One is the Buck (they piss all over themselves and the area and have a nasty scent glad for the rutting process) so, if you can get away with it, dont keep them. Another reason is the milking process. It has to be done quickly and as clean as possible. Dont skimp on the right gear. The last reason is pretty self explainatory, but is probably the most missed. You get out what you put in!!! If the goat is eating foul weeds or food, well...


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## BuggingIn

I have to put in a vote for my beloved LaManchas here. Gentle, quiet, give lots of sweet milk, and they are meatier than Saanens, Alpines and the lot - more like a Nubian. That's important when you consider that half of your kids will likely be bucklings - wether them and raise them to butcher kid size, or sell them early. True, the lack of ears takes a little getting used to, but as we say, you don't milk the ears!


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## pnovotny

*Goat milk taste*

We tried a goat (don't remember which breed) years ago, but no one liked the taste of the milk. I tried putting chocolate in it for the kids, but then figured, we did this experiment to be healthier, not to drink chocolate every day.
Is there a way to make the milk taste better? There were no bucks around and we fed alfalfa hay with a grain supplement (I can't remember exactly what it was).
I followed all the directions about milking in my goat book; put the milk through a filter, used clean equipment, refrigerated promptly. The milk flavor was strongly distasteful.
Was it just us? Or was I maybe doing something wrong? I sure would like to have a safe and healthy source of milk again.


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## *Andi

It could have been the goat ... I have had one or two over the years that were just that. :dunno:

If you can try to find one that is in milk now - try before you buy . 

Don't force the kids to drink it but don't buy them any 'store milk' and they should come around. Let the kids know why you are getting a goat to milk -(safe and healthy source of milk). A lot of times with the kids it is what they hear like at school or such ... "you drink goats milk? That gross" ... My girls would tell them ...Well ... I know what is in our milk ... do you know what is in yours.


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## fobhomestead

*I am having pre-buying jitters!*

I am in the process of getting the property ready for my horse, goats and chickens but am second guessing what I thought was a decent choice in the Nigerian Dwarf breed. I read that you can have 10 goats per acre of land, and my land is SHRUB city... I dont want 10 goats!! I want 3-4 goats (Does) that have a high butterfat content and will produce enough milk for my family plus extra for cheeses, soaps, etc. I will have two goats in milk at all times (staggered, so when one is on the downslope of drying up, the other is coming into the best of her milk, while the 3rd one is drying out or dried out and the other is pregnant... haven't figured it all out yet). 

I just want to keep my in milk goats in the part of the land that has been cleared and my drying/dried goats can go to town on the stinky weeds, etc... BUT little nigerian dwarfs dont eat THAT much!! 3 acres for 4 goats?? 

Anybody work with Nigerian Dwarf/La mancha crosses? Any opinions or hypotheses on what that mix would be like??


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## The_Blob

pnovotny said:


> We tried a goat (don't remember which breed) years ago, but no one liked the taste of the milk. I tried putting chocolate in it for the kids, but then figured, we did this experiment to be healthier, not to drink chocolate every day.
> Is there a way to make the milk taste better? There were no bucks around and we fed alfalfa hay with a grain supplement (I can't remember exactly what it was).
> I followed all the directions about milking in my goat book; put the milk through a filter, used clean equipment, refrigerated promptly. The milk flavor was strongly distasteful.
> Was it just us? Or was I maybe doing something wrong? I sure would like to have a safe and healthy source of milk again.


some chocolate actually has some health benefits, but if you're trying for an independent healthy milk supply for :shtf: then you will have a hard time keeping it supplied 

:dunno:


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## The_Blob

fobhomestead said:


> I am in the process of getting the property ready for my horse, goats and chickens but am second guessing what I thought was a decent choice in the Nigerian Dwarf breed. I read that you can have 10 goats per acre of land, and my land is SHRUB city... I dont want 10 goats!! I want 3-4 goats (Does) that have a high butterfat content and will produce enough milk for my family plus extra for cheeses, soaps, etc. I will have two goats in milk at all times (staggered, so when one is on the downslope of drying up, the other is coming into the best of her milk, while the 3rd one is drying out or dried out and the other is pregnant... haven't figured it all out yet).
> 
> I just want to keep my in milk goats in the part of the land that has been cleared and my drying/dried goats can go to town on the stinky weeds, etc... BUT little nigerian dwarfs dont eat THAT much!! 3 acres for 4 goats??


just because you CAN have 10 doesn't mean you HAVE to have 10... 

you could always sell the milk to a local cheese maker (if there is one) or make it yourself... people go nuts & pay big $$$ for that 'local organic' stuff

more work than I would want to do tho

isn't goat milk an ingredient in a lot of designer soaps now?


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## gypsysue

fob, GREAT to see you back! How'd the move go?

Soapmaking and cheesemaking would be good options for making money on the side. I know if someone made it around here they could sell it at the weekly farmer's market, as well as build a customer base of locals. I'D buy it, if you were nearby!

We have one goat and it's a great brush clearning device! We put a runner cable between a couple trees and use a dog chain to allow the goat to move around and graze, and yet not get tangled in the chain, since it doesn't touch the ground, it hangs loosely to the runner cable.

The rest of the time it's in a chainlink pen to protect it from the wild critters.

Good luck!


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## The_Blob

my sis is thinking about goats, but her fence rails are plastic... :gaah:

I told her I could start a betting pool on how long they would last & we could use the money to buy NEW fencing   :lolsmash:


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## Freyadog

carnut1100 said:


> I grew up with milking goats.
> Fantastic animals. If you get only one, be sure to spend time with it as they are very social animals. Get two if you can.
> Anglo-Nubians give a lot of milk but are often fair pigs of animals to handle. I have never met a purebred Nubian I have liked.
> 
> Then you haven't met my purebred Nubians. they are the biggest babies and follow us around like big puppies. My granddaughter who is 8 and only visits from PA in the summer can handle them at any point and time, she even milks them. Nubians are my first choice for milkers.


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## *Andi

Freyadog said:


> Then you haven't met my purebred Nubians. they are the biggest babies and follow us around like big puppies. My granddaughter who is 8 and only visits from PA in the summer can handle them at any point and time, she even milks them. Nubians are my first choice for milkers.


You don't have any nubian bucks for sell ... do you ... I will need a different buck come spring.


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## Freyadog

*Andi said:


> You don't have any nubian bucks for sell ... do you ... I will need a different buck come spring.


Sorry Andi I don't. My bucklings went quick. Will be on the lookout for you for a buck from farms that I know have good reps.

How far are you from me? you can send me an email if you wish. 
[email protected]

Barbara

PS
The farm that I purchased my buck from is Dan-Vir out of North Carolina. Trying to find a disc with our bucks pictures but haven't found them yet. GD here all summer so things have been stuck in hidey places. Our buck is magnificient and our kids did not last long on the selling block.


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## fobhomestead

*I will get goats, just dont know which type*

I went to a lady down the road who has 50 goats (wow) and they are not the "show type"... but man was the milk good! (Dont worry, I will STILL get good, registered goats who have been tested) SO, I know that I can handle drinking goat milk... now I just dont know what type of goat to get. I was going to go with the nigerian dwarfs... but seeing the size of the nubians has me reconsidering. I like the idea of docile, calm La Mancha's... but I want a high fat content in my milk too (for soap and cheese making). I will also be selling the babies and the ones I cant sell will be dinner. I have all of that... in theory. But the reality is I have never raised milk goats and I really am stuck on what type of goats to get for the purposes I want them for. Land clearing will be the job of the ones who are not in milk... the milkers will be for our own milk and cheese and soap (and butter, icecream, etc) and my unsold boys will be dinner, which I would rather sell them so they need to be somewhat desireable. Sigh... any ideas on the breed I should get? I can just go with "awww, they are adorable", but adorable does not always make good butter or meat... yeah, they sell... but that is not the primary purpose.


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## *Andi

If you ask ten goat people " which type" ... you can get ten different answers...  Nubians are great goats but so are Alpine ... Search different goats and see which one calls to you ...  And just a side note my La Mancha was not very docile but she was one heck of a milker. 

Most goats will do the 'Land clearing' notice I said most ... I had one nanny that was a pasture goat - she would not go anywhere near a wild rose :scratch 

I started with two older milking goats and they did teach me a lot ... both were broke to milking and the milk stand ... read ... read ... and read some more ... ask lots of questions.

Best of luck!


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## The_Blob

ok, WHAT is a good breed for NOT chewing up plastic coated fence rails?


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## NaeKid

fobhomestead said:


> I went to a lady down the road who has 50 goats (wow) and they are not the "show type"... but man was the milk good! *[..deleted..]* But the reality is I have never raised milk goats and I really am stuck on what type of goats to get for the purposes I want them for. *[..deleted..]* Sigh... any ideas on the breed I should get?


I have a very simple suggestion for you ... ask that lady down the road with 50 goats to help you setup your own operation with some of the offspring from her goats. If you have questions, she would be the one with the best answers for you given your proximity ...


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## fobhomestead

NaeKid said:


> I have a very simple suggestion for you ... ask that lady down the road with 50 goats to help you setup your own operation with some of the offspring from her goats. If you have questions, she would be the one with the best answers for you given your proximity ...


I am learning a ton from her and she is mentoring me (even letting me milk her goats, etc). Her herd has CAE and CL, so I am not inclined to go there. Not that I am judging, mind you, but I know I am not even close to qualified to handling those issues in my herd yet.. heck, I am still learning to MILK!  
Her expertise is something that I am very grateful for... wouldn't have it any other way! I love her herd too... ALL of them know their names and come when called, and some can even count!! I have seen it... its awesome and I am humbled by it all. She plans on helping me "shop" for the proper goats... I just have to decide which ones. I have read and read but it is a completely different ballgame when it is time to put it into practice.


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## dawnwinds58

*Goats in General?*

I had 46 does, 2 Boer bucks and I'll not count kids. I also had an 8 strand high tension electric fence that looked like the Vegi-matic potato slicer. It was fine right up to the point where my idiot neighbor who regularly planted hybrid corn beside my pasture, planted alfalfa. When it started to mature I let them out of the barn in the morning and they made a beeline for that fence, all of them. They would go through, squall like crazy, and hit the alfafa with us in hot pursuit. We then spent 5 hours collecting goats that didn't want to be caught. It took 5 people, 4 Rat Terriers, and 2 horses to get them all back in the barn. Putting them over the fence did no good, they would go right back through screaming as the electricity hit them. They waded through grass a foot high to get to the fence, they were not hungry, they had grain, but they had candy next door. I ended up having to sell my goats due to inability to keep them on my property and out of the idiot neighbors hay. This was not the first time he'd done something like this. HE trains thoroughbreds. His house is a quarter of a mile down the road. HE put someone elses 3 yr old stallion, behind that high tension fence, right beside my 5 mares, who were open and unbred. The stallion of course went through the fence and bred my grandaughter's quarter pony. Then HE acted like I was the one in the wrong when I walked the "not his, but his responsibility" stallion to his front door. Less than a week later, HIS mares got out and I found out he didn't even keep a riding horse. He on foot, loaded with halters, chased 15 mares on foot. I laughed all day from the back of my "useless poor quality" Tennessee walking horse as I used a rope to clear the debris, from the storm, that spooked the mares out of his fancy board fence, off my wire fence with a rope.

Now goats. I keep goats for meat. I make some soft cheese, but excess goes to feed hogs. It makes them fat and healthy. Mostly I like Togg or Nubian/meat crosses, 50% Nubian or Togg, with Boer, Kiko, or Myotonics "fainters." The Nubian bone density and structure produces a great dual purpose goat when bred to a meat breed. You get size, weight, and thrivable kids. Most of our had triplets, few quads, younger ones twinned.

Nubians keep them foraging where Boers being South African breed would graze. The milkers, we like on honeysuckle thickets, keep the poke salad out of your pastures. Thistle is fine as is most herbals like comfrey and dandelion.

Watch staking them, they can get caught and strangled in a rope. If you use weave fence, make the openings smaller than you smallest goats horns. If they get caught in a fence, they can die or get beaten to death by the other goats. They can be pretty hateful when the want to be. Keep your bucks as far away from the pregnant and milkers as possible. They will stink up anything they touch AND it does not fade for a very long time, like a skunk.

Use a bander to castrate males not needed for breeding. I worm everyone regularly, check bucklings for two testes, band if they are both down, then put in the weaning pen with each other for company. If both are not down, send them back with ma ma till next worming. One worming should always be a dose of Panacur, 3 times the recommended weight, for 3 days. Worms take them down quick, transfer to nursing kids, and are getting more resistant due to "too light" doses per goat, or horse, or dog. Watch out for "warbles," wool worms, and any unusual lumps on any goat. If she's lumpy, DO NOT BUY HER! Keep a coccidiostat like Corid around all the time. If anyone starts to snot and cough, get it in their water, don't let them have access to any other water untill they have had the Corid for 5 days minimum.

This likely way more than you wanted, but I was on a roll. *chuckles*


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## brucehylton

dawnwinds58 said:


> I had 46 does, 2 Boer bucks and I'll not count kids. I also had an 8 strand high tension electric fence that looked like the Vegi-matic potato slicer. It was fine right up to the point where my idiot neighbor who regularly planted hybrid corn beside my pasture, planted alfalfa. When it started to mature I let them out of the barn in the morning and they made a beeline for that fence, all of them. They would go through, squall like crazy, and hit the alfafa with us in hot pursuit. We then spent 5 hours collecting goats that didn't want to be caught. It took 5 people, 4 Rat Terriers, and 2 horses to get them all back in the barn. Putting them over the fence did no good, they would go right back through screaming as the electricity hit them. They waded through grass a foot high to get to the fence, they were not hungry, they had grain, but they had candy next door. I ended up having to sell my goats due to inability to keep them on my property and out of the idiot neighbors hay. This was not the first time he'd done something like this. HE trains thoroughbreds. His house is a quarter of a mile down the road. HE put someone elses 3 yr old stallion, behind that high tension fence, right beside my 5 mares, who were open and unbred. The stallion of course went through the fence and bred my grandaughter's quarter pony. Then HE acted like I was the one in the wrong when I walked the "not his, but his responsibility" stallion to his front door. Less than a week later, HIS mares got out and I found out he didn't even keep a riding horse. He on foot, loaded with halters, chased 15 mares on foot. I laughed all day from the back of my "useless poor quality" Tennessee walking horse as I used a rope to clear the debris, from the storm, that spooked the mares out of his fancy board fence, off my wire fence with a rope.
> 
> Now goats. I keep goats for meat. I make some soft cheese, but excess goes to feed hogs. It makes them fat and healthy. Mostly I like Togg or Nubian/meat crosses, 50% Nubian or Togg, with Boer, Kiko, or Myotonics "fainters." The Nubian bone density and structure produces a great dual purpose goat when bred to a meat breed. You get size, weight, and thrivable kids. Most of our had triplets, few quads, younger ones twinned.
> 
> Nubians keep them foraging where Boers being South African breed would graze. The milkers, we like on honeysuckle thickets, keep the poke salad out of your pastures. Thistle is fine as is most herbals like comfrey and dandelion.
> 
> Watch staking them, they can get caught and strangled in a rope. If you use weave fence, make the openings smaller than you smallest goats horns. If they get caught in a fence, they can die or get beaten to death by the other goats. They can be pretty hateful when the want to be. Keep your bucks as far away from the pregnant and milkers as possible. They will stink up anything they touch AND it does not fade for a very long time, like a skunk.
> 
> Use a bander to castrate males not needed for breeding. I worm everyone regularly, check bucklings for two testes, band if they are both down, then put in the weaning pen with each other for company. If both are not down, send them back with ma ma till next worming. One worming should always be a dose of Panacur, 3 times the recommended weight, for 3 days. Worms take them down quick, transfer to nursing kids, and are getting more resistant due to "too light" doses per goat, or horse, or dog. Watch out for "warbles," wool worms, and any unusual lumps on any goat. If she's lumpy, DO NOT BUY HER! Keep a coccidiostat like Corid around all the time. If anyone starts to snot and cough, get it in their water, don't let them have access to any other water untill they have had the Corid for 5 days minimum.
> 
> This likely way more than you wanted, but I was on a roll. *chuckles*


You left out the many uses of tobacco, hoof trimming, and the fact that they will find a way to drink your coffee and steal your heart at the same time.


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## *Andi

brucehylton said:


> You left out the many uses of tobacco, hoof trimming, and the fact that they will find a way to drink your coffee and steal your heart at the same time.


:2thumb: They sure can find a way to drink your coffee (lol) and you are right, they can also steal your heart.


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## sunny

Hi, just wanted to point out you all forgot about Oberhaslis. Beautiful smaller goats, Hardy and gentle. Higher butterfat than Saanens. I'm letting mine milk over this year she should go a couple years without rebreeding.


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## *Andi

sunny said:


> Hi, just wanted to point out you all forgot about Oberhaslis. Beautiful smaller goats, Hardy and gentle. Higher butterfat than Saanens. I'm letting mine milk over this year she should go a couple years without rebreeding.


Sounds like a great goat (I always keep an ear open for a hardy critter) ... how many do you have?


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## LegitCitizen

*My goats...*

For what it's worth, I have Dwarf Nigerian. The Nigerians are dairy goats and while they're small (does usually <50 pounds, bucks <100 pounds), they give an amazing quantity of milk for their size. My best doe gives me a half a gallon a day when she's in milk. My other two does give about a quart apiece. So we get a gallon of milk a day when the girls are in milk. I don't know about you, but that's more milk than we drink - so the excess goes mostly into cheese and some into soap.

The other good thing about Dwarf Nigerians is their small size. I am no weakling, but I am not a big person. A 200-pound goat is more than I can wrestle around. If push comes to shove, I can pick up my girls and put them in a trailer, or the back of a truck.

We don't own a buck, we borrow one from a friend when we want to breed our girls.

I'm totally sold on goat's milk. We drink ours raw. We share with neighbors sometimes, but pasteurize it for them as they're a little sqeamish about the idea of drinking, raw whole milk. I've attached a chart we put together from information on the USDA website concerning food content. The chart compares the composition of cow's milk and goat's milk and there's also a column for human milk info so you can see how goat's milk compares to the first food all of us had.

Thanks for reading.

~ L.


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## *Andi

Always glad to see more goat people on the forum. 

One of the problems I had with my Saanen was her size, she was one big goat and when she had a mind to, she would use her size against me. :club:


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## sunny

I have 5 Oberhaslis 4 does and a buck. The yearling milker weighs 115lbs. and milked at 7lbs day consistantly over her lactation. She peaked at just over a gallon a day. Boy, was she a bugger to dry off too. I was still getting 5-6lbs. at once a day milkings. This year I'm going to continue milking until she just won't produce anymore. I really want the milk, not the kids at this point. I just wasn't sure I should milk through a yearling udder.
I can't wait to see how the doelings do. I got a good deal on a package from one of the local ladies who is into showing. 1 freshed yearling (10 days fresh), 2 unrelated doeling twins, and an unrelated bucking doeling pair. These goats weren't living up to her standards for showing and she needed to make room to upgrade. I will have to sell the sister of the buck but with the others I should be good for several years. 
I plan to learn to do cheese and soap but, I don't want to buy ingredients that cost more than the finished product so I need to do somemore studying. I'm also trying to get my garden going. It didn't grow well at all last year soo...Hopefully it will do better this year with better planning.
If you'd like to see my saanen check out my post on packgoats in the alternate transportation forum.


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## *Andi

Great pictures! Thanks for posting!!!


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## LegitCitizen

*THINK before you leap*



THEA said:


> I want to get a goat for it's milk. What would you say is the best kind to get for it's milk purposes?


Before you jump into goats, I have a couple of suggestions & a little advice that was very helpful for me when I was first getting started.

Think about how much land you have. Goats are foragers not grazers. They won't munch on grass like horses will. They will eat the good stuff first - your roses, your fruit trees, your garden if they can get at it, your fences ift hey're wood, _then_ they'll go to work on the weeds. Now, two years later, I have no weeds and the trees are pruned up to the height my tallest doe can reach - and my fences are ranch wire.

Goats are herd animals. You need at _least_ two for their mental health. When we first started out, three was the ideal number. When we had two, it was as if they teamed up and made nothing but trouble. When we get three, it was as if they became a herd and nearly overnight, they stopped being so destructive.

Understanding that you'll need more than one, think about how much milk a big dairy goat can make. I have a friend who has dozens of big, Nubian milk goats. Each one gives _a gallon a day at least._ What are you going to do with all that milk? And you can't skip milking, or their production drops off and they'll dry up on you. And, are you up to handling an animal that weighs 200 pounds and has a mind of its own? I LOVE the Nubians. I love their personalities. BUT, I just don't hav ethe space. My tiny postage stamp of land just isn't adequate to support a triad of Nubians. But, my little chunk of land is perfect for my four Dwarf Nigerian does. None of my girls weighs over 50 pounds, give or take. My best milker weighs about 45 pounds and gives me a half a gallon a day. All together we get about a gallon a day from the four... but how we manage our milk production is staggering the breeding seasons so we get spring and then autumn babies.

The taste of goat milk is highly (and almost instantly) impacted by what goats eat. One nasty weed can render an entire day's worth of milk unpalatable. So, we are _very_ careful about what the milking girls get to eat. The dairy girls get grain when they're on the milking stand. And currently we feed a product called Chaffehaye. It's essentially silage made solely with alfalfa and molasses. It seems pricey, until you figure your total feed bill for the year and realize that you pay the same amount in winter as you do in spring... and you don't have to worry about variations in protein content... we like it and it makes for great tasting milk.

Other people I know feed only alfalfa hay with grain. In my experience, as long as you're careful, the milk isn't bad. One of the reasons that people have trouble with the taste of goat milk is that it is incredibly rich. It's like the most potent whole milk you'll ever drink. And, since it's not highly refined and processed like cow's milk, you're consuming a whole food. And if you drink it raw, like I do, you're consuming a _living_ food. I feel that some people don't like it, because they're simply not accustomed to a food that's _so_ unprocessed. It's less refined, for sure... and more primitive.

ALso, be prepared to do a lot more of your own animal "doctoring." Vets that treat goats aren't all that common. Good goat vets are very rare indeed. Expect to learn to trim hooves, give IM and SQ injections, do your own worming and maybe even suturing - if you've got really rambunctious critters.

If you can, find someone in your area with goats and befriend them. Get yourself a goatie mentor. We have friends who run a fair sized goat dairy operation. We barter work on their farm for knowledge. It's an investment that will reap great returns.

I know that this may seem daunting, but really... it's not so bad. I was born and raised on concrete in the big city... and I'm getting the hang of it.... and it's kinda fun.


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## gypsysue

We used to have dairy goats. Now we have a male Alpine pack goat.

We only have one goat, but he has been growing up with the new Border Collie we got this year, and they're buds. We don't see signs of distress in the goat.

Over the summer and fall we tethered the goat on a runner chain in various places around the edge of our yard. He very happily munches on the brush and branches all around him. As I harvested my garden I spread things like carrot tops and turnip tops to dry, as well as plants I pulled, like peas and beans. Now the goat gets an armload of these along with his hay each day. He loves to dig through the day's goodies. He also gets carrot peelings and such from the house.

He follows us like a puppy, along with the dog, on walks. His pen is surrounded by 7' high chainlink fence with electric wire along the top, because we have large amounts of mountain lions and bobcats in the area. If we're not out in the yard (which other than winter we're outside most of the time), he's in the pen. We put some boulders and logs in there for him to climb around on. 

The only "down" side we felt when we had dairy goats, was that we couldn't make butter. Some things like cottage cheese and yogurt are fairly easy to make. 

Extra milk can be fed to chickens or dogs. It can even be poured on plants, if you just have to use it up. The calcium is espeically good for plants like potatoes.

It's true that what they eat can affect the taste of the milk! Goats love Knapweed, but it gives the milk a funny tang!


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## goshengirl

My husband found out that goats will eat poison ivy, now he wants one. We joked that if we could train him/her to only eat poison ivy, we could rent him/her out and make a killing in fees around here.  But I'm thinking that goat milk from an animal that eats a lot of poison ivy might not be a good thing...


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## AnimalcrackerHerder

goshengirl said:


> My husband found out that goats will eat poison ivy, now he wants one. We joked that if we could train him/her to only eat poison ivy, we could rent him/her out and make a killing in fees around here.  But I'm thinking that goat milk from an animal that eats a lot of poison ivy might not be a good thing...


I have been told that drinking the milk from goats that have eaten poison oak/ivy will give you some immunity from contact with those plants. We have the poison oak here and used to live where there was a large concentration of the plants out in the goat area. I have never tasted anything off in the milk from those goats that ate the plant, nor has it ever made me sick. I spend a lot of time in the forest and never get the itchy rash from being around the plants. Maybe there is something to it. Does anyone else know anything about this?


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## LegitCitizen

A border Collie is probably _PLENTY_ enough buddy for a single goat. I have a friend who has two pygmys as compnaions for her aging horse. Goats just needs friends.

Butter is TOUGH to make. I have had many failed attempts. So far, I think I've learned a hundred ways not to make butter.  I'm not giving up though and am hoping to get the technique down this summer. In my defense (hahaha) I am not using a proper churn. I am thinking that I will break down and rustle up a churn and see how it goes.


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## brucehylton

Try using a blender to make butter from fresh goat milk. Worked for me.


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## *Andi

I use a gallon jar ... (old pickle jar) let cream/milk warm and roll/shake jar (if you have kids - let them roll the jar ... 30 minutes ... butter. 

wash, salt and eat.


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## LegitCitizen

*Andi said:


> I use a gallon jar ... (old pickle jar) let cream/milk warm and roll/shake jar (if you have kids - let them roll the jar ... 30 minutes ... butter.
> 
> wash, salt and eat.


And you're having success with goat's milk? That's awesome. I used an electric separator (borrowed it, don't own one) to separate out the cream. Then I used a blender. Had ZERO success. I think that maybe I didn't let it get to a warm enough temp...


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## sunny

Or you hit it to fast, I use an old childs rocking chair, I strap the gallon jar in and step on the back rocker until butter comes. Butter is made by slosh slosh slosh, not hurrry up where's the butter. With goats milk it's even more delicate because rough handling causes 'goat' taste.
With your seperator and blender you might not have seen the small butter globles and blended them away before you could strain them out. It kinda depends on breed, milkfat production, butterfat, they are not all the same. Some have butterfat to no end and others are alot lower.


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## *Andi

Sunny, I like your rocker churn.

LegitCitizen, I let the cream come to the top and dip it off. It depends on the number of goats being milked and the breed (as Sunny said). As to when I have 'a good amount' to churn. 

But it can be done ... Hang in there ... you will get it right.:2thumb:


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## smaj100

we bought a cream separator 2 years ago and love it. I will 2nd the use the mixer on sloooow. We've been doing butter for awhile and found for us, cold right out of the fridge and slow speed. If your having a hard time try adding some ice chips to the mixer. your going to wash and rinse the water and butter milk anyhow.


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