Our daughter, Laura, has written a great article about buying your first dairy goat. She has owned goats for many years and her family has a small herd of LaMancha goats.
It all starts innocently enough.
There you are, much like I was once upon a time, visiting a friend.
A friend who raises goats.
She invites you into her barn and the sweet smells wash over you as you cross the threshold. The gentle munching sound calms you. Then you start to feel dizzy and you fall into the deep mystery of that rectangular pupil. Heavenly light descends. Angels sing. The goat walks over to you and gives you a, “What’s up? Did you bring me a cracker?” look and you know that you are hooked. You must have one of these creatures.
Where do you start?
“Do goats grow on trees?” No.
“Will a brown goat give me chocolate milk?” No.
“Can I have just one?” No.
“Will my life ever be the same?” No.
You are embarking on an exciting journey. You have decided to buy an animal which will love you, will want to be with you, will gladly go on boat rides with you (true story), will skip through the glen with you then fall asleep in your lap. But before all the fun and flower chains in your hair comes the facts and hard work.
1. Goats are herd animals. You must, Must, MUST have more than one. If you don’t your goat will scream its every lovin’ head off. Day and Night. You do not need to get 2 milkers if you only have a need for one. Finding a cheap wether (a castrated male goat) to be her buddy is just fine. Most likely, the farm you purchased your dairy goat from will have companion wethers as well. Usually for a discount.
It is important to have more than one goat. They are very social animals and become lonely and grumpy if raised as a single animal in the 'herd'.
2. Spend time finding a reputable breeder. Avoid getting a goat at an auction. I’m not saying that there are never good animals at the auction barn sale, but you have no idea if the animal is healthy, why the animal is being sold, what its temperament is or how good of a milk producer it is. When purchasing from a breeder you are able to see all the other goats on the farm, how they are being treated, and you will be able to ask questions. Goat breeders often get excited when in the presence of a newbie and will enthusiastically share knowledge.
3. A goat’s diet is fairly simple. The majority of their diet is pasture or hay. Goats are browsers and like to pick through a variety of weeds, shrubs, and plants. They do not graze grass in the same way that cows and sheep do. Goat hay should have a good mix of alfalfa, timothy and/or Bermuda grasses. Feeding 2 – 4 pounds of hay per goat a day will suffice.
Grain will provide an extra 12 – 16% protein as well as vitamins and minerals. Feed at a rate of 1 pound of grain per 5 pounds of milk produced. (a gallon weighs about 8 pounds) It’s best not of overdo grain, but rather keep an eye on your goat’s weight gain or loss and adjust the feed from there. Pregnant or lactating goats will benefit from the extra calories and you may see an increase in milk production with the addition of grain.
Minerals are vital to your goat’s health. With the depletion of soils today, you need to make sure they will not be missing essential minerals. We offer free choice loose minerals to our goats, as well as giving them extra copper once or twice a year in the form of a bolus. Block style minerals are not as effective for goats. Remember, if you have sheep you must keep the sheep away from the goat minerals if it contains copper. While it is an essential mineral for goats, it is deadly to sheep.
4. No matter how often they ask you, your goat does not need to sleep in bed with you. You will need to build a pen. Goats are highly intelligent and are master escape artists. You need sturdy fence and locks on your gates. They will find any weakness in your pen and will soon be watching TV through your windows or munching on your fruit trees. That being said, the pen and fencing does not need to be fancy. Goats only need 250 sq. feet each to be happy. Along with a hay feeder, waterer, and mineral feed, you will want to add a little fun to keep them occupied. Put an old coffee table, used children’s play equipment or even a wooden box in the middle of the pen for them to climb and jump onto. It gives your goat something to do and stimulates their sense of adventure. Every goat dreams of being a pirate.
Well, you have your pen set up. You have a supply of nourishing hay and delicious grain, fresh water at the ready. Now, what goat breed should you purchase? The most popular goat breeds can be separated into 3 main types.
The fiber breeds: Angora and Mohair.
The meat breeds: Boer, Kiko, Spanish, and Mytonic (also known as ‘fainting goats’).
The dairy breeds: Saanen, Nubian, Alpine, Toggenburg, LaMancha, Oberhasli, and Nigerian Dwarf.
While the fiber and meat breeds do produce milk, it is, of course, not as much as the dairy breeds. They put their energy into growing fleece or meat for you.
Which dairy breed you pick comes down to personal preference. The temperament between the breeds can vary. In fact, a goat’s temperament varies from individual goat to goat. If possible, spend time with the breeds you are interested in to see if they are a fit for your farm. With the exception of Nubian and LaMancha goats, all breeds have ears that are erect. Nubians have long, floppy ears like a basset hound and LaManchas have tiny button ears. LaManchas are our breed of choice. They are sweet and have the cutest babies. But then again, I may be biased.
LaManchas have tiny ears set high on their head. No one 'cuts their ears off'. They are born that way.
You have picked the breed you want and found a good breeder. Should you buy a kid (a goat younger than 1 year), a dry yearling (a female goat that is a year old but not pregnant or lactating), or maybe a full-grown doe (a female goat)? There are pros and cons to each of these choices.
· A kid will be cheaper than a dry yearling or milking doe, but you will have to wait until it is older to breed and get your milk.
· A dry yearling will most likely be ready to breed within a few months of purchase, but you will still have to wait for your milk.
· A doe in milk is the most expensive of the three but you will be ready to milk right away.
The decision comes down to your budget and how long you want to wait until you start to milk.
Whatever you chose to do, make sure to look at the other goats on the farm. Have they been disbudded (horns removed at a young age)? This is important because, even though goats naturally have horns, it gets them into trouble. Any kids born on your farm should be disbudded. The usual method is to use a disbudding iron which burns the horn buds off of the kid’s head and looks much worse than it actually is. The kids are jumping around and playing shortly after the procedure. Horned goats get stuck in fences, hurt each other and can accidentally hurt you.
Also see if the other goats on the farm have good body structure (straight legs, well-formed mouths, bright eyes, not too fat or too thin, are walking without a limp. Are their hooves trimmed? Ask to see your goat’s dam (mother), sisters, or daughters. This will give you a good idea of her dominant genetics – all the traits she will pass on to her offspring.
If she is a doe in milk, take a good look at her udder. Is it hanging down low (poor mammary support)? Is on half larger than the other (Possible infections in the past or a genetic defect)? Are her teats very small making it very hard to milk by hand? Ask the breeder about her worming schedule. Is she up to date on her vaccines? Has she been tested for CAE?
A good udder should be tight with strong attachment on the upper portion of the udder. This goat has been milked on her right side, but the left side is still full. You can see the nicely rounded shape, full-sized teats, straight legs of this doe.
[ CAE stands for Caprine Arthritis and Encephalitis. It is a contagious viral disease of goats. It passes from mother to kids through the ingestion of her milk. It can also be passed from mature goat to mature goat. CAE can cause arthritis is adult goats as well as pneumonia and indurative mastitis – a hard udder. It is a debilitating disease that will eventually cause great pain and finally death in the animal. CAE has not been shown to cause any harm to humans either by drinking their milk or eating their meat. You can request that the breeder have a blood test done on the goat – reputable breeders do this yearly. It will take several weeks to get the results back. Personally, I would never buy a goat that has tested positive.]
Whether you chose a kid, dry yearling, or milking doe, you will need some equipment in order to fully enjoy your goat milk. You will need a stanchion which is a raised platform for the goat to stand on so you don’t need to sit on the ground to milk. Yuck! (You don’t want to suspend her from the barn roof, either – goats hate that!)
There are many plans for making your own stanchion on the internet or you can purchase a premade one from a local source or on-line.
Stanchions secure the goat in place while you milk her. This is a great time to give the doe her grain - she will go to the stanchion willingly AND you can individualize the amount of grain each milking doe receives.
You will also need a seamless stainless-steel milk pail with a lid. It must be seamless, otherwise small particles of milk may become lodged in the seams and harbor bacteria. Double Yuck!! A half-gallon bucket is a good size to hold the milk and will fit under your goat.
You need straining equipment to get the little hairs and debris that may fall into the milk. Nobody likes a hairy glass of milk. Triple Yuck!!! Glass jars are vital for storing your milk. They are easy to keep clean and sanitize. Mason / Ball make a wide mouth, half-gallon size that works perfectly.
We don’t use plastic to collect, strain, or store our milk. Small protein molecules from the milk cling to the plastic and it is almost impossible to keep clean. Bacteria and odors build up and spoil any fresh milk put into the container. If you don’t believe me, rinse out a plastic milk jug really, really well. Put the lid on it. Wait 2 days. Open it and smell. Proves my point. Use glass and stainless-steel.
Let’s take a step back – having a dairy animal is a full-time commitment. You will have to go milk your lovely goat twice a day, no matter what. You will have to be even more dedicated than the Postal Service. Come rain, snow, sleet, thunderstorm, blizzard, no sleep, puking all night, broken leg, famine, plague of locust, morning sickness, labor (OK. Maybe not that one) or a general feeling of “Ugh! Not again!” You Must Go Milk Your Goat. Yes, it does get old, but the benefit of fresh, raw goat milk outweigh any inconvenience.
The benefits include:
· Goat milk is the closest of the milks to human milk
· The fat globules in goat milk are smaller than in cow milk, making them easier to digest.
· A recent study concluded that 93% of infants and adults who are allergic to cow milk are able to drink goat milk. The high amount of medium-chain fatty acids also contribute to its ease of digestibility.
· Goat milk also contains less lactose (milk sugars) than cow’s milk, which helps those who are lactose intolerant.
· Goat milk even has more protein than cow milk per cup.
Though there are many benefits to goat milk, some people just do not like the taste. Milk taste can vary from breed to breed and even individual goat to individual goat. Ask the breeder for a sample of milk before you buy your dairy goat.
The kids are fed by hand and not raised by their mothers. We don't want the delicate udders damaged by rough feeding of the young ones. The goat kids receive milk that has been pasteurized and cooled before feeding. My parents give goat milk to their orphan lambs, too.
Goat milk is naturally homogenized so the cream does not separate. You will need to purchase a cream separator if you plan on using it to make butter. If that sounds like too much work find a local cow dairy and ask if they have butter or cream and will trade for some of the goat milk cheese or goat milk soap that you made with your milky bounty.
Finally, the most important thing to do before buying your dream goat – research. Research. Research!
Read blogs, talk to other owners, go to county fairs and meet different breeds and breeders, get books from the library.
There is a wealth of knowledge out there and no one knows everything. The most important thing to remember is, after you buy your dream goat, everyone makes mistakes, everyone has more to learn. Goats are living creatures so, just when you think you have them figured out, they’ll decide they no longer like the feed that they have happily eaten for the last 5 years. Or she will go lame for no reason. Roll with the punches. Have fun, your goats love you.
Happy Goating!
Laura
PS: Psst. One more thing. A warning that most will not give you, but I’m nice that way. You are headed down a path to owning multiple goats. You may deny it at the moment, but trust me. It all starts innocently enough – just one goat to milk and one goat keep her company. Then, suddenly you are milking 12 goats, have 30 kids running around, own 3 bucks (breeding males), are stuffing extra goat milk soap into strangers’ pockets when you bump into them on the street, have figured out a way to make sweet goat milk cheese to stir into your morning coffee, and have officially become a Crazy Goat Person. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but you have been warned and my conscience is clear.
So, remember, as a close friend once told me, “Goats are like potato chips. You can never have just one.”
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