Dairy Goats

[Ozark Lady]

I have kept goats since 1987.  I very rarely buy milk. 
Talk about cheap upkeep.  They can live off of the very weeds that you are cutting and mowing to get rid of!

I noticed that my holiday from twice a day milking is almost over, they will be having babies soon, and it will be milk the mama's and bottle the babies.

I leash trained the does last year, and hope to order a driving harness for them this year.  Then it is move on up to a plow and a cart that are goat drawn.

I also have Great Pyrenees Mountain Dogs, not as cheap to feed, but, close to the same size as the goats, so I am thinking, they could also be trained to pull a plow or cart... free labor?

When you raise your animals for yourself, they are friendly, and just want to be where you are.  I can go for a walk and not need a leash, they want to be where I am.  Now, if I also pack train them... they could carry home the blackberries even in terrain too rough for a cart!  Although I would need to put something over their udders to protect them from scratches.  Pack dogs too?  I wonder?

Sure you need to feed them, worm them, and vaccinate as necessary, but for most of us, basic upkeep like that is alot cheaper than the feed bill.  Well, with goats you get 75% of their food for free!

Add the male kids go into the freezer, the milk becomes yogurt, kefir, butter, cheese (I am still working on this one), and can be canned or frozen.

They are now coming out with miniature dairy goats, these are various sized based on if they are first, second, or third generation, but they are real dairy animals, in a portable size.

Please consider goats as a major part of any survival, self sufficiency plan, if you have the room to get some.

Goat milk tastes exactly like cows milk, if you feed them well, and are clean in your milk handling.   And compared with the upkeep of most other animals that could help with chores... they will help ya... just for the "weeds".

[Ryder]

Goat milk is delicious and very easy on the tummy for folks who don't tolerate cows milk. Right now we buy goats milk but we need to find someone to buy/trade some goat milk from.

[Ozark Lady]

I am lactose intolerant.
I still have to be careful with goat milk, unless it is cultured.  It is still milk!
But, I can use more of it, before I get into trouble.

Goat milk does make a smaller curd, and even in your stomach, it will be a smaller more delicate curd, much easier for you to digest.

If I had to give up every animal that I own... the goats would go last!  You are missing out on a great companion animal when you don't have goats.

That said, they do eat stuff you don't want ate.  But the chickens, ducks and geese do too.  And the dogs love to lay on and dig in garden beds... grrr.  And cats and gardens, well it looks like a big litter box to them.
So, plants must be protected from all animals.

[Dame]

The people down the road had a billy goat that used to chase me when I was in elementry school.  I have trouble warming up to them ever since.

[Ozark Lady]

I know, late to answer... better late than never!
Yesterday, my herd buck (only 1 year old) was acting up, and he surely made me nervous, he has a huge set of horns, and no idea that they hurt... or does he know?  Anyhow, I chained him, from outside the pen, then went in to check out and trim his hooves... that wasn't pleasant, he really reeks!

The ladies are milking well, each providing about a gallon per day, and looking nice and plump.

We are going wilderness camping this weekend, so this will be the acid test of how well my leash training has gone!  I honestly, do not want the goats to end up in the tent with us, curled up to sleep... yes, the stinky buck will be left home.
I can find folks to feed and water the poultry and the buck, but no one is willing to milk twice a day, or tend to the wild little does.  So, it will be 4 does on a weekend camp out.

I did it, I ordered the harness today to begin their training for pulling a cart, plow etc.
I am going to attempt training them with just a halter, no bit, but if they are too hard-headed, I may have to get a "goat bridle" with a bit, or make one!

With all that is going on in the world, it seems prudent to get set up... including the animals.  And my goat power runs on weeds, not gas... but they get gas... methane?  Lots of fertilizer to grow me some food too!

Two hens hatched off chicks yesterday... a total of 18 new chicks.  This has been the year of the chicks!  That translates to food, and it is produced on bug and weed eating!

[Beeherder]

OL, your escapades sound wonderful. Do you make yogurt with the goat milk? Lately i'm enjoying goat yogurt and goat cheese, but can't say i've ever enjoyed the taste of the milk, just too much of that billy coming out in the milk i tasted. To my mind the goat would be a perfect animal for the rough terrain and poor forage in these foothills around here. There is even a local goat herder who rents his herd out for weed control, he has mobile fencing and just lets them eat. Charges the customers extra because its "so green".   Amazing how much they can do in just a few days, surely as much as any mower/man/fuel mix.

Those dogs make great guardians. The ones i have known did not tolerate leashes, chains or even collars, but they would defend your children and goats from mountain lions or bears AND WIN. They are preferred by sheep herders in some parts of Colorado because when the coyote pack starts howling they will go out and hunt and kill the coyotes. Just don't expect them to tolerate fencing or chains or containment. These seem like perfect dogs for a goat herder, imo.

Can you get whey from goat milk?

[Ozark Lady]

Whey is a by-product of cheese making.  Sure, you get alot of whey when you make cheese and the solids curdle and you drain them.

I use that whey on the plants or for the other animals.

I make butter, yogurt, buttermilk, and am working on getting better at cheese making.

Off tasting milk is: buck kept with the does, does in season, ate strong weeds...like onions etc, something in grain mix, poor milking hygiene, contamination somewhere along the line, or even mastitis in the does.  I have been known to milk each teat into a separate container to track down... salty taste in milk, and it was simply they loved the salt block because I took it away for a day, and that cleared up.  I just had to ride it out, until they got tired of eating so much salt.  Salty taste especially can be very early mastitis.  It was interesting that on the same goat one teat continually tasted better than the other, and yes, I strained and chilled the milk prior to tasting it.

I did a side-by-side taste test against cow's milk.... only the ones who used 1% or 2% could tell the difference and that was due to the cream content... it tasted richer.

50% chance of thunderstorms for the next 7 days, camping is off, it just isn't worth making the does ill, to get to go camping.  Sure, I can provide shelter once we arrive, in the back of the truck... but enroute, I think rain would simply get past any tarp we put on the truck.  Sometimes it would be nice to have a small horse trailer!  So, I will wait it out and go another weekend, not as many friends will be there, but, it will still train the goats to going camping.

[Mike]

In about 1965 my dad decided he wasn't going to mow lawns anymore.  He bought two goats: a de-horned female and a neutered billy.  The billy looked the way goats are supposed to look .... horns and a goatee.

Taking care of them fell to me, 'cause I kind of liked them.  They were on chains.  I moved them from time to time.  They didn't intentionally try to escape or get tangled up, but that is what they did.  If it was just a matter of their chain getting untied from a tree, the re-capture was easy.  But when they slipped their collars it was really tough to catch them.

On hot summer days all of the doors and windows would be open.  Cats, flies and dogs could come and go as they pleased. A couple of times the billy got loose and came-on in, went upstairs to the living room and out onto the deck.... a fantastic view of the city.  He always dropped goat-droppings everywhere he went.

One such hot summer day, the tax assessor came and wanted to see the house.  I didn't know that I was not supposed to let government employees in the house, so I took him in and gave him a tour. 

No, the billy wasn't inside the house.  But back outside we found him on top of the assessor's car.

[Ozark Lady]

My adult goats aren't bad about that.  But the doelings (2 months old) can jump on top of the hood of my full-sized truck.

And all of the goats, and poultry will come inside, if grandkid leaves door ajar, even a little bit.  Animals must have radar to spot this!

Goats got out repeatedly, the last couple of days, they go to the power easement where I tie them out and eat...until they see a human...then it is pet me, pet me!  There was 3 issues that was letting them out, hopefully resolved.  Their pasture is about 2 acres.
When I tie them out, it takes almost 10 minutes to get tangled, so I stay in sight.

[Mike]

You make me remember how much fun it was to have goats and chickens (don't know about grandkids yet).  My dad didn't like chickens.... but his mom did!  I enjoyed going under the house in the crawlspace to find eggs.