Fantastic animals. If you get only one, be sure to spend time with it as they are very social animals.I grew up with milking goats.
Agree again need plenty of fresh clean water.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
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.
This post is a little old but ...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?
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)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'?
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.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)
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 suppliedWe 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.
just because you CAN have 10 doesn't mean you HAVE to have 10...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??![]()