# How many goats do I need for milk for one family?



## EverythingBunnies (Jan 18, 2021)

I know this can vary depending on breed, age, and the individual goat, but I was wondering about how many on average would I need for a family of four? We go though a gallon in about a week. 
We'll have Nigerian Dwarfs. From 3-6 years old, how much milk would one provide a day?


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## Simpleterrier (Jan 18, 2021)

A gallon a week ?? Wow we go threw a gallon a day or more. U could milk a chicken and get that much just kidding. If all u drink is a gallon a week u should get plenty from one goat.


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## Goatgirl101 (Jan 18, 2021)

I think one goat should produce enough milk. And yes, it does depend on age, breed, and what freshening the goat is at.


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## sawfish99 (Jan 18, 2021)

You can definitely get enough milk from 1 goat for only a gallon a week.  However, you will go through a period without milk if you only have 1 goat and goats don't do well as single animals.  If you have 2 or 3, you can stagger the breeding enough to stay in milk all year.  

I would recommend going to a local breeder and actually milking a ND.  Personally, we raise Lamanchas and I prefer the full size goats. We dump milk to the chickens every day.


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## Alaskan (Jan 19, 2021)

sawfish99 said:


> I would recommend going to a local breeder and actually milking a ND. Personally, we raise Lamanchas and I prefer the full size goats.


Huge x2.

ND teats are tiny, tiny things.

Large teats are easier to milk... at least for my family.

And milk production is ALL OVER THE PLACE with goats...  kind of hard to know sometimes exactly what you are getting. 

Some goats dry up after only a few months of production, others can milk for YEARS without a break. 

So...  I would start slow... with just 2does, see what they actually produce,  and for how long...  then move on from there.

But if you are getting ND, make sure you are happy with the tiny teats before you buy.


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## EverythingBunnies (Jan 23, 2021)

What do y'all think about having three milkers? That way I should have enough for milk and some extra for making soap, cheese, and butter on occasion.


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## Alaskan (Jan 23, 2021)

Well.  ....  one gallon of milk per week is really a tiny amount...

I would think 1 in milk would keep you covered and give you extra to play with


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## Mini Horses (Jan 23, 2021)

Fresh milk is so good -- bet you'll drink more when it's there.     I drink way more than that myself.    But for that amount, a couple NDs would work.  As said, you can stagger the breeding and thus, milk all year.    

Also, do be sure to milk one first.  The hand and teat size matters.


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## misfitmorgan (Jan 26, 2021)

We had a few mini's and a few nigerians......they absolutely killed my hands to milk. After a few months we stopped milking them completely and only milked our large breed diary goats. At one point we had 37 goats so we milked the 4 best producers. Our toggenburg Ivy is a super sweet  goat and a milk making machine. She will easily milk almost a full gallon a day mid-freshening when milked twice a day and will stay in milk. She is impossible to dry off.

Nigerians have higher butterfat so if you are wanting to make dairy products they may be better. Definitely plan on an EZ-milker or a milking system of some sort if you go for nigerians and save your hands. I do know many people are breeding for larger teat size on nigerians, you can only get so large though.


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## Baymule (Jan 26, 2021)

You could always get a weaned piglet to feed out for the freezer and give extra milk to the pig, along with pellets.


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## Ridgetop (Jan 28, 2021)

Why would you keep and milk many dwarf goats instead of 2 full size goats?  If you are keeping 3 or 4 Nigerians, you could feed 2 full size dairy goats for the same cost.  The labor involved would be much less - 2 sets of shots vs 4, 8 hooves to trim vs 16, etc.  4 kids to raise vs. 8, and only 2 breeding fees to pay vs 4.  

Alaskan and Misfit are right about milking teeny tiny teats vs teats that fit in your hands comfortably.  Whatever you decide to get, make sure that you try milking the goats before buying them.  If they have not been milked much (or at all) they will be very difficult for you to milk properly and may not behave on the stanchion.  Also make sure to taste the milk.  Not all goat milk tastes the same.


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## EverythingBunnies (Feb 3, 2021)

Ridgetop said:


> Why would you keep and milk many dwarf goats instead of 2 full size goats?  If you are keeping 3 or 4 Nigerians, you could feed 2 full size dairy goats for the same cost.  The labor involved would be much less - 2 sets of shots vs 4, 8 hooves to trim vs 16, etc.  4 kids to raise vs. 8, and only 2 breeding fees to pay vs 4.
> 
> Alaskan and Misfit are right about milking teeny tiny teats vs teats that fit in your hands comfortably.  Whatever you decide to get, make sure that you try milking the goats before buying them.  If they have not been milked much (or at all) they will be very difficult for you to milk properly and may not behave on the stanchion.  Also make sure to taste the milk.  Not all goat milk tastes the same.


We really just want goats just because they are cute and fun to watch, and their milk is just a bonus. We'll be breeding and selling a lot if babies (if we don't get too attached and keep them all lol) and there are a lot of people looking to start small farms so Nigerian Dwarfs are popular for that.

I'm going to go milk some Nigerian Dwarfs and maybe I'll get to taste some if their milk 😊

Thanks for all the help y'all!


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## misfitmorgan (Feb 3, 2021)

EverythingBunnies said:


> We really just want goats just because they are cute and fun to watch, and their milk is just a bonus. We'll be breeding and selling a lot if babies (if we don't get too attached and keep them all lol) and there are a lot of people looking to start small farms so Nigerian Dwarfs are popular for that.
> 
> I'm going to go milk some Nigerian Dwarfs and maybe I'll get to taste some if their milk 😊
> 
> Thanks for all the help y'all!


It doesnt always work out that way. Goats are actually kind of hard to raise because there is a lot to learn. Dont count on a lot of babies and even if a lot are born dont count on a lot surviving. 

Farming is harsh and not all roses and sunshine so prepare yourself and your kids for the shock of finding a dead animal be it young or old. Even if you get the medication down, vaccines, the "right" fence, the proper feeder etc....goat have a way of often getting themselves into trouble. Heads stuck in fences, feeders, buckets, feed scoops, entire bodies stuck behind posts for no apparent reason, jumping fences, rubbing fences, fighting with each other, birthing troubles, nursing problems, udder issues, etc. 

Even after years we still find our goats do shocking things and die in the often most ludicrous ways. Last year our buck decided to lay between a pole and the wall of their shed, the pole slanted away from the wall at the top so when he laid down it was narrower then when he had walked there to lay down. He laid there and bloated, we got him out but he died 2 days later, to be fair he may have been beaten up while he was stuck there but still that same pole was there for almost 3yrs without issue. We had a goat kid drown in 20 gal waterer with water that was only 5 inches deep, had does lay on/headbutt or paw their kids to the point of the kids dying, does refused to feed their kids, had a few die to Enterotoxemia before we knew what it was. Had a buck kill another buck after getting along for 2yrs without as problem. The list goes on.

None of this means dont get goats, it means be prepared and understand most livestock, goats included are money pits. Goats are by far the animals we have the most problems with but they are also the livestock we have had the longest.


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## Ridgetop (Feb 4, 2021)

EverythingBunnies said:


> We'll be breeding and selling a lot if babies (if we don't get too attached and keep them all lol) and there are a lot of people looking to start small farms so Nigerian Dwarfs are popular for that.



*". . . breeding and selling a lot of babies" . . . *this comment worries me. 

I may have misunderstood this comment, so if you are buying a couple of goats for house milk, enjoy them and have fun with your annual crop of kids.    

But if you are planning on "breeding and selling a lot of babies" as pets this doesn't happen, unless you are planning to take all the goat kids to the auction sale barn.  Also you don't say where you live, or how much acreage you have for your plan.   You don't say whether you have any experience with livestock, or if you have done any reading on goats or other livestock.  Since you are asking basic questions on this site, I assume you have not done much reading about goats.  Do you have an experienced mentor that is willing to help you?

Like *Misfitmorgan* says, you need to learn about the species before taking a leap into breeding for profit. 

Here are some things to take into account before breeding goats for profit:

Unless you have lots of good pastures/forage acreage, keep your pastures healthy by liming, fertilizing, mowing, and rotating (which requires lots of expensive fencing) you may find that raising goats is not as cheap as it sounds. Hay is expensive and goats are picky eaters.  They will not eat anything that falls on the ground or that they have walked on.  This is why they have a reputation as being more parasite resistant.  Actually it is because they prefer not to eat off the ground unless they are starving.   Lactating and pregnant goats will need a measure of grain to keep them in milk as well a hay.  _If you are planning to make cheese you will need a lot of milk. _ _For butter you will need a mechanical separator to separate the cream.  _Goat milk  is naturally homogenized which means that the cream does not separate like cow milk.  

Whether or not you are keeping a lot of goats or just a few, you will need _predator control_.  Wild and human predators will take your goats.  You do not want you or your children going out to feed and finding some of your pets eaten, killed, crippled, or missing.  Predator control is essential particularly for the smaller breeds.  This ranges from special fencing, electric wires, barb wires, and Livestock Guardian Dogs.  LGDs cost big money to fence in and feed, as well as a whole other skill set in training.  They are not normal dogs.

Keeping a couple goats for pets or milk is a completely different thing to planning on a breeding and sales program.  To produce milk the goat must produce kids.  This requires a buck.  If you can't find a stud buck that you can pay to use, you will have to buy one - another whole expense in separate fencing, year round feed, etc.  You will not want the buck to run with the does because if he stinks during rut it will taint the flavor of the milk.  He will also bother the does by wanting to breed them.  This behavior can reduce the amount of milk they give.  

Since you want milk for the house, Not to mention you will need extra equipment for milking, separating the milk, etc.  You will need space for kidding, and housing the kids. Most goats kids without problems, then there is the one that doesn't.   Can you identify a kidding problem?  Can you pull kids if there is a problem?  Do you have someone with experience that can either do it for you, teach you how or talk you through it?   You can learn all these things, BUT . . . . . 

*There are only so many buyers for goat kids as pets, no matter the breed, no matter how cute.  Once the kids are old enough for sale - 8 weeks or so, you need to know there are a lot of "pet" goats for sale out there.  Not so many buyers though once they find out what sort of fencing, feed, housing, etc. they will need to provide.  Can you face selling kids for meat?  *Once you sell a pet goat, are you prepared to answer questions from the buyer morning and night?  Act as their personal unpaid vet for any problems?  Are there any vets in your area that actually treat goats?  Most small animal or horse vets won't touch them.  Are you prepared to take back the goat in a year or so when the buyer decides they are bored with the goat, it is too expensive to buy hay, their children are no longer interested, it eats their expensive landscaping, etc. etc.?   Are you prepared to take back the pet goats the buyer returns with bad hooves, ringworm, pink eye, or some other disease - any of which they can transmit to your healthy herd?

Where are you going to buy your breeding stock?  Are the breeders reputable?  Have they done health tests on their goats?  Many goats for sale have health problems, and other issues.  Some of these problems are due to bad genetics, others are because they are owned and bred by people with no experience that accidently ruin them.  It is necessary to buy your breeding stock from a breeder with health records on her stock. 

When it comes t making money, the only people that *have a market for breeding stock* are well known breeders who command top prices and usually have waiting lists for stock.  They make money on breeding stock sales. 
The next people that make money on goats *sell for meat.  *They run flocks of 200-300 goats.  They have hundreds of acres of forage and pasture.  They make money on meat sales.

We have 6 acres.  We have small flocks.  We sell for meat.  We don't make any money since our outgo exceeds our income from the flock.   Our breakeven comes when our flock eats all the forage on our 6 acres before fire season, leaving us with bare ground around our home.  This bare ground policy has saved us from being burned out twice in major So CA firestorms.  The cost of human clearance sheep/goat clearance evens out as long as I keep the flock to a certain size.   We also put a number of animals in our freezer for ourselves.

We have 35 years experience with small stock, breeding, kidding, doctoring our animals because we have no vet that will do it.  Our children showed for years.  I have pulled several hundred kids and lambs over the years.  We have set several broken legs, stitched up long cuts, replaced and stitched prolapses, both uterine and rectal. Doctored major infections, tubed stomachs, worked on bloat, and put down animals that were terminal, etc. 

Get your goats and enjoy them - they are lots of fun.  But please learn a lot more about them before thinking you will be able to "breed and sell lots of babies".   You won't make back your feed or expense money, it will be a lot of work, expense, and often heartache.

If you want to make money breeding and selling pets, do rabbits.  Easier to produce for less money, and you can eat the excess.

Good luck.


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## EverythingBunnies (Feb 6, 2021)

Ridgetop said:


> *". . . breeding and selling a lot of babies" . . . *this comment worries me.
> 
> I may have misunderstood this comment, so if you are buying a couple of goats for house milk, enjoy them and have fun with your annual crop of kids.
> 
> ...


Wow, thank you so so so much for all the information!!!!! This is super helpful.
By breeding and selling a lot of babies I just meant we'll be selling most of the kids. I'll only breed them once of twice a year. Then they'll retire and live a spoiled life out on at least an acre with lots if grasses. I'm not selling just for pets. As long as they go to a good home with people who know lots about them. We'll keep any goats that don't sell or from buter who can no longer keep them.
I've been doing lots of research on health issues lately too. I think I'll take a veterinary course too. 
I've done a lot of reading since posting this.
Its not really about the money, I just want to enjoy having goats and their milk and babies, and I'll sell some to get some money back.
I still have at least a year, and I've been getting to know some local goat owners.
This will be in the FL panhandle by the way. We haven't yet moved though.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me with all of this ❤


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## Ridgetop (Feb 6, 2021)

Talk to B & B Happy Goats abut goat raising - she is in Florida too.  

Goats are super fun!


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## Studmunchkins (Mar 10, 2021)

My NG had twins that died within 36 hours and was giving 16 oz in am and 10 in the pm.  I bred her again and milked her till 3 months b4 birthing. She delivered on time and the kid died within 36 again (infection through umbilical) This time she is only giving 16 oz in the AM, I probably could have built her up to the other 10 oz, but my heart is not in it this time and she is a bit off too.  too much loss. 

I am able to get about half a gallon every 3 days. It keeps much longer than the books say. 

My plan was to have both of my does in milk and to space their kidding a few months apart. One of my girls will not get pregnant though- It is suggested to give them a year between breeding (mine didnt wait that long) You can milk them while pregnant but want to stop 2-3 months prior to kidding. This is why having at least 2 is a good idea, if yo can get them pregnant, you should have milk year round. 

Milking is not hard at all- it takes about 10 minutes. Her teats are not tiny- about the size of the 4th finger of a rubber glove. I milk into a stainless steel mixing bowl- I cannot find a pail that will fit under her.  My husband built me a stand that is tall enough for me to just put my legs under. It is puts her udder just where I need it.


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## misfitmorgan (Mar 11, 2021)

Studmunchkins said:


> My NG had twins that died within 36 hours and was giving 16 oz in am and 10 in the pm.  I bred her again and milked her till 3 months b4 birthing. She delivered on time and the kid died within 36 again (infection through umbilical) This time she is only giving 16 oz in the AM, I probably could have built her up to the other 10 oz, but my heart is not in it this time and she is a bit off too.  too much loss.
> 
> I am able to get about half a gallon every 3 days. It keeps much longer than the books say.
> 
> ...


Sounds like you got some NG with really nice big teats. Our NGs and our mini's had the worlds smallest teats I swear. They were legitimately the same size as a sharpie marker but only about 1.5" long. It was misery! They were being bred for size by the previous owners though not udders/milking.


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## Longhornbreeder101 (Mar 11, 2021)

Total *milk* per *day is* about one and a half quarts. The *milk* has about 6 – 10% butterfat, as opposed to approximately 2 – 6% for other breeds.
 Nigerian dwarfs are better milk goats all you really need is 1 buck and maybe 2 does and as you breed you will raise a profit on the goats you sell which can also help you increase your herd size so for starters try out with a experienced doe and then buy a breeding buck maybe 1 to 2 years old so he’s experienced in breeding but do not over pay on your milk goats 3 Nigerians might cost $500 if they come from breeder but from auction might get 3 for $200 at a auction auction. hope i could help!.


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## Finnie (Mar 11, 2021)

What does NG stand for?

Oops, my quotes didn’t show up.


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## Finnie (Mar 11, 2021)

Studmunchkins said:


> My NG had twins that died within 36 hours and was giving 16 oz in am and 10 in the pm.  I bred her again and milked her till 3 months b4 birthing. She delivered on time and the kid died within 36 again (infection through umbilical) This time she is only giving 16 oz in the AM, I probably could have built her up to the other 10 oz, but my heart is not in it this time and she is a bit off too.  too much loss.
> 
> I am able to get about half a gallon every 3 days. It keeps much longer than the books say.
> 
> ...





misfitmorgan said:


> Sounds like you got some NG with really nice big teats. Our NGs and our mini's had the worlds smallest teats I swear. They were legitimately the same size as a sharpie marker but only about 1.5" long. It was misery! They were being bred for size by the previous owners though not udders/milking.


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## Longhornbreeder101 (Mar 11, 2021)

Finnie said:


> What does NG stand for?
> 
> Oops, my quotes didn’t show up.


Nigerian dwarfs


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## Finnie (Mar 11, 2021)

Ffagirl22 said:


> Nigerian dwarfs


Thank you. I thought those were ND, so I got confused.


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## Longhornbreeder101 (Mar 11, 2021)

Finnie said:


> Thank you. I thought those were ND, so I got confused.


It’s ok !


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## misfitmorgan (Mar 12, 2021)

I suppose it is normally ND, I dunno I use NG I guess for NiGerian.....who knows 


Finnie said:


> Thank you. I thought those were ND, so I got confused.


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## EverythingBunnies (Mar 13, 2021)

misfitmorgan said:


> I suppose it is normally ND, I dunno I use NG I guess for NiGerian.....who knows


Maybe for Nigerian Goat?


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## Jesusfreak101 (Mar 13, 2021)

I would be buy from a breeder because then you can know the health of the goats by asking for herd testing for certian things like  Tuberculosis,  cae, brucellosis. Also if you can get them from a breeder in your area you can have a mentor close to you that can help with issues you may come across. My first birthing doe have birth when I gave birth so I wasn't home. And unforantly the kid died and I honestly don't know if it was something that could have been treated right away and would have ended up okay or not. Also before you get them don't forget that does limit your ability to go out of town. So if you can also find someone who might be able to help if you need to leave for a few days that would be helpful as well.


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