Gatting Started

[Pearce Pastures]

Goats are awesome!!!! You are wise to get educated on them before getting them

I have a bunch of links on my webpage to lists of potential plant dangers but here is one of them....University of New Hampshire's "Poisonous Plants in Pasture"

http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000623_Rep645.pdf

When I first started out, I also bought the books "Goats for Dummies" and though it is not the end all of books, it definitely gave me a solid basis to build on. Link to some freebee info from the book http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/common-vaccinations-for-goats.html

There are a lot of different illnesses and parasites that can bring down goats and fast (coccidiosis, worms, bloat, enterotoxemia...). Definitely educate yourself on preventing, reconizing and treating the more common ones and find a vet in your area to help out

Good luck!!

 

[Queen Mum]

All kidding aside, really an acre will be fine. A couple of alpines will do OK on that amount of land. The start up costs can be high, but they can be cost effective if you do alot of your own building with scrap materials. AND if you are actually milking and using the milk and then eating the bucklings instead of falling in love with them and wanting to keep all of them.

 

[Mamaboid]

All kidding aside, really an acre will be fine. A couple of alpines will do OK on that amount of land. The start up costs can be high, but they can be cost effective if you do alot of your own building with scrap materials. AND if you are actually milking and using the milk and then eating the bucklings instead of falling in love with them and wanting to keep all of them.

Yup, there's the catch....Knew I had something I was supposed to remember.

 

[Watch Your Step]

What breed would you recommend? I wanted Aplines, but now I think we need a smaller breed. I'm considering Nigerian Dwarf Goats or Pygmys? Which one would you suggest, or is there a different breed that would be better.

 

[SmallFarmGirl]

What breed would you recommend? I wanted Aplines, but now I think we need a smaller breed. I'm considering Nigerian Dwarf Goats or Pygmys? Which one would you suggest, or is there a different breed that would be better.

Pygmys for meat and pets & nigerians for milk and pets
or you could combing the to for a goat that provides milk,meat,pet!

 

[Watch Your Step]

Well we are leaning towards pygmys, we don't really care about the milk anymore. If they give milk, that's great, but what we want is pets and brush eaters. We need smalll goats, don't think our town would let us get large full-sized goats.

 

[SmallFarmGirl]

Well we are leaning towards pygmys, we don't really care about the milk anymore. If they give milk, that's great, but what we want is pets and brush eaters. We need smalll goats, don't think our town would let us get large full-sized goats.

Go with pygmys then! OR fainters

 

[Watch Your Step]

Fainters aren't the same as pygmys right? They are a different dwarf breed right?

 

[Pearce Pastures]

We have pygmy and Nigerian goats and love them both! I do think my Nigerians are louder and more vocal (annoying in other words) than the pygmies and we milk the pygmies, so you can use them for milk as well (just won't get as much or be able to make as much cheese if you were ever feeling jazzy ).

Fainters a.k.a Myotonic Goats I believe are a meat goat and are indeed a separate breed from Pygmy or Nigerian. I do not really know how they compare in size though, but I would guess they are larger. Everyone I know who has them says they are super sweet.

 

[Watch Your Step]

A few more questions...

-Are buck pygmys sweet, like NDG or aggressive like other breeds?
-How much milk do pygmys give?
-Are pygmys easy to train?
-What kind of fencing do you need for pygmys?
-Are they jumpers?

Thanks
-WYS