newbe here just wondering :)

[sc00ter4900]

Why do people raise goats? I'm doing chickens for the eggs and compost. I think the goats are cool but not sure how to justify getting 1 or 2 goats. How do they earn there keep? Ive never tried goats milk so im not sure if thats enuogh? I couldn't eat them . I heard they could clear out weeds but not sure how much? JUst interested .Where is there a good sorce of info on goats? Lot of questions Thanks Scotty

 

[goatdude95]

Yes they earn their keep with their milk making cheese soap and ice cream
also they clear brush out very well you will love! them

 

[Laney]

Hi Scooter,

We got our goats to clear pasture. Of course we have 17 acres 10 of which are good, growing pasture.

Eventually we hope to raise meat goats to sell to the growing local hispanic population. Right now we are just really happy with our pygmies.

We don't milk mostly because we aren't in a place where anyone wants to commit to the 2 a day milkings.

We don't yet have enough goats to clear all the pasture we have but we figured we would purchase a few unrelated goats, and then make the rest the old fashioned way. We didn't count on falling in love with Frederick, our billy. So, he'll stay, we'll just have to get pasture #2 fenced before his daughter get to be 2-3months old.

Anyone in Eastern North Carolina have a nice pygmy billy??? (For next season).

The running joke here is to roll down the window as you drive past them on the gravel drive and yell "eat faster" because here we are halfway through August and the 8 goats in the pasture aren't even halfway through.....4 Dairy Mixes on loan to visit the Billy and our own herd of 4 Pygmies.

So, folks get goats for the brush clearing, or the milk and they keep them because they are funny, cute, affectionate, efficient additions to any farm and family. I wouldn't give them up.

Laney

 

[cmjust0]

People ask me occasionally if there's any money in goats.

My canned response at this point is "Oh yeah. I can tell you first hand that Tractor Supply, Southern States [the vet's office, the feed mill, Jeffers, Valley Vet, etc] and a whooooole bunch of other folks have made really good money on my goats!"

 

[sc00ter4900]

Thanks for the input Im going to do a lot of research before hand. I dont know too many people in my area with goats. Have to check out cost of food and ather hidden cost. vet ? Didnt even think of that. I have 7 acers mostly woods and weeds . Thought the goats could clean up the area a bit. Also thought they would be a good pet. How old do they live to??? Thanks a gain and sorry for all questions I know i'm a pain in the butt. Scotty

 

[lilhill]

People ask me occasionally if there's any money in goats.

My canned response at this point is "Oh yeah. I can tell you first hand that Tractor Supply, Southern States [the vet's office, the feed mill, Jeffers, Valley Vet, etc] and a whooooole bunch of other folks have made really good money on my goats!"

That's for sure! You won't get rich doing it. But if we didn't love them, we wouldn't be in this business. I read on average that people who get into raising goats, get out after 4 years. If you're a breeding farm and don't do the routine maintenance and care of your animals, then you will soon run into trouble which equates to big Vet and/or medical bills. I know I've had folks tell me that it was just too intense for them. All I know is that I love every minute of it, and can't imagine doing anything else.

 

[cmjust0]

I was at a friend's barn the other day, with one of his goats that had died within the last 5 minutes or so...parasites...he'd hit her with everything in the tacklebox, and she still died. Anyway...

He leases pasture for cattle, but has been raising goats exclusively himself for something like 20 years...knows goats forward and backward. Well, we were looking out over the cattle and I mentioned that cattle were what I had orinally wanted to get into, but the wife wanted goats...so we compromised and got goats. Not sure how that happened, but here we are.

He said he'd looked out at all those cattle himself many times as they grazed along, fat and slick, and thought to himself...ya know...I just oughta dump all these troublesome goats and go to raising cattle. With the abundant availability of on-label meds and supplies, and with the availability of knowledgable vets, and with there seeming to be so many fewer problems with cattle...I agreed that it was really tempting.

Goats, though...as heartbreaking and frustrating as raising goats can be, at times...there's something addictive about it. Once you get going, and get to where you have some knowledge and can track down what you need through the little underground goat channels, and you start to know certain off-label dosages right off the top of your head, and you know other goat peoples' phone numbers by heart, and know that you'd help them and they'd help you be it noon or midnight...it's a bit like pioneering, in a way. A grand experiment.. It's a challenge, at the very least, and not something wise to undertake if you don't enjoy strenuously exercising your brain as well as your back..

Some folks like it just that way...I do, for the most part.

Sometimes I don't, though.

Sometimes I just want to be able to pick something up from the farm store, read the directions, and use it...not have to scour the intarwebs and pick peoples' brains..or just wing it and wait for one to fall over dead and it be my fault.

Whenever someone asks my friend "How'd you ever learn so much about goats?" his response is "I've killed a whole bunch of'em."

Of course, he's saved a whole bunch, too.. His own, as well as other folks', with what he's learned by killing so many with one mistake or another over the years.

You have to walk a fine line between being attentive enough to see problems, but detached enough to forgive yourself for mistakes which kill or compromise animals..

It's certainly not for everyone.

Sorry...I'm rambling.

 

[broke down ranch]

I was at a friend's barn the other day, with one of his goats that had died within the last 5 minutes or so...parasites...he'd hit her with everything in the tacklebox, and she still died. Anyway...

He leases pasture for cattle, but has been raising goats exclusively himself for something like 20 years...knows goats forward and backward. Well, we were looking out over the cattle and I mentioned that cattle were what I had orinally wanted to get into, but the wife wanted goats...so we compromised and got goats. Not sure how that happened, but here we are.

He said he'd looked out at all those cattle himself many times as they grazed along, fat and slick, and thought to himself...ya know...I just oughta dump all these troublesome goats and go to raising cattle. With the abundant availability of on-label meds and supplies, and with the availability of knowledgable vets, and with there seeming to be so many fewer problems with cattle...I agreed that it was really tempting.

Goats, though...as heartbreaking and frustrating as raising goats can be, at times...there's something addictive about it. Once you get going, and get to where you have some knowledge and can track down what you need through the little underground goat channels, and you start to know certain off-label dosages right off the top of your head, and you know other goat peoples' phone numbers by heart, and know that you'd help them and they'd help you be it noon or midnight...it's a bit like pioneering, in a way. A grand experiment.. It's a challenge, at the very least, and not something wise to undertake if you don't enjoy strenuously exercising your brain as well as your back..

Some folks like it just that way...I do, for the most part.

Sometimes I don't, though.

Sometimes I just want to be able to pick something up from the farm store, read the directions, and use it...not have to scour the intarwebs and pick peoples' brains..or just wing it and wait for one to fall over dead and it be my fault.

Whenever someone asks my friend "How'd you ever learn so much about goats?" his response is "I've killed a whole bunch of'em."

Of course, he's saved a whole bunch, too.. His own, as well as other folks', with what he's learned by killing so many with one mistake or another over the years.

You have to walk a fine line between being attentive enough to see problems, but detached enough to forgive yourself for mistakes which kill or compromise animals..

It's certainly not for everyone.

Sorry...I'm rambling.

^The above post is sheer poetry^




I love my goats. I love what they give, I love the effort I have to put into them (tho it's sort of a love-hate thing on the effort end of it...lol), and it breaks my heart every time something bad happens or I have to sell one. And I have thought now and then about just giving up. But I know unless something totally catastrophic happens that I will probably always have goats....they are truely part of our family.

 

[lilhill]

Knock on wood, I've only lost two in almost 5 years of raising goats. One was mauled by a dog at birth and had neurological problems resulting in seizures. I'd find her hidden out somewhere and hold her in my lap until the seizures had passed. But they were getting more frequent as time passed. I had her for 6 months before the seizures finally got to be too much for her and I knew that she was giving up. We finally had to have her put to sleep. Cried for days. And the second one was a tiny buckling, one of quads, that weighed about 1/2 a pound at birth. Working with this little guy to try to get him up and going helped a bit ... he lasted a month before I found his little body. I cried for days. I'll never forget either Mo or Rocket Man. But I never had a thought about giving up. My dear hubby has told me more than once, "You love them too much." He's right and I will probably never change. This is a journey I have dreamed about since I was a little girl, and I suppose I'll continue until my body tells me I can't do it anymore. I know each one of them, their personalities, their sound, and when one is just a little "off", I know it. Each time I go to the barn and find nice little round "berries", I'm a happy woman. I know that they are doing just fine. Why do we do it? Personally, I do it for the sheer love of it.

 

[crazygoatlady]

I was a town girl, I can't drink cows milk, so I have always wanted goats. When we moved out to my brothers land 16 yrs ago, chickens, angora rabbits and angora goats came almost right away. Then I advertised for dairy goats--well !!!!!!!!!!! I got dairy goats, but they had never been milked and I had never milked in my life. It was a riot, let me tell you. We both learned, the Togg settled in fine after several weeks, but the Nubian/ Saanan cross never liked to be milked. We didn't have a milk stand and my older daughter helped me. When it finally got to a point where daughter didn't have to hold legs and hold them up, they could be tied up or have someone hold them by the lead. Ex was holding the cross, standing beside her--I told him to hang on to the lead, he said naww she is doing just fine. I was on my knees milking and she whirled around and hit me head on, knocked me backwards and knocked me out. I had bruises on my forehead where she hit me. But I didn't give up, there was a dairy that took the both of them and I found a couple of 4-H Nubian goats that had been milked. Once we started, I milked year around with 12 to 16 at a time, with angora goats and a handful of cashmere goats. I got rid of them for a short time because of my divorce, but life is not life without goats..