Suggestions wanted for breed selection

[Pearce Pastures]

I love our Nigerians! They are small enough to easily handle, don't take up much room, and are super cute. They are very flashy in colors too so you can have lots of different rainbows running around the yard. Where about in Indiana are you? We are Laporte/ Porter County in the NW corner. A lot of fairs are going on right now and for $5 you could walk around the goat barn and see how the different breeds compare side by side plus talk to owners about their goats.

 

[that's*satyrical]

I love our Nigerians! They are small enough to easily handle, don't take up much room, and are super cute. They are very flashy in colors too so you can have lots of different rainbows running around the yard. Where about in Indiana are you? We are Laporte/ Porter County in the NW corner. A lot of fairs are going on right now and for $5 you could walk around the goat barn and see how the different breeds compare side by side plus talk to owners about their goats.

x2 Love my Nigies. They are so easy to handle, sweet & I really love that you get a huge surprise as far as color/pattern every time you breed them. It's really cool. Also if you use them for milk their milk is higher in fat so more butter, cream & cheese for a smaller amount of milk.

 

[ksalvagno]

I think the best thing you can do is go to the local county fairs and see the goats. Then get some farm names and make some farm visits. Starting with Roll would be great. I would highly suggest looking at all the breeds before you buy and really talk to the owners to see what breed would work out best for you. It is also important to decide why you want goats.

 

[Smiles]

Thanks everyone. Roll Farms - I found your web address soon after I posted that I couldn't find it. DUH!

Luckily I live in an area where three 4-H fairs are pretty close. I have hung out in the goat barns a few times over the past three years and I have talked to owners. But I have to admit that my time was divided between chickens, rabbits, cows, pigs, and goats. This year the grands are old enough to pretty much do their own thing at the fairs with their animals and I can spend more time with the goats.

We had a meeting of the minds two months ago and everyone is in agreement that we want the goats for milk. We do not plan to go into anything like a commercial milk operation. Just enough butter, cream, and cheese for two families. Maybe, in the future, if we all like the goat experience we will look into goats for meat too.

 

[PinkFox]

since your looking for suplying 2 families id go for full sized dairy goats...
i LOVE my nubian girls

but another option would abe a "mini milker" (ie a mini nubian: nubian x nigerian (obviously multi generation required to get to actual "standard" but that might beanother option if you still cant decide between nigis and nubians)

 

[Valley Ranch]

My husband began with Saneens for milk 20 odd years ago and loved them.
We wanted to get into goats again when the kids were little so after ALOT of research we got pygmy goats. Yep pygmies for milk. They were easy for our daughters (at the time 4 and 7) to handle. The milk is considered some of the best nutritionally, even compared to other goat milk. And it is incredibly sweet and creamy milk. We are now on our third generation of pygmies for milk. The teets are SMALL and they only give average about a quart a day.
Fantastic perosnalities. Of 16 goats only had one with a ratty personality.
We recently got toggenburgs. They are STRONG and big. MY 10yo has trouble handling them if they are in a hurry to get to the milking stantion!! But they have the sweetest personality in the world!! Never try to hurt are very gentle just big and strong. Lovely goats. I'd love a couple more!! They give about 1 gallon of milk a day. Much stronger flavoured too, and less creamy. And they are on exactly the same diet as the pygmies. But still good. They obviously eat more too! Big udders, big teets easy milkers!