thinking about getting some milk goats

[dadsdeercamp]

We wanna get 2 or 3 milk goats and need to know what are the best goats to get? How much space per goat? How high of a fence? How much milk does one goat give in a day? How much does a goat eat a day? How expensive are they to keep? Any and all advice would be great THANKS.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Every single question you asked has a WIDE range of answers; it depends on what kind of goats you get. I suggest you start by researching the breeds online and narrowing it down to a couple you like.... for example if you have lots of room you could go with standard sized dairy goats such as, alpines, nubians, toggenburgs, oberhasli, etc. If you are in the city you might want to check out smaller goats such as pygmys or nigerians....

Hope this helps a little!

 

[dadsdeercamp]

we have 10 anchors of land and want full size goats.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

If you buy standard sized Nubians from breeders that focus on milking and milk genetics you can get over a gallon a day....but every goat is different. Different breeds and different genetics for the same breed will give you different results. Feeding grain will give you more milk. Feeding alfalfa hay seems to also allow goats to give more milk. Your dedication to milking and always milking on time will greatly affect how much milk your goats can give.

Different breeds tend to have different flavors of milk too. I only have Nigerian Dwarves right now (and a Boer) but I understand that swiss breeds tend to have more "goaty" flavored milk. My goats milk is creamy, rich and not goaty at all. My dwarves are currently only giving me a pint or so each of milk a day but I am only milking once a day and we are in the process of drying everyone up for the winter.

My goats eat about 1/2 a flake of hay a day...when I had a Nubian she ate 1 to 1 1/2 flakes of alfalfa hay a day and a cup or so of grain for a dry doeling. Goats in milk eat several cups if you have standard breeds.

As far as best breeds...that depends on you and your preferences. I love the fancy colors and small size of the Nigerian Dwarves so I don't mind the small amount of milk I get from each one...I love the Nubian and Boer roman noses and long ears. I also may get another Nubian for milk. I don't think I could get my DH to appreciate a goat that gave "goaty" flavored milk, so no Swiss breeds for us.... He is too citified (he took forever to get over our dark yolked chicken eggs and I have him drinking our goats milk but anything too different and its a no go).

As far as fencing...4-5 foot fencing seems to be adequate for most folks but some goats need electric. Depends on how motivated and how smart they are.

I am in California and so my cost for feed is really high....right now for 7 Dwarves and 1 Boer, I run hay at about $105 this month (just came down from $20 a bale to about 15.50) and grain about $75 to $100 in grain, a bag of minerals every few months at $23 a bag....and there are other costs like dewormers, antibiotics, and vet bills as needed.

There are ways to keep costs below what mine are, feeding lower quality hay, feeding sweet feed or different brands, browsing and foraging or allowing goats to do so (my goats eat 1/2 as much hay when we have weeds and browse available), etc, ...I just find peace of mind and healthy animals they way I feed so that is why I feed this way....

I hope that answers some of your questions...Good luck and welcome to the club!

 

[Marianne]

You can research the many different goat breeds on the internet. I would recommend getting a copy of Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats. The book is full of valuable information and will answer most of your questions. It is readily available at Tractor Supply or can be ordered from lots of sources. I think I got my copy from Amazon. We have Nubians, chosen because of those wonderful ears! However, they are very noisy goats...just in case you have near neighbors that may be bothered.

 

[heatherlynnky]

Word of warning as someone who is still in their first year of raising. Be very very careful who you buy from. It is really really stressful to be new to this and get a sick animal. Try to buy from someone who not only has the breed you want but who is willing to impart some knowledge too. I got bitten on my first 2 goats but thankfully didn't shy away. I was so very lucky on my next 2 and got them from a wonderful lady on here. Then my next 2 I got even more lucky because it was from someone just down the road and willing to impart years and years worth of information. Research who your getting them from just as carefully as you would breeds and such.

Oh and if the goat is a "bargain" then really really dig as to why. My first was a bargain but they did not tell me she did not get colostrum. I spent a week fighting a losing battle and spent half a fortune in the process. My next was a bargain and again I had to fight to save an eye, get rid of lice and now have a little girl with wry mouth. My next 2 were not as cheap but I did get a price break from a lady who had helped me with my first 2 gals. I just got 2 pregnant nigerians cheap cheap cheap. But i knew why I was getting a bargain and it was reasonable and apparent when i went to investigate a bit. I know its hard but make your choices with logic and not love.

 

[Catahoula]

Goats need shelter to protect them from the weather. Build your shelter accordingly and build one that is bigger than you think you'll need. You can always use the space. You'll need space to store hay/straw/grains. You'll need to breed your doe every so often so she can produce milk. You may need to separate her and her kids from other goats for a short while. Don't forget predators...if you have them. You'll need to decided how you want to protect your goats from predators. You should also start looking for a vet for your goats in case they get sick.

 

[Obaisshah]

When it comes to caring for milk goats, you must ensure that they are not just housed adequately, but are also fed well with forages and goat supplements, and milked hygienically. Besides trimming their hooves, fencing them and dehorning, make sure you you provide them with quality goat supplements.

 

[mama24]

My favorite milk goats are Saanens. I don't have any purebred Saanens, but my Saanen mixes are sweet, pretty (if you don't mind that they are usually all white or shades of cream), and good milkers. My Saanen/Boer doe, my herd queen and favorite goat, had a single baby on her first freshening as a yearling and gave me over a gallon a day for a while, until she decided to adopt the twin Saanen/Alpine doelings I brought home, which I decided to allow and quit milking her b/c they really needed the milk. I had kept her baby on her and was getting 2qts a day while the baby was on her without ever separating, but he sadly got into the chicken feed, bloated, and died at around a month old. I was told to expect closer to 2 gallons a day next time, especially if she has twins, IF I wean them. I am more likely to try separating them a few hours before I milk and only get 2qts to a gallon a day instead. My Saanen mixes, I have 4 of them, are the sweetest calmest goats in my little herd of 8. They are very easygoing, and the 2 that I have milked so far (1 was 50/50 Boer/Saanen, the other was 50/25/25 Boer/Saanen/Nubian) both got up on the milking stand and let me milk them out like pros from day 1. My herd queen was dam raised and pretty much never handled before we brought her home, and you would never know it now. She is like a pet, and as soon as she understand what you are trying to get her to do, she will do it quite willingly. That is the Saanen temperament. Some of my other goats are very wild and stubborn. Saanens give the most milk, and it is the most like cow's milk in taste. I believe Nubian is better for cheesemaking b/c of a higher amount of solids in the milk, and they can also be quite heavy milkers, but I made plenty of cheese with my Saanen/Boer milk and it was delicious. Way better than any goat cheese you can buy at a store. Saanens are also very tall and are much bigger than Alpines. My girl has the Saanen build, not the Boer, and she weighs 170lbs. Nubians can get pretty big, too. Nubians are considered more of a dual purpose breed since they are meatier than Saanens, but they take more feed to make the same amount of milk. It's all in what you want. I have no problem breeding my Saanen crosses with my friend's Kiko buck so that I can milk them, with the idea that we will eat any bucklings, and probably sell most or all doelings. This was my first year milking my goats and I am breeding them again this week to kid in the spring. I'm planning on trying to milk my herd queen through for a year (that means not breeding in the fall, but letting her go 2 years without having a baby so you can keep milking) just to see how she does and skip breeding next fall. If her milk drops too much, I will most likely change my mind. She kidded in April, though, and the twins are 4 months old and still nursing often. Her udders never get as big as they did when I was just milking after their baby dies, before I bought the twins, but they definitely don't look empty either.

A lot of people prefer Alpines, and I'm sure they would be happy to tell you why. I bought my goats from a friend who raises goats for meat. He gets his does from a local goat dairy b/c he is very close friends with the owner, then breeds them with Boer and Kiko bucks. So I just happened to get dairy goats crossed with Boer and Kiko. And then I just found out that way that I just love my Saanen cross girls. The Nubians not so much. I think they're kind of obnoxious. They're very pushy and loud in my experience, not laid back like my Saanen girls, but a plus is they come in all sort of beautiful colors. My only Alpine crosses are my little 4 month old Alpine Saanen doelings, so I can't tell you if I like Alpines, I have no experience with them since my only 2 are also half Saanen.

My goats have their horns. I disagree that you need to dehorn them. I think it is completely unnecessary. Most people in my area, unless they breed purebred dairy goats and sell or show them, do not dehorn. Their horns make a nice handles to hold onto when you're moving them around, works better than a collar, and my goats hate halters. They scratch their backs with them, use them to fend off dogs and coyotes, and I personally think they look nice. They do butt each other when playing or working out the pecking order, but none have ever been hurts, they don't try to use the points.

As far as how much they cost, that depends on where you are and what kind of pasture you have. They like a lot of browse, bushes, young trees, weeds. They also still need hay, especially if they are in milk, year round, and a lot more if you get snow and they can't use the pasture in the winter. And grain, only if you are milking, or if they are underweight. I haven't found mine to be expensive. I think 3 goats are probably less expensive to keep than a large dog, especially if you do your own hay, or buy it cheap from a neighbor like we do. We have ours in a 30ac pasture, and they probably only really use 1.5 acre of that. But they haven't had access to it for long, so it hasn't been grazed down. I have 8 goats. They do need shelter, they hate rain, and need protection from cold wind. Ours have a very old 3 sided barn with large spaces between the boards. If you live in a very cold area, you may want to give them something more substantial, but it probably isn't all that necessary. They cuddle up for warmth. I use pine shavings for bedding in the barn, and they make a mess of their hay, so that turns into nice bedding for them as well. When I only had 3 goats, they went through one square bale of hay a week or less, at $3.00 a bale. When I was milking my big girl, but had another in milk just feeding her baby, I went through one bag of grain a month, at about $15 a bag, plus a bag of alfalfa pellets a month at $10 a bag. So for 3 goats, 2 of them in milk, it was about $37 a month to feed. Plus extras like Probios powder, their loose goat minerals (which is a necessity, not optional), and BoSe gel (also a necessity in my area, we are low in Selenium) and treats. With those things, since they last longer, it was probably more like $40 a month. Not bad. I milked in a stainless steel pail (less than $10 at Jeffers), then took it to the house to strain into canning jars or other milk containers, or into a bowl if I was making cheese. I use cut up flour sack towels to strain milk and whole ones for draining cheese. They get a lot of hair into the milk pail, even if you shave. lol

You need at least 4 foot fence, 5 is better. I had to put a line of hot wire along the top and bottom of my welded wire fence for the first couple months we had our goats to keep them from climbing over or digging out under the fence, but it's been quite a long time since we've taken it down, and they don't bother anymore. If you fence in a large enough area so that they don't get bored, you likely won't have that problem anyway. lol. I would fence in at least 2 acres to start, then fence in another 2 later so you can rotate pasture. Even better if you can move their shelter around. This can also help with parasites. That is my personal optimal idea, I'm sure you could get away with much smaller paddocks, this is just what I would do if I were starting over. My friend who breeds the meat goats uses cattle panels and a carport with plywood windbreaks for his goats so he can more easily move the fence around and move the shelter. He had to add welded wire fencing to the bottom sections of the cattle panels, though, to keep kids from slipping through and getting into his garden.

 

[Catahoula]

I just wanted to add that depending on where you live, cost of feeds/hay vary. I pay about $16 a small bale of hay, $20/50# grains, $40/50# minerals, $12/40# alfalfa pellets, $7/3cu feet pine shavings, $8/bale of straw.... Each standard size goat for me is about the cost of one big dog and I don't even get milk from any of my goats!