Which Mini Breed is Best for us?

[Devonviolet]

We are new to hobby farming. We know we want to have dairy goats, for milk, butter, making cheese, as well as soaps and lotions.

We are already pretty sure we don't want a full size dairy goat, because the higher milk volumes would be too much for our needs. After reading a couple highly recommended book, on raising dairy goats, and reading the descriptions of dairy goats, we had pretty much decided on the Nigerian Dwarf goats, because they produce less milk and have exceptionally high butterfat of 6.7%.

Then I found BYH, and started learning about the Mini Breeds, which weren't mentioned in the books we read. I am definitely interested in the Mini's because they produce more milk than the NDs, and less than regular or standard Dairy breeds - although the butterfat appears to be less. How much less? I'm not sure, because I can't find anything online, that tells me butterfat content of these breeds.

I'm interested in hearing some thoughts on the pluses and minuses of the different mini breeds, including:
Personalities
Ability to be dual purpose - or not
Milk production and ease of milking
Butterfat content
Health issues
Ease of kidding
As well as cold/heat tolerance
We are in East Texas, where the temps can stay 100°+ for a week or more at a
time, but can also get below freezing in Winter months.

 

[Southern by choice]

Having all 3. Nigies, Mini's and Standards there are things I personally like about each one.

Personality- for me it would be the Lamancha! No - wait, the Nubian.... well maybe the Alpine.
that is a hard one! We certainly enjoy our Nigies, we have had them the longest, then the Lamancha, then Mini's then the other Standards. The Nigies are sweet but truthfully out of all of our goats they are not at the top of the list. We have had up to 30 goats at once. They have been the most temperamental. Not ever mean just lil' snots sometimes.
There are factors that make a difference in the individual goat and how their personalities develop. Raising and care. We have dam raised, trough raised, and bottle babies. Our dam raised goats are handled more than the average breeder as we are full time and have a large family so they are very sweet and friendly. However the trough fed babies have been the best! A very different kind of friendly, yet not quite like a bottle baby which can sometimes be obnoxious.
We will be raising all our kids this year on the trough.

As far as butterfat. When looking at research, the Nigerian, the Nubian, and the Lamancha are highest on the list... yet the individual goat will vary. Looking at milk testing from the individual goat is best. DHIR testing will give you this info, however not all farms do the milk testing even though they may have excellent dairy goats. Some of the Grade A & B dairy owners we know gave done the DHIR testing and others do not. Expense, and time are often factors. Many small farms cannot afford to.
Depending on the mini- breed the butterfat content should be very good if the mini is one of the above mentioned breeds (but in mini form). The mini breeds are crossed with the Dwarf to start with so that only helps keep the butterfat at higher levels..

Production is higher on the mini. Generally teats on the mini are larger than on the Nigie but larger teats are often developed by generations of breeding the mini. Larger teats are also developed through breeding on the Dwarf. As far as milking- goats with larger teats are always easier to milk!

If planning on improving and developing your own line the mini's are much more difficult. It takes many generations to be a "Mini". Until they meet the breed standard for the mini they are registered as "Experimental" with a percentage of the make up.
Many that have mini's generally have 1st gens, 2nd gens, those that are tying to develop their herd will continue the breeding program.

Any goat can be dual purpose but the smaller breeds are generally not worth growing out to put in your freezer, better to sell as a wether. Larger breeds... yep. Although in our region we have many different cultures, each culture has a particular kind of goat they want. Some small, some big, some old, some intact and stinky.

5 years ago it was harder to find Nigies and although they were around, mini's- no one had heard of them. LOL Skip forward, with the everyone wanting to do small farming etc the Dwarf took off,
understandably so. Small goat, petlike, adorable! Easy! Now there are a bajillion Dwarfs! Kind of "faddish" if you will. Many find if they are homesteading and wanting more serious milk production the Nigies just aren't enough. Several dairies we know started their dairies with Dwarfs because of that high butterfat... those dairies have given up the dwarfs and moved to mini's and standard breeds.
At the end of the year, hooves - all 4 need trimmed, vaccinations, testing per goat, vet care, emergencies, milking each goat, kidding from each goat, and care of each goat as well as mucking stalls, running fecals, checking FAMACHA scores - it all adds up.

The most logical starting point is to determine your actual dairy needs. Start there and then you can see the number of goats necessary. Also don't forget to double your number in the end... because GOATS ARE ADDICTIVE!

Getting more "goat" than you need is sometimes worse than getting goats that are less than you need.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have a few F-1 Kinders. I'm milking one now that gives 1.5 quarts on once a day milking. I've read that their milk can be in the range of 5 - 7.5% butterfat. I make chevre regularly and it's awesome - rich and creamy.

 

[OneFineAcre]

The reason you can't find much information on the mini "breeds" is that they don't have an extremely long history.

The Nigerian herd book was started by AGS (American Goat Society) back in the early 1980's, so there has been a great deal of production data on them.

And then, the ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) recognized them as a true dairy breed back in 2005 (I think or there abouts).

And then someone said, wouldn't it be cool to cross a Nigerian with one of the standards and a new "breed" is born. The initial cross between the Nigerian buck and standard doe is an F-1.

However, neither AGS or ADGA recognizes these crosses, they maintain a strictly purebred herd book for Nigerians.

But, a couple of registries like the MDGA (Miniature Dairy Goat Association) have started for the purposes of maintaining a herd book on these animals as well as production testing.

So, there should be some data available, you may want to join that organization if that is the direction you want to go.

Since Nigerians have the highest average butter fat and the best feed/milk conversion ratio one would hope that the crosses would be somewhere in between.

@Southern by choice
So, now that you have decided to go with the mini's the Nigerians are "faddish"?
You crack me up.

 

[Southern by choice]

Not surprised you have taken offense OFA.
It certainly is not intended that way. They, like many breeds, will have their "moment". Many dairy breeds have.
There is a new "fad" every few years... Lamancha's are one right now.
Correction (OFA)..."not that we have decided to go in that direction"... we started 2 years ago with Mini's...however we continue with the Nigies, and have Mini's and Standards.
We acquired 2 new Nigies this year. We love the Nigies and they are great little goats. We have have all 3 "sizes", you do not, so I am simply sharing our experiences.

We can utilize 3-4 gallons of milk per day that is why we have moved in the direction of the Standard goats. Mini's are bred because they simply will give more milk, stay small and as it has always been and always will be, our focus is for the homestead goat.

We are not hobby farmers. Our animals MUST produce and contribute to the family's needs.

Again looking at your needs is key. If your needs can be met with the Dwarf then I'd say stick with a Dwarf.

I posted a thread on the advantages of smaller goats over standards awhile back. Still holds true.
As far as registration, the Nigerian had to "fight" for it's place in the dairy registries too at one time. There were many that did not want the dwarf to be considered a "dairy" goat. Fortunately the Dwarf was recognized!

 

[OneFineAcre]

Not surprised you have taken offense OFA.
It certainly is not intended that way. They, like many breeds, will have their "moment". Many dairy breeds have.
There is a new "fad" every few years... Lamancha's are one right now.
Correction (OFA)..."not that we have decided to go in that direction"... we started 2 years ago with Mini's...however we continue with the Nigies, and have Mini's and Standards.
We acquired 2 new Nigies this year. We love the Nigies and they are great little goats. We have have all 3 "sizes", you do not, so I am simply sharing our experiences.

We can utilize 3-4 gallons of milk per day that is why we have moved in the direction of the Standard goats. Mini's are bred because they simply will give more milk, stay small and as it has always been and always will be, our focus is for the homestead goat.

We are not hobby farmers. Our animals MUST produce and contribute to the family's needs.

Again looking at your needs is key. If your needs can be met with the Dwarf then I'd say stick with a Dwarf.

I posted a thread on the advantages of smaller goats over standards awhile back. Still holds true.
As far as registration, the Nigerian had to "fight" for it's place in the dairy registries too at one time. There were many that did not want the dwarf to be considered a "dairy" goat. Fortunately the Dwarf was recognized!

Not surprised you totally misunderstood.
I was not offended at all.
I was just amused at your description of Nigerians as "faddish"
I had never heard that before.
Of course, I didn't know the La Manchas were now "faddish" I guess I don't keep up with such things.
I'm glad a registry has started to track production for the minis. I was just stating as to why there is not a lot of production data.
I like the mini's, I think they are very cool.

And, I once commented that I thought they were a great thing for you to do on your farm. I'm very supportive of your efforts in that regard.

I agree with you 100% the OP needs to determine what their needs are and make their determination based on that. You'll have to share your experience milking your mini's.

Most people don't need 3-4 gallons per day like you do with your large family.

But, we were getting 2 + gallons per day at peak milking 5 Nigerians. We left the others kids with them to keep them in milk for the fair because we didn't want to milk them all.

With the high fat content, we get 4lbs of chevre from 5 quarts of milk.

We were swimming in milk and cheese to the point of finding several clients to buy excess milk. We were selling 6 gallons per week at one point.

We had to buy a 2nd refridgerator just to keep milk in because this is what it looked like after 2 or 3 days.

So @Devonviolet
How much milk do you need?

 

[Southern by choice]

Missed your edit @OneFineAcre you added a lot!

Oh how I understand the milk thing... but we don't bootleg so if we get backed up we give it to our friends feeder pig or we have to pitch. We freeze a lot too. I am a big believer and have always posted don't get more goat than you need!

Goats are great! Shoot, I NEVER thought I'd have a Nubian, considering I am a Lamancha gal! Yet I have fallen in love with my Roman nosed long eared baby!

I will always have some Nigies, some mini's and some standards... and some meat goats LOL
At the same time I want to keep the number of hooves down, the fecals I run to a minimum, the blood I have to draw for testing and the cost of CAE, CL, and Johnes testing to a minimum!

@frustratedearthmother - I Know only one person with Kinders, seems that those who have them LOVE them. Don't know much about them. Being a dairy breed crossed with a meat breed have you found any difference in milk production? Do you think they really are a good dual purpose breed?

 

[OneFineAcre]

I often do that decide I have more to say

 

[Devonviolet]

Thank y'all for your wonderful answers to my question. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you. However, we were out of town all day, and didn't get back until late. And now I am too tired to do your answers justice. I need to get some sleep and I will respond tomorrow. Zzzzzzz

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So far I'm only at F2, expecting F3's in the spring. As my line is not "set" yet, I've seen some variation in size, but I am one who loves the breed. The doe I'm milking now is one of twin does (F-1's) and she is several inches taller and at least 20 - 25lbs heavier than her twin. Without a doubt, if I butchered does, she'd make fine freezer fodder. I've yet to butcher a Kinder - just because I've been mostly blessed with does. But, when it happens I expect they'll be great.

When I milked this doe twice daily she easily gave over a gallon a day. Now, almost 6 months into the lactation with once a day milking she's down to about 1.5 qts. (DH milked for me several times when I was out of town lately...and ... well... he tries , but production has suffered.) I'm ok with that though and haven't tried to get production back up because even with 1.5 quarts a day it's more than we use for just drinking. The milk is delicious and creamy and makes beautiful cheese. I find it to be right between Nubian milk, which is GOOD and Pygmy milk which is 'da BOMB'!

I've raised Pygmy goats for over 25 years. My time with the Nubians is fairly short and with the Kinders even shorter. But, if I had to pick just one breed to have - it would be the Kinders - hands down.