(I don't keep up with it).
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Tennessemama, this statement above is the only difference between you and me. I will not continue to breed goats who will not earn their keep at the end of the year. I will not take family money to support a hobby like this. Nobody on this forum had goats as horrid as my original goats it only took me 2 years to understand that running the auction barn with goats was not going to make me any money...I got into this so I would not have to leave the farm and earn much less than I was worth comparing wages from San Diego to Cleveland, TX.
Most milk and keep goats who will never take them to the goal they have...be it, family milk or? If you want family milk than milk two goats, breed one her first heat in September and the other the last heat in Dec...year round milk. Yes they will peak with considerably more but they will easily with good care give you 1 gallon each a day for nearly all the 10 months they are in milk....takes a big family to actually utilize all of 2 gallons of milk each and every day. Why milk 4 or 5 does who don't give as much as 2 nice dairy goats and instead of feeding 4 or 5, feed all that feed into two. You get more milk for less labor. It's also half as many hooves to trim and half as much poop to pick up. Even with that small change you would see a difference in your bottom line.
Sorry but "I enjoy my goats" is not an excuse to not look at your bottom line. I enjoy my goats also, it's very enjoyable to me for them to pay their way.
Shouldn't that be the goal of every homestead? For your gardens to supply food for the family, better quality and less cost than a farmers market or wallmart? Goats or cows who you milk and it is better quality and costs less than buying grocery store milk? The thing with livestock is that you also then end up with extra milk to sell or make into cheese or soap and kids for sale as breeding stock and food. Chickens who really live off air? Water, bugs and grass and weeds....nearly free eggs (sure you can cage them up in an expensive building, feed them $12 per sack lay pellets and scratch and have eggs you can't even break even with because under roofs they get less sun and actually lay less than if they are allowed out to roam.
Goatkid, I would not have registered nor sold this doeling in my herd, she would have been in the giveaway pile as soon as she was born with that head and ears.
You nor I could use a doe like this in our goals for our farm....others who want a good family milker can.
Actually the udder is pretty typical of the old Longman bloodlines. I used Longman's Texas Oil Baron alot in the dairy part of my herd when I wanted replacement animals, lots of milk but boy that doe you bred him to had better have had morethan her share of attachments. They also have alot of bloodlines who carry quads, our Spotted Lady from Longman Texas Oil Baron was the biggest doe I had ever seen, she also kidded with quads yearly until an aged doe, and milked 16 pounds, but she also had an udder that looked like it milked 16 pounds
Vicki
