Fact or Fiction

Oh you all are wonderful! Your responses made me giggle and that's exactly what I needed. Yeah, I did the math too and kinda wondered how he could possibly make it to the farmer's market. I had to get up at 4:00 am to milk my tiny, tiny herd of 9 before market. He must have stayed up all night

It was a struggle for sure!

Okay, I tried really hard not to hijack the thread responding to this comment. But here goes. Its a practical thing. A matter of perspective of what "hassle" is.

I own goats because I don't have to own: a tractor, a bush hog(my goats ARE the bush hog), a stock trailer, a head gate or squeeze chute or any of the other huge, expensive equipment involved in raising cattle. I don't even own a pickup truck.

I don't have to worry about handling a bull or paying someone to come AI. Most health management can be done by myself, occasionally assisted by my 10 year-old daughter. This same 10 year-old assistant can handle all of my stock and chores, including milking without risk of serious injury. I can walk up to any of my goats in the field, pick up a foot and have it trimmed in seconds. Pulling a kid is a one man(woman) job that does not involve chains, two men and a winch.

When I clean the barn, the neat, odorless, dry, lightweight little berries are easily shoveled into a wheelbarrow, which go directly into the chicken pen or garden.

Two goats supply me with all the milk my family needs slightly more efficiently than a cow. And they will continue to produce for twice as many years.

A cow gives roughly 5 times the milk of a goat. So more accurately you'd need 18 cows to measure up to 90 goats. A small dairy for cows, a pretty big dairy for goats. Two cows are the equivalent of ten goats. I think few of us here are in it for even that much milk. Personally, I'd rather have 5 happy milking goats than one lonely cow. Its a matter of scale.

I just wanted to ad, that ain't nothing. I hand milk 95 goats with one hand tied behind my back and hopping on one leg!!! Oh and the milk stand only has 3 legs also... I balance everything on my knee!!!!

All before the sun comes up!!!! Beat that!!!! LOL
Alice in Virginia

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There is nothing any worse than an angry little old lady, they've had a lifetime to learn all the dirty tricks and people get upset if you hit them!

Oh my! Milking three goats twice a day just about kills my hands! There is no way this is even possible. lol wow I can't believe he even went there!

Dang, and I was looking to score some Placidyl.

Now we are gonna all have to show up at your place for psychotherapy.

You can hold one of those Gestalt thingys in the goat paddy.

Maybe he isn't the only person who milks? And perhaps not all of those 90 goats are lactating does... Did he say he milks 90 goats everyday, or that he milks goats by hand and has 90 goats currently on his farm (again, that doesn't necessarily mean all 90 goats are lactating)? A lot of his herd could be doelings, and the remaining bucklings that haven't been sold off/sent to the freezer yet.

If it were to take 7.5 hrs to milk 90 goats by hand, well then, if there were 3 people milking the workload would be cut to 2.5 hrs each. Which is much more reasonable compared to 7.5 hrs.

I have cows, Jerseys, and goats. Goat milk is way better IMO than cow milk, simple as that. The cows I keep because I like cows better than goats and to support my sheep enterprise, lambs do great on cow milk. OTOH, the goats eat stuff the sheep and cows won't even look at. Diversification. It takes me a little longer to milk 10 goats than 1 cow, yes, but if I had a 2 goat set up the time would be about the same.

That's why.

I just want to know when he has time to show those togg's & get Grand champions?

People like that really annoy me to no end!

Well, that's a cute story and all, but I bet you don't have to climb a grizzly bear infested mountain just to get to your herd of half feral, man-eating 500 lb goats. I sit on a stool and milk with my feet while fighting the bears off with my one arm and keeping the goat from killing me with the other. But it's worth it cuz' them mean suckers milk 8 gallons a day each off of cedar trees, pine cones and hornet's nests. Then I gotta backpack all the milk back down the mountain bears coming at me from either side the whole way. The special composition of their milk, what with their awesome mountain top diet and all, makes it the healthiest thing you can buy. It'll cure digestive problems, Alzheimer's, cancer and that little twitch you get in your eyelid. I have to charge a pretty penny for it though, as you can imagine.

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The 7th Day is still God's Sabbath
ICOG7.ORG
Layton Hollow ADGA Nubians
Taking Reservation for 2015!

I have only one doe, she milks like a dream, and her milk is pure chocolate syrup. The only downside is that she lives entirely on a diet of lying, weirdo goat braggers. Where did you say that farmer's market was? I'm running low on goat food.

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They shall all sit under their own vines and their own fig trees, and they shall live in peace and unafraid. Mica 4:4

I have a friend who spent months in a wheelchair after her hip was found to be broken from a cow giving her a good kick... They had to put pins in there and it still pains her... Give me goats any day!

Plus I am lactose intolerant, can drink goat milk, have goat milk ice cream, etc, but cow milk makes me colic.

SURE! I could milk 90 goats by hand. All I would need is 5 hours and 5 ten minute breaks and be sure they only give a quart each.

All I can say is WOW!!
Though I did run into something simular, lady down the street 2 donkey's and pony got out and ended up at my place I put them in an unused area to keep em safe and put a found sign out she came to get them while I was at work and the short my mom showed her MY goats cause lady has a few goats too. Lady was telling my mom how I should be taking care of my goats blah blah and my mother takes this as gospel...so I drove her over to see lady and get my horse leads back.
She has a boer buck in a 4x8 pen one side has a small goat house this is in the middle of a pasture, in the pasture she has 4 ewes some with lambs and 2 Doe's one is a smallish saanen the other saanen cross and 3 kids...pasture area is about 1/2 an acre. I will not go into condition of animals...but my mother shut up about how I should be doing this and that because this LADY said so pfffft!
Lady is just lucky I wasn't here....

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TEH WINNER!!!!

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