Starting dairy herd for soap/lotion etc

[Oceanrose]

Ok - here's the layout.

Sloping pasture, with some walnut trees on one side. Approximately 2 acres, in Western WA.

Looking to do dairy goats for soap, and lotion (to sell), some milk to drink, and make cheese with.

How many goats can we graze? I'm thinking 3-4 adults, am I in the ballpark? They'd be fed good quality hay as well, along with grain.

Nubians and mini nubians hae the most butterfat correct?

Anything we shouldn't do? And anyone have a great site for soap and lotion recipes? Other ways to run a small biz (more for fun than anything) with the goats???

[cowgirlracer]

You may want to look into pygmies. I think their butterfat content is much higher and you can get more per acre, less fencing (not as high) and by virtue of size are much more managable. I can't remember the butterfat number, as it's been a while since I read up on them, but I do remember being impressed by the number. Maybe it was nigerian dwarfs. Anyhow it's a miniature goat.

Cowgirlracer and her so so memory . . .

[crowinghen]

Yep, it's the dwarfs- they come in many varieties i think-- Mini-manchas, Nigerian dwarfs i think are their own breed...
I don't know much about them, but there are lots of gat people here in Western WA.
Where are you at? I'm between Tacoma and Seattle, on 4 acres.

Susie

[KSALguy]

you can graze 4 standard sized goats on the same area it takes for 1 cow, if you want high butter fat get Kinders, they are a dairy breed from a cross of Nubian (high large goat butter fat) and Pygme which has high butter fat, so you dont loose anything and probably gain alot in butterfat percentage, pluse you will have a larger udder for milking on a kinder than you would a Pygme.
on 2 acers i would start out with 3 and see how it goes,
other than walnut trees what sort of brows do you have? is it mostly grass?
also with the smaller animals they wont eat AS much but you will still need good fences as they can jump and find any way out possible,
if your acerage was set up right you could section off each acer plot and rotate them back and forth and in so doing ad another couple goats so that the impact is not as great and your grazeing goes farther

[Milk n' Honey]

I would not go with full Pygmy goats for milking personally. You won't get much milk...not like a larger goat. Plus, they have tiny teats that you can't get your hand around. I have no experience with the Kinders but that sounds like a good suggestion. Pygmy goats do have the highest milk fat content of the dairy breeds. Next in line would be the Nubian. You can do all that you wish to do with Nubian. I have a Nubian doe myself and am getting ready to make some soap. I already learned one thing that you cannot do with milk in making soap. Have you attempted a batch of any kind of soap yet? Milk soaps are more difficult to make than other kinds but it is so nice. I can't wait to get it right so I can have some homemade goat's milk soap!! Anyway, I'd say 3-4 large dairy goats would do great on two acres. Goats don't really require much space. It just depends on how much hay you'd like to have to feed. Four large dairy goats would most likely give you more milk than you'd ever be able to use up anyway!! I have a Sannen that can produce a gallon a day!!