should we milk goats?

[scorpian5]

woolrich dairy is building a new plant near me. Should we start a goat herd? Can you make money? We currently have one goat HE is not much help.

[BlueHeronFarm]

I don't think there is any money in selling milk to a dairy - it's a LOT of work, and most dairies only pay a few bucks a gallon - I can't see how that would pay off after all of your feed, meds and labor invested. ...just my 2 cents, though.

[CountryHaven]

It takes a LOT of goats and a LOT of work to make much money at all as a dairy. It's a full-time job. There was a GREAT website posted here showing detailed cost plans, building plans, AND exactly the way you need to go about getting set up on a milk route BEFORE you even think about talking to a bank about financing (yeah, you'd probably need a proper building, and definately costly equipment and holding tanks) but you don't put in the first nail until after you are accepted on a milk route. The common concensus seems to be, even with a large herd, you can make enough to live on IF you own the farm outright... if you have a mortgage and other high end costs you are probably going to struggle, or just not make enough at all.

Here's the link: http://goatdairylibrary.org/Pages/index.htm

Particular attention to this page (setting up a dairy) http://goatdairylibrary.org/Pages/Se...0a%20dairy.htm

Pay special attention to the part on the page above that starts about 1/2 way down regarding 'what happens when Kolb Lena takes you on the route'

[chamoisee]

I'm going to be blunt. If you are asking us these things, the answer is NO. Now, you might want to get a single milker for your own home use, but it's apples and oranges.

[AnnaS]

First, find out what Woolrich will pay. Figure out all your costs-feed, stock, parlor, vet, fencing, education, hired help, electric, add 30%, and don't forget to pay yourself. Talk to people who have been running a commercial dairy for a long time. There are a lot of start-up goat dairies that fail quickly. A lot of successful goat dairies started with a 4-H project or one family milk goat.

Get a couple of milking does and milk them for 305 days. If you LOVE milking those does, watching them, raising their kids, milking some more, hauling hay, hauling grain, staying within 100 miles of home because you have to milk, and LOVE getting up at 5 am no matter how sick you are, or how cold it is, because you have to milk the girls- you probably can make a living at it. Dairying is no more a 9-5, weekends off job than parenting is.

Two random thoughts-
There are a lot of small cow dairies going out of business or retiring so milking equipment can be had fairly cheaply.

Buy the best production bucks you can. Buying good genetics with high feed conversion rates is the cheapest way to make more milk with the same input.

nbvb = addendum by the newborn Togg doeling on my lap.