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Find someone who knows something about goats, and take them with you when you go look at the goats. You could possibly find a decent milker or two in a herd like that, but you've got to know what to look for. As TennesseeMama said, you are more likely to get a decent milk goat from unregistered dairy stock, but I wouldn't entirely dismiss this mixed herd. She's right that they've probably had no care at all, beyond being fenced into a brush lot. So you'll need to check for abscesses and CAE (hard udders, swollen joints). Look out for bad feet and legs (pasterns should be nearly straight up, not parallel to the ground -- look at pictures of new kids to see what they should look like). Check to make sure they have good bites -- you don't want underbites or overbites. And check the udder. If it's flopping around because it's poorly attached at the belly, or if it's hanging down to her hocks, or if it's hard and meaty-feeling, or has lumps in it, or if the teats are too large or too small to milk easily, then pass on by.
These goats are probably nearly wild, so when you start milking, expect a rodeo. And they may not be used to eating grain, so that won't be much of an incentive for them to hold still!
If you find a goat or two there that look half-way decent (BTW, don't buy doe kids, because you have no way in a herd like this of knowing how they are going to turn out), and they haven't kidded yet, you have an advantage. Take them home, watch carefully, and make sure you are there to pull the kids the minute they are born. Don't let the doe lick them or anything. Take them away where she can't see them. Then, while you still have birth fluids on you, put her on the milking stand and milk her. (You won't get much -- the babies will need it, though, so save it and bottle-feed it to them.) Unless she's one of the does who is inclined to reject her own kids (probably not likely in a semi-wild herd, as they don't reproduce well), she should accept you as her own baby -- they go strictly on scent rather than looks. She'll cry when you leave the first few days, but will get used to the strange regime of her new 'baby' (you!), and will be MUCH easier to milk than if you leave her kids on her. This also works with regular dairy does, and is one of the reasons I normally bottle-feed all my kids (the other reasons are that I want some of the milk, and I don't want wild kids). By the way, when I do this, the first few days, in order to get enough colostrum for the kids, I usually milk three or four times a day. Then the doe's milk should come in, and you'll get enough from twice-a-day milking.
'Brush goats' can be any kind of mixed breed -- there may even still be some of the genetics of the first goats brought to this country by the Pilgrims floating around out there somewhere. If there are any genetics of the Old English Milch Goat left, that's where they are likely to be found, in the misc. herds of brush goats. Not to say that's what is in this herd you've found, but it could be. They can also be descended from decent dairy stock; you never know. Usually they are culls, though. So look carefully, and don't buy goats that won't do the job you need them to do.
Kathleen
ETA: don't buy a buck out of this mixed lot. When you are ready for a buck, get a really good-quality buckling from a dairy breeder. That way, you'll be improving your goats, rather than just maintaining status-quo.
Last edited by Freeholder; 05/10/08 at 02:35 PM.
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