What do I need to know?

[BlackWillowFarm]

Thinking about getting a dairy goat for milking. I've never had goats milk before, but for the three of us, I think a dairy cow will give too much milk. I've heard the taste is very similar to cows milk. Is that true?

What questions should I ask before buying a dairy goat? How often will I need to milk her? I'm thinking twice a day at the same time each day like a cow?

What is the best breed to get that will have the closest taste to a cow? My family is not too sure about this and I would like make the switch easy for them.

Right now we drink milk from the store. I want to change to raw cow or goats milk and I think the goats size is better for my needs.

What should I ask the breeder and what do I need to know once I get her home?

[Scrounger]

Others will have different opinions but, I like Nubians or Kinders. There are just two of us, but our two Kiders supply us with all we need. We even are able to make cheese and yogurt a couple times a month. The cheese would last longer if my wife would stay out of it....

[Alice In TX/MO]

Before you start talking to goat sellers, you will want to do a LOT of reading and fence building and preparation.

Here are answers to your specific questions:

I've heard the taste is very similar to cows milk. Is that true?

Yes, it's actually much better than store bought milk. Richer, creamier, sweeter.

What questions should I ask before buying a dairy goat?
Do I have excellent fences and a place for the goats to shelter from weather? Do I have a milking stand ready? Do I know how to feed a dairy goat properly?

How often will I need to milk her? I'm thinking twice a day at the same time each day like a cow?
Yes.

What is the best breed to get that will have the closest taste to a cow?
Most of the dairy breeds have excellent flavored milk. Nubian, Saanen, Alpine, Kinder (a cross breed that has developed it's own registry), LaMancha. They are all good. There is some individual variation, so if you buy a milker who is already producing, you can ask for a taste!

What should I ask the breeder and what do I need to know once I get her home?
You MUST ask about testing for disease. You want to buy from someone who tests for CAE and CL, the two major problem diseases in the goat industry. You want goats who have been tested as clean of those two.

What do you need to know? Oh my goodness. I recommend that you start reading at http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/getting-your-goat.htm

Fiasco Farm is a wonderful web place to spend HOURS reading about basic goat buying decisions, housing, care, milking, etc etc. It's user friendly and written for us newbies!

Goats are wonderful creatures. You will love them, but the preparations you do now will make getting started less frustrating. Yes, you'll make mistakes, as we all do. But.... the benefits are marvelous!

[Ernie]

Originally Posted by BlackWillowFarm

Thinking about getting a dairy goat for milking. I've never had goats milk before, but for the three of us, I think a dairy cow will give too much milk. I've heard the taste is very similar to cows milk. Is that true?

What questions should I ask before buying a dairy goat? How often will I need to milk her? I'm thinking twice a day at the same time each day like a cow?

What is the best breed to get that will have the closest taste to a cow? My family is not too sure about this and I would like make the switch easy for them.

Right now we drink milk from the store. I want to change to raw cow or goats milk and I think the goats size is better for my needs.

What should I ask the breeder and what do I need to know once I get her home?

Ok, I'll approach these one at a time ...

1. The taste, when cold and fresh, is similar to cow's milk but not exactly the same. If all you've been buying is the basic milk in plastic jugs in the stores, you will find that your goat milk tastes NOTHING like it. It's thicker and has a flavor that is stronger. Plus, your goat milk is non-homogenized and non-pasteurized, so that is going to be a different taste as well. You're not going from apples to apples here. It will be a period of adjustment where it doesn't taste as good to you, but that only lasted about a week or two around my house. It helps if you just quit the other milk cold turkey once you get into full production.

2. Look at your property and see if the area in which you want to secure your goat is actually goat-proof. If there's plenty in there to eat she won't try too hard to get out. It's hard to drylot a dairy goat, I would think. They need lots and lots of forage unless you're going to supply a truckload of grain. I milk my goat once a day, every day at around 6pm. You can milk twice a day, but I find that's hard to do and get anything else done. Takes me about 10-15 minutes at this point to milk her dry, but it used to take closer to 30.

3. I haven't tasted any goat milk that tastes just like a cow, but Nigerian milk seems to be very rich in cream and sweeter. I find having a tastier milk made it easier to make the switch.

4. There's a hundred questions you should ask the breeder, but you should probably also try and see if anyone local in your area could go with you. It's hard to recognize a good milker if you've never had one before.

[Alice In TX/MO]

They need forage and high calcium alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets more than grain. Grain is actually a supplement to their main diet.

The alfalfa hay and/or alfalfa pellets provide the calcium needed to produce milk.

Forage is browse. Shrubs, leaves, branches, bark, twigs, etc.

Also, it's important to know that some of your landscape plants may be toxic to goats.

[LaManchaPaul]

Great posts before mine. You'll need to be sure that you can protect the animals:
From predators like neighborhood dogs, coyotes, bears.
From parasites like worms, lice, ear mites
From bad eating, like too much grain, wilted choke cherry, fertilizers

A friend almost lost a beautiful Nubian buck to dogs. The buck recovered, but without a tail, with scars all after a big vet bill. An acquaintance lost a large part of his Boer herd (and big money) to a pack of dogs in one night. You can get Large Guard Dogs (LGD): place an outer perimeter electric fence.

Treatment for worms is a debated issue. Conference speakers say treat only when needed, while many goat owners treat by calendar and when the does give birth. Parasites compromise the goats’ immune systems.

You might purchase re-sealable 55 gallon drums to store your feeds. Goats are smart and can usually figure out the Tupperware type storage bins. IF they over eat grains or treats you will have big trouble. Wild cherry leaves are fine, but if you have them on your property, check the area after a storm for fallen limbs. Wilted leaves are toxic and can be deadly.
Paul

[BlackWillowFarm]

Some good points to consider. I have horses now with three strand electric fence on pasture. Will a goat stay inside the electric fence? I have a large paddock they could stay in but, there isn't any grass or browse. I have a stall in the barn for the goat(s). It's 11 x 12, snug and warm in the winter, cool and shady in the summer. Most of the time I leave the horses outside. Do goats prefer to be outside like horses?

We grow our own hay which is 50/50 grass and alfalfa. I don't grain my horses, but will supplement when we have a bad year for hay, like last winter. How much hay per day, per goat?

If I wanted to make cheese and have about four/five gallons of milk a week, would one goat supply that amount?

I'm off to do some reading at fiasco farm..............

[Lada]

We just entered the milk goat world about a month ago, so I'm not very versed, but I'll answer anyway.

We found the milk to actually not be *that* different from the milk in the store. My family (except dh) made the transition seamlessly. The kids LOVED the milk from the get-go, there was not even a mention made of wanting the store bought stuff. DH has yet to drink any, because he is a weirdo and says just the idea of it makes him ill. I asked him where he thought store milk came from and he said "From a store"....

We milk twice a day, 12 hours apart.

We have a Nubian and that's all the milk I have ever tasted. I have heard it's creamier and has a higher butterfat that some of the other breeds, like a Saanen.

I will say that when I bought our milker, I just bought it. I asked how she had done with kidding and if she was disease free and that was it. I just flew by the seat of my pants the rest of the way. We had no fence, but a small area was fenced in an afternoon. IMO, goats don't need an elaborate shelter; ours have a 10'x10' three sided sheleter that is fine for the two of them. We had no milk stand, and I had no idea what I was doing, but my dh built a milk stand in a couple of hours and we just milk next to the fence in our backyard. We don't have a fenced area for them to forage, so I let them out twice a day for 1-1 1/2 hours to get their forage needs.

I spent a long time reading about goats, but didn't really DO anything to prepare and we have been just fine.

I will say that you do NOT want to get ONE goat. We got one goat to begin with and after two nights of listening to her bawl all night, we promptly got her a herd-mate.

[Lada]

I also wanted to add that while many plants are toxic, it seems that if the goats have a variety to browse on, they will not bother the stuff that will bother them. I have holly, lillies, and lilacs where my goats browse and they will nibble at those things, but seem to not care for them.

Fiascofarms will anwer most of your questions....it did for me!

[Alice In TX/MO]

You need at least two does for drinking that amount and cheesemaking.

Some goats might stay in the horse fence. Most will not. Mine wouldn't. They would wiggle under or skin out in between the wires. Or jump over.

There is a saying... If your fence won't hold water (or smoke) it won't hold goats. It's almost true.

Goats really don't like getting rained on. They won't stand out like horses in the rain.

Goats are *very* intelligent and will spend much of their rest times figuring out how to out smart your every attempt to contain them and keep the feed from them.

[Tallabred]

I am new at this too. To make the decision on goats or cows I wanted to try the milk from a farm. I was pretty set on getting a miniture jersey cow and was able to get some raw cows milk to try. The milk was very yellow and had to be shook a lot to get the fat to mix back in. The fat would float up very quickly and nobody in my house liked it. Also the 4K investment in one cow was a major factor.

I then found a local nubian breeder that was selling her herd. She had to travel to much and could not put much time into them. The price was high for what I got but the gas cost made it a bargain. After I milked my first time everyone tried the white milk and it tastes like very rich milk. We are VERY happy with it. Made Chevre cheese for father's day and it came out great.

I am very happy that I went with goats instead of cows. I call them my new baaaabies since everytime they see me they go maaaa. Great personalities and very friendly.

[WeaverRose]

Just research raw milk. You have to be scrupulously clean with all your milking routine/utensils/pails/containers in any case for decent tasting milk, but drinking raw milk is sort of controversial, depends on your viewpoint. For family consumption, do some reading both pro and con to see what decision you should make - definitely you'll want to buy your milkers after confirming they are disease free. And I agree that goats don't like to be solo, they are social animals and enjoy other goat friends.

[chewie]

i am also fairly new, but was in the dairy business for years, working at farms. i was also a previous goat-snob! but now i have 6! they are lovely animals, and the 3 does i have now are making me about 2 gallons a day, nothing huge but not bad either. saanan milk seems a bit thinner but sweeter than my nub. milk, which is thicker and very creamy. i also have a FF oberhasli, who has been giving me 3 lbs every morning for the entire week that i've been locking her kids away at night. very happy with that.

most ppl come to my house take a glass of milk and go to their mouth like they are going to try some science experiment, then exclaim 'its very good! it just tastes like good fresh milk.' i keep my stuff clean, and drink raw. i feel the less you mess with your food, the better for you. nobody's been sick yet, and we've been drinking either goat or cow, raw, for 6 years or so.

don't get one, that's mean. and get a breed that is easy for you to get bred near your home, you dont' want to go on a week trip just to breed your does. for fencing, combo panels work great. and keep your feed locked up, double-locked! i got my nub. very sick by assuming she couldn't get into the feed area, but she did, bloated up pretty bad and got sick. she is good now, but it was scary.

i find they eat very little and give alot--both milk, and companionship. they are wonderful creatures.

[Carolyn]

We are goat milk snobs also--- there was no adjustment at all. my family, even my ex who thought he was going to die the first time he drank it, however after the first taste, he became a qt a meal milk drinker instead of a glass a meal milk drinker. I can't drink cows milk--- but my DD's claim the cows milk now tastes greasy. Because we milk and store milk in sterilized glass, there is no plastic or cardboard tastes to the milk. Find a good breeder and try some, we like the Mini Nubians and Nubians. Good luck Carolyn