Goats AND cows?

[Lada]

Does anyone have both?

I'm just daydreaming...hopefully in about 18 months we'll be ready to move to our property, and I'll have plenty of room for a cow. Right now we just have the goats because that's what we have room for. I do love goats, but before them, my plan was always to have a milk cow. Now I don't know. I'd love to be a little more self-sufficient and be able to have the butter and cream...plus I'd think it would be a good way to raise a beef. Breed, say, a jersey to a shorthorn and get a nice beef cross?

I'm in goatie love and don't want to give them up, though!

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

WE have 350 acres of pastured beef cattle behind us. Our goats initially could go out with the cows anytime they wanted, the problem was, they played ontop of the round bails, they would run and jump on cows laying down...I would have thought they would be afraid of them...but nope, the cows were afraid of the goats.

Also heat is heat in ruminants including deer, so bulls are a danger to your dairy does when they are in heat. Vicki

[whinnyninny]

Just how much butter and cream do you need? My 2 goats (who give 1 gallon a day total) provide us with the butter and cream we need for my family of 5 (soon to be 6)!

We wanted to get a milk cow, but had an impossible time finding any (besides heifer bottle calves). So we got goats instead, and we've since realized that if we had ended up with a cow, it would've given us way more milk than we could use.

Bottle calves (male) are really cheap where I live... you could always buy one and raise it for slaughter, if you want beef.

[mygoat]

Goats produce more milk for the amount of feed input.

They eat less overall, require less housing, less pasture, and will eat a wider array of plants than do cows. Therefore, you can have many, many more on the same amount of land and housing than one cow.

Goats have a higher butterfat content in their milk, and most good dairy does should produce a gallon per day, or more.

Does should produce at least twins or triplets every year, and if bred well, kids can sell for anywhere from 250.00 - 800.00 EACH.

Goats are smaller, easier to handle, and have loving, outgoing personalities.

Goat manure doesn't smell bad and is easy to clean up.

A 3-4 month old wether is a decent size and easily killed and butchered through by one person. They pack a LOT of meat on those frames, too. Also, you never have to spend one penny feeding them any grain to get them to a nice size - they do just fine pulled right from the teat/pasture/hay at this age and butchered.

Goats are easier to transport, show assist birthings, do medical treatments on, trim hooves etc...

If you want to produce beef as well, go to a local dairy who will often sell bull calves at birth for 25-75.00 apeice. You'll have to raise them on milk, which if you have 5+ milking dairy does should be easy to provide. They usually take a gallon or so of milk per day,which you can provide them if you have enough dairy does. So, you can get goat meat/milk, as well as get some beef, too.


I thought at one time I would like to have a dairy cow in the future. I now will never own a dairy cow, when goats are better producers, easier to care for, friendlier, cleaner - the list goes on.

[ozark_jewels]

We have them both. Have always had milk cows , the goats were a much later addition, only eight-nine years ago.
The cows and goats are pastured together, the cows have no access to the goat barn though(easily done by putting a board across the doorway that is goat high but too short for cows). They get along just fine, but do not feed them together....the cows are too big and when there is feed involved, not careful.
We have Jerseys and love them. We breed using a Jersey bull. Eat the excess Jersey bull calves and if you get a heifer they are worth much more if full Jersey as apposed to half beef. A week old Jersey heifer can be sold for $300-$500 depending on your area.
Just love them both. You can check out my website to see ours if you want.