I don't know if we can afford goats anymore......

[MamaDee]

A friend of mine was asking me about goats......and inquired about cost. So I did a quick checkbook scan over the last few months and was stunned. We spent $275 a month on feed! That doesn't even include hay and other supplies--so it's probably about $300 a month!!! That really gave us pause. Now I know we can get grocery store milk cheaper, and I would never compare goat milk to just buying that stuff. But we figured out that we could pay someone ELSE $10-12 a gallon for THEIR goat milk and still not spend that much money! WTH!!!

We have 5 does due to kid soon (so feed costs will go even higher, although we'll have the milk then) and two young bucks. They get grain (not alot, but more with advancing pregnancy), alfalfa pellets, a mixed hay (alfalfa is hard to find here and expensive) and we keep beet pulp around for a treat, although they don't get much of it often. We have a fenced area that we can move around, but they don't even care to eat the grass on it.

We have got to lower costs or I don't know if we can justify this anymore. I have a friend who only feeds corn and grass hay. But I just don't think that's smart.

I know 3 friends who have sold out their goats in the last year and 2 who got rid of their chickens for this very reason. Now I know people make priorities.....and will pay for them. But organic, all natural foods from "Whole Oats" are better for you, too, but we can't afford to shop there either. We used to belong to a food coop and do natural, but cannot afford $2 a box for natural mac and cheese or $5.99 a pound for organic chicken.

This is a wake up call for us and I don't know what to do about it. I'm sad.

Dee

[susanne]

i wish more homesteaders would do their homework and calculate what it cost to keep a goat. it will become clear, why a goatl cost more then $100

if you sell the kids, offer goat shares (sell milk), make cheese the goats will pay themself.

[MamaDee]

Suzanne,

I know it helps to sell the milk and kids, but I still don't know if we'd break even.....I'll have to do some serious figuring. We went through this same thing a couple of years ago when we had 14 goats......we knew we were paying too much for not enough return. So we downsized to enough for our family and a bit extra to sell.

But $300 a month is a ton of money. Is that what others are spending for 5 does (and 2 young bucks, I guess)?

Is there any way to reduce feed costs, other than grow your own hay?

Dee

[Katgowen]

I can get 50lbs of goat feed for 8.00 at my local feed store; it was lasting me about a month with two goats, I lost one of them and then the one we had left had twins. I am not sure how long it is going to last me with three goats, at least two of them are only two weeks old and still nursing. I am having to decide what I want to do with the buckling. I am thinking I'll sell him' but my kids get a little upset at the idea, so I guess I could wether him and keep him. They have been great at bramble control and that was the main reason we got the goats. I wish you luck on figuring out what to do.

[Saffy]

I must be starving my goats. It does not cost me that much at all. They get a round bale in the barn that last a good 3 to 4 weeks. Than I feed out about 1 bag of oats a week. They also get old bread from the thrift store. I have 8 goats. Am I'm doing something wrong? They all seem healthy

[MamaDee]

So, I did some figuring.

I took what we can expect to make on kids this year (based on how we did last year) and what we can expect to make selling milk for six months. I divided that amount by 12 months of the year. It came up to about $100 a month in sales.

So I subtracted the $100 to take my feed costs down to $200 a month. It would cost me $60 a month to buy milk from the grocery store, so that's not even close. I'm still losing money. If I bought raw goat's milk from someone else I would spend $200 a month--so that's about even. So I could basically buy someone else's goat milk for the same costs as I have for raising my own and all that goes with it. Wow. Am I doing something wrong?!!!

Dee

[MamaDee]

must be starving my goats. It does not cost me that much at all. They get a round bale in the barn that last a good 3 to 4 weeks. Than I feed out about 1 bag of oats a week. They also get old bread from the thrift store. I have 8 goats. Am I'm doing something wrong? They all seem healthy>>>

Saffy,

Are you milking your goats? I keep reading that they must have alfalfa. We can't afford to do free choice, but they get 1 1/2-2 pounds of alfalfa pellets a day per goat. Maybe we're spoiling them?

Dee

[susanne]

mamadee where are you located?
i just did taxes and i figured about $200 per goat per month. i'm in michigan and buy my hay. $7.50 for a very small bale (50 pound bale)
pellets are $50 per bag and grain mix is $12 per 50lb.
little stuff like meds and vet included.
you must feed a lot or your area must be extreme expensive.

my goat shares go year round

[susanne]

my goats get alfa pellets, at least three pounds per day. even my bucks get ala pellets. they also get boss which fortunately came down in price a little bit.

[southerngurl]

How many goats do you have? I'm paying too much for alfalfa hay and not all my goats are in milk and I'm still probably spending about $2.00 per gallon of milk I get, plus kids to sell. I'm not counting my time in that, just money that is going out. But I just don't see how a person could spend that much unless they had a ton of goats.

[bgraham]

Wow. I agree with Saffy. I must be starving my goats!

I go through 2 bags of Dumor goat feed and 2 bags of Alfalfa pellets a month. Plus hay.

I figure I spend $75 - $80 / month WITH hay. I only feed hay in winter. This is for 7 goats.

Beth

[stanb999]

I think you must redo your feeding methods... There is little reason to spend that much money to care for so few goats.

You said your keeping 5 does and 2 bucks..

First get rid of the extra buck. The most needed for breeding is one.

Next.
Decide which does keep the best fitness on the least inputs. You know the one or two that take the extra. This isn't about how sweet they are or how nice they act. Get your number down to 3 does. With 3 you should have a family size herd. You can even stagger breed them to be in milk always.

Next,

Unless your goats are losing fitness, pregnant, or milking they don't need anything but hay, water, and minerals. If you have goats that need constant high energy feed... See previous step.

For hay, Look around for cattle hay, or mix hay. Goats will thrive on what will ruin a horse. So don't spend the extra for good horse hay.
Feed them 3-5 pounds of hay total twice a day if you can. This will mean that a 50 pound bail should last at least 2 days. If their is hay on the ground the next day you fed too much. Try to get the amount that they eat it all. Leaving less than a hand full per day in their stall. So at the end of the week their isn't more than a single pitch fork load.

Feeding for fitness,
Start them very slowly on a sweet feed or grain. Give them 1/2 cup for a month and see that they are putting on weight. If they aren't up it to 1 cup. Wait a further 2 weeks. If the goat doesn't look better cull.

Feeding for breeding,

Feed free choice hay and give 1 cup of sweet feed or grain. For 1 month before the expected breeding time. Start the grain slowly over a 2 week period then Cut the grain back slowly over 2 weeks. For a total of no more than 8 weeks of grain feeding. Do the same for the buck but start him 2 weeks earlier.

When they are birthing or milking,
Start the feed ramp up at 30 days before the expected birthing date. Feed the girl in milk the best you can afford. She is now giving you more than the feed can possibly cost.



Following the above your feed per doe for the month should be

4, 50 pound bales of hay.... your cost per bail?
1 50 pound bag of feed or grain per production month or 10 a year. Your cost?
If she is in milk or birthing replace 2 of the bails of hay with Alfalfa pellets. Your cost?

Minerals 24 pounds a year... Your cost?


Your buck for the year.
40 , 50 pound bales of hay
1 1/2 50# bags feed or grain.
24 pounds of mineral.


Our cost for the above here in NEPA for a comparison purposes
For the doe...

When not in production. It's 12 dollars a month for hay. 2 dollars for mineral.
When birthing the cost is 6 dollars for hay and 30 dollars for pellets, 2 dollars for mineral.
During breeding if not milking... it is the same as above. If milking I like to up the alfalfa a bit more.

Based on 10 months of production My cost is 408 dollars per doe. This gives me an average of 2 kids and 150 gallons of milk. I can easily sell the kids for 200 (based on buck or whether selling for 75.00, and a doe selling for 125.00 ). So my cost for milk out of pocket is 1.33 a gallon. I like to double the per gallon cost in my mind so the extras like worming and medicines are added. So I figure a gallon milk on farm costs 2.50 or so. At least in my mind. This added costing figures bedding too.



I hope this helps....

[Charleen]

Originally Posted by susanne

i wish more homesteaders would do their homework and calculate what it cost to keep a goat. it will become clear, why a goatl cost more then $100

Good point. I've often said that it costs us a MINIMUM of $100 just to get a doe through pregnancy and deliver a live kid on the ground. We keep track of all farm expenses since we file income taxes as a farm. Last year was the worst ever for feed costs and we decided to cull a little deeper and cut the herd by half when we started the winter. The doe with the bad teat, or the one with incorrect breed markings, or the one that remained open with repro problems costs just as much to feed (more actually if you consider vet costs, time wasted and potential loss of kids) as the one with well-formed teats, the one free from breeding & pregnancy difficulties, and the one that meets breed standard (if you register your goats and sell papered kids).

Yes, if you make your own hay it might be cheaper but you also have the expense of equipment (tractor, hay bine, rake, baler) and precious TIME. Time is money, too. Need storage for ALL those bales instead of buying a load at a time. Are you able to raise a couple pigs on the goat milk that you have? We do this every year and that helps pay the bills. The cost you quoted for feed seems pretty high for our neck of the woods. We're paying $13.35 for 100#. Can you shop around and find something less expensive? While goats are dry they only receive feed once per day. Milkers get fed twice per day. Hay is available at all times.

[stanb999]

Originally Posted by susanne

mamadee where are you located?
i just did taxes and i figured about $200 per goat per month. i'm in michigan and buy my hay. $7.50 for a very small bale (50 pound bale)
pellets are $50 per bag and grain mix is $12 per 50lb.
little stuff like meds and vet included.
you must feed a lot or your area must be extreme expensive.

my goat shares go year round

Those prices would have me screaming....

I was upset to see the price of hay at 3.00
And the alfalfa being 15 bucks..

I guess I shouldn't complain so much.

P.S. I cut my own hay too. So My only costs are pellets and sweet feed. I can't imagine having feed bills like that.

[DownHome]

This is a good question. I just figured our out. We have 5 does and 2 bucks, all about a year old.

Calf Manna $8.16
Vitamins $5.00
Alfalfa/oats/milo $30 bought by the ton from grain mill
BOSS $8.00
Alfalfa hay $36 for 6 bales which is probably more than we actually use
Grass hay/boys $5

TOTAL $92.16

I took the cost of the bag of feed and then divided it by how long it last us. For example a bag of Calf Manna cost $24.50, but it usually last us about 3 months. We bought the boys a large bale of nice grass hay for $25. It has lasted all winter and there is still half left.

I don't know what you are feeding, but it sounds like you probably figured wrong or are feeding way to much. Maybe you could break it down for us like I did and we might be able to tell where the money leak is.

We go through a gallon of milk a day for a total of $105 a month. Still a little more expensive, if you figure in some months you may not get any milk, but still have to feed your goats.

[jerryf]

I fed 13 Boer does wih 23 nursing kids 1.8 kids apiece, 3 yearlings and 3 bucks. I fed 2 1/2 pounds of grain a day per goat plus 3 lbs of alfalfa hay per goats I fed my does to really milk and they do
My grain is a 16% corn/oats/ dairy pellet/ all the goodies is 13 cents/pound hay is 7 cents a pound
I spend that's $5.45 in grain and $1.40 in hay or $200 a month to 19 mature goats plus 23 kids

MamaDee do your goats waste a lot or is your feed really high.......you have 1/4 the goats I do..

Jerry
www.fletcherthreeoaks.com

[jadedhkr]

Wow, I scream at buying alfalfa hay at $5.60/bale and we now plan to reseed our hay field. We have a farmer who rents some of our field that will plant and bale it for us, so that will cut out our hay problem. We will pay for the seed and his fuel and should fill our barn with all we will need for a year. Obviously not everyone has that option, but I would still shop around. I've found some wonderful stuff for $5/bale around here.
We were feeding 7 does until I sold two of them last week. I was going through a bale every other day, now it is one every three to four days.
Grain is costing us around $12/bag and I go through one bag every 6 weeks right now, will go through more as more does start to kid.
Minerals, I haven't bought a new bag in so long, I've forgotten what that cost.

There are medications and other supplies, but I do my own vaccinating and blood drawing to keep costs down. But there is no way my milk is costing me more than store bought junk. Plus, I'm enjoying my animal friends

[Saffy]

I don't feed alpha pellets to my goats. They get free choice hay. A 800 lb round bale in $30.00, when milking I give the doe a scoop a mixed sweet feed and oats, mainly to keep her quiet and ease the milking. My Saanens give about 1.5 gallons a day each. Usually Gwen gives 2 gallons or over. I milk 2x day. The chickens get milk, the dogs get milk, and we have all the milk a person can drink! With extra milk I make the vinegar type cheese and add it into my lasagna. I could not imagne paying $7.00 a bale for hay!

[stanb999]

Originally Posted by susanne

my goats get alfa pellets, at least three pounds per day. even my bucks get ala pellets. they also get boss which fortunately came down in price a little bit.

You should feed your goats cow milk not alfalfa...

Your alfalfa is costing you 1 dollar per pound. Cow milk at the farm is only $10 per hundred. Or you could ffed them store bought milk

That's only 50 cents a pound....

You could feed your goats nothing but milk and it would be cheaper. That price is lunacy.

[picklespickles]

-------the thing that caught my mind was your goats not wanting to browse.--------


sure, they like bushes better than grass but not interested at all? that's what says to me you are feeding them too much. goats LOVE to chew, it's their favorite thing. so they would probably be as happy chewing your grass and weeds and sticks as they will be chewing your arm off with that feed bill. really, cut back a bit and begin moving their pen as you mention that you can. it will help keep them occupied and probabably make them not seem as hungry to you. becuase, a goat can and will literally eat itself to death. you can't go by that.

one other thought i had was, look closely at the body type for your goats. i know i have one who is very healthy, has always given me the best kids, never ever ever gets sick, but always has part of her back bone that sticks out no mattter what. now if i was thinking a person, or another type of goat, i'd be like FEED that thing. but that's her type. so i was also wondering if maybe your good mama instincts were maybe making you overfeed? i kind of got that idea because of your comment on your freind's goats not being enough food but not mentioning lowered production/bad health/etc.