So excited! Goat management system is underway.

ani's ark · #1 08/20/12, 09:43 PM

I just had to share, DH is on his way into town to get supplies to finish the goat paddock/playground, finally! I hate to nag, but....
Salma the Saanen is heavily pregnant and she'd been living in the old chicken coop next to the front door with me trotting backwards and fowards for care and grazing every day. This will now become the kidding pen/mum's condo, and she and her kid(s) will move to the perfect paddock in the middle of her horse's paddock with shelter, adventure playground and views of the road so they can see everything going on. I have undersown the plain pasture with a diverse mix of herbs, so they will get some variety. It's also right by the poplar trees so I just throw cut branches over the fence. Looking foward to growing a small herd now.
It's right below the living room window so I can gaze at them for entertainment - far better than TV - and check on them constantly. Now crossing fingers for a healthy delivery of those twin doelings ;-)

CaliannG · #2 08/20/12, 10:04 PM

W00t!

Minelson · #3 08/20/12, 10:22 PM

Oh I hate to nag too...but sometimes it takes forever to get things done! I would be ecstatic! Take some before and after pictures. It sounds perfect for the goats and for YOU!

ani's ark · #4 08/20/12, 10:26 PM

It's really true - goats are addictive!

I used to hate goats until I was talked into buying Salma, a cull from the local dairy, she's such a sweet loving Saanen with delicious milk. As a child i was knocked down and butted by a family friend's grouchy pet wether and at our last house the next door neighbours got 3 boer goat kids as pets, which they neglected to fence or castrate... no sir, I was no fan of goats! Now I'm 'Goating' (as hubby calls going on this website) daily and asking him to look at goats for sale online all the time... oh dear, this can only get worse I fear....

ani's ark · #5 08/20/12, 10:27 PM

Yes, I must some pics as soon as it's finished!

CaliannG · #6 08/20/12, 10:57 PM

I had goats as a kid, which was about *cough, cough* years ago. Then, of course, I grew up, went to college, then entered the corporate world.

It took me about *cough, cough* years to realize how unhappy I was in the city, and in the corporate world, and realize that I really missed homesteading, and that was what I wanted to do with my life.

Of course, I knew homesteading really meant goats.

How can you homestead without goats? They are like THE perfect homestead animal!

Enter DH, a Colorado Boy, who had never been around goats, but DID have experience with sheep....and he LOATHED sheep.

I begged. I pleaded. I cajoled. I coaxed. I turned my big brown eyes on him and quivering lower lip.

Eventually, I wore him down, and one year, my X-mas present was: THREE goats!

They were MY goats, said The Man. *I* was going to take complete care of them, and HE wasn't going to have ANYTHING to do with them.

Okay, well I had done some refreshing of my knowledge, but I was not honestly expecting goats for X-mas, so I needed a crash coarse to update myself after *cough, cough* years OUT of goats.

Now, realize, these were completely WILD goats. You had to chase them down to do ANYTHING with them. And, of course, DH IS an animal lover. Luckily, 2 of the three were young. (I ended up selling the older "buck", he never got completely tame.)

With wild goats, some things you just need help on. Worming, vaccinations, etc....no way was I going to be able to do those things by myself. Then, of course, came taming them down.....

And the first time one of them actually came up to DH to get her ears scratched, he was LOST. His heart was officially melted.

Now he is very much my partner when it comes to our "goat venture". And while he still comes to me with questions about health and nutrition, he IS learning the answers, and he researches things on his own as well.

I fear I am a bad wife....leading my husband not only into temptation, but into full out addiction!

ani's ark · #7 08/21/12, 01:25 AM

Nice work Cali-ann. I'd call it 'excellent training' not leading him astray!

They are the perfect homestead animal - totally - meat, milk, entertainment, small size. But how will I justify a small goat herd when I have a dairy cow in a few years??? I'll find a way.

My DH quite likes Salma, enjoys her milk and loves roasted goat meat. It was the same story: "It's YOUR goat, YOU will look after it". He is fencing and building shelter for her as a good man does, but I am hoping that his full-blown goat appreciation will begin when he sees cute, cute, cute kids playing on the jungle gym (cable reel, logs and tyres) I'm going to put in the paddock! I cant wait to be entertained by that!

Minelson · #8 08/21/12, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliannG

Eventually, I wore him down, and one year, my X-mas present was: THREE goats!
They were MY goats, said The Man. *I* was going to take complete care of them, and HE wasn't going to have ANYTHING to do with them.

I think it's so sweet that he got you goats for Christmas...but I think it's hysterical that he got you 3 WILD ones!!!!! Too Funny!! (thanks honey

)

April · #9 08/21/12, 09:15 AM

Quote:

But how will I justify a small goat herd when I have a dairy cow in a few years???

You justify the goats with chevre and cajeta - the cow milk just doesn't taste quite right in those two applications - it's not delicate enough or something. I also much prefer the goat milk for drinking. You justify the cow with butter. Goat's milk just won't cut it there.

The more dairy animals you have, the more other animals you can feed with clabber. At least that's what I keep telling my husband!

We raise meat chicks almost totally on clabbered milk. Pigs do well on whey and clabber also. Even our ducks fight it out with the barn cats for the milking "remainders" twice a day. There's no justification needed for dairy animals. They feed the farm!

CaliannG · #10 08/21/12, 11:40 AM

Alice is SO right about justification. Although I disagree about the butter.

I have a cream separator and I make butter just fine from my milk! LOL

Still, my Mom has been ogling those Piedmontese cattle, and I think they are darling......

Minelson, the "buck" wasn't even fertile! Turned out that he had had, (as a much younger animal) Brucella, and had been treated for it and cured....but it left him sterile.

They weren't even the BREED that he was told they were. LOL

ani's ark · #11 08/22/12, 07:05 AM

Ooh a cream separator? goats milk butter? I must look into this.

Cows give so much milk! But I agree that you cant beat goat flavour in some cheeses - I just love a smooth goat feta or haloumi. And cows just dont have the fun character goats have.
So I guess I will have NO problem ever justifying goats. At least not on this website, DH is another story.

CaliannG · #12 08/22/12, 03:52 PM

We are ALL enablers here....but you have to talk to thaiblue about PROFESSIONAL enabling.

My mother got me the cream separator for X-mas...but I begged for 2 years. It is electric, mostly plastic, and it was bought out of the Ukraine via E-bay. I think it cost her $160.00. I had to buy an electric plug converter from Radio Shack, and that cost me $40.00. (The Urkraine doesn't have the same voltage/amperage/electric something that we have, nor is the plug the same, so you have to get a little box thing that plugs into the wall and takes the appliance plug. I like to call it a "translation box". It takes American electricity and teaches it to speak Ukrainian so that it can converse with the separator.)

Goat milk butter taste like butter. Only difference is that it is white, instead of yellow. That's because cow cream has beta carotene in it, a precurser to Vitamin A, which makes the cream yellowish....but goats convert the beta carotene to bio-available Vitamin A, so it doesn't have the color. In other words, goats do the work of converting for you.

wintrrwolf · #13 08/22/12, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliannG

(The Urkraine doesn't have the same voltage/amperage/electric something that we have, nor is the plug the same, so you have to get a little box thing that plugs into the wall and takes the appliance plug. I like to call it a "translation box". It takes American electricity and teaches it to speak Ukrainian so that it can converse with the separator.)

Gosh I love U Caliann that is a perfect analogy!!
So one needs a cream separator huh...no wonder I wasn't getting any butter just frothy milk...

CaliannG · #14 08/23/12, 09:44 AM

SOME people have had luck getting butter out of goat milk...but I am not one of those people. And I LIKE cream products! Butter, sour cream, heavy cream for my coffee......

So, separator. Since goat milk is naturally homogenized, with very little cream rising, the centrifugal separator gets it out for me. (With skim milk for certain cheeses, the chickens, or people who don't like the thickness of whole milk, i.e., my foster-daughter.)

I have a little under-counter RO unit that cost me $150.00 that we get our drinking and cooking water from (our water here is high salt), and that gave me an idea for using one to condense raw milk without heating it. Come to find out that I am not the first person to think of that... RO units are being used to condense both milk AND maple syrup without heating. (In maple syrup, it takes out over half of the water so that cooking times are reduced by 75%, saving fuel.)

ani's ark · #15 08/24/12, 01:59 AM

Stylish Cali-anneG. If I wasnt hellbent on getting a gorgeous moon-eyed Jersey cow in the next couple of years I'd go with the cream separator.
I'm currently eyeballing a saanen x boer doe and breed her and Salma with a boer buck for lots of meaty babies and 2 milkers. The neighbours about a kilometre away are keen to go halves on a cow to share the milk. I just LOOOVE cream and brown sugar on my porridge, oodles of butter on hubby's home made wholemeal bread. mmmm. But while I'm commuting and working full time I need to keep my chores at a manageable level, which is always tough while homesteading!

Pony · #16 08/24/12, 10:27 AM

Oh, goat butter has a very distinctive flavor. I much prefer it, but as it is a fairly rare commodity here, I save it for its most special application:

Popcorn.

There is nothing in the world like goat butter on popcorn.... Oh... <Pony! swoons at the remembrance of bowls of popcorn dripping with goat butter>

andabigmac · #17 08/24/12, 10:49 AM

Dang it. Now I really need a cream separator.

CaliannG · #18 08/24/12, 12:22 PM

~laughs~ If you feel all Mennonite, you can get the manual, crank-style centrifugal cream separator for about half the cost of my electric one. I went with the electric one because frankly, I am lazy. I KNEW that I wouldn't get the hand crank one out often enough!

AND, for the future, the separator works JUST FINE on cow milk. No waiting a day or two for the cream to rise so that you can painstakingly skim it off! Just set out two containers under the two spouts, pour your ultra-fresh cow milk in, and turn it on (or crank) and BANG, one container contains skim milk and the other contains cream. No waiting!

The cream separators were ORIGINALLY manufactured for use with cow milk, as waiting for days could often give the milk a chance to sour before you got the cream off...and sour butter is definitely an acquired taste! So, the separators did the job while the milk was still fresh and sweet.

~grinz~ There. I have given you a perfectly good justification and rationalization for getting a cream separator.

ESPECIALLY since you are ogling that moon-eyed, jersey cow.