Anybody with dairy goats?

[equine chick]

I've been thinking about this for a while, i like to give it a try with some dairy goats. I found a few farms near me, unfortunately none are available right now. So i figure i go to a few farm shows this year around here and talk with the goat owners so maybe next year i can get a couple. What kind of goats are the best milkers, most tolerant of newbies? Should i just start with a couple of baby does or buy the freshened ones that are a little seasoned. Please post pics of your goats.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I love the lamanchas, they are very smart and produce lots of milk. The nubians are also good, they have high butter fat but they are stubborn.

 

[4H kids and mom]

As far as friendliness you could go with a Boer cross. They are so playful, and attach to their "favorite" person. Their milk is supposed to be smoother, and less "fatty" from what the farmers I got mine from told me. I have one Boer, and one Boer/Angora cross.

But, you DO know that the only way to get milk from a goat is to let them kid, right? That means you'll have to breed them and let them give birth to (normally) twin kids. Then you need to wait a week or two before you can milk them because their first milk is meant for the babies only (like humans first milk) and its not very good for us. Then you have to continue milking them to keep up their supply. And I think you have to take the kids away from them, and bottle raise them to get an adequet milk supply too. If you already knew all this, then just ignore me. I'm on my "educate them all" podium! lol

 

[Frozen Feathers]

If I could throw my 2 cents in (which is probably only worth half

) I'd go w/ Nigerian Dwarfs. They are wonderful milkers (actually a milking breed), easy to maintain and extra friendly. They are also very, very inexpensive to feed, and supplementing the babies wouldn't be that pricey.

An added bonus is that like other breeds of dairy goats (which get rather big) they can't jump out of fencing! I've had Alpines and Nubians also, but they are bigger and I couldn't build a fence high enough on the money I was making at the time.

They would climb right out, I needed chain link and well, if you've ever bought chain link, (or browsed) it's not cheap. Of course that is my experience. I do have friends who raise Alpine, Nubians and Boer and theirs will stay in a double strand electric fence, they are trained from the time they are babies though.

The only "downside" I see with them is they have tons of babies. Where other breeds tend to have twins and occasionally triplets these guys often have triplets and the women I am purchasing my 2 new goats has one doe that throws QUINTS every year! That's right, 5 babies in that tiny little body!
Well that's my opinion! I bet every other goat person on here has their favorite breed. Just like chickens.

 

[BirdBrain]

Can I ask a totally ingnorant question? I know that to get milk from cows and goats they have to have recently had a calf or kids. How long do you wait after they have delivered to start milking them? WHat about what their ofspring need in the way of milk? How do you handle that?--bottle feed? Do you milk twice a day? I would love to have goats some time in the future and was wondering about how all this works.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

http://fiascofarm.com/ Anything any body ever wanted to know about dairy goats is on this site..and I mean anything!

This is also a great site for herbal/natural medications for animals including wormers that you can use on Chickens. Has recipes, too.