Best goat for milk?

[tesaba]

In terms of milk production, what breed of goat should i look into for SE TX weather (hot and humid)?

Just milk-it will essentially be a pet. Also, a breed that does well with some confinement (1/4-1/2 acre), as i recall a friend that had goats that were terrible and constantly getting loose or injured trying to get loose-but they were almost wild.

I have some experience with goats, but not so much individual breeds as handling whatever breeds i was around.

Did you have any luck?? We are new Backyard Chicken peeps and have already been talking about milking goats......we are just South of you in Lumberton!!! Let me know!

 

[KelsiNS]

Hubby lost his job about the same time we started saving for goats. So, no luck yet!

 

[handyman42]

First off I'd say with your climate ( I can sympathize, live in Arkansas) you want a African breed. That right there cuts it down to Nigerian Dwarf or Nubian. Nubians will produce gobs more milk but are bigger and some people have difficulty handling large breed animals. In which case the Nigerian Dwarfs would be your goat small, but still good milk producers. In fact the best of the miniature/dwarf breeds. Either way I'd say you'd have a good herd. My uncle raises Nubians and after the first baby they have being a single nannies will typically have twins or triplets. A characteristic that is greatly admired if you want to grow your herd rapidly and produce more milk. Also if you weather a young buckling you can raise him for meat as well. I'm going to be getting goats next year hopefully. Good Luck!!

 

[handyman42]

*shrugs* I use cattle panels for my Nigerian Dwarves, and they stay confined. Even the buck in rut stays put, despite the girls going into strong heats now. The key is not to put anything near the fence that they can JUMP over. All my toys for the goats are far from the fenceline. If they get a hoofhold, they'll launch over.

The young kids, until they are 3-4 months old, can squeeze through the cattle panel. But they like to keep close to their mothers, who are still behind the fencing, so they rarely do.

Cattle panels are a great idea, Only thing I might do for the kids is put some 2"x4" welded wire horse fence around it to keep em from squeezing out. Just a thought.

 

[cassie]

I used to live in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Summer temperatures were often over 100 degrees and stayed that way. I had Alpines, Nubians, LaManchas and Toggenburgs. All the breeds tolerated the heat very well. As for the best breed of goat for a family milk goat, Nubians have the best flavored milk. I would stay away from Toggenburgs. My Toggenburgs had very good milk, but there are some lines of Toggs that produce milk with a very bad flavor, and this problem is hereditary.