For those of you with milk goats....

[greyfields]

Well the spring kidding/lambing is intended to have your ewes/goats hitting the best grass (apring-june) while lactating - and- when the kids/lambs are just starting to eat grass as well it will be at its highest protein content and palatability.

But, since you're in AZ, you may not have to manage grass and are importing all your feed anyhow. I would avoid calving, lambing, kidding, hatching in the dead of winter unless you are really set up for it.

 

[kstaven]

I agree with greyfields. We stagger breeding dates here for the dairy animals. But it is 5 times the work and prep. 10 times the worry and stress. And many, many more sleepless nights checking animals in the cold winter. Not a thing I would recommend to most.

 

[KierBri]

ok, just a question about cost....i don't have a goat (yet) but i do know feed prices. a gallon of milk a day is about $120 a month. you're telling me a goat eats a $120 a month?

 

[MissPrissy]

No way. A 50lb bag of feed these days is about $9 - a big goat gets 2 qts a day. A bale of hay can be $2.75 - $5 and it needs about a pad a day plus forage.

My goats each eat about $6 - 10 a week (winter cost are more due to more feed needs and less forage) and give me 2 - 4 gallons of milk a day when both big does are milking. Milk here is about $5 a gallon. I am getting $140 of milk a week for about $12 of feed.

I make yogurt, cheese, buttermilk, sour cream, kefir - all sorts of stuff out of the milk. It is for more than just drinking. Any left overs get fed to the chickens. And soon piglets.

I come out ahead with the milk.

 

[greyfields]

I have never sat down to calculate how much my goats eat. My three does go through a bag of alfalfa pellets in about 3 days and the bags run around $11 where I live. I also give them hay to munch on which I cut myself, so it's difficult to apply a cost to that.... although bales of hay are $8-10 where I live. This time of year, though, I have them out in the pastures eating blackberries as much as possible.

 

[palabeco]

Quote:
Is that cows milk your pricing for comparison or goats milk? Here I was told that goats milk can sell for as much as $8 to $12 a gallon, although the lady that is selling us our goats, doesn't have a milk parlour permit, she sells her goats milk as animal food only for $6 gallon.

 

[MissPrissy]

Yes. There is no where here I know to buy goats milk. Not even the grocery.

 

[AussieSharon]

I don't know about Va but I used to buy goats milk in Kentucky at Winn Dixie and Kroger.

 

[domromer]

Is it possible to get goats that don't make a lot of milk? I'm thinking of getting some, I'm the only milk drinker in the house. It takes us about 3 weeks to finish a gallon of milk.

 

[Chatychick]

Nigerian Dwarfs make about a quat or 2 a day with 2 milkings...you can milk them once a day and keep the babies on them. That is what I did with mine and that way there wasnt too much milk here. also I freeze milk so I can have it when I dry up my does...The Nigerians are a small type of milk goat but check the milk lines of breeding so you dont get a heavy milker. I have 1 that has heavy milk lines and then I have some that dont also. Ask the breeder what the milk lines are before you get them and you do need 2 at least , its better to have 2. Tehn make sure 1 is bred and 1 is in milk them you will have milk year round. and not too much of it either. Also look at the teat size as some are really small and hard to milk. Try to find 1 with larger teats.