Goat Thread!

[henny1129]

Hello and good morning from Warrenton Va. Our family is going to be adding goats to our farm. We want goats to raise,milk and use there milk to make cheese. What type of goats would you suggest? We live on 6 acres.

Hello and good afternoon! There are six main dairy breeds: Alpine, Toggenburg, LaMancha, Saanen, Oberhasli, and Nubian. All produce a good amount of milk and have good personalities. I am partial to LaManchas because that was the first breed of goat I ever showed and the first goat I fell in love with was a LaMancha too. Depending on how many goats you are getting on 6 acres you might want to consider Nigerian Dwarfs which are much smaller than standard breeds but still produce almost the same amount of milk. Sometimes the smaller breeds have more of attitudes though. Hopefully this helps and if you have any more questions just ask!
henny1129

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hello and good afternoon! There are six main dairy breeds: Alpine, Toggenburg, LaMancha, Saanen, Oberhasli, and Nubian. All produce a good amount of milk and have good personalities. I am partial to LaManchas because that was the first breed of goat I ever showed and the first goat I fell in love with was a LaMancha too. Depending on how many goats you are getting on 6 acres you might want to consider Nigerian Dwarfs which are much smaller than standard breeds but still produce almost the same amount of milk. Sometimes the smaller breeds have more of attitudes though. Hopefully this helps and if you have any more questions just ask!
henny1129

My two la mancha boys have been the loudest and noisy goats I have owned of the dairy breeds. I personally would not get anymore, plus the small ears are creepy to me. They are friendly and gentle though, so if they had ears and would be quiet I would love the breed too. I'm partial to Nubians but don't have any at the moment. I currently only have wethers as pets, mostly dairy boys. I would agree that the miniatures have more spunk and attitude, when I only kept the miniatures they were always bashing each other, the dairy breeds don't do that as often. I currently have 12. 3 Nigerian and 9 dairy boys.

 

[The Duck Ladie]

 

[henny1129]

Cute goats Duck Ladie and oldhenlikesdogs! I do suppose the LaManchas are loud!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Cute goats Duck Ladie and oldhenlikesdogs! I do suppose the LaManchas are loud!

Thanks.

 

[henny1129]

Thanks.

Yep!

 

[chixcoop]

I do not understand the whole sequence of having a doeling around a doe to get milk. Will a doe always give milk, just not as much when it is childless?

When can goats even have children?

 

[cassie]

I do not understand the whole sequence of having a doeling around a doe to get milk. Will a doe always give milk, just not as much when it is childless?

When can goats even have children?

I'm not sure I understand your question but I'll try. Mammals produce milk to feed their offspring. They do not produce milk until they give birth. Goats are mammals. So are you. For a goat to produce milk she first needs to be bred and give birth to kids. A standard lactation is 10 months. If she is bred seven months after kidding she will kid again a year after she kidded the first time. She needs to be dried off two months before she freshens (kids) again.

 

[chixcoop]

She needs to be dried off two months before she freshens (kids) again.

Thanks that makes sense, but what does this mean?

 

[cassie]

Thanks that makes sense, but what does this mean?

I'm not sure I understand the question. What does what mean?