I am pretty excited. Since I know I won't have goatie girls of age to breed and milk for a while, I just got involved with a milk share program. After expressing my interest in the goat milk shares, I scheduled a farm visit with the woman offering the shares. In a nutshell, a milk share is essentially a 'leasing' program where you lease a portion of a milking goat, and you pay a small fee every month for care and maintenance. In return, you get milk every week.
It was a lovely place! The woman has a small herd of five goats, three alpines and two Nigerians. Their pasture and enclosures were very clean, and so was the milking area. She showed me everything, from the goats, milking area, where she cleans and sanitizes milking equipment, and milk storage. And I got a taste of the fresh milk I would be buying (gotta test the product, haha), which was delicious!
I'll be getting a half gallon of milk a week. That is definitely enough for my needs. The milk is raw, which is something that doesn't bother or worry me. I will just make sure that I am the only one in the household who will drink it.
Oh, and she had a small flock of lovely and very friendly chickens! They're very used to getting treats, so they were incredibly interested in what we were doing during the visit.
