- Sep 5, 2012
- 166
- 30
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Hey Mygirls, I looked up mini jerseys and found a site comparing them with goats. AI for a mini is at least $120 including shipping. That may not include your vet's charge, if u use a vet. Mini J's are $2,000 a piece and up, if this site is right! They say an a2/a2 cow is $5,000 (genetic thing)! Bulls are expensive, too!
Dexters are not much cheaper, IIRC, and though the long legged kind is taller than a mini J, they are still pretty small - and do milk.
Goats would make a lot more sense. You can get a doe for $300 or less - I wouldn't go for a show quality one that costs more - you don't need it. You can run at least 4 to an acre, maybe a lot more. Just put them inside at night for coyote protection. The fence they'll need may keep coyotes out, too - goats need expensive fencing, btw - cows can do w/ cheap barbed wire.
I didn't know goat milk is naturally homoginized, and you'd need a separator to get goat cream out. And it won't make butter.
Goats' diets are different from cows, as you may know. They are browsers and not made to live on grass, like cows are. They can, but they prefer forbs (weeds, not grass) and browsing - bushes and stuff. Your yard would probably be okay for goats, though. Deer, for example, can't live on grass - they eat it - but they get little nutrition from it and need other things.
Mela, yeah donkeys have awesome reps as LGs. Okay, have you considered a "methane digester" for your manure? This means not just composting it, but collecting the methane for use as you compost it. A continual production digester is a long chamber, often buried and slanted, and you feed it at the top often - and out the bottom comes out compost (if buried, which is advantageous, u need a "pit" to get the sludge out).
Okay, mehtane can be very dangerous but is safe if handled right. Trying to store it is the hardest part. You could try filtering it and pumping it into a tank, but that's a mess - and expensive. There are bladders systems, but if oxygen gets sucked back into the bladder (or somehow enters it) - they can blow up. Continual burn is safest - and 200 lbs a day of manure should support a continual burn. You can shift where it is burning - like the water heater - a range top - house heater - barn heater - or just flare it off when not needed. An engine to make electricity is possible but expensive. Also, continual burn means that no or little filtering of the methane is needed.
Also, you can get heat by running clean water pipes through the digester and heating this water - which is piped through the flooring of a building. It's a lot of work to set up and would take adjustment in your rourtine to use, but it's worth looking into. Tons of good sites on it, just google around if interested.
Dexters are not much cheaper, IIRC, and though the long legged kind is taller than a mini J, they are still pretty small - and do milk.
Goats would make a lot more sense. You can get a doe for $300 or less - I wouldn't go for a show quality one that costs more - you don't need it. You can run at least 4 to an acre, maybe a lot more. Just put them inside at night for coyote protection. The fence they'll need may keep coyotes out, too - goats need expensive fencing, btw - cows can do w/ cheap barbed wire.
I didn't know goat milk is naturally homoginized, and you'd need a separator to get goat cream out. And it won't make butter.
Goats' diets are different from cows, as you may know. They are browsers and not made to live on grass, like cows are. They can, but they prefer forbs (weeds, not grass) and browsing - bushes and stuff. Your yard would probably be okay for goats, though. Deer, for example, can't live on grass - they eat it - but they get little nutrition from it and need other things.
Mela, yeah donkeys have awesome reps as LGs. Okay, have you considered a "methane digester" for your manure? This means not just composting it, but collecting the methane for use as you compost it. A continual production digester is a long chamber, often buried and slanted, and you feed it at the top often - and out the bottom comes out compost (if buried, which is advantageous, u need a "pit" to get the sludge out).
Okay, mehtane can be very dangerous but is safe if handled right. Trying to store it is the hardest part. You could try filtering it and pumping it into a tank, but that's a mess - and expensive. There are bladders systems, but if oxygen gets sucked back into the bladder (or somehow enters it) - they can blow up. Continual burn is safest - and 200 lbs a day of manure should support a continual burn. You can shift where it is burning - like the water heater - a range top - house heater - barn heater - or just flare it off when not needed. An engine to make electricity is possible but expensive. Also, continual burn means that no or little filtering of the methane is needed.
Also, you can get heat by running clean water pipes through the digester and heating this water - which is piped through the flooring of a building. It's a lot of work to set up and would take adjustment in your rourtine to use, but it's worth looking into. Tons of good sites on it, just google around if interested.
