Questions for goat owners

[mekasmom]

Milk and pets. I do everything I can to avoid having my bucklings (or does) end up as meat. I try very hard to make sure everyone is a pet or simply a milker.

In the early post partum period, I milk 4times a day. After milk is well established, I just milk twice a day by hand.

 

[ShadyGlade]

We have both milk and meat varieties of goat. I don't like the necessity of milking twice a day so I only have animals that are not quite such prolific producers. Our first dairy goat would have suffered tremendously if not milked very regularly. After experiencing that lactation cycle I opted to send her elsewhere and stick to less highly producing does that were more flexible in their milking needs.

We raise all our own meat here so we also eat our excess male goats. We sometimes sell them as pets. Our very first goat is still here and is a pet as we had the vet wether him when too many of his offspring were in the breeding pool. To keep things in perspective we often give the animals that we know will end up in the freezer "food names". Some goats are full of personality and some just don't seem to be anything all that special.