What do we need to raise dairy goats?

[danisgoat]

Thanks!! We're working on building ourselves a cob house (have you heard of this?) and I think we're going to go cob for the goats as well & build them a cob house & pen as high as we can make it. I think to start off with we'll get a doe in milk & a wether and then just go from there. I appreciate all your help!!

If you are raising the goats for milk and you don't want to sell the kids for meat, I wouldn't get a wether. You will have enough wethers to deal with over time with the kids. Why start out with a wether?

 

[SternRose]

Why don't you just breed them when you need the meat, then sell the meat? And goats can have up to 4 kids in a litter.

 

[danisgoat]

Why don't you just breed them when you need the meat, then sell the meat? And goats can have up to 4 kids in a litter.

I have been breeding goats for 30 years (Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs) and I never had Quads. Mostly twins, sometimes triplets or singletons, but 4 is a lot for a goat and pretty rare.

 

[SternRose]

Yes I know a Pygmy goat that had 4 healthy girls. In one birth.

 

[Stacykins]

I have been breeding goats for 30 years (Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs) and I never had Quads. Mostly twins, sometimes triplets or singletons, but 4 is a lot for a goat and pretty rare.

Yes I know a Pygmy goat that had 4 healthy girls. In one birth.

Sternrose, Danis isn't implying that your goat didn't have four. Quads are possible. But they are also very uncommon. If you compare statistically the number of singles, twins, and triplets born, then the number of quads,obviously, the quads will be very low. I don't think it is wise to imply all goats have quads all the time like it is a normal thing

 

[SternRose]

I understand what she said. Fully understud. So there was realy no need for that reply stacykins

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Well with being vegetarians there's no way we could rehome a kid where s/he would be killed for food. But I love the idea of castrating them so that they will all be rehomed as wethers. Is 1/2 an acre ok for 2 goats? It's mainly loaded with trees though so would we need to clear all the trees first or no? How much would it cost to have all the trees cleared or is there a way to have it done for free? How much sqaure footage is recommended per goat in the pen & house? And how high to keep them from jumping out especially since we work during the day & wouldn't be home to make sure they didn't jump out.

If you are going to breed goats, you will soon have alot of goats. The folks I know that do the live off the land thing and have milking goats eat a fair amount of the kids. I do have some ideas though having had 2 pet goats for my kids.

1) Any boy you are not keeping for breeding needs to be fixed.
2) Consider cross breeding with other types of goats... San Carlos unfixed bucks do not smell and are very hardy and there is currently folks working on milk quality of and they are smaller breed, Dwarves are cute so maybe easier to find homes, and finally the wool folks Cashmere. You can hire stud goats to cross with your girls.
3) FFA & 4H kids often need project animals, make contact with them before breeding, as you will want to talk to project leaders to find out how to best breed your goats to be useful in a project and often the horns have to be catarized off when they are young for shows.
4) Male goats can be trained to be draft animals, pull carts you drive, carry stuff on back and so on.

I had a Cashmere Dwarf cross his coat was gorgous he had his horns too... he was very handsome but only a little bigger then the 100% dwarf goat. Everybody loved him. Smaller maybe the way to go when breeding to rehome the babies and get milk. Adding wool traits to your line at some point might help to get them rehomed to wool hobbiests.


Note on rehoming goats: goats are herd animals and for the goat to be happy and the new owners to be happy they need a herd (a minuim of 2 animals) other wise they will bah bah bah every waking moment in a panic if alone. (Dogs usually will not be happy being the other goat, no matter how good a dog, as goats like to play head but games.)

Good luck and I hope this helps.

 

[SternRose]

Price and temperament also play a BIG roll in how good of homes they go to. If you have a pretty good outcome on your offspring, you might have another breeder buying from you. Depending on breed and size $10-$25 is a good price.

 

[cassie]

I have been breeding goats for 30 years (Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs) and I never had Quads. Mostly twins, sometimes triplets or singletons, but 4 is a lot for a goat and pretty rare.

Gee. My Nubians frequently had quads. Now five is rare, but it happens.

 

[SternRose]

Thank you, now maybe will quit dissing on me for stating a fact.