Goats are inquisitive, fun, adventurous, troublesome, and enjoyable livestock. Like bunnies, they are food. It’s easy to forget, so a reminder about names: “The spotted one”, “Ground meat”, “Sausage” are good choices.
Goats can live comfortably in a large pen or with access to fields and forest land. Their preferred food is “browse”, leaves, twigs, and some grass. They tend to take a bite and then go to something else; that’s normal. Multiflora rose, usually a pest plant, can be eradicated by a herd of goats. The grains and seeds you raise for your own use – corn, amaranth, sunflowers – all make excellent goat feed. Goats will also enjoy soft pumpkins that have been hit by frost, especially in the winter, and will eat them seeds and all.
Selecting a Milk Goat
Hopefully, before you acquire your first goat, you have had some experience with chickens and rabbits. If things in the world are falling apart rapidly around you, there may be some benefit to just buying any goats you can get. That is, even if they are rough quality, some goats are better than no goats.
Ideally, you will set up a holding pen/shed and small pasture area for your milker before she arrives. The space will need to be expandable or have access to pasture because your milk goat will have kids before long, and they will need room, as well. Additionally, if you do not live within walking distance of someone who owns a buck goat, you’ll need one of those, too.
The best way to start with a goat is to buy one that is already “in milk” and is accustomed to being milked. If she comes with at least one kid, that’s even better. Basically, you’re looking for an animal that has been trained already, that has proven she can have a kid successfully, and that is proving that she has no condition that might ruin her ability to milk.
Keep in mind that if you are buying somebody’s already-milking goat, you will NOT be getting their best milker or top producer. The Nubian doe and kid shown at the start of this section were being sold by the breeder because “the doe doesn’t produce as well as I’d like” and because “she had a buck kid – I wanted a doeling.” That worked out perfect for us, because we wanted a buck from milking lines and we didn’t need a huge amount of milk from one animal (we were getting two other unrelated does around the same time).
The doe gave us a quart of milk two times a day, a half-gallon of milk daily – which worked out to ice cream and cheese, with whey for the chickens. Everybody was happy. In terms of productivity, this one goat would be sufficient to meet our needs at this time….but having only one animal and being dependent on it, means if that animal is sick or unable to produce or dies, you’re out of luck.
Two is one. One is none…
You can acquire goats from a breeder who has animals that are generally more predictable and more expensive; from a hobbyist who has friendly pets; from a livestock auction (challenging); or by placing an ad that says something like: will take your unwanted goats for homesteading. Answer all inquiries!
Auction goats may or may not be good deals. Generally, you’ll be paying “meat” prices because you really don’t know if you are getting healthy animals or not. Hobbyist goats have usually been handled a lot and are very people-friendly, or they have just been on the “back 40” and are fairly wild “scrub goats”. Free goats are a coin toss – sometimes great, sometimes worth exactly what you paid. Aim toward the healthiest animals you can find. If you can’t tell a good-quality animal, bring a friend who knows or have a nice long conversation with the seller or other auction buyers.
My preference, usually, is to go to the goat-breeder’s farm and look at the rest of their animals. Healthy animals tend to produce healthy offspring. Some breeders will sell pedigreed kids without pedigree paperwork at reduced price. If you are looking for a particular breed and aren’t terribly concerned about the joys of registering animals, that might be an option.
The biggest problem with pricier goats from breeders is that, even with a great pedigree, you’re going to get pampered babies (whether they are adult or not) – and that means higher time, energy, and medication requirements for you in the future. You might get great milk production, but there’s a price for that.
It’s rather like buying a new Porsche versus buying a dinged 4-wheel drive pickup. The Porsche is fabulous and drives like a charm on good roads. On rough backcountry gravel roads with washouts and ruts, the Porsche will fail you. That old tough pickup will just keep going. It’s not a “nice ride”, but it will get you around. Same idea with purebred versus scrub goats.
Qualities to look for: well-balanced udder that is without hot spots, significant lumps, or more than two teats; clean, easy gait, with hooves that are not overgrown “pixie toes”; no sniffles, cough, drooling, rashes, repetitive behaviors; head shaking, staggering, or anything else that looks odd. Horns are a nuisance, but might be a plus for some self-defense; many who raise goats have the horns “disbudded” from kids when the horns are nubbins at about 2-3 weeks of age. You can’t remove the horns from adults because they are actually grown out of the skull bones – you risk cracking the animal’s skull if you cut them like cattle horns, and sawing off horns can bleed the animal to death. Different coat colors can indicate ancestry, and might give a little indication of milking potential (or not).
Goats of both sexes can breed at about 6 months of age. Some owners will prevent does from breeding until they are older, believing that the doe will have an easier time with labor and birth if they are a bit bigger when they deliver. The gestation period is about 5 months, so a goat bred in November will likely deliver kids in March.
Does come “into season” for about 3 days, and if not bred she’ll cycle again in about 3 weeks. When she’s in season, the doe makes more noise and “flags” or waves her tail, and there may be a little puffiness or discharge from her vulva. These signs can be fairly subtle. The doe can be brought to the buck for service when she is showing signs, or left with the buck to take care of at the appropriate time. The actual breeding takes about 30 seconds. One or two breedings is sufficient for healthy animals to assure pregnancy.
Breeds
There are many breeds of dairy goats, and a few of meat goats. Dairy goats are finer boned and don’t develop the heavy muscling of meat types.
Meat goats, up until a couple decades ago, were called “Spanish” goats. There were believed to have been brought to the New World during the age of exploration on Spanish sailing vessels as food for the crew. When ships landed, goats were put on land to fatten up and took off into the wild country. Their descendants still roam unpopulated areas, and have been gathered into herds in Mexico and Caribbean Islands. From there, they made it to the US. These are typically mid-sized goats that appear sturdy, of any color whatsoever, and usually have horns.
A more recent import is the Boer goat from South Africa, usually white with a brown or black head coloring. These are large, heavily muscled, and do well on grassy pasture. Their temperament is calm, and they don’t climb fences as readily as dairy goats do. Females produce about a quart of milk twice daily for four or five months, then taper off.
Of the mini-goats, Nigerian Dwarves are the milkers, giving perhaps a quart of milk daily. Pygmy goats are much chunkier and are usually kept as pets; they will produce milk but are not known for quantity. Both of these are good for small spaces, but are perhaps more ornamental than useful.
Dairy breeds are numerous and each one has devoted supporters. Nubians are the ones with long, floppy ears. They are the most vocal of the breeds, and come in many different and sometimes flamboyant colors. They originated in the Middle East and tolerate humid and dry conditions, but may be challenged by continuous cold. A good Nubian should be able to produce around a gallon of milk a day, but I have never seen one who gave that much. Their milk is usually higher butterfat and slightly sweet when on good pasture or hay. Nubians are sometimes crossed with Boers to produce a larger sized meat kid. When crossed with other dairy breeds, they produce offspring with “airplane” ears that are partiall
y upright and stick out to the sides, and tend to improve the butterfat of the next generation’s milk.
The Saanen is a solid white dairy breed that originated in the Swiss Alps, perhaps having some extra cold tolerance. They are the Holstein of the goat world, producing large quantities of moderate to lower butterfat milk. A gallon daily would be average for these goats and more is pretty typical.
La Manchas are the “earless” goats. They have a mutation that causes them to have truncated tiny ears. Their hearing is normal. When crossed with other breeds, the offspring may have partial, whole, or tiny ears. They are built a bit heavier than typical milk breeds.
Alpines are similar to the Saanen, but black with brown markings on face and legs. They are also generally a little smaller than Saanens, but good producers.
Kinder goats are a breed developed from crosses of dairy goats with miniature goats (Pygmy and Nigerian). Over the last several decades, they’ve been standardized, that is, bred among other Kinders to develop a consistent type. They are good milkers, friendly without being cloying like the Nubians can be, and fairly hardy.
I’m skipping over many other breeds here, including Angoras which grow a long hair coat but are not noted for their milk or meat, and others that are quite nice simply because they are somewhat less common than the ones I’ve mentioned. Having an unusual or rare breed tends to be pricey and unnecessary if all you are seeking is milk and meat. Bragging rights don’t count at the dinner table.
Kids and Milk
Goats, like cattle and other mammals, produce milk to feed their offspring. In order to get milk from a goat, a “doe” or “nanny”, she must first be bred by a male goat, called a “buck” or a “billy”. Gestation is about 5 months, and goats are seasonal breeders, that is, they tend to breed during certain seasons. Most dairy goats breed in the fall; colder weather seems to trigger mating. “Meat” breed goats such as the Boer often breed spring and fall. You may get two crops of baby “kids” from them.
Buck goats generate a rather unpleasant musky odor, worse in the breeding season, which the does appear to enjoy. If the buck hangs around milking does, the bucky-odor will permeate the milk. For that reason, many goat breeders keep their buck(s) in a pen or field separate from the does. If dividing fences aren’t sturdy, the buck will find a way in with the girls.
Does may have, on average, 1 to 3 kids at a time. Sometimes they will reject a small one, or one may not be able to compete for one of the does’ two teats and ends up stunted or dead. Occasionally, you’ll have to either bottle feed an extra kid, or farm it out to another willing doe. Option 2 is easier on you, but it takes a while for a doe to accept another animal’s kid. Some people will squirt milk from the adoptive doe on the foster kid to impart the doe’s scent to it.
Even with only one kid, most goat mothers will be nursed from both sides of her udder. We collect colostrum, the first milk, on day one or two after a kid is born, and freeze it. Colostrum is vital to populating the young goat’s gut with high levels of nutrients and microbial life that it needs to stay healthy and digest food. Kids that don’t get any colostrum will be unhealthy or may outright die. They must receive it within 12 hours of birth; their gut is “open” to the colostrum bioflora only for a period of time, and after that it is much less helpful for them.
Goat colostrum can be given to newborns of virtually any mammal species, including humans, to help get them going, as well. Although saving some by freezing it works now, if there is no electricity and it’s not freezing outdoors, we won’t be able to save frozen colostrum. We will likely make an effort to dry some on clean plates, the dried chunks to be rehydrated in clean water if needed. I don’t know how well that will work in the long run Better than nothing, though. Heat-canning colostrum will destroy the bioflora.
You may need to pen the mother and kid together for a few days to protect the kid from being bumped by other goats, or you may simply be able to leave doe and kid to their regular routines. She will nurse it multiple times daily.
Check the doe’s udder at least once a day. If you find “hot” or “hard” spots, she’ll need to be hand-milked until that improves. That’s typically a sign of “mastitis”, or an inflammation in the udder. Use warm moist packs to the udder, and gently massage all around. A single 325mg aspirin tablet crushed in some sweet feed might help bring down some of the heat and tenderness, or you can bring willow leaf and chipped inner willow bark for the goat to nibble. Willow contains salicylic acid, the primary pain relieving ingredient in aspirin. Chopped garlic might help, but it will strongly flavor the milk. If you have antibiotics, an injection of DuraPen (penicillin) based on the goat’s weight will usually resolve it in a day or two. Don’t use the milk when a goat has mastitis – it may be off-color and appear to have streaky strings in it -- but it’s okay for the kid or other animals like chickens or dogs to drink.
Castration
At about 5-10 days of age, you can wether the male kids, assuming the kid is healthy and testicles have descended into the scrotum. The unpleasant business of castrating the males has two benefits: it prevents unwanted breeding and harassing of young does; and it reduces to zero the musky flavor that will permeate the meat otherwise.
A brief castration tutorial is available online as I write; check the references section. This is a job for 2 to 3 people – holding the animal is sometimes a challenge.
The easiest way is to have one person sit down and upend the goat in their lap, holding the animal’s rear legs up so that the scrotum is exposed. Use an “elastrator”, which is a hand held device (about $25) that opens a heavy rubber band enough that the second person can slip it over the animal’s scrotum, and press against its belly.
Feel to be sure both testicles are present and that the goat’s tiny nipples aren’t getting pinched, then push the rubber band off the device’s pegs, and remove the device leaving the band in place. It will hurt, and the little guy may roll or lay down uncomfortably. Immediately let him go to his mother. He will nurse and quickly forget. The area will go numb, since both nerve and blood supply are pinched off. After a few weeks, the scrotum will dry up and fall off.
Another common method is the use of a Burdizzo, effectively a large clamp that crushes blood vessels and the spermatic cord at the same time, but is too dull edged to cut through the animal’s skin. A certain amount of arm strength is critical to doing this right, as you have to close the Burdizzo and squeeze it tightly. For small livestock, place the clamp between the scrotum and body, close slightly and feel to be sure both testicles are down below the clamp. Then close the clamp and hold. Small animals don’t require an intense squeeze. Like the elastrator, there is no bleeding – although this is also a painful procedure and the kid will struggle and cry out. Release to his mother for reassurance. The scrotum will shrink over several weeks but remain present.
A third method of castration is simple, but probably has greater risk of infection. In this, after securing the kid, you feel for the testicles and push them up away from the bottom of the scrotum. Using a sharp pocket knife or scissors, cut the bottom third of the scrotum off and discard. Now, push one of the testicles out the cut, and using the dull part of your pocket knife SCRAPE but DO NOT CUT the spermatic cord and blood vessels until it breaks. You want to scrape because it reduces bleeding over cutting. When one side is done, discard the testicle and do the same on the other. If any bit of cord hangs below the end of the cut scrotum, pull it down and scrape higher up to shorten it. Let the kid go to his mother, then pen up on clean hay or straw for a day. Check several times to make sure there is no excessive bleeding. Drainage from the goat’s open scrotum actually can be somewhat protective, as it will keep flushing bacteria out for a while.
Ideally, with each of these methods, you’d also give the animal a tetanus vaccination – the third method, especially, since he’s going to have an open, draining wound that will be exposed to bacteria. Tetanus is caused by a naturally-occurring bacteria that lives in the
soil; if it gets into a wound (puncture wounds are the worst) it can cause the muscular rigidity of tetanus, It is which is terribly painful and fatal. If an animal comes down with tetanus, it must be put down. Wear gloves and remove it to be burned immediately after killing it – don’t expose your dogs or cats to the risk of gnawing on the carcass.
Castrating adult animals can be done best using the Burdizzo squeezing one side above the scrotum at a time. Restrain the animal securely, such as in a milkstand. Place the clamp, and feel for the “cord” or cords (spermatic cord and blood vessel – the testicle will be down and out of the way). Then squeeze and hold. Standing animals will kick, go a little weak in the knees, and bawl. Then, do the same on the other side above the scrotum. There may be some swelling in the scrotum for days to a couple weeks. Blood trapped in the scrotum and inflammation from the castration process is responsible.
Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age Page 20