Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age

by Dr. Anita Bailey

  Alternatively, you can use the knife method. The adult animals must be strongly restrained because they will struggle and kick. Castrated adult males will be off their feed for a day or two afterwards, and may continue to have breeding behaviors for several weeks after until their system clears out the testosterone. Then, they behave more like females, are calmer, less prone to fighting, and will gain fat. The musky flavor will be out of the meat in a few months.

  Milking

  After a week or two, when mother and kid have bonded and she is milking well, you can separate them for 12 hours daily. At this writing, people who raise goats strictly for milk will often “bottle feed” kids after they are 3 or 4 days old, saving the does’ milk for themselves. Purchased dry bottle-fed formula is adequate for raising goats, although it will increase your costs somewhat over not buying formula. Don’t try to use calf-formula, though, as it will weaken and eventually kill the baby goats (the fat particles are too large for the goat to absorb). Little goats do better on fresh mother’s milk, and there’s no additional cost for that. We may not always be able to get commercial dry goat formula, either.

  The reason for separating doe and kid for 12 hours daily is to allow you to milk the goat out and get half of her production for your own use. The other 12-hours’ worth goes to the kid; this will be plenty, and helps encourage the kid to eat vegetation or hay during his time away from mommy.

  The first two or three times they are separated, both will be upset and may bawl piteously. Stick to your guns. They will adjust, once they get into the rhythm of the change.

  When the kid is around 8 weeks old, you can permanently separate them if you like and wean the kid. At that point you will need to milk the doe twice daily, approximately every 12 hours, until she completes her lactation (milking) cycle, roughly 10 months.

  Since we have several milking does, our plan is to separate does and kids for 12 hours daily. We milk all the does at the same time in the morning, then turn them out with their kids. This give us plenty of milk. In the evening, the girls are penned up with fresh hay away from the babies. By morning, they are ready to be milked again and then back with the kids.

  In this way, we only milk once a day, and the kids get to bond with their mothers and have extra milk feeding until they are naturally weaned. If we need to be away from the farm for a couple days, we simply turn them all in together. We don’t have to worry about finding someone to handle the milking chores.

  How to Milk a Goat

  Unless you are very flexible and can stay in a squatting position for a period of time, you’ll need a stand for your goats to be milked upon. Any flat surface, about a foot or 16” off the ground will do – you can put a ramp up to it, or simply let the goat hop up (they have no problem doing that).

  You’ll need a way to restrain the goat – a large eye-hook screwed into a nearby wall with a leash on it to attach to the goat’s collar is adequate – but a stanchion-type arrangement is a bit more effective because it will keep the goat from moving around too much.

  The stanchion in the photo was made from 2x4s and other wood leftover from various projects. The flat part of the stand was an old drafting board almost a half-inch thick. To the right is a box-feeder midway up the stanchion outside the headgate. To the left is a ramp that isn’t very visible from the photo’s angle.

  If you start with a milk-trained goat, she will know to walk or hop up onto the stanchion at milking time. Place her feed in the box-feeder, and she’ll stick her head right through the stanchion head gate (more 2x4’s on a pivot or hinge), and they are closed and secured around her neck. She will munch happily while you are milking her and wait for you if she’s done with her grain before you’re done with milking. Turn her loose when milking is finished.

  If you are milking more than one goat, always milk them in the same order. Goats, like people, are creatures of habit, and they will learn the order after a few milkings so you won’t be mobbed. Keep the ones who are in line away from the stanchion, perhaps behind a gate, or they will all try to hop up at the same time.

  Stanchion head gate, open on left, closed on right. The metal pin holds the bar in place so the goat doesn’t pull her head out. The one moving bar on the right pivots on a bolt secured in the base (not visible), which acts as a hinge.

  If you need to train a goat, put a collar on the animal when they are young. Train them first to “lead”, which is the same as leash training a dog. Use a can with some grain in it to encourage the goat to follow the lead. Let the goat follow the grain with nudges from the leash. Put the grain in the stanchion feed box, and let the goat hop up and find it (she’ll know it’s there). Let her eat a little, then add a little more grain and gently close the head gate. As long as she has food, she is likely to be willing to be handled a little. Pet her, rub her udder, pick up her feet, pull on the teats. The idea is to get her used to being handled, and that it is a pleasant procedure.

  Feed for a goat while milking can be grains or a mix of grains and greens or fruit. A commercial “all grain,” while low protein, usually has molasses added which goats love. At this writing, complete goat pelleted feed is typically used. It doesn’t add any unwanted flavors to the milk, and is easy to measure. Feed one pound of grain for every 4 pints of milk the goat is giving. That’s a rough calculation but fits for most goats; you may need to add or subtract a little to keep her in good shape.

  The milking process takes a little while to learn to do, but isn’t hard. Brush or rub all around the udder to get loose hair and dirt off -- you’ll have cleaner milk. Some goat owners actually will wash the udder with mild soapy water or udder cleaning solution, and dry with a cloth (I never have). Place your milking bucket or can under the goat’s udder. Ideally your milk bucket is stainless steel, but whatever it is should be clean, have no rust, and have no sharp edges.

  Sit down on the edge of the milking stand, your right shoulder next to the goat’s right shoulder, facing the opposite direction as the goat (reverse if your milk stand is reversed). This allows you to put a little pressure with your shoulder against the goat and gives her a sense of security. Grasp a teat between your thumb and the edge, not tip, of your index finger, and compress. That causes the milk in the teat to be trapped within the teat.

  Now, squeeze with your middle, ring, and pinky finger in order – pushing the milk down to the opening in the bottom of the teat. A stream of milk will pour out. Repeat until you can’t get any more, then do the same on the other teat. From time to time, bump upward against the udder just like the kids do. It helps stimulate milk “let down” reflex and keeps the flow going. Go back and forth between the teats, as milk will build up again a little.

  If the goat has been nursed on, the milk will flow right away. If the kid has only nursed on one side or didn’t nurse, there may be a “plug” in the teat (normal), and it will take some squeezing to get it out.

  When you milk, do NOT stretch the teats downward. That is unnecessary and tends to break down the tissues and even the udder itself.

  Milk each goat into one bucket individually, then pour that into a holding bucket that can be tightly covered to keep out flies and barn dust – if there’s an incident with one goat, you won’t lose all your milk. Some goats develop a bad habit of lifting a back leg, and may put a foot into the milk container. That ruins the milk (feed to dogs or chickens). Be alert so that you can snatch the can out of the way, and prevent loss of the milk, then go back and milk some more. Pushing the can firmly against the legs can help reduce this, or even restraining the offending leg to the stanchion with a leash might help. Remember to release the leg before you release the neck, otherwise the goat might try to jump away and injure herself.

  Handling Milk

  Once your goat or goats are milked out, bring your collected milk indoors right away. You’ll need to pass it through a filter -- a clean, boiled, dry t-shirt or muslin, or special goat or cow milk filters are fine -- to remove any particulate material, and then in
to a clean jar. Immediately cool the milk in the jar, either by refrigerating, putting the jar into a bucket of snow, or into cold water. Cooling the milk slows the growth of bacteria and will prolong the time you can keep it good. You can pasteurize the milk if you wish by heating it to near boiling for a minute or two. The milk around the very edge of the container will form tiny bubbles. Then cool as above. Cleanliness is very important to have good milk.

  Healthy raw milk will keep in good condition for several days to two weeks. Cooler milk will keep longer. If it’s cold and frozen outside, store the milk in a covered snow-filled box outdoors in shade, the best freezer there is. If the milk starts to firm up and separate, smells tangy and good, it’s still fine to eat – ever hear of “curds and whey”? That’s what is happening.

  Use the curds in place of cottage cheese, which is what it is. Feed the whey to chickens, pigs, or pets, or use it in cooking or drink it. It is the same whey that is the basis of high protein health drinks, except better because it contains all the natural enzymes and microflora. It should smell tangy and appetizing. If it smells musty or rotten, that’s a different story.

  Pasteurization destroys those beneficial bacteria, so instead of converting to curds and whey, pasteurized milk just goes off; that milk should be disposed of. Frozen milk may separate or get chunky when it is thawed, but it is not fermented; makes great pudding, sauces, and used in cooking.

  Wash all milk utensils first in cold water, then in hot or boiling water. If you have dish soap, use it with the hot water stage. Rinse in hot water. Use the cold wash first to release the milk fat from your container. Otherwise, using hot water first will “set” a fatty residue on your container that is hard to remove and may contaminate your next milkings.

  Should you have more milk than you can use, make cheese. “Fresh” cheese methods are in the recipes section. You can also pressure can milk for later use, also in the recipes.

  Housing

  Goats do not like to be rained or snowed upon. They will need some kind of shelter that gives them relief from rain, snow, and sun. With very cold weather, there should be deep bedding of hay or straw, and holes in the shed should be closed or patched to prevent drafts. Insulation will help, but make sure the goats cannot get to it. Cover with wood planks or plywood, as they will chew insulation and could die from eating it. Access to stalls in a horse barn or a separate portion of your chicken house will work fine, keeping in mind that most goats are escape artists and will break through flimsy barriers.

  They will also need access to a pasture, field, or woodland to get exercise and additional food. In winter, they will still need pasture and hay. Good fences give you control over where your animals go, and where they can’t go (such as your garden). Make permanent fields, even if you start with a small area because you’ll be using it for years. Should you have limited funds, get cattle panels, 16 feet long, and set up a portable corral using metal t-posts to hold up the panels. Then you can move your corral to fresh ground when the plants have been eaten down.

  With more funds and time, you can acquire “sheep and goat fence”, a heavier type of wire with 4”x4” openings. Installed around a field, it will keep most goats inside and most predators out. People can’t climb it easily, and getting under it means finding a low spot and scooching through with some effort. In our area, sheep and goat fence runs about $250 for 330 feet, plus add t-posts every 8 to 10 feet, which are about $5 each. There is a cost involved in good fencing. If your goats have horns, be cautious of “field fence” that they can get tangled in. They poke their heads through the 6”x6” holes, and can’t pull out as their horns get caught. Count the goats when you check daily, and if one is missing, check your fence line.

  Without cash or options to buy fence materials, consider natural materials and “found” materials (recycled, repurposed). In the past, farmers chopped down small 4”-5” diameter cedar trees, stripped off branches, and pounded the resulting post into the ground with a sledge hammer. People were much hardier in the old days. A fence might require hundreds of posts, so that is quite a job to collect posts. Barbed wire was then strung post to post, 4 to 5 wires high.

  Less expensive, still, is collecting shipping pallets, often as simple as asking for pallets at businesses where you see them stacked. Each pallet may differ in size, but on average they are 36” wide. One hundred pallets, stood on edge and wired together, would fence about 300 feet of fence line.

  For long-term fences, rock walls made from stones collected right in the field can be stacked 4 feet high. It’s physically demanding work, no doubt about that, but the rock fence will outlast the builder.

  Finally, fence lines can be created over time using existing plants and with judicious new plantings. Each region has its favorite fence trees. In my area, “hedge apple”, also known as bois d’arc used to be planted and interlaced as they grew where the farmer wanted a fence. The woven young branches get bigger and stronger with time, and the prickles on the tree become large and sharp. Very few large animals even try to get through a hedge apple fence.

  Predators

  Goats are high on the menu for predators – coyotes, bobcats, and the neighbor’s dog are among the worst. In fact, the neighbor’s dog or your own is likely to be the hardest on any given farmer’s goats and sheep.

  Many commercial goat breeders keep livestock guardian dogs among their flocks – these big dogs are literally raised among the goats and seem to consider the livestock their ‘pack’. If any livestock are threatened, the guardian dog goes on the defensive. They are often large enough to fight off coyotes and other predators. Common breeds are Anatolians and Great Pyrenees, and crosses of these can work well, too. We have crossbred guardians, and they are Great Pyrenees/Bloodhound X Collie – easy going very large dogs that keep coyotes, raccoons, possums, armadillos, bobcats, skunks, and other predators away. The dogs have the run of the farm. They have to, in order to patrol and repel threats to their herd.

  In this area, many livestock owners will also run a donkey or two with cattle or small livestock. Donkeys have a reputation for driving off coyotes and the neighbor’s dog, as well. If a livestock guardian dog or donkey saves a single goat or lamb from being killed by a predator, that guardian probably paid for a year’s worth of its own feed.

  During every downturn of the past livestock have been poached from farmers’ land. The human predator is the hardest one to control. The only option we can think of is to pen the animals up at night, and keep them in an area where they can be easily observed during the day. If times get very difficult, frontier justice may again be instituted for “rustlers.”

  Goat Meat: Chevon

  Goat is a favorite food worldwide. It’s only in the US that we’ve forgotten what a nutritious, tasty meat that goats produce. It can be used in any way you’d use beef: soups, stews, ground, or as mini-steaks and roasts.

  Young castrated male goats, at about 40 pounds, are the most tender and delicious, excellent roasted whole on a BBQ spit. You can eat adult goats, but you’ll have to cook at lower temperatures and longer to keep the meat tender, but they make outstanding lean ground meat and sausage.

  You’ll get approximately half of the animal’s “live weight” in meat, so a 100-pound goat will give 50 pounds of meat, more or less. You can also save livers and kidneys to eat, if you like organ meats, and bones for use in soups, stews, and broths. Goat meat from dairy animals tends to be lean, so use slow cooking methods, or pressure cook it.

  Extra meat can be canned, dried, or smoked for later use; a few recipes are included in that section. Instructions on butchering are later in the book.

  And/Or Sheep

  Sheep are so much like goats in their feed and housing requirements that you can keep them alongside each other. They won’t crossbreed because they are different species, which probably had common ancestors millennia ago. The primary differences are that sheep have heavy wool that must be sheared off annually; and sheep are more group-oriented a
nd less independent than goats. Sheep can also provide a rich milk, meat (as lambs), fine skins for clothing and mittens, and wool for warm sweaters and blankets.

  If you hope to use sheep wool, some breeds are better suited and have finer, easier to spin wool – Ramboullet, Targhee, Finn, Merino, and crosses of these large white-faced white-wooled breeds – are top of the line. “Heirloom” breeds such as Cheviot and the black-and-white spotted Jacob generally have very good spinning wool as well. Other heirlooms such as the Leicester Long Wool have long coats and a coarser wool, easy to spin, but better suited to outerwear than something that contacts your skin. One of the most common large “meat” breeds of sheep, the Suffolk, has short coarse wool. It can be spun, but hard to work with and rough on your skin.

  There’s also varieties and crosses of “hair” sheep – the Katadin and Barbados are typical – that develop a short dense coat in the winter that sheds in the spring. Finally, the ancient Shetland breed, a small sheep, has a “double” coat, dense soft wool undercoat and a coarse hair outer coat.

  Shearing

  If you only have a few sheep, you can trim the wool using a good pair of scissors. Have the animal secured standing in a stanchion, and trim from the neck back to the rear. Be extremely careful that you leave about a half inch of wool on the animal, otherwise it could sunburn or simply get too cold if the weather turns harsh. Leaving some wool also helps prevent scissor-cuts on the sheep’s skin. Very easy to do, as their skin is tender. Keep a scissor-sharpener on hand, and use it often. Figure on taking an hour per sheep.