Questions about dairy goats?
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Question by : Questions about dairy goats?
I am going to be starting up in the dairy goat hobby and I am a beginner who barely knows anything about them. I had a weather about a year ago as a pet but he bonded with the neighbors horses so I gave him to her. I now want to start raising two dairy goat does. Please tell me what is your favorite brand of food you feed; how do you dry a doe off and how often(this is the part i know nothing about so the more info on this the better); do you have to do something to does to get them to produce milk every year?; what is your recommendation on dairy breed; do i need to get a pasteurizer for the milk? Any extra info would be amazing or maybe a website or book 🙂 thanks so much
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One Response to Questions about dairy goats?
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Good job researching before you jump in. If you have more questions that I can answer you can feel free to email me.
To answer the questions you posed:
Feed: Alfalfa for all the does who are producing milk. This is better for them than only grass or oat hay, but you can supplement with that or use it to feed when your goats are not in milk. It just depends what you can get in your area within your budget. You also want to give them grain. I recommend a protein level at 16% but 14% can work too. You will want to give them enough grain to keep them healthy while they are milking but not so much to make them fat. Usually that is between 2-4lbs of grain a day.
Drying off(which is stopping milking for the year, not every day): you slowly milk less and less. For example you stop milking twice a day and go to once a day, then every 3 milkings, then you can usually stop, depending on how heavy a producer the goat is. You need to dry her off 2 months before she kids or when you are ready to stop milking for the year. For me that is usually the fall. Some people use antibiotics once they are dried off to clean up any lingering infections in the udder. This is controversial so you will need to decide for yourself if this is something you want to do.
Bringing into milk: A goat needs to give birth to produce milk. Most goat breeders kid (the act of giving birth) them out every year or every other year depending on how much milk you need and where the kids you produce are going. You will not be able to keep every kid born, and you will not have good enough animals for many years before you can keep males from your herd for breeding purposes. Do everyone a favor and be realistic about this. We don’t need more mediocre bucks in the mix. You will need to breed your does in the fall so they give birth in the spring and start producing milk. A goat is going to give you 4-10lbs of milk (2 quarts to 1.5 gallons) a day depending on your goat. This should also be a consideration before you breed your goats: how much milk do you need? Finally remember that if you are interested in showing Dairy goats they need to give birth by the time they are 2 years old so you can show them.
Picking a breed: The broad answer is look at a lot of pictures of adult goats and pick one that looks “pretty” to you. You will be looking at these goats 2 times a day, if they are ugly or not pretty to look at, you will have less of a desire to feed them and be around them. Please remember that every goat kid looks adorable so look at the adults. There is also a personal aspect. If you are tall you can probably handle the larger breeds like Saanen, Alpines, and Nubians, but if you are smaller you may want to pick a goat like a lamancha (my personal choice for smaller 4Hers) or a toggenburg which tend to be a bit smaller. If you can go out and look at animals that may help you as well. I raise Saanens and lamanchas and I know that the large saanens can be hard to people to handle because of their size. Also consider what is in your area. If you want to breed “pure” you should find out what breeds are in your area otherwise you will have a harder time finding a buck to use for breeding. You do not want to buy a buck with only 2 goats, they are big, smelly, and harder to handle(and hard on fences). You will do much better to borrow a buck for a week or take your goat to a breeder to get her bred. You will also want to have 2 goats, these can be different breeds, ages or even a doe and a wether, but you will not want to keep a goat by herself. Don’t forget about recorded grades, they can be some of the nicest goats and they tend to fit budgets better. Do try to get goats which are registered with ADGA. Breeders who are members tend to be more than just people who have goats in their backyard and really care about their animals. (not that all non members don’t, but that you will have a better chance to have a good seller)
Pasteurizer: No you don’t need a pasteurizer. You and your family can drink the milk raw if you use good sanitation when milking. You can also pasteurize milk in a double boiler over the stove if you want to make cheese or yogurt.
Resources: http://www.adga.org
Carine supply for all your equipment needs
“Your goat” is a good book for beginners as is “Raising goats the modern way” or “Raising Dairy goats”.
Starletlace
February 2, 2012 at 4:04 pm