Raising Goats Naturally Read online

  My journey with goats has been an interesting one, generally made easier and only sometimes more complicated by the internet. I joined online groups and forums where people would answer my questions when I came across a situation that was not answered in any of my books. In the early 2000s, most of the people answering questions on the groups had been breeding goats for at least a few years and had a lot of good information. Today, however, because goats have become more common, there are a multitude of websites and blogs putting out information, some of which is questionable or downright wrong. Although information is more plentiful than ever, it is also more challenging to weed through it all to get accurate information. Social media has made it even more challenging. I’ve seen people giving kidding advice when they’ve only had one or two sets of kids themselves. It’s not unusual for a person to ask a question and get more than 50 responses, many of which are contradictory.

  There is no one-size-fits-all approach to raising goats. When I was in graduate school working towards my master’s degree in communication, I had a professor who would often throw out a question and after someone gave an answer he’d nod and then ask, “Anyone else?” Someone would hesitantly raise a hand and say, “Well, it depends.” The professor would smile and respond, “That’s the grad school answer.” He would reassure the first person that their answer was not necessarily wrong and point out that there could be multiple right answers to the question, depending on the situation. This is often the case when raising goats. Many people want to know exactly what to feed, what supplements to use, and whether a management practice is safe. Usually the answer is, “It depends.”

  The goal of this book is not to put forth the single best plan for raising goats and making dairy products. Quite simply, the best plan on my farm probably won’t work for most other farms. It should be obvious that goats on the Illinois prairie will require different management from those in the Arizona desert or the mountains of British Columbia. But if the farmer two miles from me raised goats, they would require different management as well because the well water on that farm does not have the high sulfur content of my well. If I’m starting to lose you because it sounds like raising goats might be too complicated, wait! It really isn’t.

  The goal of this book is to give you the information you need so you can figure out what will work best for you and your goats. I see a lot of new goat owners online asking why they see so much contradictory information and wanting to know who is right. Is a certain brand of mineral the best? Should you give injectable mineral supplements? Why can one person’s goats do well with a mineral block while other goats need loose minerals? The reality is that sometimes two people with seemingly opposite ideas are both making the right decision for their goats. This is why it is important for you to understand the “why” behind recommendations. If you simply try to duplicate the practices of some award-winning herd, you could wind up with dead goats, and that is not an exaggeration or a hypothetical conclusion. It has happened.

  Throughout this book, I’ve included stories that tell you about what various goats have taught me. I’ve done this because I truly believe that I have learned far more from my goats than from any book, website, or veterinarian. Your goats will let you know whether your management style is working for them. This book will give you a good basic knowledge of goats’ needs, but ultimately it is by listening to your own animals that you will figure out the best way to care for them. When a goat gets sick, has difficulty birthing, or dies, it has just given you valuable information about your management practices and possibly about its own genetics. It is also giving you information when its fertility rate skyrockets or milk production goes down. Whether a kid grows quickly or slowly, it is giving you information about its mother’s milk production. This book will help you understand what the goats are telling you so that you can provide them with the environment and diet that will help them reach their genetic potential.

  You may be wondering what “raising goats naturally” means. It is definitely not what happens in factory farms, but it is not strictly organic either. It is important to understand that under organic standards an animal cannot be denied medical attention. The animal is supposed to be treated with conventional medication when necessary, but its milk cannot be sold as organic for the rest of the current lactation. Once a meat animal has been treated with conventional medication, it can never be sold as organic. There is no legal definition of “natural” food, but in my world it means that animals are not given antibiotics in their daily rations and they are not injected with hormones to increase milk production or to get bred. They are not given dewormers on a regular basis—either chemical or herbal. Just as it is my personal goal to have a diet and lifestyle that allow me to stay healthy and avoid routine medications, my goal for my herd is that they will stay healthy with the proper diet and management.

  Goats have enriched my life in so many ways, from their charming personalities to their delicious cheese. Unfortunately, goats have a bad reputation—undeserved, in my opinion—for being difficult to handle and having off-flavored milk. And some people wrongly assume that having a dairy animal sentences you to twice-daily milkings every day of the year with no holidays. So another goal of this book is to dispel misconceptions about goats.

  WE STARTED our little endeavor partly because I’m horrified by factory farm treatment of animals and partly because I think a lot of the food that is being mass marketed right now is very unhealthy to downright poisonous.

  When I started raising our chickens and goats, I had an epiphany about the “cost” of food. And I don’t really mean money. Huge chain stores advertise “cheap” food, but I think the idea of “cheap” meat, eggs, or milk is an insult. There is nothing cheap about life. The amount of waste in this country generated either by individuals overindulging or restaurants or other institutions throwing food away affects the real cost of food, just as do poor management practices in the mass production of meat or eggs that cause huge recalls and the disposal of thousands of pounds of these products.

  I have learned by watching pregnant does waddle around, scream in labor, and go through everything they go through to make milk that it’s a big deal. It isn’t just some beverage that appears in a bottle at the grocery store: an animal carried a baby, delivered and loved that baby, and then put their life energy into making that milk. I can’t stand to waste an egg or a cup of milk that I and my animals have labored over producing (pun intended). An enormous amount of collective effort, animal and human, has gone into that egg or milk, and it is special. To associate “cheap” or “disposable” with this milk is to say that my little goat’s life, love for her baby, and effort to make milk is not worthy of the dignity we generally assign to living beings. I think that separating the food product from the intimate relationship with the living being that produced it is what allows us to treat factory-farmed animals so terribly.

  Around the world, I see that some animals are afforded a certain quality of life or protection under the law, such as pet dogs, and some are not, such as factory-farmed animals. Some people are afforded certain rights, and some people are deprived of these rights due to societal prejudice. It is my personal philosophy that no life, human or animal, is cheap or expendable. My greatest hope for our farm is that my human children will grow up with an enduring respect for all life. I hope they know there is not a type of animal, breed of animal, or use for an animal that justifies forcing that animal to live with zero dignity or respect. I believe that this sort of respect for animal life will also help them to understand that there are no “types” of people who are less deserving of any quality of life.

  — JULIANA GOODWIN, Punta Gorda, Florida

  Whether you are just thinking about getting a couple of goats to make your own cheese or you are further along in your personal goat journey, there is always more to learn. Every goat is an individual and will present you with its own unique personality and physical traits. The milk that you get from month to mont
h will be a little bit different, providing you with cheese-making surprises. Like every other aspect of living a self-reliant lifestyle, you can’t expect perfection. But at some point you realize that perfection really is not the goal.

  The Question of Lactose

  Can I drink goat milk if I’m lactose intolerant? The answer to this question is actually quite complicated. Many people assume any type of physical discomfort following milk consumption is due to lactose intolerance, but there are a number of reasons why you may have difficulty drinking milk. If you are truly lactose intolerant, you cannot comfortably consume any milk because all milk contains lactose, a milk sugar. Aged cheeses will have less lactose in them as they age, so the older the cheese gets, the less you may react to it.

  A true milk allergy, however, is a reaction to the milk protein, and this allergy can vary when consuming milk from one species to another, so you might react negatively to cow milk but be able to drink goat or sheep milk. There are people who have difficulty digesting pasteurized milk but are fine with raw milk. And then there is the most confusing group — those who react negatively to dairy products only sometimes. They may be reacting to the drugs or hormones that are in the milk, which can vary from day to day, depending upon whether the milk came from a farm that uses hormones or when a cow received her last dose of an antibiotic. Even though no detectable level of antibiotics is permitted in milk for sale, a sensitive person may react to residual levels of antibiotics that are below what is detectable by modern testing procedures.

  If you cannot happily consume milk and dairy products, try goat milk or goat cheese before actually buying a couple of goats to make sure that you will be able to eat and drink your homegrown products.

  The reason you have goats on your homestead is not necessarily to produce the perfect cheese or to create a million-dollar corporation that makes artisanal goat cheese. Goats on your homestead provide you with milk that is fresher than anything money can buy. It comes from animals that spend their days outside in the sunshine breathing fresh air. It comes from animals that have names and are loved and cared for. They are not given hormones to increase milk production or to grow faster than nature intended. Your homegrown meat and your homemade dairy products are free from ingredients that you can’t pronounce. Although homestead goats can save you money, the reality is that the benefits are priceless.

  PART I

  Planning, Purchasing, and Protecting

  If you grew up consuming cow milk, you may have considered a cow when you decided to start producing your own dairy products. But there are plenty of reasons why goats are a better option for most people in modern society. Goats are easier to handle simply because they are smaller than cows. If you did not grow up on a farm, where you got used to handling cattle, goats will be less intimidating. It can be almost impossible to find a trained milk cow to purchase, but training a goat is not as difficult or as potentially dangerous for the novice as training a cow that has never been milked. It is also less expensive to get started with goats because they do not require the heavy-duty handling equipment needed for safe handling of cattle.

  Although goats are easier to raise than cattle, this does not mean that you can just bring them home and let them run free in the pasture and expect all of their needs to be met. This section will give you the information you need to consider before getting goats as well as information on choosing a breed, on housing, bedding, fencing, livestock guardians, and more so that you have everything in place and ready when you bring your goats home. If you already have goats, this section might give you ideas for making your life easier or your goats happier.

  CHAPTER 1

  CHOOSING YOUR GOATS

  After deciding that I wanted Nigerian Dwarf goats, mostly because they were listed on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy conservation list, I bought the first three that I found for sale. As you might imagine, there is a better way to go about choosing goats. It never occurred to me that some might be better milkers than others in terms of production, personality, or mammary system. Those are just a few of the things to take into consideration before buying.

  How much milk do you want every day for consumption as fluid milk? How much cheese do you want to make? Do you want to butcher extra bucks for meat? How much meat do you want? Do you want fiber? Can you handle a 200-pound animal, or do you need one around 75 pounds? By the time you finish reading this section, you should have figured out how many goats you need and narrowed down the breed options, and you will have a good idea how to find goats that will meet your needs.

  Breeds

  Goats are categorized as meat, dairy, or fiber goats. Of course, all goats make milk and all have meat on them, but those that have been bred as dairy goats tend to be better milk producers, and the meat goat breeds tend to have more meat on them. You can milk meat goats, and most dairy wethers are butchered, but if your main goal is to make cheese, you’d probably be disappointed in the milk yield if you purchased a meat breed. On the flip side, if you have no interest in milking, and you only want goats for meat, you’d probably be better off with a meat breed. Although all goats have an undercoat of cashmere, it’s not very much, so if your main goal is fiber, you should go with a fiber breed. There is a lot to consider when choosing a breed of goat, and it goes far beyond the descriptions of their color, personality, and milk production. The following information about the different breeds can serve as a starting point.

  Dairy Breeds

  There are eight breeds of dairy goats common to the United States and Canada: Alpine, LaMancha, Nigerian Dwarf, Nubian, Oberhasli, Saanen, Sable, and Toggenburg. The Guernsey is a rare breed that is slowly increasing in number in North America. All of these are standard-sized except for the Nigerian Dwarf.

  This mini-LaMancha has the characteristic elf ears of a full-sized LaMancha, but it is several inches shorter. Production and butterfat fall somewhere between that of a Nigerian Dwarf and a LaMancha. Many people are drawn to mini-LaManchas and mini-Nubians because they like the non-erect ears but prefer the smaller size.

  There are also miniature dairy goats, which are hybrids of the Nigerian Dwarf and any of the standard-sized breeds. In order to avoid birthing difficulties when breeding for a hybrid, the buck must be the Nigerian Dwarf and the doe must be the standard-sized goat. The hybrids are referred to as the mini-Alpine, mini-Nubian, and so on. Although Pygmies used to be raised for dairy, the focus of most breeders in the last couple decades has turned towards raising them for pets, meaning that milk production and ease of milking are not emphasized.

  You may also see “grade” or “experimental” goats, which are usually crossbreeds. A “recorded grade” is a goat whose pedigree is recorded with the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) but is not registered as a purebred.

  The production and butterfat averages listed in the breed descriptions are from the American Dairy Goat Association, which keeps milking records for herds that are on Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI), which means the goats are milked once a month under the supervision of a milk tester. The milk is weighed, and a sample is sent to a lab where it is tested for butterfat, protein, and somatic cell count. ADGA keeps track of the milking records so that breeders can see how their goats measure up to others in the breed. Some might argue that goats on test will have higher average production than goats not on test because only breeders with exceptional producers will want to test. In other words, the breed averages are really just the averages of goats on test, which is probably much higher than the average goat.

  Alpine

  Sometimes called the French Alpine, this breed comes in a variety of colors and patterns. They have erect ears and a straight nose. The does should be at least 30 inches tall at the withers and weigh at least 135 pounds. Bucks should be at least 32 inches tall and weigh at least 170 pounds. The Alpine’s butterfat averages 3.3 percent and production is around 2,400 pounds of milk over a nine- to ten-month lactation. Alpines are a popular breed for those who want a lot o
f fluid milk, including commercial goat dairies.

  Valium is an Alpine doe at Triple Creek Dairy in Iowa. Her color is “cou blanc,” which means white neck. The Alpine’s striking colors and markings are one reason for the breed’s popularity.

  Guernsey

  The Guernsey is a recent addition to the dairy goat scene in the United States. The breed is being developed from Golden Guernsey embryos that were imported in the 1990s. Those offspring, as well as some imported semen, were crossed with Swiss-type dairy goats here. The Guernsey is medium-sized, similar to the Oberhasli or Toggenburg. Guernseys are critically endangered worldwide, which attracted the interest of Teresa Casselman of Six Point Farm in Bloomington, Illinois, who has been raising Nubians since 1994.

  Credit: Teresa Casselman

  Snowbird Angelo is a Guernsey buck. Although both does and bucks grow beards, you may see pictures of does without beards because they are cut off when does are clipped for shows.

  “I first learned about the Guernsey breed in 2003 when the Dairy Goat Journal featured the Golden Guernsey goat on its cover. As the name implies, the Golden Guernsey goat originated on the Island of Guernsey and nearby Channel Islands,” Teresa has said. “I continued to follow the progress of the breed in the United States, and in 2011 I purchased my first Guernsey does. By this time, both does and bucks were starting to become available, but they were still few and far between. I drove to Pennsylvania for my does and to Washington for my buck. The does were bred and kidded in 2012. As beginner’s luck would have it, my first Guernsey kidded with quad does.”