Buying a Milk Goat? Things You Should Consider

Yahoo ^ | Jan 26th, 2013 | Sherry Tomfeld

[Conservative4Ever]

Goats will eat most anything..I speak from experience. :-)

[EQAndyBuzz]

One of the kids I coached brought home a goat as a 4H project. He went off to school the next day and when he came home he couldn’t find the goat.

His dad came back from his business trip that day and thinking the goat was the other white meat proceeded to butcher it. At dinner, the kid asked his dad if he saw his new 4H project.

The kid was traumatized but as I understand it the Cabrito was wonderful.

[Sarajevo]

Gardening ping.

OK, it's not exactly gardening, but related.......

[goat granny]

Just wondering if you grained them once a day....I had a special recipes at the elevator for our goats....good grain makes for better mohair on angoras. It might also affect the taste of their milk. But it is sweet tasting to me...prefer cow milk myself. I think it depends on what your brought up with....I wasn't crazy about the taste of their meat either...but they made great italian sausage and regular sausage...I had been told if you like mutton or young sheep you'll like goat meat... Since Michigan is deficient in selenium we had to also feed them free choice selenium or they get a disease that leads to death. New Born had to get a injection of selenium by the time they were 3 days old....

Different parts of the country have special needs....I was told to not feed it to horses....(didn't have any)

[heartwood]

I read an article in Mother Earth News, about some people who made the milking a little more flexible by putting the kid in with the mother when they couldn’t be there to milk her. IIRC they had two milk goats which they bred six months apart so one was fresh while the other was going dry.

That is, if goats come into season more than one time a year. I’d like to try goats if we ever get that house in the country but there is the whole issue of what do you do with the kids? Sell the females as milkers, neuter the males and eat them when they’re six months old? I don’t keep kosher but “thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother’s milk” makes sense - it would be such a betrayal of the mother.

Sex-sorted goat semen - high percentage of females - does it exist?

I think the milk tastes different depending on the breed - there are some very mild milks apparently. And having a billy around supposedly affects the milk. So no billies for me.

[heartwood]

Do goats breed only one time a year?

[ottbmare]

Everything is spotlessly clean, and no the goats are not getting into garlic or weird herbs. It’s just a personal thing with me—I just don’t happen to like the smell and taste of goat milk. It’s too strong for me. But I love the cheese and yogurt.

[stillafreemind]

I guess what I’m saying is..there is no strong or goat smell/taste to goats milk unless something isn’t done right.

Unless they have a Toggenburg..which I think naturally produces strong smelling/tasting milk.

[ottbmare]

I must
Just be sensitive. Used to cow’s milk. To each his own.