Goats as a Self-Sustaining Food&Dairy Source

Enjoy a guest-written post about goats from Marietta Killen! -Jessica

Now, at the moment, goats can not be a fully self-sustaining resource for me. Due to area limitations, I can not produce my own feed, nor can I grow my own hay. It is still a great way to provide meat and milk for my family. This comes as a necessity for us not only because my husband is disabled so we are on a limited income, but also because a few of my daughters and I are not able to drink cows' milk. We require goat milk which, at our local markets, runs us about $4/quart or soy milk, which none of us care for. With the current state of our economy and previous years of drought,  prices for goods in the grocery store is once more on the rise. Meat, eggs, milk... everything is climbing. Now, for eggs, I am blessed to work for a lady who raises her own chickens and sends me home with a dozen and a half eggs every week. For meat and milk, I am at a loss on because I do not have the room (nor funds) to raise a calf each year for beef, and hogs are not allowed within city limits. Goats, however, are well within city ordinance and would cover both the meat and dairy needed for my family.

This will be a learning process for my family as we are just beginning this endeavor. We are quickly learning the many things you need to find out before purchasing a dairy goat. The first thing I learned was that not all dairy goats are equal. All have different ranges in the butterfat in the milk and can give you anything from the equivalent of skim cows' milk to whole milk. I've had to learn the various goat breeds, which goats are better milkers for your desired butterfat content, the average amount of milk a lactating doe should produce per day, and what forage (stuff the goat eats) could affect the taste of the milk. I searched my state for local breeders after having narrowed down my choice to either Nigerian Dwarves and Nubians. I emailed each farm I found within a four hour drive from me and waited. Not one single response to any email I sent. I was getting frustrated until I found a link buried several pages within Google for a farm about two hours from me that had several breeds of dairy goats, including my much desired Nubians. I sent a simple email out inquiring about deposits and expressing my desires to learn about raising dairy goats. I had a response not three hours later.

The breeder was very attentive to my questions, encouraging them and even sending me her phone number welcoming any calls about her herd or any other questions. She talked about feed and supplements, even some that I hadn’t read about in all of my searching about feeding requirements on goats. She suggested a feed and hay source that they use and that their goats do very well on. When I informed her I could not locate one place around here that sold feed specifically for dairy goats, she even offered to help me locate a good feed resource, She shared that one of the two hay choices that are suggested online as good for dairy goats would give very off-tasting milk. When I call the breeder next week to place my deposit on a doeling (young female goat), I will have to learn about the milking history of her predecessors

I will be breeding my Nubians. I have decided that when we have bucks (male goats), we will castrate them and use the wethers (castrated male goats) for meat. This will ensure that we do not have an overabundance of wethers running around until I can make a proper area to contain a buck. A buck has to be kept far enough from my doe herd so his musk won't sour the milk. We will put all the goat kids to use.

I have big plans for my dairy goats. Once we get to the milking stage, we can evaluate how much milk we receive each day. If we have more than we need, I may begin to make my own goat milk body soap, shampoo, and possibly even laundry soap.

My other venture will be Boer goats for meat. Now, granted, I know that my Nubian girls will produce male offspring that I plan on castrating and using for meat. Nubians, however, are meant to be dairy goats so I want a breed meant for meat. Now, in our community, there are many FFA children that have Boers that breed in hopes of getting a doeling to show, but there will always be the unwanted wethers. I plan to turn to these kids and purchase their unwanted goats. This will be my plan for the first couple of years until I get settled into the breeding of goats. Then, I will look at getting a couple Boer females and breed them for meat goats each year. This will provide a good amount of the meat that my family will greatly need, and perhaps even have some extra to share with some families that could be in need as well.

These are all grand hopes I know. Producing my own milk, the possibility of making and selling the soaps... but I would also love for a way to give back to some in my community that could need a bit of help themselves. The journey will officially start this spring and I look forward to see where it takes me.