Schaherezade, our Alpine doe.
Our small farmstead has never been the same since we brought home our first dairy goat 3 years ago! Our small herd of registered Alpine and Oberhasli dairy goats belongs to my daughter, Katie. Her registered dairy herd ‘Kid’s Play’ has been a source of family enjoyment ever since! Our goat kids are bottle fed and handled one-on-one every day. We hand milk ‘the girls’ twice daily and prefer to drink their milk ‘raw’. We also use our goat’s milk for cheesemaking and other dairy products. Surplus goat’s milk is used to make our pure & natural herbal goat’s milk soap.
TERMS to know: An adult male goat is a buck (the sire when breeding); an adult female is a doe (the dam); goat babies are ‘kids’: a doeling (girl) and a buckling (boy). A castrated, non-breeding buck is a ‘wether’.
To keep a goat, you really need more than one because they are a herd animal and love companionship…at least that’s what I tell my husband. You’ll have to provide shelter, pasture (room to roam, play and exercise), a good vet, impenetrable fencing, salt/minerals, hay and fresh clean water. Varying amounts of grain may be required depending on the type of goats raised. Regular maintenance includes trimming their feet (a skill any novice goat-keeper can quickly acquire), annual vaccination (a skill quickly learned) and dispensing ‘medication’ for parasite control. Dairy goats generally are bred in the Fall, after five months gestation giving birth to twins in the Spring. Goats are milked twice per day at 12-hour intervals and depending on the breed, may produce one quart to over a gallon goat’s milk per day…until you begin the cycle all over again in the Fall.
We’ve recently added a new member to our goat herd, Brutus, a Pygora wether – not a ‘dairy’ goat, but a fiber goat. Pygora goat is a registered fiber goat, a cross between an Angora goat which produces lustrous mohair and a Pygmy goat who often produces short, cashmere-like soft down. Welcome Brutus!
Sweet Annie, Coriander, Clove Pink, Slater & Nelly.
Be sure to visit Sheepy Hollow Farm every Spring to visit the new goat kids and Shetland lambs! We hope to offer goat milk shares soon!
Hi Jenny, When I read your blog it sounded like I was reading about myself. I too raise French Alpine dairy goats for the milk and cheese and soap. I have BFL but love the Shetland breed and buy fleeces from Jackie Deems, hope to have some, someday. We live on 26 acres in SE Ohio. Most days you can find me in the garden around the barnyard or fiber’n. I also raise working border collies so I am in the field with them too. My husband and I love the Lord and sounds like you do too. Check out my blog at, everygoodharvest.blogspot.com.