Raising Goats Naturally, 2nd Edition

The Complete Guide to Milk, Meat, and More

Deborah Niemann

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781771422376
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Animal Husbandry
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Produce your own milk, cheese, meat, fiber, fertilizer, and more

Incorporating dairy goats into a diversified homestead can be the key to greater self-sufficiency. Responding to questions and concerns from readers from all over North America and beyond, this fully revised and expanded edition of Raising Goats Naturally will help readers work with nature to raise dairy goats to produce milk, cheese, meat, fertilizer, leather, fiber, and soap – all without relying on drugs or following the factory farm model.

By observing your own animals closely and educating yourself about their specific needs, you can create an individualized plan for keeping them healthy and maximizing their productivity. This unique, fully-illustrated guide will teach you to help your herd thrive with:

• Breed-specific descriptions to help you choose the right goats for your goals and lifestyle
• Detailed information on housing, fencing, breeding, health, milking, and nutrition
• Complete recipes and instructions for making your own cheese, dairy products, and soap, as well as cooking with goat meat.

Packed with personal experiences and backed up by expert veterinary advice and scientific studies, Raising Goats Naturally brings together a wealth of practical information on raising goats for the love of it and using their milk and meat to become more self-reliant.

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 of 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.”

Teresa describes Guernsey goats as having a friendly and affectionate temperament. “Many people,” she says, “are attracted to their golden hair coats, which can be short or long and flowing and range in color from pale cream to deep russet.” She believes that the Guernsey breed’s “productivity and smaller size make them ideal for a household or a less intensive production system.”

Because Guernseys are still new to this continent, official milk production and butterfat averages are not yet available.

LaMancha

The LaMancha is the only dairy goat that claims the United States as its home. Its history dates back only about a century, unlike many of the European breeds, which have been around for hundreds of years. The distinguishing characteristic of the LaMancha is its ears — or lack thereof. I had LaManchas for seven years, and typically the first thing anyone asks when they see one for the first time is, “What happened to its ears?” Gopher ears are supposed to be almost nonexistent up to one inch in length, whereas elf ears can be up to two inches long. Although does can have either type of ears, bucks can only be registered if they have gopher ears. LaManchas may be slightly smaller than Alpines, but not more than a couple of inches. LaManchas average 2,200 pounds of milk with 3.8 percent butterfat.

This LaMancha doe and her buckling show the diversity of color available in the breed.

Nigerian Dwarf

Many Nigerian Dwarf owners originally choose this goat for its small size or its high butterfat, or perhaps both. The maximum height is 22.5 inches for a doe and 23.5 inches for a buck in order to be shown with the American Dairy Goat Association or American Goat Society (AGS). Sometimes confused with Pygmy goats because of their small size, the Nigerian Dwarf is a small dairy goat and has a very different body type from the Pygmy, which has more of a meat goat body type and does not produce as much milk. I once heard a judge say that the ideal Nigerian should look like someone took a picture of an Alpine or a Saanen and shrank it on a copy machine. The average Nigerian Dwarf produces 715 pounds of milk with 6.5 percent butterfat, making it an excellent choice for those who want to make cheese.

In spite of their small size, Nigerian Dwarf goats do well in cooler climates.

We’ve had a herd of Nigerians since we started our homestead in 2002. After our children left home, I realized my husband and I didn’t need many goats to meet our dairy needs, so either the LaManchas or the Nigerians needed to go. I ultimately chose to keep the Nigerians because their smaller size makes them easier to handle, and the high butterfat gave me twice as much cheese yield as the LaMancha milk. Yogurt made with Nigerian milk is also much thicker due to the higher milk solids.

Some sources say that Nigerians will breed year-round and cite this as a benefit to having them. This was historically true because they originally came from Nigeria where there are not big differences between the seasons. However, I live in Illinois, and most of my does are seasonal breeders, so I decided to do a survey of Nigerian Dwarf breeders to get a better idea of what is happening with this breed in the US. When asked how many of their goats come into heat in the spring, 39 percent of the 212 respondents said that all of their goats could be bred for fall kidding, 18 percent said more than 75 percent of their does, 9 percent said 51 to 75 percent. Five percent said that none of their does could be bred for fall kidding. When asked how many of their goats got pregnant when they bred them for off-season kidding, only about one third said all of their does got pregnant.

Nubian

The Nubian, whose history goes back to Asia, Africa, and Europe, has two distinguishing characteristics that set it apart visually from the other standard-sized dairy goats — its long, pendulous ears and its Roman nose.

The Nubian is also unique in its butterfat, which tends to be higher than in the other standard-sized breeds, although milk production tends to be lower, averaging 1,750 pounds at 4.7 percent butterfat. “The higher butterfat and protein are great for my cheese making,” says Brendia Kempf, who has Nubians in her herd at Triple Creek Dairy in Iowa.

Tasmania is pictured here as a doeling at Triple Creek Dairy. The Nubian’s Roman nose, which is convex rather than straight or dished, is a disqualification in any other breed of dairy goat. When the ears are held flat against the face, they should extend at least one inch beyond the end of the muzzle.

OVER THE YEARS, I’ve owned several breeds of dairy goats, including the controv...