Feeding Dairy Goats From Forage Only

As we continue in our journey of learning about farming and ranching we realize that conventional ways of raising animals may not be the best path for us in some cases. In our situation it is our intent to not only raise animals for our family to consume either the animal or the products of the animal (eggs, milk, etc) but do it in the most sustainable way. For example most people raise diary goats on grains with some land for them to browse but have never done so with minimal grain inputs.

There are plenty of posts on forums where many people offer the opinion that it can't be done or your goats will produce milk but eventually will have health issues. After reading quite a few blog posts and searching Google I finally came across an article titled Forage Based Dairy Goat Management from Langston University in Oklahoma. If you're interested in reducing your feed costs for your bucks and dairy goat herd take some time to read the linked article.

Operation Diapered Thunder

Since we wanted to keep the new goat kid, Thunder, in the house during this cold and wet weather we went looking for a solution. We do not have a barn or a decent housing solution for our goats currently and to optimize his first few days of growth and to help him build a strong body we wanted to keep him inside our home and let him roam free during parts of the day. Solution: Goat Diapers! The solution is reasonable from a cost perspective and allows him the opportunity to run around and allows us the opportunity to not have urine and fecal matter around our home.

We took this web page, Why would anyone even dream of diapering a baby goat?, as inspiration for Operation Diapered Thunder.

Another Kid!

During the evening or the early morning one of our pregnant does gave birth to a new baby boy. Due to our recent weather we named him Thunder.

Got Goat?

One of our goats demonstrating their constant curiosity.

When Goats Eat What They Shouldn't

Got this recipe from this post over at The Self-Sufficient Life.

"I Really Shouldn't Have Ate That!" For goats
1/2 Cup Veggie Oil
1/2 Cup Very Strong Black Tea
1 Tsp. Ginger
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
* Drench goat with mixture one time. Watch goat. If goat is no better, drench again the following day. You will not want to use this too much...and you will want to use a mineral/vitamin drench while they are not eating.

Getting Started with Goats

Here are some things that we think are essential for having dairy goats. This list is not all inclusive however it is a good start and covers what we consider the essentials. This list does not include first aid supplies however we will cover that at a later date.

Fencing - If you throw a bucket of water at the fence and it any water makes it through, fortify!
Milk Stand - There are a variety of milk stands just make sure it is sturdy, example.
Stool - This will be used for sitting on while milking, obvious but we thought it would be helpful to state.
Stainless Steel Milking Bucket - It does not need to be a goat milk bucket but just a stainless steel bucket. Some can get expensive so look around according to your budget. Another option that we recently read about was buying a stainless steel composting bucket with lid....cheaper.
Fast Flow Milk Filters - Coffee filters can be used but the fast flow filters are nice since they do a great job filtering and it doesn't take nearly as long as the coffee filters.
Strainer - A funnel, just something to set the filter in.
Milk Storage Containers - We like to use glass mason jars.

The site we would recommend where we have purchased most of our goat supplies is Hoegger Goat Supply

A good site for information about goats that we reference often is Fias Co Farm.

As a side note the good looking Alpine on the post is our buck, Hellboy.

A few goat terms to get you started.
Latching - pulling the babies from the mom for some period of time so you can milk prior to allowing the boys to milk from their mom again.
Disbud - removing the horns, usually on a baby.
Kid - baby goat. Having human kids we completely understand why they used the term kid ;)
Buck - male goat.
Doe - female goat.
Weathered - male goat that has been 'fixed', why do they use the word fixed? Was something wrong with him in the first place? Must have been thought up by a woman.
In Milk - c'mon now, you can figure that one out.
Teat - think juicy part of the udder. See wikipedia entry if you are still confused.