Basic supplies for a goat

[SewingMom]

Hi! I'm Laura and I'm new here, I've been reading for a while and I finally signed up. I've always wanted our family to be totally self sufficient but for now I'd be happy to be able to grow and harvest at least 75% of our food. That's my goal for this coming year.

I am looking into getting 2 or 3 goats for milk and I've read some books that tell you all the things you need to have but being a pretty frugal person, I'm wondering what the minimum supplies are to own a couple of goats and keep them happy and healthy. I have a shelter for them but it's just an open floor barn/shed type thing (no stalls or anything) and a small pasture that is fenced with 8 ft. fencing. This area would be shared with my chickens. So food and water and a bucket to collect milk are the first things that come to mind are there other necessities right off the bat?

I'm thinking this is kind of like when I was a first time parent years ago and you read the books they tell you the hundreds of items you need for your new addition when it turns out there are just a few basics you actually need, the other things are simply nice to have.

There is a lady near me selling some dairy goats she has hand milked who seems very knowledgeable and honest but she wants to sell them soon because she has too many to hand milk. I have already spent a ton getting my chickens and veggie garden ready this spring and I don't want to spend more than I have to right now or I'm afraid my husband will start thinking this whole farm animal/garden idea of mine wasn't such a good idea

I hope I'm posting this in the right place!
Laura

 

[freemotion]

Spring is goat buying season it seems! I just answered this question over on byh, so here is a copy of my reply as it fits your question perfectly, too:

Must buy:

The best 2nd or 3rd cut hay
The best loose minerals and a wall feeder
Grain of your choice as needed (I use whole oats/barley and soak/sprout it to increase nutrient availability)
Hoof trimmers

For cheesemaking:

Invest in a reasonable five gallon stainless steel stock pot if you will be milking 2-4 does
A long knife to cut the curd, needs to fit diagonally in the above stock pot....I got a wedding cake knife at a restaurant supply place
A long-handled dairy skimmer
A good dial dairy thermometer that registers at least 80-200F and is easy to read

Good to buy:

Those square-ish over-the-fence feeders for the milking stand (you can build a wooden box but goats are fastidious and you can clean the plastic ones very easily)
Cheesecloth (the real stuff, not the gauze stuff sold for straining jelly and such in the grocery store and the fabric store...real cheesecloth

You can make:
Milking stand
Cheese press
Cheese molds
Hay feeders


You can improvise:

Canning jars to milk into
Funnels (purchased or make by cutting the top off an appropriately sized plastic bottle)
A small one-cup-at-a-time permanent coffee filter to filter the milk, the kind made of a fine gold-tone wire mesh material
Various glass bottles and gallon jars to store milk in
Cotton muslin or sheeting can be used instead of cheesecloth, must be smooth and not too tightly woven or too high of a threadcount or it won't drain

I'm sure there is more but that is what I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[SewingMom]

Thank you so much!
As I was looking around i just noticed the link the the Backyard Herds forum page so I'll go check that out.

 

[lorihadams]

Sorry I'm late.....I just got my goats and there has been drama.

Here's what I recommend

*scrap lumber for a milk stand or if you can find a used weight bench that is what my breeder uses as her milk stand
*double sided clip and some sort of ring to clip collar to the milk stand or wall next to it
*feed--whatever they are used to for the first bit if you want to switch feeds you will need to mix it gradually
*decent quality hay
*straw for bedding
*wide mouth quart jars to milk into (hold with one hand and milk with the other)
*molasses or nutri drench
*probios
*baking soda
*goat minerals
*some sort of strainer--right now I have a small mesh strainer and I put a coffee filter inside the strainer and run it through there to get any hairs out
*plastic buckets/pans for water
*bleach for cleaning--I make teat dip with a cup of water, a tsp of bleach and a few drops of tea tree oil until I can get some grapefruit seed extract
*rags or washclothes for cleaning the udder pre-milking

It would be nice to have
*good hoof trimmers (you can call a vet if you don't want to try it)
*syringes/needles/meds--I have 2 feed store that I can get meds at in a hurry if needed
*kidding supplies--you'll need those eventually
*animal crackers, raisins, carrots, whatever treats they like
*large rocks or something for them to climb on
*beet pulp pellets and/or alfalfa pellets


I'm sure I'm forgetting something....been a crazy week. Hope that helps. You really just need some basic stuff to get started and you can add more things as you need them. I haven't made cheese or yogurt yet but I just got started.

 

[freemotion]

*good hoof trimmers (you can call a vet if you don't want to try it)

Check around for a farrier or goat person, it will likely be much cheaper. We have a farrier here who will do goats for about $15 each, depending on how many you have (he won't come to your farm for one goat and charge so little.) Ask him/her to teach you...it is quite simple. For a long time I just had the farrier trim my two pet goats when he came to do the horse (goats a couple times a year, horse about monthly.) Then when I started with the dairy goats, I had to learn. I had him help with the neglected does' feet, and I trimmed in between his trims, and finally got confident enough that I don't need to use him anymore.

 

[glenolam]

Yes, over on BYH there are a few threads about what supplies to have on hand...I tried to get a sticky put up one time but it fell by the wayside. Here's that link.


Anyhoo - if in the event no one there is answering your questions about goats, post them over here too. Some of us don't venture into those parts of the forest but are still available for advice/comments.

Good luck!

What kind of goats?

 

[SewingMom]

Thank you so much for the replies!
I'm going to Farm and Fleet in a bit to get what I can and checking Craigslist for the hay.

The goats I have a deposit on are 2 does - a La Mancha named Buttercup and an Alpine named Ali. They have been exposed to her male goat and she is fairly certain they are pregnant. I sure hope they are!

 

[savingdogs]

I just went through this myself, and because we are on an extreme budget, I've done everything as cheap as possible without compromising their health, which was my goal. These folks here have been my gurus. lol Freemotion gave you a great start but let me mention a few things.

Goats cost different amounts depending on where you live, whether you have pasture, are you going to buy all their forage? Mine we purchased for the purpose of clearing the brush so we use every opportunity we can to get them out there free ranging. We do buy hay but not much, partially because we bought mini goats so that our hay costs over the winter when they cannot browse don't kill us.

There are a lot of expenses involved in having offspring and getting them all ready to milk. We started off just owning young goats and we were able to assemble our supplies a little at a time that way. Other than their purchase price, the largest outlay of expenses came at "kidding time" and the process of getting them ready to sell and the stuff to start milking. However, we did scrounge a lot of supplies and found inexpensive ways to do things here. For instance, I used Freemotion's idea of selling a male after breeding....so instead of paying a stud fee when I could not find a buck near me of the right breed, I bought a little buck and sold him a month and a half later after he got the girls all in the family way. I sold him for exactly what we paid for him, so my stud fee was essentially the labor involved and his hay!

This site especially has been helpful for me learning the cheap ways of doing things because being self sufficient doesn't mean running to the store for supplies every time you turn around, it means making do and making your own and doing it yourself, so there are enormous savings to be had that way.

 

[lorihadams]

The other thing that I forgot to mention was that if you store your milk in jars, spend a few bucks on some of the Ball plastic lids (I found mine at Walmart). I put a M, T, W, TH, F, Sa, Su on the lids and I know what day of the week the milk came from and what jars to use first. I am getting about a quart a day from my girl so it works out perfectly for us. When I have 2 in milk I may have to redesign that system but it works for now. I'm gonna start freezing some of our milk too to use for soapmaking later on.

The more you have available for them to browse the cheaper your feed bill will be. I have lots of woods behind my house but not any trees in the pasture so I have to cut stuff and bring it to them but that's not a big deal right now.

If you can get some rocks or cinderblocks for them to climb on that will help keep their hoofs trimmed naturally. We have one doe now that has one that is splitting on the side so we are going to have to take the plunge and get to work on her feet.

See what kind of hay your breeder has and where they get it from. That way you can keep the goats on what they are used to and maybe get a good deal too. My breeder has a different type of hay for her girls and I am having issues switching them over to our hay but they will eat it eventually, right now they don't need much with all the stuff in the pasture.

 

[savingdogs]

the price of hay really makes a difference in what it costs to keep goats in your area. and whether you have natural forage on your property. if you had to bring them all their food, it would be an expensive hobby to have goats, IMHO.