Getting Goats: Breed Questions

[BarredBuff]

Well my day has finally came, goats are coming to the old homestead next spring hopefully. Woohoo!!! I cant wait!!!

Here is my plan. We were building a barn this next year anyway for feed and equipment and well thats grown.....so I need your input on space requirements. And goats in general.

1. How much square footage in a stall for a doe? I wanna be able to move around and such.
2. How big should a corn crib for a (5) 90 foot rows of corn be?
3. What breed or crosses do I need? I want a heavy milker and lots of cream.
4. What are the feed requirements for milking does?
5. What should be in a basic vet kit?
6. Tell me about a milking room?
7. What are must have "basic" supplies?

I will be keeping two does, and a buck. The two does will have separate stalls but share a large exercise yard. Then a buck will have his own stall and a large yard. The goats will have pasture space. They will be chained to tires during the day around the yard on suitable days.

Any advice?

 

[Wannabefree]

A stall should be enough for her to turn around and lay down in comfortably with a few square feet of extra space, depends on the size of the doe. They'll probably forage a good bit, and need a nice excercise yard/field/whatever. I'd try Nubian crosses for good milk and cream production.

 

[BarredBuff]

Would a 4 by 6 stall be to small? How about an Alpine/Nubian? Do you make goat butter the same as I make butter from store cream and milk?

 

[Wannabefree]

Would a 4 by 6 stall be to small? How about an Alpine/Nubian? Do you make goat butter the same as I make butter from store cream and milk?

No, should b fine. Yes. Nooooo, you'll need a cream seprator to make butter with goats milk. It does not seperate the way cow milk does. It is naturally homogenized due to the goats average body temp being so much higher than a cows. It makes the bestest ice cream though ETA: AND CHEESE!!!

 

[BarredBuff]

Can I make or simulate a cream separator?

 

[Wannabefree]

Can I make or simulate a cream separator?

Ummmmm.....I have no clue as to how they work

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Hmmm...
I would advise the following for every ones sanity.
1 stall for the two does, and one stall for the buck and a wether companion.
They are herd animals, and separation is very distressing, even at night.
Make sure the stalls are at least 6 feet tall as well.
When a doe is in heat, not much will keep a buck away from her.
A lean to would also be a good idea, so they have good shade and rain shelter.

You can make butter without a separator, if you clabber the milk first, and then churn it for a long time.
Then you will have true buttermilk and butter at one time.

We use baby wipes for udder cleaning at milking time.
To ensure I never get a foot in the pail, I milk into a pint jar, and pour into a larger one as needed.
For filtering, buy a reusable coffee filter. Cuts the cost way down, versus buying paper filters.
Or, if you prefer, you can use a large hankie, that you wash and dip in boiling water after filtering.

Above all, remember that goats are foragers, so grass pasture is not ideal, and can cause problems.
Weeds, willows, alders, brambles, etc are best, but be assured that they will eat everything you have in no time flat

For hay, since they are awful at wasting it, we framed a rectangular area on the wall of the barn, (where they have access, 24/7) with 2x6s and stapled a wire fence over it, that has 6 inch holes.
So the dimensions are about 5 feet, by 4 feet, by 6 inches.
All the hay that gets dropped, is used as bedding for them.

 

[pinkfox]

nubians tend to have the highest butterfat and protein count, if your looking for cream (harder to get off goats milk you might want to invest in a seperator, it can be done by hand but its alot more work lol) then a nubian or nubian mix would be a great idea.
nubians tend to be talkative and a bit "drama queen" ish. but i personally love them.
Lamancha might be a great choice for you good producers, everyone swears by their temperments, and a nice middle ground for butterfat content (makes good cheese/butter or plain drinking
togs alpines and saanens are the typical high volume dairy breeds, togs in my experience tend to be a little high strung overall (skittish almost) i like alpines but just dont find them as endeering as the nubians and lamanchas.


personally i woudlnt suggest keeping your own buck for just 2 does...check to see what goats are available in your area for buck use.
bucks are stinky, VeRy hard on fences and during season even the nicest buck can be quite a handfull (especially full sized bucks) they eat ALOT and like any goat cant be kept alone so expect to give him a wether as a companion, which means feeding 2 mouths that, during most of the year are totally "useless" wethers can be trained to pack and pull small carts if you REALY wanted to keep a buck and wether (he realy does need a companion), but honestly for 2 does, id just freshen them with something local if your not looking to produce show lines and just looking to freshen the girls up.

ive been told that unless your keeping 6+ does its actually cheaper to just drive them for breeding or do AI (which can be done at home quite easily).
ive seen reccomendations for stalls anything from. personally id think 4x4 or bigger for a simple overnight stall would be fine. id go 4x7 or bigger if your planning to use them as kidding stalls too though.

 

[freemotion]

personally i woudlnt suggest keeping your own buck for just 2 does...check to see what goats are available in your area for buck use.
bucks are stinky, VeRy hard on fences and during season even the nicest buck can be quite a handfull (especially full sized bucks) they eat ALOT and like any goat cant be kept alone so expect to give him a wether as a companion, which means feeding 2 mouths that, during most of the year are totally "useless" wethers can be trained to pack and pull small carts if you REALY wanted to keep a buck and wether (he realy does need a companion), but honestly for 2 does, id just freshen them with something local if your not looking to produce show lines and just looking to freshen the girls up.

ive been told that unless your keeping 6+ does its actually cheaper to just drive them for breeding or do AI (which can be done at home quite easily).
ive seen reccomendations for stalls anything from. personally id think 4x4 or bigger for a simple overnight stall would be fine. id go 4x7 or bigger if your planning to use them as kidding stalls too though.

I have to chime in with the opposite experience. I could not find a buck for my two does (unless I wanted to ship to a driveway breeding after showing proof of recent vet exam and freedom from all goat diseases and current vaccinations, etc....in my area that exam alone...on one doe.... would buy me a very nice purebred doe about to deliver triplet doelings!) and finally bought a buckling that was maybe 5-6 months old, about 2-3 months before I wanted the does bred. I sold him after he did his job for what I paid for him. So it ended up costing me hay for a few months for one goat to get my two does bred. He was a very nice buckling, too, and I got a couple of doelings from him with very nice udders.

I bought another buckling mid-summer for the fall/winter breeding of the four does and ended up keeping him for this fall, too. I will sell him afterwards and go back to getting a buckling each year, since I'm not breeding purebreds and now that he is almost 16 months old, he is destroying everything in sight. He is bigger and stronger and has more sexual frustration/rage. Boy, did he throw some nice kids, though, and he sure was fertile last fall! So I don't regret keeping him for another season, but a baby buckling would have been easier. I got too sentimental because he was so cute as a baby, looked like Bambi, and I was/am fond of him. This won't happen again! He is obnoxious.

He lives in a pen by himself within sight of the others and of the house, and chickens come and go and keep him company. However, he may have mortally wounded a hen today, as he bashes everything in sight when I approach with his food. She was too close. We'll see how she is tomorrow. We have also had to rebuild his fence several times. He is pretty determined and pretty strong, and electricity is not always a strong enough deterrent for a.....um......buck with his eye on the ladies.

 

[freemotion]

Other topics: Have plenty of room. I would have a stall for each doe for kidding, or isolation due to illness, and a communal stall for them to live in most of the time. You will need a place for the resulting kids, too, so a stall for each is useful if you pull kids at birth and bottle feed...the doe can just go back to the communal stall. Or if you let her raise the kids and milk once a day when the kids are big enough to be alone at night....you leave the kids in the stall overnight and milk her in the morning and put the kids with her all day.

You will need a place to let the kids outside until you sell them. You will need it to be fenced with small openings as they tend to get their heads stuck in standard goat fencing with 4x4 squares.

All turn out areas will need shelter unless you are home as goats cannot be left out in the rain like horses and cows. Use extreme caution with tying them out. BE THERE at all times. They are helpless against dogs and coyotes and also can get entangled. They don't like short lawn grass. Their instinct tells them to go UP for food. This instinct saves them from getting too wormy in the wild, as the worst of the worms are in short, damp grass.

You can set up a milking stand in any convenient area of the barn that can be kept clean and is away from strong smelling things....don't set it up next to equipment that smells of diesel, for example, as that can taint the milk. You can even make a spare stall for the stand. Make sure it is in an area free of other goats. You don't want to be harassed while milking, or have others getting into the feed or milk.

I like having a set of shelves within reach of the stand for keeping necessary supplies, or a small cabinet would work, too. I also have a bin with alfalfa pellets under the stand for quick access if a doe finishes her grain too quickly. I can scoop out some pellets to keep her occupied while I finish up. It is a lifesaver. You can use a five gallon pail as a milking stool, too, and fill it with the pellets.

A cream separator works by centrifugal force and cannot be rigged up, really. If you buy one, you need a type that is either made for goat's milk or has a setting for goat's milk. Don't plan on making all your butter from this, though, it is probably unrealistic. Then you are stuck with gallons of skim milk.....yuk! Unless you want to do all that work just to feed milk to the pigs and hens....and they need some fat, too. If you want to make lots of butter you need a Jersey or Gurnsey cow, or another high-fat producing breed.

Hope I didn't overwhelm you.....just want you to be more ready than I was. And more realistic than I was.... You will LOVE your goats! And will want all the best for them. It can be done on a shoestring, too. I did it on almost nothing....except the cost of fencing. No way around that, unless you get electronet.