Goats for Self-Sufficiency

[rodeogirl]

I'm tossing around the idea of getting goats when I get my property. If I get them it would be for both milk and meat. Possibly even for my little boy to show at fair so I'd have to have a breed thats good with kids.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Great idea!

 

[rodeogirl]

I'm very strong on the idea of I have to get more than one use out of my livestock before I'll even decide if I want to buy them or not.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Well you can eat any goat, and you can milk any goat. The question is finding one that you can live with for both, because you will sacrifice something on one end or the other (or both) by having dual purpose animals. But there are plenty of goat folks on here to help you sort through breeds when you're ready!

 

[sumi]

I'm glad you said this @NH Homesteader I've been thinking about getting goats "one day" for awhile. I would like to milk them, but I do not want a lot of milk, so I was thinking smaller breeds, just two or three goats. If/how I can keep it all small and manageable, but when I look at goats for milk, everyone goes for the bigger breeds and gallons of the good stuff daily.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I think minis or kinders are the perfect homestead milk goat myself. But I'm biased towards my mini alpines! I have no need for full size goats (yeah I want golden guernseys but they're the smallest of the full size goats), and Nigerians don't give enough milk for me. Full size goats eat a lot, milking season or not! For me, I want a goat that gives plenty of milk more because I'm feeding it anyway, so I want to get a decent convesion from that feed. But a lot of heavy, heavy milkers are hard to keep weight on, so I am just as concerned with parasite resistance and general hardiness.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Right now I'm milking a Nubian and a Kinder. Usually the Nubian will give more. But, right now, as their lactation is winding down the Kinder is proving her worth. For most of the time that I've been milking they were getting grained twice a day and the Nubian turned it all into milk. Now that I'm only graining them on the milk stand, and only milking in the evening, the Kinder's production is holding steady and the Nubian's production is dropping. Less grain for one equals less milk - less grain for the other and the production is the same??? Gotta love those Kinders!

 

[sumi]

That's interesting and good to know FEM!

 

[NH Homesteader]

If anyone else is interested in this sort of thing, regarding meat goats:

http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/goats/production/meat-and-offal-yields-of-goats

We don't have all the same breeds in the US but I found this interesting.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks - that's some really cool stuff!