Country Living at its Best
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Goats
Hello Welcome to my Goat Page. On the left hand side of here you will see other different areas of interest on our homestead.
My Goat Barrels:
Above is our goats
barrels our La Mancha we are grass/brush feeding her with a few other
supplements but no grains. I wanted a milk goat to practice making
cheeses. I traded Barrels for pecans/honey and a bit of money from our
farm. Her udders are not that large but she gives me enough milk to what I
need to practice.
When she has kids which is usually twins I let
them drink from her untill they start to eat solids then I start to milk
her to keep up her milk production I then put them away at night and
let her go for the night and I will have her morning milk. The rest of the
day the babys can have her milk. If I don't want to milk her then I let
the babys be with her all night. Good for everyone all around. I hope to
have at least 4 milk goats someday but hopefully by then I want to get
some machines hehe..
What
we feed her:
We are trying to go pretty natural
with her and keep her away from grains. Why? Because grains are not a
natural item for goats they would perfer to browse. If they had a choice
of going to a field of oats or a lot of bushes and grass they would go to
the bush not the oats. They also get their omega in it as well as a lot of
vitamins which in turn goes to us. They can NOT live on grass alone they
need other types of grass/weeds/clover and brush for them to eat.
Most goat people I have
talked too said it can be done without grains but you wont get that much
milk production. I am going to prove them wrong I hope, this is a very
touchy subject with a lot of goat people.
At the moment she is
getting alfalfa pellets, lose minerals, sun flower seeds, rose
petals/leaves(not sprayed), black sunflower seeds, (its grown locally here
so I know its good and not sprayed) and access to a salt block with plenty
of water and sunshine/shade. When she is done with that she is allowed to
munch on a few min of fresh alfalfa hay near the barn then I go stake her
out near a patch of grass/weeds/brush that needs to be eaten down for
about 30min less or more this happens twice a day and she is never at the
same place twice. ( I never leave her alone for long incase she gets
tangled or escapes.
How I milk
her:
Below you will see our simple milking
stand it now has side bars on each side of her the side I milk her goes up
and down. In the future we will have a milking room as I get more
goats and we start to milk our sheep too.
My husband got
instructions on how to build it online. Make sure to have a side bar on
each side. I can't stress this enough. My goat almost hung her self as her
fat body fell off the side with her head still stuck in the milk stand
sigh...
I might some mats at Lowes/Homedepot and just tacked them
on to the board. Keeps it from rotting when I wash it down. Yes your goat
will go poopy on it :)
Mother earth news site on building a
stand
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1980-01-01/A-Goat-Milking-Stand.aspx
FIAS
stand instructions
http://fiascofarm.com/goats/milkstand.html
What I use the milk for:
A lot of people are setting up dairys for goats because of the demand for raw goat milk to help with digestion, some make soaps I am going to make hard cheeses to practice for when my sheep are ready to make it with theirs. I can drink the milk but its not to my tasting I perfer raw cows milk but I love goat cheese :)
Below are my favorite links on goats
Fias Natural Goat Care All natural the best site out there I hope they never go down! I would subscribe to it if I had too thats how good it is.
Goat Sharing Link Example Goat sharing site Love this site on example of sharing a goat
Raw Milk.org where to find Raw Goat Milk in USA
My Supplie list so far is from
1. Stainless Steel Bucket with Lid
2. Have handy glass jars and plastic glad ziplock freezer bags to freeze milk.
3. Test strips and cup for testing for mastitis
4. Dixie cups to clean the teats with clean solution/Paper towels
5. Milk filters and drainer getting smaller one but I have been advised that its a pain to wait and pour best to get larger one if you can afford it.
6. Strap goat hobble velcro (to keep legs still in case she trys to kick or shoe away a fly its best to have it on her I am told)
7. Curry comb to brush her/clippers to clip to keep her clean down near her teats. (local feed store)
8. Large container to keep this all in (Walmart)
Frugal Goat care:
Check out the Fias Natural Goat Care for not only natural methods but cleaning solutions you might have around the house.
Clippers can be the same one you had used on the dog, nothing special
Instead of strip cup for testing use the dixie cups less clean up this way too.
Love those store milk glass jars I asked for them at free cycle and got some!
Goat comb can be a horse curry comb
Ask for any goat supply stuff from friends, free cycle, local bullentin board.
As I advance in goat care I
will keep you informed.....
Videos:
Leave it to youtube to come up with
milking videos :)
www.youtube.com just type in "milking
goats"
Storys:
First Milking "Click Here to go to my Ranch Diary"
Second and Third Milking "Click here to go to it"
End of the week Milking "Click here to go to it"
Second week Milking "Click Here to go to it"
Clip Art by Lisa Photos done by moi!
