How Many Goats are Needed for Dairy Independence? Beginner Goat-Keeper Considerations
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 11. 2022
- Ever wonder how many goats you need to keep so you've always got a fresh supply of milk? This video covers all of the things you need to consider in order to make the decision of how many goats to keep on your homestead. It never hurts to keep a few extra! Goat Math at it's finest!!
Hay Calculator for Goats: alifeofheritage.com/farm-livi...
#dairygoats #goats #homesteading #homestead
Check out The Hortisketch Garden Planner!: gardensavvy.com/hortisketch/
((Use Code SageStone5 for $5 off!))
Drop us a line:
Sage and Stone Homestead
PO Box 52
Herndon, KY 42236
SageAndStoneHomestead@gmail.com
I've heard that you can get a gallon of milk or more out of milking one LaMancha once a day but I have yet to experience that. I can't wait to experience that one day! What's been your experience milking larger goats?
Good morning Heather. I've never even touched a goat. I love watching them though.
Goats are lovely and I hope you get to touch one someday soon!!
I love it when people who ACTUALLY love animals talk about both how their animals work for them and how well they take care of them. Animals were created for us to use, but not abuse. We take good care of them, and we know that their milk, meat, eggs, honey, etc are for us to use.❤
My goats went almost 2 years fresh. I milked twice a day. Got almost a gallon each day ❤
Love your video-- I bought 3 female goats-- a few years ago-- I now have 100 goats!! I need to see more of your videos! Tks for your info!!!
That's my kind of math! ♥
We have a rule around here: two is one, one is none. When you lose your only buck, you understand that. But it isn't just with goats or sheep. It's with turkey toms, roosters, etc.
This is SO true!!
Having goats 🐐 you learn to do your own vetting ❤ most of the time . Missing my goats 🐐. Thanks for the video
Yes. Use, don’t abuse. You can tell how well these animals fare. Vid tells you what nice people homesteading can make❤
You could make a whole series on goats.... Food... Shelter.... Fences.... Pasture.... Oh I have so many questions 😂
I was thinking of that while filming ! 🤣🤣
Wow! You’re suggestion on keeping 6 Nigerian Dwarfs (4 does, 1 buck, and 1 wether) is exactly what we already did! We just got them last week and are really loving them already. Thanks for all the great info!
YAY congrats!!
I had a pet goat at 2 different times. This meaning I only had one at time and never had any problem.
It's rare to have a goat that doesn't need another goat companion but I have one in my herd that would probably be fine alone too.
Love your content! Following. Just about to start my hand with mini/micro farm of 10.5 acres. Your information and ability to say why is invaluable and so very helpful starting my journey. Thank you, looking forwsrd to the next video
You've been awesome! Welcome to the channel!! :)
I get a full half gallon from one Saanen on her first breading, only milking once a day so far. But I think I am really lucky with her.
Saanens are known for being high producers! Great job!
I Absolutely Love Your Channel. I Am An Extremely Anxious Person, You Give Me Sanity ‼️
Thank You ! I Am A Fan For Life; I Meed Your Channel.
I'm so glad you're here!!! ❤️
@@SageandStoneHomestead So Am I.
Thanks for another great and informative video!!! There are lots of logistics to consider before starting a herd no matter how small or large. I think you did a great job at covering the important points!! The babies are growing fast but still just as adorable!!! Stay safe!!
All of them are so cute with their blue eyes!! 😍
What about cattle or pig panels? I built a fence for our backyard out of cattle panels and zip tied chicken wire to the inside to keep my chickens from taking field trips, and it's worked great so far.😊😊😊
Yeah totally use what works! Some goats test fences worse than others, but keeping them contained hasn't been a big issue here :) Use what you've got!
Thank you so much for this! We are getting our goat pen and fencing next week! Just researching on the best breed before we get some goats.❤ your channel rocks!
Thank you so much, I'm so glad this was helpful!!!
@@SageandStoneHomestead I’ve been researching so much but videos on dairy goats are what I’ve been binge watching so I needed this content.
I'm so glad it's helpful! Delci with a Life of Heritage has many great beginner videos too!
Yay! My girls and I are so excited for this. We are hoping to start out homestead YAH willing in a year when my husband retires from the Navy so our notebooking subject for homeschooling is homesteading but if course we are breaking it down by subjects and this is perfect! Thank you! 💖
That's so awesome that retirement is within reach!! The planning stage is so fun. I love that it's a part of homeschooling too!!
@@SageandStoneHomestead my girls are 4 and 5 and they grab all their stuffed animals and they say they are playing homestead 🤣😂 making pens and building fences with pillows. I love it!
Mine do that too and they have the real deal outside lol!!!! Love it!
I love your channel, thanks for sharing this video
Can you show your morning milking routine? My girls are new at it (as am i) and it's chaos during milking time.
It takes consistency in what you do and it happens that I plan to make a milking routine video for a week from today! Stay tuned!! :)
Yes for once a day milking 🙌🙌
Definitely my favorite!!!
I defiantly have goat fever i can't wait to get more. I love butters and chewie more than i thought i would. They both are very sweet and love to cuddle. I am excited to see how she produces being a mix of nigerian, boar and nubian🥛
I bet she will produce well!!! I'm excited to see her kids!!
Thank you so much!! This helps a lot.
I "rented a buck" for 4 years, but this breeding season we have our own bucks and I am so happy we did! I keep one wether with the bucks and one with the does. The wether tells me if one of the girls are in heat! I am excited about having our own intentional breeding line here ♥️
Wethers are awesome!! They are great heat-detectors!
I started with Lamanchas and they were unruly 🤣 Hence why I have Nigerian dwarf and Nigerian/pigmy mixes 😁
LaMancha are really smart!!
This was such an awesome video! Thank you! Took a minute I was taking notes! Lol
I am SO glad it was helpful!!!
Nice one 👍
Thanks ✌️
We have 5 bucks and a wether in one pasture, the other pasture has our does and we have 6 does, 3 doeling. My wether was with the bucks, but I put him with does. Then I noticed him being brutal with the doelings. So back to the bucks he went.
My Wether Tumnus can get a stick up his butt too sometimes. Does yours have horns? Sometimes it doesn't take horns to hurt someone but I do wish our wether was disbudded.
I so enjoy your videos!
Several of them I've watched more than once 😍
Awe!!! Thank you so much, Rachel!! You're definitely an original!!
Soooo more goats? 😃 we’re less than a month away from Juniper and Havoc’s babies!
Always more goats!! Of course, lol!! I SUPER hope you get a keeper out of Havoc. We have a buck that her daughters can use too :)
Questions... Just let me know if you will do video because in sure it can get lengthy and I will just patiently wait for them 😂
1. What age do you stop milking a doe and once you stop does she end up on the table... Or sell.... 🤔
2. What age is good to butcher...
3. What equipment is needed to milk and can that equipment be made...diy fun lol
4. What kind of bedding... Food... Medicine... Too keto on hand... What kind of diseases can the Nigerians get... What about worms?
5. Tips and tricks...
There's a bunch of video ideas! 😆 in sure I will have more questions to come after I watch this video again a few times 😂. Thanks for all you do to help us newbies and your patience. I just love your videos. Your vocabulary and presentation reminds me of a sweet elementary teacher.
Awe hahaha thank you! We homeschool too, maybe it comes from that haha.
I'm toying with the idea of doing a series, because there's a lot to talk about on all of those questions!! It really is up to the keeper with most of that.
1. We will stop using a doe once she seems to be struggling with pregnancy and birth. If she has a hard time we will stop using her and unfortunately we do not have the ability to retire a doe here so she will end up on the table. I'll likely send my does off to a butcher because I definitely get close to my dairy does.
2. A good age to butcher is between 8 and 18 months. After that they may be tough.
3. You really just need a seamless, Non porous pail or jar to milk into. And a strainer of sorts. I have friends that use a canning funnel and a coffee strainer to strain their mill. You could get fancy and make a hand milker but I didn't like the one I made. I have an old video on it that can probably be dug up. It's named something like, ,"watch before you DIY" brake bleeder milker".
Hang on I have to hit send to see the other questions lol.
4. I like to use waste hay to bed the girls. Sometimes straw too, but a lot of times the girls waste enough hay where I don't have to worry about paying for straw bedding. Sometimes I'll use a fresh bale for the kidding stall so it is as clean as possible. Food is definitely it's own video and super variable but basically they need a 2:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio or they can develop bladder stones that can kill. Usually this is a non issue if grain is withheld, but we feed ammonium chloride to bucks to help dissolve stones. They have a harder time passing stones due to a small urethra and we lost a very valuable buck to bladder stones. It was heartbreaking and totally preventable. Many people just Feed bucks hay.
Hay is important for all of them. The long stemmed forage keeps their rumen healthy. They need to chew their cud to keep their pH balanced in their gut and keep bloat away.
Having said that an anti bloat treatment and basic antibiotics and a thermometer should always be on hand. Loose minerals and deworming medications too. The type of wormer you give is based on your local area and the pests on your land, we gained a ton of knowledge about different worms this year once we expanded our pastures. Some of them are really scary. If you haven't seen my video on Elpis' brain worm, look that up!
BUT , you're really making me want to make a series and I think I will. I just need to organize what I want to talk about!!!
@@SageandStoneHomestead yes! Please make a series! In sure others have videos out there but I don't subscribe to many and I prefer to watch those I... Hmm I guess I trust and feel comfortable with... Hmm not sure if that makes sense or came off creepy 🤣😂🤷🏻♀️. Anyways sounds like I need to binge your channel and than wait excitedly for the series to come! I think it would be amazing coming from you! So much! I can also send you an email as a fresh no idea what I'm doing newbie so you have an idea what's on our minds to help. Just let me know and if so I'll check the description for contact info. I want to be prepared and know how much land we need to look for... For what we want and if we want other meat animals... Right now we are thinking goats and chickens. And we want a plan to be sustainable within ourselves not purchasing not animals outside. We will always have our own source... With breeding. I also have questions on chickens lol but I'll budge your videos and after I get an idea with the goats I can move to the chickens 🤣😂. You truly are a blessing! Thank you!
I am so flattered you've taken to our content and love it!! The whole point of this channel is to help new and budding and existing homesteaders with ideas and inspiration. A "grow with us" type situation!! I get emails often and will happily answer any questions you have! ♡♡
Hi, thank you for a great informative video. My fence will be up in 3 weeks. I will be ready to purchase my first herd. I am looking for at least one wether and 2-3 doe to start. I have 3.5 acres and 80% of the land is pasture. The initial purpose of having goats is to eat pasture and bushes. After 6-7 months I would like to breed the doe for more goats. I would greatly appreciate your suggestions on the kind of breed to start with and if possible where to get them. I am based out of Northeast Atlanta. Thank you!
I think the smaller ones are easier to manage especially for a beginner. Nigerian Dwarf are hardy goats in my experience.
@@SageandStoneHomestead Should I go with Kiko?
Watching from Nigeria
Hello and welcome!
@@SageandStoneHomestead thank you, please can I have your contact? I'm having plan of starting a goat farm
my email is sageandstonehomestead@gmail.com
@@SageandStoneHomestead okay,👍
I think 3 does and 1 buck is perfect but I have 23goats!😂
Lol WELL.... We do use them for multiple things to include mowing about 6 acres in summer :)
@@SageandStoneHomesteadI don’t now if I’m allowed to ask this but how many goats do you have?
I have to count, but it fluctuates between 20 and 30 depending on the season!
@@SageandStoneHomestead 😄
Thank for posting this video. Your videos are very inspiring 😊 I'm getting diary sheep this spring and I'm considering not getting a ram at least not the first year. Do you have any advise how to go about finding ram services for breeding my ewes or do you have any experience with AI? I find there is more information online about diary goats than diary sheep and nothing comes up on this topic in my area.
I am not familiar with those topics. We sometimes stud out our bucks to friends but that's as far as we have gone with any of that!
Do you have a recipe for your commodity mix, or a video on it?
No it's a feed mix already blended from the store. What's important for goats is their feed needs to have a 2 to 1 calcium to phosphorus ratio and preferably have ammonium chloride. Both of these things help prevent bladder stones from forming. ❤️
20:00
Such a great, informative video. Thank you!! I saw your cream separator, what brand is it? I bought one off amazon and it leaked everywhere. I sent it back. Looking for a good brand that won’t leak. Thank you!!
I have the Slavic Beauty Cream Separator and I bought it from Caprine Supply!♡
@@SageandStoneHomestead you haven’t had any issues with it leaking?
@@sharoncain4179 there is a backflow area in the back that leaks less than an ounce sometimes if I don't let the separator run long enough to process all of the milk. When you use it you should let it run a couple minutes past when the milk is all out of the bowl so it can move thorough all the disks.
Can you use hot wire to keep goats in ? We want to move them around
Yes we have friends that do that with poly wire. We have used electric netting before with success!
At what age or weight did you move the surplus goats to the freezer?
8-10 months old! 50 lbs minimum but that can be hard to achieve on a Nigerian that young.
Know this is an older video but, how's the meat yield from a standard La Mancha? You said the Nigerians you processed where about 25 lbs. I'm thinking on getting Nigerians and La Manchas for both meat and milk. Nubians would be perfect instead but I've been told they are louder than other goats.
From dairy breeds you can expect about 35% of the live weight in meat (with bones in). So a 100lb goat is around 35 lbs of meat give or take, bones in to include ribs and neck roasts.
Hello how many goats do you have? Also how many flakes of hay do you recommend for Nigerian Dwarfs Goats. Thanks
We have 31 goats right now and feed 2 bales a day. I'd do 1 flake per 2 Nigerians! Might need 1 per goat if it's loosely baled or they aren't being fed anything else
What did the Nigerian dwarf goats you harvested taste like??? I’ve never eaten goat I’m curious
Tastes like venison but the fat on goats is much more buttery in texture so it's got almost a pork type flavor as well. It's very good.
@@SageandStoneHomestead That sounds delicious! Thank you for the reply :)
I feel enabled lol
You're welcome! 😍❤️🐐
At what age did you put your male dairy mixed Goats in the freezer?
10 months old!
How much does it cost to keep a goat year round?
That depends on a few factors. I would definitely have a cushion for emergencies as they come up and a decent medicine cabinet to take care of things like hoof injury, bloat, and pneumonia. At least have a good relationship with a vet that knows and treats goats.
The goats can easily live off of the grass ans brush from our large pasture during the growing season but the winter we feed hay.
We pay $5 a Bale for grass hay in our area and spend $1000 on our winter hay. One registered doe often has triplets, and the value of those triplets pays for the hay for the whole herd for the whole winter. After that the kids that sell help pay for things like medicines and grain. The meat and milk we get offsets the cost of the feed and everything supports itself and is essentially free.
It takes investment up front to eventually see the reward but dairy goats have a high value and usually pay for themselves. One Nigerian Dwarf would take over a week to get through a bale of hay, and probably a month or more to get through a bag of pellets. I'd say one Nigerian goat probably costs about $20 a month in winter, which is the high cost season here. So 20×12 is $240 a year. Even if she has one baby only the sale of that baby pays for mama.
Do you think it's okay to house goats in a concrete floored barn with hay/pine shavings on top or will their urine leave a bad smell in the concrete like the rabbits would?
People do that, but their urine would get into the concrete.
@SageandStoneHomestead I'm not sure what to do about that floor. 80% of the flooring is concrete (all in the main area) and then there are some stalls that just have kind of a cobblestone brick floor. I would hate to dig up all the concrete, but at the same time I dislike the urine smell even more. Do they need to be housed in the barn overnight or do they usually sleep outside in their pasture under a shelter?
I was going to say goat math is just as bad as chicken math is 🤣
It really is!!
200 days of hay!?!?😮😮😮
Yes from sometime in october through mid to end of April!
How much a month to feed two goats?
I have a video on this topic, I can link it here: czcams.com/video/cUJONKYNehc/video.html
I love goat milk
Same!
How much for 2 dairy goats
Hello! Just in case you missed the other reply I'll link the goat cost breakdown video here: czcams.com/video/cUJONKYNehc/video.html
Where can i get alpine goats 🐐
No idea! Mine was from a rescue but she was the only one.
Any other breed which gives more milk
But you can provide it
I don't have any but I hear sanens have a lot of milk capacity. Where are you located?
India
Hi friend! I'm just going to add my 2 cents if that's ok and in 2 different scenarios. I'm at 11:44 in the video but wanted to comment this before I forget.
If I had to re-do my first time buying goat experience, this is what I would do:
2 girls is enough to start, good quality, registered, great pedigree girls. IMO it's better to spend $1000 in 2 good quality ones than $1000 in 6, and here is my thinking...
You start with 2 quality does.
Then you can look thru Facebook local goat groups and pay $150 to get your girls pregnant (stud services), and bucks at that price in my area have a great pedigree and lots of milk stars, but If you want the grandson on a National's champion is $400 around here but in my opinion well worth it.
Even if you are not going to show your goats, they have better chances a good body structure = healthier old age
and lots of milk for you, by feeding 1 animal or 2 and not 10 to get volume, and to add to that you can sell the babies and ask for more money with their pedigree backing you up.
It is a lot easier, to keep girls from your existing goats, when they have their babies, and with their Pedigrees it will add likely lots of milk to your Homestead.
Dom's mom was a first freshener bred to the grandson of a National's Grand Champion, and he udder was incredible for a first freshener, she got her milk star and placed best 3 in 2 shows compared to other mature does and not only on first freshener category.
First fresheners take time to develop and produce, but if you start with a GREAT first freshener udder, it goes up from there.
All I'm trying to say is this, if you have 2 pregnant moms, soon you will have other goat you are going to want to keep and is better IMO to keep babies from good quality. ones you already have, and it adds up quickly.
I started with 3 girls and 2 boys in April and by July I kept 2 girls and 1 boy., so first five and then 8 in a few months.
As a first time goat owner I think is best to start with less and add on as you go, it gives you time to establish a routine, get to know your goats and budget for medicine and vet visits.
It can get really expensive really quick if you are not sure what you are doing, and that can discourage people from trying to produce their own dairy.
On the other hand if you have lots of pasture, a barn and everything you need. to get started you can buy a few unregistered does, and you are not having to feed hay so you can try different does and their milk production.
All I'm going to say is this, there are good non registered goats that produce tons of milk, BUT in my experience they are NOT Nigerians, they are crosses, typically Alpine crosses, and their milk taste different.
In MY EXPERIENCE:
A doe that you milk and is exclusively on pasture no matter the breed, their milk taste different ( not bad just different)
A doe in alfalfa not only produces more but also it tastes soooooooo much better.
Milk is milk, so for some that is not a deal breaker, for others It is.
There are tons of people around here that keep goats, but they want my milk, so that is why I'm trying to expand and try to supply at least my community, but it has to make sense $$ wise because feeding alfalfa to the goats I'm milking is an investment.
Not registered or registered, they all have ups and downs. I just wanted to share what I would do based on my experience.
I love all of my goats, and I'm happy to have them all, but I know who is the best, producer, body structure wise, character and in general. I'm not blind, if I would have known then what I know now I would have brought 2 girls ( my 2 strongest) and Rocky.
But is hard to not be barn blind when you really love your animals so it's a struggle I'm personally going thru...and lots of changes might be happening in the near future.
Now back to the video because I'm at 11 something =D
We bought 4 from Living Traditions Homestead when we started out, Pepper and Rorie and Rorie's 2 babies at the time. Baerli and Tumnus. Rorie has milk stars in her lineage and if she didn't get mastitis she would produce way more than Pepper which amazes me.
I would say that good lines for show don't matter to most people I've talked to. They want milk volume for their own consumption. My unregistered Nigerians are definitely Alpine crosses and the milk has a lot of volume but yes, less butterfat!!!
Spending thounsands on genetics is great if you can manage it but it is not accessible for a lot of people. It would be great if everyone could buy top of the line. We live in the state where the cost of living is the cheapest, I'm guessing because incomes are low, and that means everything else has to adjust accordingly. Very few would spend $1000 on 2 does here. I bought Talia and Calamity with Hamish earlier this year and they were just under $1000 as a trifecta with good lines. Thr lady I bought them from was from Massachusetts where lamancha sell well but she was having a hard time here and was putting more goat in the freezer than she wanted to.
A lot of this is super relative and that's why it all needs to be thought about per the indivudal. If your goals are what yours are than your thinking makes sense. But if your goals are more what mine are than it doesn't really make sense. Mostly we want the dairy. We like to sell reasonably priced good quality pet goats and breeding stock to the local community and eat the rest. I'm not willing to buy strictly alfalfa because that's not sustainable for me. In my case if I don't produce my own milk and meat I'm buying a lesser quality at the store no matter what, so I'll do what I can afford even if it isn't considered the most superior product at the end. It's definitely delicious and we get what we want out of it, (cheese and butter) and I'm so thrilled.
We have kept a lot of goats to grow internally too but we also run into genetics that run closely and need to make decisions on who to cull in the future for genetic diversity. Those are definitely hard decisions to make !
@@SageandStoneHomestead yes!! So true, it depends where you are and what your goals are with your herd.
Where you live, prices of feed and your personal goals are determining factors.
I should clarify though, the genetics are not really important to me (shows and stuff) I guess it’s the history of milk production in the lines what makes sense in my head and you only learn about it thru a pedigree.
An exceptional goat to me equals milk production.
Clara and Annabelle both eat the same and Clara produces double, but Annabelle has more traits of her dad side than Clara’s, Mocha is more like Clara, just under her production just a bit, I guess I just need to clone Clara😂
I wouldn’t want a big breed for myself either, I just don’t think Im willing to struggle with them, it would be physically a lot for me, and big breeds are a struggle to sell even for cheap around here. Same with pigs, feeder ones sell, kune kune and other breeds are still on Craigslist after weeks and weeks.
Having said that I’m done buying goats I have 3 bucks I can rotate and keep the genetics connected but not related, and if they ever get too close I’ll have to sell one buck and get a new one, that is a compromise I’m willing to make.
As far as the hay whatever makes sense for the person, and what they can afford, but I always encourage people to try different things and do the math per dollar.
For example:
If I feed a bale of hay a day and pay 5 a bale it’s $35 a week + the pellets or mix in the morning and at night.
If I buy a bale of alfalfa 2 string 80 pounds is $ 20 + otchard 130 pound $30 that’s 50 a week and they don’t get pellets because they don’t need it.
Total of $50 a week.
Milkers get a half a cup of grain in the milking stand on top of that when in peak production if they go down they get alfalfa hay in the stand.
I try to buy the big bales of alfalfa (130 pounds) and when in milk but all they need is 80 pounds, the rest is always thrown to the next week.
Summer is lovely because they are in the pasture in the afternoon and supplement.
I always say, try it, but use your brain, in your situation, money wise, space wise, time wise … because we can be the same people in our heads but have completely different lives.
That is why I struggle giving advise to people, because I don’t always follow instructions😂 I try them but if they don’t make sense I can’t justify them.
All great ideas but aplicable to everyone.
That is why I admire you and yo channel because you are comfortable enough sharing your methods.
I on the other hand don’t share mine much, because I feel like is all so relative.
Especially with goats:
What do they eat?
It depends is it a wether? Buck? Doe ? Doeling?
What minerals?
It depends 😂
Graze or not graze?
It depends on the weather 😂😂
Everything is it depends.
But I guess I’m pushing myself to share more of what I do, because that is what I look for on channels, people that have the same foundation but different methods!
So thank you for sharing friend ❤️❤️
I’ll go back to sell everyone and keep Clara to be cloned 😂😂
I’m kidding!
I can’t wait for the first time momma’s around here❤️
However big changes will be coming 😩
I'm going to go catch up on your videos. I watched half of the one where you did chores in the rain and had to put my phone down. I'm excited and nervous about your changes. Change is hard but you're smart so I'm guessing you're making some changes that make sense.
Have you ever thought about "paid promotins"
One utuber got a freeze drier and she freezer in a promotion.
Yes we have!! I've reached out to companies like Greenstalk and a lot of them want you to have more subscribers and a wider reach before they'll send you something to promote. Those freeze driers are very expensive so I imagine I'd have to be a much bigger channel to get to promote one of those!♡