Starting out with goats - Felicity Stockwell begins a series on practical goat-keeping for the modern family
THERE could be a number of reasons why you are considering goat-keeping. Possibly because you have some land and would like to provide milk, dairy products and perhaps meat for your family.
Perhaps you just want one for a pet. You are or may become a hand spinner. You do not have enough land for a cow. You have lactose-intolerance and want goat's milk, yoghurt and cheese. You love goats!
Goats are herd animals and as such are not happy when kept alone, so you should always have two goats as a minimum. This could take a variety of forms:
A dairy goat and another variety such as an Angora or Pygmy. This would work well if space is at a premium or if you want a goat for dairying and a goat for fibre.
The permutations are actually almost endless and you will need to assess what your requirements are for your smallholding or garden.
If I could only keep two goats, my choice would be a nice dairy goat with proven milking performance, ideally aged between three and seven years old and an Angora doe between two and seven years old. These are the reasons why:
The dairy goat will be able to fulfil your dairying needs, providing she has kidded in the last 12 months and been regularly milked.
The Angora would provide you with a shearing twice a year and will probably yield about 4 to 6 kilograms of fleece, which will enable you to spin up to 100 x 50 gram balls of wool (I say "up to" because it will depend on the quality of the fleece - this is something we will deal with in a later issue to co-incide with shearing times).
Every autumn you will be able to mate your two goats to the same buck and regardless of breed (but not pygmies) the two goats will then provide you with up to four kids for the freezer. Angora crossed with some of the larger dairy breeds make very good carcasses as they tend to be less leggy and have good thighs and shoulders.
Alternatively, you could choose an Angora buck one year and a dairy breed the following year. That way you would breed pure Angora one year and pure dairy breed the following year, but still have some hybrid kids for meat production.
Age is important. Three to seven years of age will give you a mature animal that will already have successfully kidded, so you know she is fertile and has kidded without serious problems on the face of it.
The fleece of a fibre goat will be still be good enough for home spinning between those ages.
Many people will tell you that certain goats are better for dairying than others because the butterfat content of their milk varies from breed to breed. The latter part of that statement is true but for the average family, any breed of dairy goat will suffice. It is mainly down to you as to the type of goat you prefer and perhaps what is available within a reasonable radius of your holding. If you are thinking of commercial goat keeping, then this is a different matter because yield is vital but I will deal with that in a later issue.
A dairy goat from good milk lines will produce up to a gallon of milk a day. The average dairy goat will produce about six pints a day in her first year of milking reducing to three to four pints a day in her second year of milking. Milked regularly and kept warm in winter, she will continue to provide milk for up to three years without being mated., but there is no reason why you shouldn't breed from her annually if you want to.
Some breeds will not milk so well in the winter. This is particularly true of the Anglo Nubian, who dislikes the cold and will often drop milk yield through the winter. Once the yield diminishes it is unlikely that it will return.
Smaller breeds such as the Golden Guernsey are a delightful and rather sensitive goat and will serve a family well but will probably not produce enough for the commercial dairy and has a small frame so is less suitable for meat and indeed, given the fact that they are at risk, the female kids should not be considered for meat production unless they have faults.
Saanen and British Saanen are much bigger goats, produce a good milk supply and a good meat carcass particularly when crossed with other breeds.
The Toggenburg and Alpine Goats are generally known as "Swiss" goats and are very attractive, conjuring up scenes of Heidi. In my experience, they are good dairy goats with nice temperaments and a compact body, which again makes them very suitable for out crossing for meat.
Pygmy goats should only be considered as pets. They are not dairy goats, needing their milk for their own offspring and in the UK at least are not normally eaten! They are great companion animals, full of beans and quite delightful but other than keep your grass down and give you hours of entertainment, that is where it ends. They do of course, require the same degree of care and attention as any of the other breeds, other than the milking.
The Angora goat, as previously discussed, will provide fleece and meat but not milk. Again, requiring it for its own offspring.
Baggot goats are seriously in decline and are very much a goat for someone who has several acres of rough grazing where they can be as free as possible, so perhaps not the ideal smallholder goat, although the breed needs all the support it can get.
Try visiting the British Goat Society website (www.allgoats.com) for more breed information.
Where to buy? Start in the classifieds in "Smallholder"! You can also contact the British Goat Society, who will be able to tell you the breeders in your area and also the contacts for the various goat breed societies, who could help you further.
Be cautious about goats advertised in the local newspaper and take someone with you who knows about goats if you are tempted by such an advertisement.
A quality dairy goat should be around £200 but you will probably be able to find one for a little less. Wethers are usual around £50, Angoras from £100 to £200 depending on age, fleece, breeding. Pygmy goats will be around £75 to £150, each depending on age and breeding.
If it is simply companion goats you are after, it maybe worth calling one of the animal rescue groups, who often have animals for rehoming. You will not be allowed to breed from these goats though, so be quite sure what you want.
With good care, a goat will live up to 16 years and be productive for most of those but still has to be fed, so a bit like taking on a dog, be absolutely sure that what you choose is what you really need.
Find out as much information as you can from the breeder, get milking records, see vaccination and registration records and make sure the animals are correctly tagged. Don't make your mind up there and then. Go home, think about it and then contact the seller the next day. Don't succumb to pressure to commit there and then. As a basic guide, if the goat looks sick or sorry, has a bad coat, missing teeth, running eyes or nose, a lumpy udder or is lame, walk away and find another. Ignore any excuses for poor health or appearance because any reputable goat keeper will only sell a good goat as she is the ambassador for the owner's herd.
Week on week throughout the year, a goat with access to reasonable grazing will cost around £4-£5 a week to keep depending on the area you live in (feed and bedding prices dictating this). In this figure I have factored in vaccination and routine worming, feed, hay and bedding. Pygmy or Baggot goats will cost less.
You should have a properly fenced enclosure or ideally -acre for two goats plus a good draught-proofed shed, which is completely weather proof and affords the goats a minimum of 16 square feet each, preferably slightly more for the larger breeds in particular.
There should be a clean water supply at all times. You should be available to tend the goats twice a day. You will need a Holding Number (CPH Number) before you move the goats to your home.
Introduce new goats to one another gradually.
Isolate new goats from other ruminants on the holding for ten days and speak to your vet immediately if you think there any health problems in that period of time.
Most smallholders these days have to support their enterprise with a "real" job and often feel that a dairy animal is too great a responsibility and so next time I will look at coping with a dairy goat when you are at work all dayit can be done!
9:15am Tuesday 12th February 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: cheryl., cambridgshire on 12:20pm Tue 24 Jun 08
I feel this was a very informative articule.Please keep up the good work
I feel this was a very informative articule.Please keep up the good work
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
