I think we’ve all done it at one point or another, unless we grew up with the stuff. One time, at the farmer’s market, a nice lady selling some delicious looking blueberry pastries handed me a sample. I was all ready to take a bite until she added, “It’s made from goat’s milk.”

Immediately, the smell of a barn flooded my mouth, and I just couldn’t handle the thought. Not wanting to be rude, I handed it to my little girl instead, “Here baby, you try it! It’s good!” Truly, I just wanted her honest reaction… and you know, she loved that goat’s milk pastry!

I still kept that stereotype in my mind for the longest time though. You know, that goat’s milk tastes horrible… like the smell of a goat. It wasn’t until I was at a friend’s house who has goats when I gathered my courage and asked to sample some of her fresh milk.

And what do you know! It was good!!

So. We got some milk goats.

We’re loving all of this fresh milk, and we’ve surprised a few of our family members with how good goat’s milk actually is! We’re breaking the stereotype, one sip at a time.

And something else I’ve been pleased to find out- goat’s milk can be used in any recipe that calls for cow’s milk.

Seriously.

At first I was looking up recipes which specifically call for goat’s milk. But after some experimenting I’ve found that I can use it in anything! Baking, pouring in our cereal, ice cream, yogurt (okay, that one was a flop, but it’s doable!), oatmeal… whatever! There is no difference whatsoever in taste.

Isn’t that great to know?!

So, the next time somebody offers you something made from fresh goat’s milk, give it a try before turning up your nose. I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised, too!

Really sad news.

Smiley, our sweetest milk goat, died this morning.

Everything seemed fine when I went out early this morning to open the gate and let the girls graze for a while before I milked. But when I went back outside about 20 minutes later, I found Smiley standing in her pen, something obviously terribly wrong.

She stood still, staring straight ahead and making a fast grunting/panting sound. Her belly was very swollen and felt tight when I pressed on it. And every minute or so she would let out a horrible cry, nothing like her usual bleating. After watching her for a moment, and looking her over well, it was evident that she was in some major pain. I put down my milking stuff and ran inside to tell Jerry that something was really wrong with Smiley.

I quickly jumped on the phone and called a friend of mine who is a goat expert. Unfortunately, I got her answering machine. I figured she was probably out working the farm already. I left her a desperate message anyways, hoping maybe she’d call me back soon.

Next, I hopped online and looked up Fias Co Farm, searching through symptoms of illnesses. I wondered if maybe she’d eaten something poisonous. What in the world was wrong with her?! The only thing I could think of was bloat. It was usual for Smiley’s belly to look very fat after grazing, but she hadn’t been out that long. I decided I’d just treat her for bloat. It was better than doing nothing.

I grabbed a bottle of vegetable oil and poured 1/3 c. into a container. I planned on using a dropper to squirt it down her throat. Then I hurried out the door, whispering a prayer that this would work.

But it was too late.

When I got to her she was already dead.

Ugh. How horribly sad.

It had only taken about 15 minutes and she was gone. I stood over her lifeless body for a moment, hoping to see her take another breath. But there was none. I crouched down and rubbed her still warm body, and apologized to her for not getting there fast enough.

Later on this evening, my friend returned my call. She was really sorry to hear that my goat didn’t make it. I explained what had happened, and asked her what she thought it could have been.

“Has she had runny poop?” she asked.

“No. We’ve been worming her regularly.”

“Has she been in the feed bag?” she asked next.

“No.”

“Wait, yes. Yesterday I noticed the lid had been knocked off the trash can with their feed in it. It didn’t look like much was eaten, so I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Was her belly really tight, like a balloon about to pop?”

“Yeah. Really swollen and tight.”

“Uh-huh. That’s what did it. She had bloat.” Ms. Faith replied.

“So, it could take that long to take effect?” I asked. I guess I figured if she overate it would be noticeable right away.

“Oh yeah. I had a goat do that not too long ago. He got into a bag of feed, and the next day he was dead.”

I felt so bad. I hadn’t thought anything of it when I’d replaced the lid on that can. It really didn’t look like anything had been eaten from the bags of feed.

She went on to explain that the next time I suspect they may have overeaten, to go ahead and give them vegetable oil, and to watch their poop. If they don’t poop, give them more oil until they do poop. She said it’s better if you give them too much oil and they have a little diarrhea than die from bloat.

So, now I’m concerned about our little doeling. I saw her in the trash can yesterday too, for a moment. She seems fine, and it doesn’t seem like she ate that much… but I’d thought the same about Smiley.

It’s good to know what to do though, if she does start showing symptoms of bloat. And you can be sure I’m gonna keep an eye on her for the next couple of days.

Ms. Faith also warned that Coccidiosis is something I need to be watching for at this time of year. Then she reassured me that goats are just hard to keep sometimes. They aren’t very hardy animals, and often die from one thing or another very quickly.

Bummer.

Big. Fat. Bummer.

Poor Smiley. May she rest in peace.

Remember the first year we got laying hens? At the end of the year I calculated that it had cost us $7.80 per dozen eggs. Yikes. We’ve made a lot of changes since then. We don’t feed them bagged corn anymore. We don’t feed them as much laying mash (only a pint jar a day for 7 hens). We give them lots of table and garden scraps, and are trying to grow more of their food.

Last year we learned that for us, it just wasn’t worth it to raise pigs. (Not to mention that we’ve since stopped eating pork.)

This year it’s milk goats. I’ve been keeping records of how much milk we are getting and how much we’ve spent on feed, hay, and meds. I don’t count fencing ’cause we’re using what we already had.

Honestly, I was a little scared to know what a gallon of milk has been costing us. We haven’t been very diligent in our efforts, as I will explain further in a moment. After adding it all up, it looks like we have some changes we need to make if it’s gonna be worth keeping the goats.

The feed we are buying is $12 for a 50 lb. bag. One bag lasts us about 9 days. So, it’s fair to say we use about 3 bags per month. That’s $36/mo.

The bales of hay we are buying from a local farmer are $3/bale. One bale lasts us about a week (and that’s being stingy with it). So, in a month we go through about 4 bales. That’s about $16/mo.

I decided to go with Molly’s Herbal De-Wormer; it’s a weekly treatment. The kit cost me $25.70 shipped, and should last our four goats about 6 months. This ends up costing us just a little over $4/mo.

Added all up, it looks like we’re spending about $56/mo to keep these goats. Not even counting intangibles like water and electricity.

Right now, we have the little buck separated from the three does. I’m milking Blondie, but the little doeling is still nursing her mama, Smiley. So, I’m only milking one of our goats. Bad. I know. It’s way past time to separate the doeling so I can milk both does.

The problem is, we have nowhere to put the little doeling. We don’t have enough fencing to put her in her own pen until she’s weaned. And we can’t put her in with the little buck as I’ve mentioned before, ’cause he’s old enough to breed her and she’s way too young to safely have any babies yet. This is what has held us back.

Milking only one of the goats has given us about a quart a day. Which reminds me, make sure that whenever you are looking to buy a milk goat, you insist on being present at one of the milkings before you make your purchase. This way you will know for sure how much milk you can expect to get from her. We were told that each of these does would give 3/4 of a gallon a day! Which has proven not to be the case.

So, we’ve been averaging almost 2 gallons per week. Are you still with me? That means we’ve been paying about $7 per gallon for our goat’s milk.

Not cool.

We could get a gallon of fresh milk from a local farmer for $3/gal! And not have to milk twice a day, or worry about taking care of any animals, or skipping summer vacations ’cause we don’t have anybody to milk for us while we’re gone.

Obviously, we have some reevaluating to do. If we had more land we could grow more of our own animal feed… but we’ve quickly learned that one acre just isn’t enough to raise a sufficient amount of food for our family plus the animals. At least, we haven’t figured out how to do it yet.

Fortunately, there are some things we can do to help cut costs.

As I mentioned, separating the doeling is top priority. Hopefully milking both goats will at least double the amount of milk we are getting.

We’ve decided to sell the little buckling instead of keeping him for breeding. From everything I’ve been reading, it just isn’t worth it to keep a buck unless you have a large herd of does to breed.

We’ve been given the number to a local farmer who sells bags of goat feed for $8 instead of the $12 we are paying at the mill. Hopefully we’ll be able to hook up with him and start saving money there.

And, if I can start making and selling goat’s milk soap, that may be a way to help cover our feed bill.

So, that’s where we’re at, and that’s the plan. Do you see the importance of keeping track of your expenses? If you want to become more self-sufficient, you can’t let your homestead cost you more than it profits.

So, we’ve made yet another frustrating mistake. We put the goat’s pen in a bad spot. Sure, it looked perfect when we chose to fence in that particular piece of the property. But after some time actually using it, we’ve realized it wasn’t such a great idea after all.

The mistake? Well, it’s at the bottom of the slope of the yard, in the woods. Meaning, this is where all of the rain water runs off to, and it doesn’t dry out very quickly ’cause the trees keep it shaded.

It didn’t take very long after several really good storms back to back for the goat’s pen to become a sopping muddy, poopy nightmare. Let me tell you, it was disgusting. Walking through that mess to get to the milking stand was awful, and I felt terribly bad for the goats. I especially worried about their hooves. Goats will get hoof rot very quickly if they are kept in a muddy area.

As much as it hurt us to admit it (especially Jerry, who had spent days putting up the fence!), we had to move the pen somewhere else. After some debating, we agreed upon a high spot behind the house, next to Jerry’s workshop. I’m thinking it will stay pretty dry up there. And we’ll be able to build the milking station off of the side of the workshop.

Speaking of the milking station, there are a few specifics I’m requesting for my new milking area. Things I’ve learned are necessary as I’ve struggled to deal without them.

First, let me tell you, if you are going to have a milk goat, you NEED a milk stand. Well, unless you have a super tame doe that will just stand there and let you milk to your heart’s content.

I don’t have a goat like that. Mine likes to move, and she kicks when she’s out of food. I have to have a good way to keep her still.

Since Jerry has moved the goats, we have yet to bring their milk stand with them. Right now, it’s still under the shelter in their former pen. So, I’ve been tying the goats to a tree with a feed bucket in front of them, and sitting on the ground to milk. And every time the goat moves over a little, I have to scoot closer. Which takes time. Which means the goat runs out of food before I’m done. And then she’s kicking while I attempt to finish milking her as fast as I can without her kicking over the milk bowl.

Are you picturing this? Not an easy task.

I’ll be glad when I have my milk stand back in commission again!!

The other trouble, keeping the other goats away while you milk. They will absolutely bum rush the feed bowl and you’ll have all of your goats fighting for the grain while you are trying to milk the doe. It’s nearly impossible to do.

Oh yeah, and you definitely want to fence off your milking area to keep the goats off the stand when it’s not in use. Otherwise, they will play on it, and poop all over it, and then it’s nasty.

In my perfect little world, this is how I picture my new milking station:

• The milking stand will be under a shelter to keep me and the girls out of the rain.
• It will be fenced in, with a latching gate. This will keep the goats separated when I milk, and keep the stand clean.
• I’d have a shelf on the wall to hold my supplies.
• We’ll cover the floor of the milking stand with some scrap linoleum flooring so it’s easy to wipe off when milk spills.
• The trash can of feed will be in the milking area, easily accessible.
• I’ll have a flood light hooked up so I can see when I milk at night.

Ah, that will be nice.

The girls are happier now in their dry pen. We’ve separated the buck from the does. Although he’s still very small, he’s 3 months old now and able to mate. And we don’t want him impregnating his sister who is still too young to birth. I think we’ve decided to sell him. I’ll share more on that later though.

All you experienced goat owners, see anything you can add? I’m sure there will be more things we’ll have to change as we go.

The milk goat we got a little over two weeks ago had dried up. I couldn’t figure it out! I’d gotten the hang of milking her and was confident (well, pretty sure) I was doing it right. We’d supplied the goats with all the fresh hay they could ask for, grains, and free forage…

What else was I missing? I’d tried to do everything right, and still the goat was giving less and less milk every day.

Yesterday, I got about 4 tablespoons of milk. No joke. I thought, “Great. She’s dried up. Now what do I do?”

So today I resorted to phase 2: Separate the kids from the other doe (affectionately named Smiley, ’cause she’s always showing her teeth), and try milking her once a day until we are able to completely wean her little ones.

I rounded up the little buckling and doeling, and put them in their own pen for the day. They didn’t like it, and called for their mama every so often, but eventually they settled in and enjoyed the fresh forage. Smiley had the entire day to build up a good supply of milk for me.

Tonight at milking time I milked both goats. I really hoped to get more milk than the few drops I’ve been getting over the past week.

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, Smiley has really small teats. Which makes it very difficult to milk her. (One of those things I should have paid attention to before buying her!) I gave it my best, and she did good for her first time letting me milk, but most of what I got either ran down my arm or squirted in some random direction, completely missing the bowl. When you can’t get a good grasp on her it’s hard to do a thorough job.

I got a little out of her, but not as much as I would have liked. I didn’t sweat it though for tonight. I’d be returning her kids to her soon and they could finish the job for me. I thanked her anyway, and she jumped down off of the stand.

But what I surprise I got when Blondie (the dried up doe) jumped up on the milking stand…  very noticeably engorged and ready to be relieved of all that milk!! I couldn’t believe it!

I prayed it wasn’t a cruel joke, and began to milk her. I milked, and I milked, and I milked! It just kept coming!

I ended up getting a full quart of milk out of her. Granted, it’s not that much compared to what most goats give in a day, BUT compared to the 3/4 of a quart for two milkings I was getting in the beginning, and then the laughable dribbles I’ve been getting for the past several days, I felt like I’d hit gold!

What the heck had happened? Why did she all of a sudden have milk overflowing, when just yesterday she was as dry as a sack of flour?

Maybe she’d just loosened up around me. Maybe the increased feed had finally kicked in. I didn’t know, but I was not going to complain about it.

Once I’d finished milking Blondie I took the milk back inside the house, let it strain, and then went back out to return the kids to their mama for the night.

But when the eager little ones got back into the larger pen with the does, I decided to stand by and watch to see if something I had been suspecting might possibly be going on.

And then my suspicions were confirmed. I could hardly control myself as I shouted, “I knew it!! I knew it!!”

The kids were nursing Blondie- NOT THEIR MAMA!

Ah-ha!! So THAT’S what’s been going on. That’s why Blondie was dry every time I tried to milk her. The little rascals were stealing my milk!

Is this normal? I have no idea. But now that I know it’s nothing I’ve done wrong I feel so much better about it. And now I know how to fix the problem!

Tomorrow, I’ll separate the little ones again in the morning and milk both does in the evening. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that we start getting some good milk production going on around here! I’m ready to play with this stuff and see what else I can make from fresh goat’s milk!

Does anybody know if it’s normal for kids to nurse a doe who’s not their mother?

And will Smiley’s teats get larger as she gets older and is milked more often? I sure hope so!

As you may have read, we’ve had some trouble getting much milk from our new dairy goat. Instead of getting the 3/4 gallon the previous owners said we could expect, we’ve been getting something closer to 3/4 quart!

Being very new to milking, I wondered if I was doing something wrong. Was I pinching her too hard? Did she just not like me? Was she holding back ’cause everything is still new to her here? Was she sick?

Not sure what the problem was, I called the lady we bought the goats from for advice. She was really sweet and patient  as she listened to me explain what’s going on, and thankfully was more than happy to offer some good suggestions.

I shared with her that “Blondie” was getting onto the stand fine, but half way through the milking she had started kicking and dancing around, making it very difficult for me to finish milking (which is important to do to avoid an infection). The lady asked me how long it was taking for me to milk her. “Oh, about 10 minutes,”  I answered. “Ahh, that’s probably it,” she said. It usually takes her only 5 minutes per goat to milk. She figured that Blondie was most likely done being milked halfway through, and was losing her patience.

That made a lot of sense. I had been taking my time washing her teats, massaging her udders, and milking one side at a time.

The sweet lady also made a few other suggestions:

• Don’t wear rings when I milk.
• Make sure my finger nails aren’t too long.
• Give her an unlimited supply of fresh hay throughout the day.
• Offer her some alfalfa cubes, “She’ll be your best friend.”

That night I went to milk with a new found confidence.

I washed her up quickly. And instead of sitting on a stool beside the milking stand I sat on the milking stand with my left shoulder up against her, as was suggested by one of my readers here. This was actually more comfortable for me, as I wasn’t trying to lean across the stand to milk her.

This time I tried milking her with two hands. I’d gotten the flow of it after a week of milking, so doing both sides at once was really no trouble. I filled the bowl quickly, and was done before Blondie had finished eating her grains.

And guess what. No kicking! Yay!!

So, I think we’ve figured out the problem. We were also just able to find a local source of good hay for the goats yesterday, and are now supplying them with unlimited hay. Hopefully we’ll see an increase in her milk production.

I also learned something else about dairy goats while doing some reading online. After you’ve de-wormed a dairy goat you will have to wait about 2 weeks before drinking that milk, as some of the medicine will come through. I didn’t realize this, though it totally makes sense.

When we first got the goats the owners wormed them that night. We didn’t know anything about “milk withdrawal”, so we had been drinking that milk for the whole first week before I read about the safety issues. I quickly looked up the withdrawal period for the wormer that these people used, and everyone was saying that there was no withholding time recommended, and that it was safe. But then I read that the FDA has no recommended withdrawal time simply because this particular med hasn’t been tested.

So… I tell you this so that you know. Because I didn’t even think twice about it.

We haven’t been drinking the milk this whole past week, just to be on the safe side. I am, however, freezing it to make soap with. After this weekend it will be two weeks that we’ve had the goats, so we’ll be good to go then.

This morning I gave Jada her first lesson in Goat Milking 101! She was SO excited to be learning. And she did really good! At first she was hesitant, saying the teat was squishy and felt weird (which made me laugh), but then she got brave enough to try it. She’s so funny. I plan on bringing her with me at every milking and letting her get more practice. She was really proud of herself, and felt honored to have the privilege of the responsibility.

So, things are coming along here! Can’t wait to get even more milk to experiment with!