In case the title doesn't quite give it away, we are talking about goats. My family has been enjoying and learning about goats for quite some time. Well, lets be honest, I do the enjoying, and they do the learning, ha ha. First let me start off by introducing you to a couple of my girls:
Left is Cocoa, a Nigerian Dwarf/Nubian cross. She is not quite a year yet, and I hope she's expecting. Then my big white girl, Zeba, a 4th generation Mini-Mancha (Nigerian Dwarf crossed with LaMancha) she is about 3 years old, and the best milker I've ever had. She's mild tempered, and quite friendly. And then just barely you can see the eyes of Sugar poking out behind her. She is Cocoa's sister but is pure white, and I hope she is expecting as well. They have all been exposed to this handsome fella:
I had always wanted to have milk goats. And at first it started because we had 2 kids allergic to milk as babies and I had read that most people with milk allergies can tolerate goats milk because it has smaller proteins and is easier to digest, among about a million other reasons. We bought our first milker in about 2004 or so and discovered after having her home less than an hour, that our yard and fencing wasn't sufficient to keep her. She ran away twice that afternoon and so we had to tie her to a tree.
I really didn't have the heart to keep an animal tied up, so the previous owner was gracious enough to take her back. After that we tried a couple of Pigmy goats and a Nigerian dwarf. The pigmy's weren't bottle raised and wouldn't have anything to do with us, so really we didn't get to enjoy them much. We had to sell our animals when we moved so we went about 4-5 years before having them again.
About 4 years ago I decided to try again. A friend was moving and had to sell her milker and a Yearling. And this time we had bought property with a barn and corrals so we were sufficiently set up to care for them. We all really enjoyed it at first, but sadly my kids have mostly lost interest except for one. But he is a trooper and milks every day, twice a day for me, and I really think he doesn't mind except for occasionally when other activities interfere and cause him to have to go out at late at night when its dark and snowing to take care of the milking.
When we bred our yearling, Lucy and taught her to milk it had to be one of the most horrific experiences (for both her and us). I'm not sure how we all made it out alive. Likely quite comical for any passers by. But she was so stubborn, she'd do a double back kick on the milk stand trying to clear the room of any potential milkers. It took 3 of us at first to get her milked. 2 to hold each of her back legs, and one person to milk. (Below is Lucy in front with her 2 babies behind, followed by PattyCake)
She was a full size dairy goat, a Saanen, and it was all we could do to keep her under control. She eventually settled down, and by the next year was a very well behaved milker, as long as you didn't dawdle.
I really enjoyed our other Saanen, Patty-Cake, she was 10 years old or more, and very mellow and well behaved. Not to mention too fat to cause any real trouble, ha ha! And did I mention the VERY best thing about goats? BABY goats! :-) Here is PattyCake with our very fist babies! Oh how we loved them!
We eventually sold our Saanens to try some smaller goats.
(The first ones pictured at the top.)
Hopefully you enjoyed your introduction to my herd, I will do several follow up posts on milking, the benefits of goat milk, and more! I am more of a fair weather milker, just ask my boys, so once it warms up you will see alot more of what goes on around here.
Check back again soon, and thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment