Project 6: Dairy in the Backyard: Goats

Why would you want to do this? You’re interested in fresh milk, healthy homemade dairy products, an endless supply of mulch and compost makings for your garden, an in-yard garbage disposal for extra yard trimmings, and a friendly, generally quiet, companion animal.

Why wouldn’t you want to do this? You don’t have enough space; you aren’t able to be consistent about milking once or twice daily; you don’t mind buying your milk; or you have a fear of raw dairy products.

Skills needed: Keeping goats falls under the category of owning and training an animal and the associated responsibilities, much the same as owning a dog. You’ll need time each day and an affinity for animals. Once you get into the swing of things, you’ll be amazed at how easy it can be and how much fun it is.

Learn more about it: Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats (Storey, 2001) by Jerry Belanger is a fabulous starter book to get you thinking about and planning for goats with accurate information; I have referred to it countless times. Raising Goats for Dummies (Wiley, 2010) by Cheryl K. Smith is the best book I’ve found on the topic (although I dislike anyone being called or calling him- or herself dumb). I have since met the author and can attest to her knowledge and experience with all things goat. There is nothing that I have experienced in the caprine world that this book or Cheryl herself cannot address. It truly is my bible for goat owning.

While most commercial dairy products come from cows, you can get fresh dairy right at home, even if you have a small yard or small plot of land. Goats are great animals for urban and suburban farmers. I can extol the virtues of goats all day!

The goat-keeping process is far more involved than this book will address. I highly recommend reading the aforementioned reference books if you want to get serious about owning goats. To help you consider a possible future with goats, let me start by clearing up some misconceptions.

Common Misconceptions

1. Goats are large animals. Goats can be big. However, like dogs, goats can range greatly in size (and temperament), having been bred for various purposes. I have a neighbor who has three full-size goats, and their shoulders reach the bottom of my rib cage (I am 6’1”, so that’s around 4 feet—at their shoulders). That is fairly big. None of the three is a milker, but when a full-size goat does give milk, you are looking at upward of a gallon a day. A gallon a day is a lot of milk.

As the demand for smaller goats for smaller acreage has increased, the number of breeds and varieties of smaller goats has increased. Pygmy goats are tiny things, not much larger than medium-size dogs, weighing from 20 to maybe 60 pounds maximum. They look like miniature versions of full-size goats, are friendly and easygoing, and can be quite prolific milkers. A couple of years ago, I boarded two pygmies—a brother and sister—whose owner was between residences and didn’t have a yard. When she came to visit them and take them for walks with their collars and leashes two or three times a week, they got lots of attention from onlookers.

There is also a small breed called the Nigerian Dwarf. These goats are physically different from full-size and pygmy goats in that they have shorter legs and more barrel-shaped bodies with big bellies. They have wonderful, friendly temperaments and are reported to give very sweet, tasty milk. The Nigerian Dwarf doe I am most familiar with is owned by my friend Sheri. The doe gave eight cups a day right after delivering her four kids, which was her fourth pregnancy; her milk production tapered to two cups at the end of her milking days.

The size, personality, and milk output of the Nigerian breed was perfect—and remains so—for Sheri and her backyard. Breeders who felt that this breed was too small began to crossbreed Nigerian goats with goats of full-size breeds, creating what are known as minis. My milker is a mini LaMancha doe that is taller than her Nigerian Dwarf mother and shorter than her full-size LaMancha father. She weighs less (90 pounds) than our sheepdog (103 pounds) and has shoulders that come to my hip. She rides in the back of my station wagon to the vet, to other farms for breeding, or down to Sheri’s house for boarding and milking when I go on vacation. She actually enjoys riding in the car, and I can’t count the number of people in other cars who point, honk, stare, and take photos when they notice her!

After having three kids almost a year ago, my mini LaMancha is currently giving a full quart of milk daily, down from almost a half gallon each day in the spring and summer. I use 1 to 2 gallons of milk each time I make cheese, so I try to make cheese or yogurt weekly because the milk supply is steady.

2. Goat’s milk tastes bad. For years, I bought goat’s milk from the store, and at first I referred to the taste as “goaty.” In time, however, I began to realize that the taste was sort of “hay-ey.” Once I got my own goats and drank their milk, there was none of that taste for me (although my son would disagree). I have compared the tastes of milk from many different goats with commercial goat milk, and I’ve come to my own conclusions. My goat gives me slightly sweet milk with a rich, creamy taste that is fresh and almost mildly flowery. I love it.

Goat’s milk will vary in taste depending on the goat, and milk that comes from farms with bucks in residence tastes much more “goaty.” Bucks have a natural musky odor that emanates from their glands and permeates everything that they come in contact with (or near, in some cases). I personally believe that it can seep into the milk of a lactating doe that lives with an intact buck. Neither Sheri nor I have ever had that buck smell or taste in our milk from four different milking does.

3. Goats smell bad. As with many generalizations, this is relative. Depending on your own sense of smell, yes, goats can smell bad. Bear in mind, though, that to some people, so can onions, garlic, fresh cilantro, beer brewing (this affronts my husband), or even chocolate (my own peculiarity).

Buck smell can be considered offensive—Sheri’s daughter Elyssa can barely breathe when there is buck scent around. I, on the other hand, love the smell, and I loved to pet and scratch the buck that lived with us for a couple of months. The thick musky smell is determined by hormones, which are strong and constant in these guys.

A barn that has only female goats or wethers (castrated male goats) smells like, well, a barn, but the bedding should absorb the odor almost immediately. If the barn or pen smells bad, something is wrong. It may be that you are not cleaning often enough or one of your charges is sick and needs treatment. A freshly cleaned barn and healthy goats smell sweet and livestocky, which to me is a nice smell (much better than wet dog!).

4. Goats are loud. This can be true, but it depends on the goats. Although I have been lucky enough to have mostly quiet does and tolerant neighbors, too much noise can be a dealbreaker when a goat pen borders neighboring properties. Goats, like chickens, are not nocturnal, and they shouldn’t make noise at night unless there is a problem. Certain goats, though, can be loud and will make disturbing noises during the day. Sheri gave me her loud goat, which happens to be my milker’s daughter, and she isn’t as bad at my place as she was at Sheri’s. I believe that some of the noisemaking can be situational.

Nigerian Dwarf goats are small and friendly.

5. Goats can be unmanageable. You can control—or cause—a goat’s behavior. The most important part of goat keeping is to get goats (never fewer than two, as they are herd animals) that you can physically handle. Herd or flock animals have an innate hierarchy, and there will always be a herd queen (or leader if you have both wethers and does). The herd queen will constantly challenge you until you’ve established your dominance.

If your goats are bigger than you, or if they have horns, or if you have children who are not able to stand their ground with the goats, then, yes, goats can be unmanageable. Goats do best with someone who can be consistent, strong, loving, and kind. They are very smart animals, and they can be trained (some goats will leave the barn to urinate outside), but their wits need to be bested. If they understand that you are in charge of them and will take care of their welfare, they can establish their own hierarchy within the herd and live happily together, with you as their overseer.

6. Goats eat everything. This is a load of hooey and one of the biggest misconceptions about goats. Goats explore with their mouths, and personable goats may seem to want to chew everything, especially hanging things. They nibble on projections from clothing, such as tags or buttons, to try to get your attention and get you to pet them. Goats actually have very sensitive digestive systems, and although they will eat thorny things (e.g., blackberries, holly, thistles) with nary a second thought, there are long lists of things that they should not have access to, such as rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, and certain other plants. I have noticed that my goats seem to sense that some plants are bad for them—they avoid certain plants that would poison them if ingested—and they are also very good at finding browse as they need it (for example, picking out weeds high in a mineral that is lacking in their diets). Goats do not eat tin cans, but they may appear to when they go after the labels, which they like because paper is a wood-pulp product.

Are you still thinking about owning goats? I hope so. Now it’s time to look at some of the more practical considerations.

Milking Through

A note about milking: dairy animals give the most milk shortly after delivering their babies, and milk production will drop off over time. Many goat owners milk their dams (mothers) for only ten months and then rebreed them to obtain a high output after kidding (giving birth) the following year. This is not necessary. There is a practice called milking through, which means that the owner continues to milk the dam as long as she will give milk. Success depends on many factors, including the genetic makeup of the goat (a good milker from a good milking line), your patience and tolerance of a varying milk yield throughout the seasons, and a solid routine, followed religiously. My first doe had been milked for more than two years straight when I got her, and I milked her for two and a half years more before “freshening” her (stopping milking [“drying off”] and rebreeding).

Goats are curious and are talented climbers.

Practical Considerations

1. Does your community allow you to keep two or more goats? Most cities count goats as livestock and therefore have limits or regulations regarding their keeping; some municipalities do not allow them at all. If your community does not allow goats, don’t push it. My goats are pets, even though I have a livestock permit for them. Like any pets, goats should not be acclimated to a living situation unless they will spend most or all of their lives there. Change is very stressful to goats.

2. Do you have space for goats? A herd of goats (two or more) needs a secure, sheltered area in which to sleep and find protection from the elements, as well a securely fenced open area in which to roam safely. Depending on the size of the goats, their accommodations can range from a dog house and a large dog run to a small barn or a converted shed and a large fenced field. You don’t even have to keep them in your backyard. Portland has several herds of goats that belong to farmers but live on school campuses and vacant city lots to assist in keeping down the weeds and shrubby overgrowth.

Cheryl Smith gives the following advice in Raising Goats for Dummies on how much space you’ll need:

If you live in an area where you can’t let your goats roam over a large area, you need about 20 square feet per adult standard-sized goat for sleeping and resting, plus another 30 square feet (outdoors, ideally) for exercise. If you have a larger outdoor area in which to raise your goats—where they’ll have pasture, woods, or range—you need less indoor space per goat because they’ll only rest and sleep there. The rule of thumb is 10 to 15 square feet per adult standard-sized goat.

We built an 8-by-15-foot “barn” that has one-third of it closed off for milking and storage. The remaining 80 square feet easily houses four minis, but I have had more in the past. Their fenced yard is ample, about 3,500 square feet at forest edge. Sheri’s Nigerians live in a converted shed of 12 by 16 feet but have only slightly more than 500 square feet of fenced yard.

3. Do you have or can you afford a stable shelter and strong fencing for your goats? When I fenced my pen in preparation for goats, I was tuned into chickens, and I made sure that the fence was very secure at the bottom (thinking of predators that could dig under). Little did I know that the two most important factors for goat fencing are height (minimum of 5 feet) and strength (they will lean and rub against the posts and fence to scratch and will stand up against the fencing to explore). Goats, like deer, are browsers, eating bark, branches, and leaves on trees. They prefer to jump, climb, and explore upward areas (remember that they explore with their mouths).

4. Do you want to milk your goats? If you plan to milk, you have a number of additional considerations. How will you get a goat that gives milk? Will you breed her? Will you buy one that is pregnant, and, if so, are you willing to deliver the kids? Or will you buy a doe with (or without) her kids? Do you have space to milk, separate from the rest of the herd? Are you willing to build or buy a stanchion?

More importantly, are you willing and able to provide the additional high-quality feed that a lactating doe requires? Are you willing and able to devote regular time at least once a day (better yet, twice) to milking your doe? Every day? On weekends and holidays? If you go on vacation, do you have someone who can either take the goats or come and milk them for you?

All of these are extremely important questions if you want to have a steady supply of goat milk. I’ll be honest: it’s not easy, especially when the novelty wears off. It has changed my life in certain ways (fewer vacations and having to schedule appointments so they don’t conflict with milking times), but I have no regrets and have found that I really love goat keeping, even with the effort that it entails. You’ll find your balance also.

Milking requires time and consistency on your part.

5. Are you willing to commit to keeping and caring for goats for their entire lives? You should plan to have your goats for at least as long as you would have a dog— a healthy goat can live for eight to fifteen years and thrives on stability and a connection with its owner and its owner’s people. If you buy a goat and then decide you don’t want it, you’ll have a hard time rehoming it. Our local humane society will not take goats, and not all areas have farm-animal-rescue facilities. It is possible to sell your goats, and in the case of too many kids or a herd that is getting too big, this is a good plan of action. However, a change in living situation is extremely stressful and unfair to a mature goat because it wants to bond with its owners. If you can’t make a long-term commitment to goats, don’t get them.

If I haven’t scared you off, check out the books that I mentioned on the first page of this project. Owning goats is one of the largest endeavors I have embarked on, and it’s most definitely my favorite so far.

Variations in Flavor

If goat’s milk has a strong taste, and the doe does not live with a buck, there can be other reasons. Some owners say that the milk’s flavor can depend on what the goat eats; for example, onions, garlic, or some strong-flavored plants are said to impart flavors. I’ve never found this to be the case, but then my goats won’t eat onions or garlic. Sometimes, off-flavored milk can indicate an illness, such as mastitis, or environmental pollutants, which you should pay attention to.

Do you have room and time for a herd?