Goat Raising 101: The Beginner's Online Handbook

Raising goats can be a fun and sometimes an interesting challenge. Below you'll find a growing collection of goat raising info for beginners and advanced alike. 

Let's jump right in!

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Goat Breeds

Find the perfect breed for your homestead. Learn about the best goat milk and meat breeds below. Also note that it would be good to check and see what other breeds are being raised in your area. This will help you know if the breed does well where you live. 

Goat Raising: the Learning Curve

Sometimes just reading about other people's firsts can help you avoid some pitfalls that could have otherwise been avoided. :-) 

Here are the challenges we faced with our first kidding season. I had read the books, and I was "ready!"

But of course, the unexpected had to jump in and surprise us. Read more below.

Natural Remedies for Goats

Over time when raising goats different health issues would come up and I'd wonder if there were natural things I could use to help my animals. These aren't intended to replace a vet when you need one. I highly recommend you find a local vet and have a phone number ready in case anything serious comes up.

However, here are a few remedies that may be able to help if your vet can't make it out in time or if you just want to give them a "treat" AKA a health booster. 

Milking! :-)

Milking is one of the central chores you'll be doing every morning when you own milk goats. There's so much you can learn, but keep in mind the basics are simple. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to milk your goats. Just jump in for starters and you'll learn a lot as you go and come up with your own favorite ways of doing things. 

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Avoiding Goat-y Tasting Milk

A lot of people are grossed out when they think of goats milk. There can be a few different reasons for this. 

1. Tried it once and it wasn't good.
2. It just sounds gross. (this would be an American complaint right here.)

If someone has tried goats milk and didn't like it my first question is where did you get it from?

My mom first had goats milk from a can! I was too young to remember it, but yeah! of course it was NASTY! It was very goat-y.

But, when we tried it later from a family we knew who milked, the milk was delicious!! Sourcing your milk FRESH from a local family who do a good job keeping it clean can make all the difference. and this leads me to another important point...

Clean Milk is Good Tasting Milk

Clean milking practices from the milking stand to the refrigerator go a long way towards ensuring good tasting milk. This is one of the most important things to remember when raising goats. Here are a few things I try to do every time to ensure good results.

• Milk in a clean area. On a nice clean milking stand is ideal. 
• Have clean pathways leading to the stand. (If your goat is walking over nice clean wood chips instead of mud puddles, everything will be cleaner. I'm trying to get my pathways lined better for this purpose.) 
• Clean the goat. Once the goat is on the milk stand use a cloth with warm water to wipe off her udder, and belly. The cleaner the better.
• Use a milk pail with a narrow opening. The narrower the opening, the less derbies will get into your milk. My favorite milking pail has a half-circle crescent shaped lid that helps a lot. 
• Take the milk to the house & chill it ASAP. The sooner you cool your milk the less of an off taste you should get. 
• Strain it. After all your precautions out at the milking stand you still need to strain it. I like to use coffee filters and recently I've found these ones on Amazon to be the best. I wash and reuse which is handy. I haven't had a problem with it, but if you want you can also get the disposable filters. I also just saw there are stainless steel filters...I've never tried, but now I want to see how those work.  

• Chill it! I've heard of people putting their milk in the freezer for a little while before moving it to the fridge. I've never done that and still like how our milk tastes. But if you do, always make sure to move it over before the milk freezes. 
• Use quickly. If you are concerned about goaty tasting milk just make sure that you don't leave it in the fridge too long. Use within 2-3 days or the first week depending on what you like taste wise. 

Ways to Use Goat Milk

If you have too much milk here are some solutions for you. If your milk is older than you care to drink it, than you'll find some of these to be great options as well.

Personally I really love the organic milk fertilizer post. It's not my best ranking page, but I think it should be. Really there's a lot of cool info in there including a quote from Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Seriously, if you garden and have milk goats I urge you to read this post and skip the other if you don't have time. ;)

I hope this helps you on your goat raising journey! There's always so much to learn, but goats can really be an amazing addition to your homestead.

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