[goatredbrooke]

Hello,

We're thinking of starting out keeping a small herd of dairy goats next year (3-4). We have an acre paddock they could use and some animal sheds we can covert in to a goat house. We'll be re-fencing anyway but I'm aware that we'll need to make the fencing particularly robust to keep goats away from our (rural, smallholding) neighbours and our veg patch!

We'd like to keep friendly, sociable goats that we can lead and also produce enough milk for our own family use plus the odd bit of cheese making (again for our own consumption).

We are complete novices so will be researching thoroughly and, as a start, I  wondered whether you experienced goat keepers had any advice on which breed might fit the bill?

I'm also confused about what to purchase to ensure we have goats that can be milked without having to deal with pregnant goats. Is it possible to buy nanny goats with newish kids at foot? I like the idea of having kids (partly because my own human kids will enjoy that and I'd like to get them very used to us from an early age) and would be happy to sacrifice milk at first to let them wean more naturally.

Thanks and looking forward to more  chat!

[Lesley Silvester]

Hi


It depends on what you are looking for. There are a number of breeds and everyone has their favourites. My own particular breed is Saanens - good milkers, placid and not too bad at staying where they should. Togenburgs are also placid but quite good at getting out. Anglo Nubians are the ones who produce the richest milk, British Alpines are pretty goats but very feisty and make a career of escaping, Golden Gurnseys are smaller but have a good reputation. 


Buying goats with kids at foot is a good way to start as it gives you time to get to know your goats and how to look after them before having to worry about breeding. Most good milkers will milk through the first winter and all through the following summer but, unless you are lucky and getting maiden milkers, you will have to get your goats in kid eventually. The usual thing is to have two in kid one year and two the next (if you have four) to even out the milk production.


Whereabouts are you? there may well be someone who lives near who you can visit. It's a good idea to get to know various breeds before deciding which you like best. I'm in Shropshire and always happy to show my girls off.

[clydesdaleclopper]

One thing that you might consider is the quality of your grazing. If you only have one acre and get 4 goats, once they have kidded and you have the kids grazing as well you may well be short of grass.


If you haven't kept goats before I would suggest joining your local goat club. They will be able to provide you with lots of information and will also know of stock available that is local to you.


In terms of breed - have a think about how much milk you use as a family. Some of the higher yielding British Saanens can give more than 6 litres a day. You might prefer a more modest production and the breeds vary as to the amount of butterfat. Butterfats are what you want for cheese making.


We keep British Toggenbergs and Anglo Nubians. Both are great. The Nubians are total divas and I would say not as hardy as the British Toggenbergs (we are 750 ft up on the side of an exposed hill) but I love them.


None of my goats has ever escaped - we have 1m high stock fence with a single strand of electric wire above it.


Best of luck and I hope you find what suits you 

[Polyanya]

Hello 

I consider myself to be a novice goat keeper, my two kidded this summer and I have just started to milk them in the morning, with the kids having been in an adjoining pen overnight. I can't tell you how happy I am now I've started the milking routine it just feels like I've finally found my nirvana 

I keep Golden Guernsey crosses so  mine are bigger but have the advantage of looking just like the real thing. One is very tame and the other more reserved but when they go up onto the milking stand its the reserved one that stands like a dream. I have never had any issues with behaviour or temperament and they've never tried to escape their enclosure. I have standard livestock fencing as we have a croft with other livestock. I took my girls back to the keeper I bought them from to visit her Billy when my girls came into season about a week apart. It wasn't a long visit either just over an hour plus travel time. My girls came to me at 6 months old and I'm glad it worked out that way as we got to know eachother  really well before they kidded and I had to milk them. They were new to it and so was I - I shall look forward to reading about your goat journey.

[Lesley Silvester]

To add to what ClydesdaleClopper says about the quality of your grazing, lack of grazing simply means giving them additional feed. My goats are zero grazed and I give them ad lib hay and feed chaff twice a day as well as concentrates. They are also delighted to get branches, weeds, vegetables and fruit although the law says you must not give them kitchen waster. They do very well on it. They have a good sized shed and a yard and can come and go as they please.


In any case, goats are browsers not grazers so will be more interested in hedges, branches, weeds and shrubby stuff than in grass.

[Penninehillbilly]

Hi
It depends on what you are looking for. There are a number of breeds and everyone has their favourites. My own particular breed is Saanens - good milkers, placid and not too bad at staying where they should. Togenburgs are also placid but quite good at getting out.

MGM - I prefer to say my Toggs have character  . seriously though, no problem with them trying to get out, single strand of electric fence running round inside of stock fence means no problems.
I would start with 2, (I did  ) certainly till you decide what you want from them, 1 acre is not really going to give them much grazing, and you may have a constant parasite problem with overgrazing. MGM zero grazing with playtimes may be a better bet for you.
But goats are great, never regretted getting mine :-).

[Buttermilk]

I used to keep British Alpines and they never gave any bother but did give a lot of milk, 6 litres a day at 4.8% butterfat and 3.65% solids not fat.  Several things I learnt - don't leave kids suckling the dams if you want pretty udders, using a correctly set up milking machine is better than hand milking (contaversial I know but I hand milked for 30 years and machine milked for 10 and the udders certainly stayed tidy with the machines, small teats stayed small and did not grow into hand sized teats within 5 years) - Have a second family member that can milk, having to bring a goat into the house and the bedroom in order to get milked while the milker is confined to bed is not the greatest thing to do - have secure catches on all doors - goats necks are at least 18" longer than you think they are!

Mine had a palatial plywood building with penning made from old combine crates and a quarter of an acre playground in the form of a paddock.  All feed was brought in. The grass got eaten by the donkey and the different groups of goats rotated who was turned out. I kept my own stud males and boy they can pong at times.  The worst smelling one was an Anglo Nubian that stayed with me for a week whilst in transit from the far south to the far north.  This male is also the only goat that broke down a door and tried to trash a fence.

I loved keeping and showing my goats - goatkeepers can be a great bunch of people.

[goatredbrooke]

Thank you all so much for your advice and experiences. I had my next door neighbour (a smallholder who has kept everything under the sun - including goats -over the 50 years he's been at it!) over yesterday and he said that two would be plenty for what we need - especially thinking about needing to put them in kid from time to time.

Will have a think about the grazing. There's lots of hedgerow/tree coppices and browsing options out there but sounds like we'll definitely need to give them additional feed. We can rotate next doors sheep on there to keep the grass down but imagine that's a parasite risk?!

Sounds like there are lots of options with breeds and I imagine eventually you just had to go for one!

I'm in Kent - not far from the Weald - and would love to visit a local set up if anyone is nearby. I feel lucky to have our neighbour who has said he'd be happy to advise and show us how to trim feet etc. But he no longer has goats - some of his 50 sheep are currently grazing our field!

And great tip on the electric fence. We're going to have the lot re-fenced next spring so that sounds like a much better option than the 6 foot monstrosity I was thinking I'd need to have to keep them out of the veg patch 

[Lesley Silvester]

penninehilbilly, I love toggs almost as much as I love Saanens. I had a part share in one for a while but she was an expert at getting out and I was told that was typical of the breed. They certainly have character, but what goat doesn't.


I also owned a Saanen x BA (born here) whose first thought, when he'd struggled out of the shed, was clearly 'How do I get out of here?' He then spent the next few months investigating the tiniest gaps in the hopes of effecting and escape.


Goatnovice, have you considered getting cross-breeds? If they are a mix of dairy goats, they should be good for milk. One things for certain, whatever you decide to get, you will love them and be hooked before you know it.

[Dogwalker]

If you found the grass was still too much how about getting a couple of cade lambs to raise over summer, into the freezer in autumn.  On only an acre the goats would probably be enough, they do eat grass just prefer other things first.