STARTING RIGHT WITH HOMESTEAD GOATS

Image Gallery Left: ""Spike,"" a 3/4 Toggendberg, 1/4 Nubian wether. Right: ""Bravo,"" a 3/4 Spanish, 1/4 Alpine wether.

COUNTRY SKILLS

By M.H. Salmon

Loyal personable hard working. . . and a source of wonderful milk and cheese.

The goat is undoubtedly the most versatile livestock a homesteader can own. The homestead hog will eat your garbage and can produce lots of piglets for meat or sale, but you're not going to milk one or make any money selling cheese from a pig. Sheep, chickens, rabbits, turkeys, ducks, and the traditional milk cow all have their respective uses, but none will provide all of the following — milk, cheese, meat, brush control — within a handy one to two-hundred pound package that will also pack your gear on a hiking trip. The goat is the only animal named that you could honestly describe as personable. A homestead goat that's raised right is as loyal, charming, and companionable as the family dog, and in most cases a lot more useful.

Goats come in a great variety of breeds and strains. They are perhaps best defined by their three main commercial uses. Thus we have hair goats (that produce mohair and cashmere), meat goats (the Spanish goat and the Boer goat dominate the current market), and milk or dairy goats (common breeds include the Toggenberg, Nubian, Saanen, La Mancha, Oberhasli, and Alpine). The hair goat and meat goat industries are most prevalent in the American Southwest. Although hair goats and meat goats can be milked, butchered, or used for packing (my own homegrown goats have a lot of Spanish blood), most small-farm or homestead goats are dairy goats.

GETTIN YOUR GOAT

Since we're assuming that you are just starting out with the joys of homestead goats, the best goat to start with is a female (called a doe) that is pregnant. A pregnant doe will soon give you the priceless experience of birthing and raising baby goats (called kids), and shortly after that will provide the family with better milk and cheese than money can buy, often with some left over for sale. The breed, in my opinion, is not important. Goat fanciers, like dog and horse fanciers, like to brag about their breed, and they will argue the merits of their breed over those of any other breed. But the fact is that all the dairy goat breeds mentioned above produce good, hardy, milk-goats that will yield about a gallon of milk per day and be a pleasure to have around. Various hybrids and crosses of those breeds can be just as good. Note, however, that all the breeds mentioned can produce some real lemons, too, that may be unhealthy, poor milkers, and hard to handle. Jesse — bless her heart — is a case in point.