Traveling Without Goats: Three Ways to Share the Workload of Dairy Animals

Reader Contribution by Eric Reuter and Chert Hollow Farm
Published on December 22, 2015
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Goats tie you down, particularly dairy goats, making it difficult for many people to enjoy the myriad benefits of goats. Even an overnight absence, or a short trip to visit family for the holidays, creates a management problem for the daily needs of your left-behind livestock. For much of the year, goats need daily (or twice-daily) milking without fail, regular access to fresh pasture, a safe place to overnight, regular monitoring to ensure fences are secure, and so on.

Most homesteaders enjoy being anchored to their land and all its benefits, but it’s still nice to get away once in a while. In fact, for 2015 we chose to (temporarily?) go goat-less to allow for some long-overdue travel and life flexibility, yet also clearly noticed the lack of natural pasture management and fresh milk supply. Over the years, we’ve experimented with various approaches to having our milk and traveling, too, and share some ideas below.

Goat-Sitting

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