My goats look good this year!

I think I have finally hit on the proper diet for my dairy goats. After years of struggling with poor coat quality, internal and external parasite problems, and lack of conditioning in my herd; I no longer have those problems. I feel that there are a couple of things that have contributed to this improvement.

The first thing I started doing differently was coupling herbal parasite prevention with traditional chemical dewormers. I began using Hoegger’s Herbal Dewormer and Tonic after I learned how to do fecal sample testing. I had been hesitant to rely on an herbal dewormer without being able to test its efficacy for myself. Plus it was time that I stepped up my parasite control to tailor it to what the goats actually were carrying and not what I guessed might be the problem. My first fecal samples a year ago showed barberpole worm, brown stomach worms, liver flukes and coccidia. My goats showed symptoms of pinworms by rubbing their tails on their stall walls and they had some lice that I could see. One goat had an intermittent cough from suspected lungworm infestation. I used Cydectin Sheep Drench and Sulmet 12.5% Drinking Water Solution to kill the intestinal worms and the coccidia. The whole herd was put on weekly doses of the herbal dewormer and tonic. I rotated out the Cydectin and used some Valbazen for the liver flukes and residual internal parasites. My next round of fecal samples two months later showed barberpole worm and some coccidia. The tail rubbing and lungworm cough had stopped. The lice were also gone. I gave a dose of Safeguard and didn’t treat the coccidia. All the while I continued with the herbs. Two months later, the fecal samples showed very small amounts of barberpole worm. The amounts were so small that I chose not to treat at all, but continue with the herbal dewormer. Last month, the goats’ fecal samples were completely free of all parasite eggs! The goats also have no external symptoms of parasites. Their tails have grown back, they don’t cough, they have no lice (the first spring I have ever had that was free of lice!), and their eyelids are nice and dark pink which shows they are not anemic from bloodsucking parasites.

The second thing I changed in my management this year was I started mixing my own grain. I was tired of buying commercial grain blends that were expensive. I had read that you could easily mix your own grain by using some basic ingredients. I had been using a sweet molasses grain blend but had read that molasses is a filler that can throw off a goat’s mineral balance. I wanted to get away from grain with molasses in it. I started mixing grain by using oats, chicken scratch grains which contain corn, wheat, and oats, and wheat bran. I mixed the grain in a big tote using 50% oats, 35% scratch grains, and 15% wheat bran. The big tote would hold about 60 lbs of mixed grain and that would last my herd of 5 goats for 5 weeks. The unused grain was stored in another tote in the barn to keep rodents out of it until I needed to mix more grain. I could get about two and a half totes worth of grain out of 3 bags of ingredients. Unfortunately the feed store stopped carrying wheat bran. I switched to Calf Manna grain supplement to take up the 15% that the wheat bran had added. The Calf Manna has lots of added vitamins and minerals so a little can go a long way.

When I started mixing my own grain I adjusted the feed ration my goats were getting. They had been getting 2 cups of grain and 2 cups of alfalfa pellets each day. In researching grain mixes, I learned that all grains contain lots of phosphorus and alfalfa contains lots of calcium. It is very important that goats get a diet of 1:3 phosphorus containing grain to calcium containing alfalfa. I adjusted my goat ration to 1 cup of grain and 3 cups of alfalfa pellets per goat per day. If a goat gets too much phosphorus rich grain in their diet and not enough calcium rich alfalfa, the phosphorus can block the absorption of the calcium and make the goat not able to supply calcium to its milk or its kids. A pregnant goat or a lactating goat have very high calcium demands so if dietary calcium is not available, they will pull calcium out of their bones until they are very weak and sick. This could be fatal to the goat. Phosphorus is necessary to balance the calcium absorption but too much phosphorus and not enough calcium is dangerous.

On top of the grain and alfalfa pellets, I added 1/3 cup of black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) to each feeding. The BOSS has lots of protein and healthy oils to maintain weight and make a goat’s coat nice and shiny.

Another change in my feeding program was to get proper mineral feeders installed in each goat pen. Previously I had used a small feed pan or a bowl on the floor of the pen for minerals. Lots of times the mineral pans would be stepped in and dumped or pooped in or the goats just wouldn’t eat the minerals from the pans. When I mounted small mineral feeders in each goat pen I noticed the goats ate the minerals more consistently. The feeders were often licked clean and needing refill. Also less contamination of the minerals by dirt or animal waste occurred due to the feeders being off of the floor.

Supplemental minerals are very important for goats. I use a loose mineral blend made specifically for goats. This blend has the right amount of copper, iron, selenium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus and other minerals to keep goats healthy. I use hay, grain, alfalfa pellets, BOSS and forage to maintain weight and condition in my goats. I use the minerals to keep everything in balance and maintain health. Mineral blocks and salt licks are not adequate mineral supplements for goats. They are too hard for goats to get enough from and are not formulated correctly for most goats.

With a good parasite control program, proper grain feeding, and mineral supplementation my goats are looking great this year. Currently 3 out of five are due to kid in a few weeks. Those three look healthy and shiny right now. Usually by this time in the spring they are looking shaggy and gaunt, but not this year. My other two goats are young yearlings. They are both in good condition and carrying a proper amount of weight for their size. I am looking forward to a productive spring with lots of healthy kids and tons of fresh milk!

The Perfect Goat

This is Gloria. She is my herd matriarch. She is nine years old this spring. In this picture (taken yesterday) she is 4 months pregnant. Let's talk about her.

Good points: I love her wedge shape and large barrel belly. She has a very "dairy" look because of this. This shape points to her amazing ability to produce about 2 gallons of milk per day in the middle of her lactations. She's very efficient at turning feed into milk. Her large udder is well-attached in the rear and front. I like her straight topline and the slope of her rump. It's not to steep or too flat for my taste. Her back legs are well-positioned under her hip. Her neck is straight and smooth.

Bad points: Her front and back feet are low in the pasterns. I know from trimming her hooves that her back hooves are a mess. They are very thin across and tend to curl under one another. This trait is highly genetic because all of her kids have the same problem. Her front hooves are good-sized and very wide. Her front legs are straight. Her back legs are a little hock-kneed. I would love to push her front legs forward and get them under her front shoulder more. She has a lot of brisket sticking out. She could be a little less U-necked for me. Due to her large milk production her udder is not very pretty. Her teats are large and not well defined from the udder cavity. They hang down very low to the ground and get lower every year. Her teat orifices are small and hard to milk. I suppose this is a good thing because with this large an udder, loose teat orifices could mean lots of leakage.

Even though I can point out things I would change on her, I love her the most! She makes up for her physical deficiencies with a calm personality that passes to each of her kids. Not much makes her upset and she never has a bad day or is grumpy.

She is the perfect goat for me!

Update: March 2012

Time to update everyone on what is going on at the farm. This winter has been very mild. The most snow we've received all winter came in the last two weeks. There was almost no snow on the ground and I was thinking seriously about bringing out the portable net goat fencing already. That all changed when we got 2.5 feet of snow over a couple of days. Luckily the net fencing stayed safe in the shed and I didn't put it up, only to have it smashed by all the snow.

The forecasters are promising temperatures over 50F the next few days. That will make the new snow melt fast. Hopefully that doesn't bring with it my favorite part of spring -- barn flooding! Last year, Tom helped dig out the barn floor and put some gravel down with a trench running along the wet side of the barn. So far the trench and stone have held up with the melting we have gotten already. I am a little worried because the trench is already frozen over, hopefully that won't mean flooding in the barn when the warm weather hits.

I've got three dairy goats getting ready to kid in another month or so. Gloria, my nine year-old Alpine, is humongous already and still has a full month to go. I hope to get a nice doe out of her to keep for replacement. Gloria has been pumping right along and every year I swear I will retire her from breeding, but every year when breeding season comes she looks in such great condition that I can't help myself. She produces a ton of milk and is such a sweet goat to work with that I can't imagine not breeding her again.

Cookie, the three year-old Nubian, is looking large as well. She's bred to her tri-color half-brother. He was a flashy guy with big white and gray spots on a black background. I already have one of her doe kids reserved for a buyer, so hopefully she will give me at least one doe to fill that order.

Lucy, the six year-old Alpine and daughter of Gloria, fooled me this year. She gave me a hard time during breeding season and required the romantic advances of three different bucks. Even after all that she made me wonder if she got bred at all because she is 4 months pregnant and still not showing much. Compared to Gloria and Cookie, she looks like she may only have one kid in there. I finally got tired of guessing and sent a blood sample in to get a definitive answer.

Lucy has been dependable at giving me twin bucks every time. She's done that three years in a row now. This year I am wonder if she will follow suit. Between her small size and her bad attitude, she may surprise me greatly. Usually when a doe gets very grumpy during pregnancy it means they are carrying only male kids. The testosterone from the male kids messes with the hormones of the doe and makes them very nasty and ready to fight everyone in their path. Even though Lucy has had twin bucks the last three years, she has never gotten as nasty as she is now. She wants to kill both of the younger goats and she fights everyone. I am wondering if perhaps she is finally carrying a female kid and for some reason the added estrogen has her in a fit. We shall see.

Figaro, the Angora wether, is getting ready to be sheared. His fur is quite long and he can barely see out from under his fluffy bangs. I am hoping to shear him on St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately his fur is pretty dirty and full of hay so hopefully I will be able to clean it enough to send it to get processed into yarn. I am liking having an Angora around. He's just a pet and doesn't have much purpose for me but he is lots of fun to play with and has a very calm attitude.

Blue, the yearling Nubian doe, is doing well. She's developed a bad habit of jumping up on me when I am in her pen so I have to train her out of that. I considered selling her due to this habit but she's so pretty that I am going to delay that decision until later.

I am already thinking ahead until next breeding season. I am toying with the idea of getting a Boer buckling to use in the fall. I want to start butchering my extra kids so they don't wind up as unwanted pets. If I get the kids I am expecting this year, I don't plan on keeping any kids from next year's matings so some Boer cross kids might be a good idea. We'll see...

The chickens are doing well. I have 14 hens and one rooster now. I got more Polish hens last fall. They are lots of fun and so silly to look at. I am planning on trying to raise some meat chickens this summer. I have three friends that want to split the cost of raising them and help with the butchering in return for the meat. If I get 50 chicks in the spring and raise them in the cow shed, everyone will get 15 or so chickens to eat by the fall. The breed I am looking to get are called "Freedom Rangers". They're a mix of 3 different French meat birds that are supposed to be fast growing, meaty, but hardier than the Cornish X's. I want to stay away from the Cornish X's due to their lack of mobility and mess-making abilities. Hopefully the Freedom Rangers will be somewhat pasture raised since they will be in the cow shed but able to go out into the goat pasture during the day.

Everything else on the farm is going well. Emily is getting big and isn't a baby much anymore. She helps with the chores and will be ecstatic when the goat kids and chicks arrive. The hard part will be getting her to come in from the barn after chores are done!

Testing Goats for Diseases

Last year I decided to test my herd of goats for CAE. I had never tested my goats for any diseases before this. The reason for not testing was mostly due to the fact that there is no veterinarian in my area who will do house calls. There are two vets who will look at goats but you have to take the goats to them. Seeing as I have 4 full-sized dairy goats and a full time job, setting aside an entire day to shuttle my goats to and from the vet’s office is out of the question.

I had thought about getting my herd tested before but never acted on it. When I first got goats I didn’t know what diseases were out there and what to test for. As I bred goats and sold goats I started get feedback from people about which diseases they wanted me to test for when they bought goats from me. I still resisted the testing for a while due to the lack of a veterinarian and not knowing if I could send in samples for testing without a vet. Finally I found a lab that would accept samples direct from farmers to test for CAE.

I tested my goats with Biotracking first. This lab accepts samples direct from farmers without needing a vet to sign off on them. The lab does CAE testing and pregnancy testing for goats using a small blood sample. The CAE test was only $4 per sample plus shipping. I was able to purchase the blood collection tubes and needles from Biotracking. My neighbor and I took samples from our 2 herds at the same time and sent them in at the same time, thus saving on shipping.

After doing the CAE test, I started looking into other things that people normally test goats for. CAE, CL, Johnes, and Brucellosis are the main diseases that warrant testing in most areas. CAE, CL, Johnes and Brucellosis can all be tested for with a blood sample. There are a few labs who will accept blood for these tests direct from the owners. Pan-American Vet Labs will test for all these diseases for a minimal fee. They do a good job and will have your results back to you within the week. WADDL (Washington Animal Disease and Diagnostic Lab) will also accept non-vet samples. They are considered the “Gold Standard” of diagnostic labs. Many people use them and most vets choose to use them when you request a test done. They do routine testing but can also do diagnostic testing on sick animals and necropsies on dead animals.

Whatever lab you chose to use, be sure that the test done is an ELISA test. ELISA is a type of blood assay test that is generally more accurate than other methods available. Most labs will say right on their websites if they do ELISAs. As with any tests, there can be false negatives or false positives. The ELISA test looks for the presence of antibodies in the blood for the particular disease. If the goat is newly infected or has a poor immune system they will test false negative. They may have the virus or bacteria in their systems but they don’t have the antibodies to them yet. If a goat has been exposed to antibodies from another goat, generally through colostrum, or has been vaccinated for the disease you are testing for, the goat will test false positive. They will show antibodies in their blood but may not actually carry the causative virus or bacteria. False results are a good reason to test your animals every year. A goat may carry the disease but show a negative test result for a while before they finally create antibodies. They could spread the disease through your herd without ever showing symptoms.

It is easy to test for these diseases. Simply take 2-3mL of blood from each goat, put it in a red topped vacutainer blood collection tube, label the tube to identify which goat it came from, and package the tube in a leak-proof container (usually a small Ziploc baggy that is wrapped in a paper towel and then placed in a larger Ziploc). Then mail the sample into the testing lab with the corresponding paperwork. Most labs charge between $4 and $10 per test per goat. Some charge a “lab fee” that is $10 or $20. Shipping can be most expensive with many labs requesting FedEx overnight at $18 per package. If you have neighbors with goats, I recommend collecting blood from as many goats as you can and sending it all in at once to save on lab fees and shipping costs.

Our Farming Responsibility

Any time you breed and raise animals for any reason, you will have to deal with excess animals. Whether breeding chickens for eggs or goats for milk or horses for pets, you will have to responsibly take care of the extra and unwanted animals that may happen from planned or unplanned matings.

When hatching chickens, there is always a chance that you will get roosters. Roosters aren't very useful to the small farmer because roosters don't lay eggs, they can be noisy, and they tend to fight with each other or harass the hens. Hens are more desirable because they are the ones that lay the eggs thus producing something in return for their upkeep. Many people decide to forego the chance of hatching roosters by ordering sexed chicks from a hatchery. This way you are mostly guaranteed to have only hens when you want them. The farmer circumvents the responsibility of taking care of unwanted roosters by laying that responsibility on the hatchery. The hatcheries deal with their extra roosters by either selling them at a discount price or euthanizing them humanely. Any roosters that remain after the orders for the day are filled get euthanized because they cannot be shipped after they are 48 hours old because they will die during shipment.

When hatching chicks on the farm, the farmer has to be prepared for the possibility of high percentages of roosters. The most appropriate way to get rid of extra roosters is to butcher them yourself. Unfortunately most egg laying breeds and almost all ornamental chickens are not good candidates for eating. They take a very long time to mature to any size and the meat can be tough due to the age at which the roosters are mature enough to identify them as roosters. They will provide meat if you are willing to work for it. If you want more robust roosters that might make better broilers or roasters, consider crossing your egg laying or ornamental hens with larger breed roosters. The chicks will be a mixture of the two breeds and may have more meat on them than the purebreds. If you are trying to produce purebred hens that come from smaller breeds then be prepared to have lots of low quality rooster meat to use that will take more time to butcher than it may be worth. Have a plan in place for this problem. These roosters may only be good for stews or chicken stock. Some farmers turn their unwanted roosters into homemade dog biscuits or cat treats. Taking time to consider what you will do with any possible roosters produced is a responsible thing to do before hatching chickens.

Unwanted animals in goat dairy farming are common. Does are the only ones that can produce milk. They must be mated and have kids in order to produce that milk. Bucks are needed for mating but they are not needed for anything else. Wethers can make good pets but are totally useless and can be quite a hassle to feed and house with very little return on investment. Since goats need to have kids to produce milk, there will always be an excess of goats on any farm. Dealing with this excess is very important.

The farmer should take care to breed only as many does as milk is needed. If you want milk for your family of 3, then you really only need one goat to produce more than enough milk. Don't breed ten goats because you will be stuck with lots of extra kids and lots of extra milk, which is a waste. When considering breeding your dairy goat, you should carefully think about will do with those kids when they are on the ground. If you want to sell them as future milk producers then you should breed your doe to a buck who will bring in good genetic qualities that will make the kids good producers. If you want your kids to be for meat then you should breed your doe to a meat buck so your kids will grow fast and beefy. Buck selection is just as important as doe selection with every mating. Don't just breed your does to whatever buck you can find or else you can be stuck with a lot of useless kids. Be careful when mixing breeds of goats.

Be sure to analyze the goat market in your area before you start breeding. Do people want purebred goats who are registered or do they want mixed breeds who produce a decent amount of milk? Is there a goat meat demand in the area? Also figure out what people expect from the goats. Do people want them tame and bottle-fed for family farming? Do they want them dam-raised and wild for brush control? Do they want them disbudded or wethered? What disease tests do people in your area demand? Do the goats need to be CAE negative? Do some planning ahead of time so you don't have dump your extra goats on Craigslist when you need to get rid of them. Watch the markets in your area and talk to other local goat people to see what is most desirable. You may want to raise purebred Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats but if no one in your area will pay the price you want for them then you may have to change your plans a little.

Once the kids are on the ground, you must have a plan for what to do with them. If they are does, decide if you want to keep them or not and where you will sell them if you don't want to keep them. If they are bucks, decide if they are good enough for breeding or if they need to be wethered. Even if you are raising bucks for meat, I recommend wethering them quickly so you can avoid any problems with them breeding your does when you aren't looking.

Try not to sell wethers as pets. Too many people buy them when they are cute and cuddly, then the wether grows up into a large goat who eats too much and takes too much time to care for. The people then either sell the wether to the next unsuspecting chump or butcher him or shoot him or dump him. A wether's life is not an easy one!

Butchering kids is a great way to deal with unwanted goats at home. They can be butchered as newborns and dressed out like a rabbit or chicken. They can also be milk fed and raised to 3 - 6 months old to be butchered out with a little more meat on them. Goat meat is very similar to venison and can be quite delicious. Many foreign countries rely on goat meat. Call your local butcher or slaughterhouse to find out if there is an ethnic demand for goat meat in your area. This may help you decide what to do with the goats you produce.

Unwanted horses are a real problem. If you want to find a free horse, just look on Craigslist on the first day of autumn. You will see hundreds of ads for free or very cheap horses that people are trying to get rid of before they have to feed them through another winter. Horses are a particular problem in farming because they aren't butchered to eat (or at least Americans frown on this practice for some reason) and they usually serve no real purpose. Horses are large and eat a lot of grain, hay, and pasture. They need daily care and usually desire consistent handling. They also can live a very long time. Most farmers do not use their horses for anything that pays for their upkeep. Some horses are used for work on the farm but most are merely enjoyed for recreation.

People like to breed horses because the foals are cute and they dream that they can make money selling the babies. Unfortunately the foals grow up into unruly horses that need to be trained, fed, and cared for. Also horses are a dime-a-dozen in this economic climate so no one is going to pay big bucks for a horse anymore. This leaves us with tons of unwanted horses and no one who wants them. Very rarely is a horse born on the same farm that it lives on and dies on. Most of the time a horse is passed from owner to owner until it finally dies from poor care, starvation, lack of veterinary services, injury, euthanasia, or (rarely) old age. Not many people want to deal with the increased demands of an older horse. Usually about the time the horse becomes 18-20 years old the current owner is trying hard to dump it somewhere where they won't have to pay for its special feed, special hay, and special vet care.

Being a responsible horse owner means being very careful about producing unwanted horses. You may have a wonderful mare who would make wonderful babies but if no one wants them then you are really condemning them to the least humane and most inconsiderate form of life. I believe that no life at all is much better than a life filled with horrible experiences. Take care to decide if you can care for another horse before breeding yours. If you can't keep the foal, why assume that someone else will care for it??

As farmers and caretakers of animals, it is our duty and responsibility to take care to honor those animal lives. We need to carefully consider each life that we create. If we take the responsibility to create that life then we must take the responsibility to care for that life, even if it means that we have to end that life in a humane way. We cannot assume that someone else will care for the lives we create. Thus we must believe that the creation of that life in the first place is our largest responsibility as a farmer.

Harvest time.... ugh!

I like to classify myself as a bad gardener. I do all the things that bad gardeners do: I don't weed, I won't thin plants, I never plant anything on time or like the books say I should, I believe all seeds should be sown the same way regardless of being bush beans or pole peas or hill squash, I never water the garden no matter how little rain we've had, and I almost never venture into the garden until it's so full of vegetables that people driving by stop and comment on them. And yet, my gardens grow well in spite of all my lack of efforts. I try to show the plants that I am a bad gardener by neglecting them and leaving them to the wilds. They just keep on growing and producing and coming back next year. I wish they would get the hints sometime.

Then there's harvesting time. Normally this is a time of year when all the better gardeners are singing the bounties of their green thumbs with joy and many adjectives. For me, it's a time of year that is stressful and regretful. I stress over trying to carve out a few minutes each day to pull the stuff from my gardens. Then I stress over the work involved in cleaning and storing the stuff for later use. Then I stress over finding recipes to use the stuff and remembering to buy the right ingredients to make those recipes. Then I stress over the left-overs and making sure that all the wonderful garden stuff gets eaten properly. I also spend a lot of time each harvest season regretting things. I regret that I planted arugula and not radicchio. I regret that I didn't make the garden bigger but instead just crammed everything so close together that I can't find me peas under my cucumbers. I regret that I didn't get out soon enough to harvest the beans before they turned chewy. I regret that I didn't use all the broccoli before it got shoved to the back of the freezer and hopelessly freezer burned. Suffice to say, harvest time is not a very fun time for me.

Maybe someday I will become a better gardener and actually take care of the plants. Hopefully my care will lead to the plants to get the hint and stop producing so much so that my harvest time is nicer. Maybe...

Elite Farmers

I find that sometimes there is hostility between the different types of hobby farmers in the world. I define "hobby" farming as keeping and raising animals without making a profit from them at the end of the year, and without managing the animals as units of business that are subject to consideration due to profits and losses. The hostility I see is between hobbyists who believe that the only way to raise an animal is to do so without shortcuts, chemicals, or modern interventions. The other side believes that the only way to raise animals is to use modern everything and fill them full of chemicals. I try to stay in the middle of those types. I have been attacked by people who when I mention using a milk machine or using chemical sanitizers are taken aback by my losing contact with the natural rythms of the farm. I have also been attacked by people who think I need to drown my animals in chemical dewormers and chemical pesticides every two weeks or else the animals will drop dead.

The reasons why I like modern shortcuts and some chemical formulas are: I have to work full time, off the farm in order to support my family with adequate health insurance. My husband has his own business which, although he makes plenty of money to support our family, he has no access to good health insurance for us. So off to work I go. Also I have a child. She's 1 year old and in to everything. Because my husband has his own business, he is very busy and so the childcare is my responsibility for the most part. I don't mind it because I can still get stuff done around the farm, but that stuff either gets done very slowly while I watch the kid or very quickly when I cram it in after bedtime for baby or during nap time. There have been projects on the list for weeks that need to get done but they just haven't gotten too. If I can find a shortcut or modern intervention that can help me speed up these projects, I am going to jump on it!

I don’t mind using chemicals when I have to. I quite like many modern chemical products. Bleach is one of my favorites and very important if you run a hobby dairy farm. Bleach and other sanitizers are very helpful at getting milk and animal products off of your dairy utensils. It is nice to have clean and sanitized dairy equipment to work with. Nothing is worse than walking into someone’s milking area and smelling sour milk that never got properly cleaned out of the cracks and corners. Bleh!

Also some chemical medicines can be very important when raising animals. Parasites, bacteria, and viruses have great mechanisms for infecting animals and making them sick. Sometimes the only way to kill these germs is to use harsh chemical medicines. I always keep several types of chemical dewormers and several different antibiotics on hand. These have been literal lifesavers in some situations.

The reasons why I shun modern shortcuts and some chemical formulas are: Not everything new is good for you. At what point do you save your animals by treating them with chemicals and at what point do you kill your animals through liver failure and chemical overdose? There’s a fine line in that situation. You want enough chemicals to kill the parasites but not so much that you kill the goat instead.

Some modern shortcuts aren’t really short at all. Using a power saw at the barn to cut some boards might be a great time saver but if getting the saw set up and running power to it takes more time to cut the board, then you might as well get out the hand saw. The same goes for milking. If cleaning the milk machine after use takes more time than the actual milking of the goat, then you might as well stick to the bucket and hand milk.

In the end, I think it is important for every type of farmer to support their fellow farmers. One type is not better than the other. Each farming situation calls for its own set of rules and tools to keep the animals happy and productive. All of us “hobby” farmers need to stick together and support each other regardless. And always remember, the animals come first no matter what.