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wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

I shall soon be getting Goats but am not sure what breed to go for. I wont be needing a vast quantity of milk just yet as, the pig enterprise will not be up and running to use up the surplus. I have always fancied the Anglo-Nubian not only because of their looks but the better milk quality. I have heard that they dont do well over here because of the wet conditions. So what do you guys think?

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David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

Hi there Wayland,
Our goats are half saanan and half "wild" Irish, so they're rough enough types...after 5 years keeping them i don't think any goats do well in the damp! They run like mad when the weather blows in, they get to the shed before the first drop I think!

Biggest problem we've had is with feet...so we keep them in a concrete yard part of the time (e.g. at night) and we keep the concentrate ration v low (non-existent in winter) as I think this encourages "soft" hoof growth. Since we started this, the footrot problem has cleared up. I was getting fed up washing goats feet with bluestone solution (which works, but prevention is better than cure).

I'm probably not being much help- I dunno, I'd go for your first choice breed, and just make sure they have somewhere nice and dry to run to.

Hope this is useful

David

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

Thanks for that David. It would seem that the through bred is a softer animal. My mate`s herd of goats also suffer from foot problems in the winter. He keeps Saanan and Anglo Nubien. I think a concrete exercise yard with something to climb about on is a good idea, especially in the winter. I dont like the idea of shedding animals perminantly throughout the year but in the winter is ok. Do your native crosses give a reasonable milk yeald ?
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David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

Hi Wayland

Yeah, like you, I don't like keeping them in too much, even in winter we let them out for the odd ramble...but the concrete has done wonders for the feet. This is the first winter we've had them on concrete, and it has reduced the time spent hacking and trimming feet.

As far as yield goes, I can't pretend to have too much hard info for you. We got into goats by accident, and are just building up the herd now, so I only have experience with one milking nanny. Milking once a day during the summer we were getting one litre of milk, on her first kidding and with no concentrates...but i don't think she's a particularly great specimen...full of character but she is as fat as a fool and has tiny teats. Good job the milk tastes great!

Hopefully this year we'll get up to 2 milkers, and I've bought in what looks like a lovely little kid who'll be a potentially great milker next year(another saanan cross, but with a bit of posh lineage, more "pure" looking)

I got a friend to show me how to kill the kids, which turned out to be one of the toughest jobs I've done...they are like pets...They tasted great though, fantastic kebabs...

David

Rebecca · Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:28 pm Post subject:

We had a cross, with a little Saneen in her. She was a prolific milker, about 1 3/4 litres a day. We had so much milk we stopped using water in cups of tea and coffee, just hot milk instead! We had to pass her on when there was an illness in the family, as we were travelling up and down to Dublin a lot at short notice. Finding a neigbour to feed a cat is easy, but milking a goat is another! Since then I have met a few fellow milkers, and they bring me their goats when they are on holidays. I have to say, I dont' think I'd get another milker, the commitment is huge, even going to the beach for a day becomes difficult with timing. No spontaneous weekend camping trips either. But I do love to goatsit now and then, nothing quite like the smell and warmth of a goat, leaning against eachother, with her belly gurgling, and milking into a jug ... bliss (thats just before she puts her hoof in the bucket and decides the she's had enough thanks very much!).

If I were to buy a dairy goat again, I'd ask to see one of her milkings in progress first. Then you get to see if she has a quiet and easy temperament, but also how much milk she produces. Some goats are hardly worth the milking effort, all that graft for just a mug full! Watching a milking you also get to see the technique she is used to, simple things like, which side she is generally milked from, and whether shes given nibbles, or if shes tethered for milking.

Do you bother with filtering and pasteurising? I did, mainly as we had young children.
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David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

Hi!

that made me laugh...the first time i ever milked her, I thought "what a great fella, I've just milked a goat" and then she put her foot right in it. Nice. In the end, I had a couple of small straps to tie her feet in which solved the problem. Made the neighbours laugh...wasn't exactly like Heidi, more like clash of the tiatns. I can do it pretty quickly now, so it's not too much of a problem. When she is in milk it's the best morning job, get everything fed then spend a quiet few minutes milking the goat...the only bit I struggled with was killing the kids...it's much easier to kill a chicken or a goose than a cute fluffy little kid.

We filter, and are very careful of hygiene but don't pasteurise as a matter of course...if the goat looks off colour, we do pasteurise but most of the time didn't bother. I think brucellosis is the main issue, and I think you can spot it a mile off when a goat is off colour, they feel so sorry for themselves. Our kids (human!) seem to be as hard as nails touch wood...

D

wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

Good info and advice guys Very Happy

. I will be having surplus kids off my mate and these will be for slaughter if they are billies, and nannies too if they are not worth growing on. I did read in the Farmers Journal at one time a Boar Billy at stud near cork. Which could be useful. I have slaughtered lambs before now so I guss that goats well be much the same method.
Cheers.
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Rebecca · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 1:21 pm Post subject:

I know somebody up this end with a Boer Billy, near Boyle, co Roscommon. If anybody is interested just PM me and I'll ask her if she is up for him having visitors or not?!

Clash of the Titons here too! We built a milking stand which was fantastic, her head was held in to the front while she nibbled from the bowl, she did like it and would run over and hop up into it, knowing there'd be a nibble waiting for her. if only I'd known about the leg straps at the time!!!
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wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1171 Location: Campile. Wexford

Thanks for that Rebecca. I will contact you later this year and see if your friend still has the Boar. I have got to build a house before I get into serious stock breeding. I have never kept Goats before but the books advise againts feeding while milking. Something to do with the animals tendency to cud while being suckled. We always gave the cows there concentrate while milking. They would be most put out if we did not so I dont know why Goats should be any different. Milking cows from the pit makes me think that a milking table for Goats is a great idea and much easier on me back. This is going to be fun. I hope.
Cheers.
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Rebecca · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:14 pm Post subject:

Yes my books said they didn't need feeding either and I tried for quite a while that way, but no way would she settle. Then an experienced milker happened to be at our house and begged to milk her, he gave her a bowl of nosh, and 2 minutes later he had a litre of milk with no jip! From then on I fed her. Probably depends on what their previous owner did.

I find milking on a short tether (standing on the tether with one foot near the post!), squatted on the grass just fine, but hubby is very tall, and has a bad back. The milking table made it all very 'civilised'! Lovely memories of milking on dark stormy evenings by parafin lamp under the lean too.

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Moving smoothly from one crisis to the next on our rural Irish smallholding www.sallygardens.typepad.com
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