At the moment I am thing of 2 or 3 does and stager the breeding so that I have milk year round. My biggest concern is the cost of maintaining the goats. With enough land and browse does one come out at least even with the milk,cheese, butter produced. Or does it still cost more with the supplemental feed, minerals, and so forth. Also, I realize that you also have to consider that I will know where the products are coming from. I have read a lot on this forum and other sources and am learning what it takes to raise the goats to get the milk but I can't find any numbers at all or if they are close to cost neutral. Hope all this makes sense
James
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I don't separate my milk to make butter. I just take a half-three quarter filled quart jar of whole milk and shake it for about 20 minutes. We all take a turn so none of us get tired. Usually get about a 1/2 cup of butter from half a quart of milk. It is white, and more like whipped butter until it has been refrigerated.
well, I decided to make cheese instead of butter....I needed to do something cause I had lots of extra milk in the fridge from where our children were at grandma's for the week. I made vinegar cheese and it came out okay. Doesn't really taste like much of anything. I think I could have used more salt but we did put it on a homemade pizza (I am gluten intolerant so I have to make my own pizza crust) and it was pretty good. Alone though, kind of tastes really bland and mildly like feet LOL.
If I leave my milk in jars for 4-5 days I get a really good separation with the cream but I don't know how long it would take to get any kind of significant amount of butter from it. I hear you can put the cream in a pint jar and just shake it while you watch tv. :)
Our goats have saved us the cost of a TV and both the comedy channel and the nature channel. We have a large picture window where our dining table is and they are across the dooryard. Every meal an interesting show turns up. An then there's the gym membership I don't need as well as the mental health visits that are not needed.
The care and nurturing for this small herd has allowed me to age beautifully with vigor and grace.
My husband has a huge compost operation going and it is fueled by goat leavings. Of course there is the milk, ice cream and cheese. And the trades...milk for eggs. The bonus is the good will with relatives and neighbors when we have milk to share!
I am most interested in how your butter comes out - as of yet, I have only skimmed off a tbl spoon or so from little over a cup of milk - having said all that - James should take a look at your barn - it is nicer than my house.... ^^
We just got started. We have 3 goats but only one in milk right now. We have spent close to 6-7000 between building a barn from scratch, fencing almost a half acre with goat fencing, running electric and water to the barn, hay, straw, initial feed costs, and the cost of the goats.
That being said, we spent $850 on 3 NDGA registered goats. In theory, they should bring higher prices on the kids since they are pedigreed and come from really strong dairy lines. My current doe in milk has such long teats that I use all four fingers to express her milk.
If my does both throw triplets, which they have a history of, then I have 6 babies that I could potentially get $300-$400 each for. That's 1/3 or more of my initial costs. Now, my husband is really picky and wants everything to look professional so it cost us more for construction. You could easily do the barn and fencing without electric and water for way less than what we paid.
We were spending $7 per gallon of organic cows milk and we were going through 1-2 gallons a week. I haven't tried to make yogurt, cheese or soap yet but that is on my to do list. I am gluten intolerant and the goats milk seems to have helped my tummy.
We have 2 big garden plots and plan on composting all our straw/poo waste too. We cut feed costs some by cutting low hanging tree branches on the back of our property and hanging them for the girls in their pasture because it has no trees in it.
I am getting almost a quart a day from my one doe so that is more than enough milk for us for the week. When I have two in milk in the spring we will be able to do more with the extra. I plan on freezing some for soapmaking and I have a ridiculous amount of cream in my jars after a few days so I am probably gonna make some butter tonight.
I think that they will probably pay off our initial investment in 3 years or so and after that they will more than pay for their yearly costs just on kid sales alone.
Worth is largely based on perception, what is worth a lot to some folks is not to others. It is worth it to me to know where my food comes from and how my animals were treated and know that they have a good life and aren't kept in horrible conditions. It is worth it to me to know that my garden produce hasn't had any chemical fertilizers on it either. I know my milk doesn't have hormones in it and that is a large weight lifted off my shoulders as the mother of a little girl.
I don't know how much goat milk costs in my area so I don't have comperable cost values for the milk but I do know that goat cheese is ridiculously expensive in my area so if I can learn to make cheese that will help with our food costs.
The entertainment value alone is worth it to me, my kids love the goats and so do my husband and I. The monitary costs just kind of fly out the window when you are sitting in a field getting goat kisses. :)
Our goats have saved us the cost of a TV and both the comedy channel and the nature channel. We have a large picture window where our dining table is and they are across the dooryard. Every meal an interesting show turns up. An then there's the gym membership I don't need as well as the mental health visits that are not needed.
The care and nurturing for this small herd has allowed me to age beautifully with vigor and grace.
My husband has a huge compost operation going and it is fueled by goat leavings. Of course there is the milk, ice cream and cheese. And the trades...milk for eggs. The bonus is the good will with relatives and neighbors when we have milk to share!
I'm doing a talk this fall on goats as the centerpiece of a sustainable homestead. My goats provide the ONLY fertilizer for my garden (their poop, straw, and wasted hay from mucking out the stalls and composting it); whey from cheesemaking feeds the pigs; and of course, their milk gets turned into 17 different dairy products -- and that doesn't even include all the other things we make like ice cream, cream soups, puddings, creme brulee pie, etc.
Another thing to consider is if you have a garden, all your waste hay can be placed on your garden directly as a mulch fertilizer. I put mine in a "corral" kind of area that my chickens can scratch through it in, and they break it up, eat out any spilled grains and mix it up. Then I put it straight onto my garden. Mulching cuts back on the amount of water I need to keep my plants watered in the summer, and it also provides fertilizer (goat poo is safe for plants straight out of the goat. It's like rabbit poo that way) so I don't have to pay to fertilize either. So I've cut the cost of both mulch and fertilizer just by using waste hay. In addition to cutting those costs, my produce yield is higher.
Replies
If I leave my milk in jars for 4-5 days I get a really good separation with the cream but I don't know how long it would take to get any kind of significant amount of butter from it. I hear you can put the cream in a pint jar and just shake it while you watch tv. :)
Jan said:
Melissa Johnson said:
We just got started. We have 3 goats but only one in milk right now. We have spent close to 6-7000 between building a barn from scratch, fencing almost a half acre with goat fencing, running electric and water to the barn, hay, straw, initial feed costs, and the cost of the goats.
That being said, we spent $850 on 3 NDGA registered goats. In theory, they should bring higher prices on the kids since they are pedigreed and come from really strong dairy lines. My current doe in milk has such long teats that I use all four fingers to express her milk.
If my does both throw triplets, which they have a history of, then I have 6 babies that I could potentially get $300-$400 each for. That's 1/3 or more of my initial costs. Now, my husband is really picky and wants everything to look professional so it cost us more for construction. You could easily do the barn and fencing without electric and water for way less than what we paid.
We were spending $7 per gallon of organic cows milk and we were going through 1-2 gallons a week. I haven't tried to make yogurt, cheese or soap yet but that is on my to do list. I am gluten intolerant and the goats milk seems to have helped my tummy.
We have 2 big garden plots and plan on composting all our straw/poo waste too. We cut feed costs some by cutting low hanging tree branches on the back of our property and hanging them for the girls in their pasture because it has no trees in it.
I am getting almost a quart a day from my one doe so that is more than enough milk for us for the week. When I have two in milk in the spring we will be able to do more with the extra. I plan on freezing some for soapmaking and I have a ridiculous amount of cream in my jars after a few days so I am probably gonna make some butter tonight.
I think that they will probably pay off our initial investment in 3 years or so and after that they will more than pay for their yearly costs just on kid sales alone.
Worth is largely based on perception, what is worth a lot to some folks is not to others. It is worth it to me to know where my food comes from and how my animals were treated and know that they have a good life and aren't kept in horrible conditions. It is worth it to me to know that my garden produce hasn't had any chemical fertilizers on it either. I know my milk doesn't have hormones in it and that is a large weight lifted off my shoulders as the mother of a little girl.
I don't know how much goat milk costs in my area so I don't have comperable cost values for the milk but I do know that goat cheese is ridiculously expensive in my area so if I can learn to make cheese that will help with our food costs.
The entertainment value alone is worth it to me, my kids love the goats and so do my husband and I. The monitary costs just kind of fly out the window when you are sitting in a field getting goat kisses. :)
Our goats have saved us the cost of a TV and both the comedy channel and the nature channel. We have a large picture window where our dining table is and they are across the dooryard. Every meal an interesting show turns up. An then there's the gym membership I don't need as well as the mental health visits that are not needed.
The care and nurturing for this small herd has allowed me to age beautifully with vigor and grace.
My husband has a huge compost operation going and it is fueled by goat leavings. Of course there is the milk, ice cream and cheese. And the trades...milk for eggs. The bonus is the good will with relatives and neighbors when we have milk to share!
Are goats cost effective...you tell me!
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