New member plus a question

Hay y'all! my name is Justin Hiduk from northeast Pennsylvania. I have some goat experience via showing through 4-H as well as being around all the ones on the farm (though those years have past), and if things work out I will have many more years with goats. I would like to reach out to people willing to help out a young farmer (I'm 19 years old) with regards to raising Nigerian Dwarf Goats in a business sense. Although you can raise goats in a personal way (fresh milk in the morning!) I am taking steps toward having my own farm (Lord willing) and I am seriously considering making goats a part of it. What I would like from those who are willing to share is what is realistic when it comes to raising goats for farm income, or if you know someone already in the business who I could talk to. I'm interested more in the homemade soap, lotion, and things of that sort at the moment rather than the sail of things edible. It would be helpful if I could talk to someone who could walk me through what the numbers might look like (what's the profitability?). Although goats would be fun to raise, the idea would be for the farm to help support me in a career way, not me have a different job that would help pay for raising goats for just personal use. Thanks in advance for any help!

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  • Let us know how it turns out!!

    tammy

  • Thanks so much for the responses. I listened to the podcast (definitely informative) and actually finished reading Raising Goats Naturally not to long ago. Right now I have ingredients for the first batch, but because I'm new to the hole thing I still have to double check what I have to make sure it will all work out.
  • Definitely check out the link Tammy posted because she does talk about the numbers in that podcast episode. 

    Tammy and I also both make and sell soap, and the first thing I'd suggest is that you learn how to make soap and then ask yourself if you want to do that every day. I have run the numbers, and you would have to be making soap at least one full day per week to make a full-time income. That's why I don't have a big soap business. We make it for ourselves, and then I make enough for my established customers. 

    I have soapmaking instructions in my book, Raising Goats Naturally. I really don't recommend that you try to learn from someone's blog or something like that because you don't know what you don't know, and there is a lot of bad info out there, and you are using lye when you make soap, so you could wind up with an explosion or a ruined pot if you get it wrong.

    I also have an online video course about making soap -- https://thriftyhomesteader.teachable.com/p/soapmaking/ 

    If you decide you love to make soap, then you could look into the serious business info that's out there. 

  • Hi Justin & Welcome to the group!

    Here is a podcast with a lady who created a large goat milk soap business :) It may answer some of your questions. Check it out-

    https://thriftyhomesteader.com/goat-milk-soap-business/

    Tammy

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