Thinking of purchasing another goat - Question!!!

[Sally Knight]

Hi everyone,

We are thinking of purchasing an older goat, so we can start milking sooner as our doe at present is only 8months old.  The goat we are looking at is  4 years old, has been breed twice and has birthed well and looked after the kids well.  The current owner has not milked her as she is more interested in breeding than the milking side of things.  She said the goat is more than happy to have her udders touched.

Is it a good idea to purchase her not having been use to milking or am I making a rod for my own back!

The current owner has said they have had an issue with round worm as well but it has all been cleared up and the goats have had fecal tests.  

If we do go ahead how long should I keep her apart from my other two goats and should

I keep them apart in two different buildings.  I am just nervous she might get lonely if she is on her own, or can I put her in the goat house but just put a divider between her and the other two

Any advice would be great and as ever a huge thank you for answering yet more questions!

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

Do you have experience milking? If not, it could be tough to get started without a kid to make sure you're emptying the udder, which could lead to less and less milk daily and ultimately drying up or getting mastitis. You could ask the owner if you could milk the doe. I will let people do that before purchasing an adult if they want.