Goats etc.

Well, well, well. The billy goat a friend dropped over here on my birthday (Sept 8Th) has lost interest in my 3 nannies. Lost so much interest in them that instead of keeping them cooped up in their stall he's jumping the fence! Guess that means they don't, uh, NEED him anymore. Y'know what I mean? ;)

If that is so I should know in, what? about 5 and a half months or so I've been told. Which puts me out there in the cold of the first part of February watching and waiting for new born kids. UMMM. Seems I could have planed this better.

Some who know goats may be wondering how this can be as this may not be the usual time of year for nannies to come in. However, these are Pygmy's and I've been told, and read, that they come in any old time.

Anyone who reads this and has some hands on info for me, let me know. I'm new at this.

I've got some plans for these goats. I'd like to have more than the 3 nannies I have. But I need to decide what kind of goat I want to raise. There are pluses and minuses for all the varieties of course.

The ones I have now, which are mostly Pygmy goat are cute and some folks like to have them as pets. Even the little rams if they are, well, lets just say, no longer rams. That way they don't have that distinctive boy goat smell. Smell!? They stink like, like, heck, like a boy goat!

I've never smelled anything in particular from my little nannies (doe's) and I've heard the castrated he goats don't have a notable scent either.

Oh, as for the father of the kids my girls may have? Right now the little jumping jack is in my dogs 8 foot high dog run, while my dog is gleefully putting up with me 24 hours a day. At least until that cute but stinky little horny fella 's owner comes for him.

Needless to say, my cats are NOT happy!

Now as I understand it, pygmy goats can also be used as meat if you don't want a lot at a time. Their milk is probably as good as any milk goats but in much smaller quantity. In other words they 'produce' the same products as any other goat only in smaller amounts.
And they can be pets.

Then there are the plain old meat goats. The ones that are born and bred for one thing only and that's meat. They tend to be bigger and meatier of course. Now the question is, do I want to fool with anything that big and strong? (for the same reason I've rulled out cows.)

Now the milk goats are, I've read, about as big as the meat goats. The culls and, um, jobless? Bucks can be neutered and sold for meat. Goat milk is, apparently, a lucrative business whether you sell it as is or turn it into cheese or soap or some other goat milk based product. However! And this is a BIG HOWEVER! there is all the upfront cost of setting up the milking parlor, keeping it clean, milking the goats and processing the milk...even if you just sell the milk. Perhaps especially if you do that as then you get into all that government inspection and paper work.

Another kind of goat is the fiber goat. I haven't read much about these but I'm sure you'd have to either shear them or brush them out to get the fibers they grow. Then you'd have to clean said fiber, package it and ship it to folks who spin and or weave. That, or take up spinning and weaving yourself.

All in all it's still a load of work no mater which kind of goat you choose. The meat goats seem to be the least labor intensive. But I'm not sure of the market around here for the meat. Heck, I'm not even sure if I like goat meat!!

At least I won't be tempted to eat up my profits. :)