Goats are sweet, social, mischievous and stubborn. They are afavorite of urban homesteaders谁想要鲜奶却养不了牛。
Homesteaders favor milking goats as a food source because of their milk’s mild flavor and moderate output. Even people (like me) who don’t like “goat” flavor in milk and cheese are startled by how mild fresh goat milk tastes. Goats are also a great alternative if you can’t handle the volume of milk that a dairy cow gives.
Having a milking animal is a serious time commitment. Goats need to be milked approximately 12 hours apart, twice a day, every day during lactation. That means that if you want to go on vacation, you need a housesitter who knows how to milk!
That was how I learned to milk goats, as a housesitter for a homesteading family who wanted to go camping. In exchange for being taught to milk, and as much milk and eggs as I wanted, I would take care of their goats and chickens while they went hiking every summer.
如果你正在考虑让山羊挤奶,这里有一些事情要考虑(除了有喜欢挤山羊奶的邻居)!
Goat Vocab: Female goats are called does, male goats bucks, and castrated males are wethers. Some people use the terms nanny and billy to refer to their goats, but most people consider those terms unprofessional and out-of-date. All baby goats are kids, and little ones are called doelings and bucklings if you want to distinguish them by sex.
Buying Goats
So you want to buy goats! Goats are herd animals. Consider getting more than one, or be ready to spend a lot of social time with your goat. Goats can be extremely affectionate pets, if that is the role you want your goat to have, in addition to milking.
第一步是找到一些出售的山羊,决定你想要的品种,然后想办法运输它们。If you don’t know a farmer or homesteader who is selling does,craigslistis the place to start. As always, the most important thing about buying livestock on craigslist is knowing what to look for and what questions to ask.
Related Post:Raising Angora Goats for Soft and Sustainable Mohair Fiber
问一问孩子是什么时候出生的,谁是他们的父亲,尤其是如果鹿不是住在地产上的话。山羊在两到三个月之间断奶,它们应该精力充沛、干净、健康。Ask about a history of worms, parasites andfootroton the property—harmful organisms which live in soil and can be transferred to from one property to another.
通常情况下,山羊对人类很有感情。当你和孩子互动时,如果有孩子表现出攻击性或极度恐惧,这可能是被虐待或忽视的迹象。和往常一样,在孩子的环境中寻找干净的床上用品。
这取决于你住在哪里,以及你是否在寻找特定品种的奶山羊,你可能需要在craigslist上浏览几周或几个月才能找到合适的东西。对山羊品种进行研究。每个品种都有不同的优点和缺点,每个农民都有他们最喜欢的品种。养几只不同品种的奶山羊并没有什么错。
Once you find goats to buy, you’ll have to figure out how to get them home. If you are buying kids or dwarf goats, you can put them in the bed of a truck with a canopy. If you are getting full grown does, you will probably need a livestock trailer. You will be able to find rental services that rent livestock trailers, but you may have to drive to a rural area.
Pasture For Goats
Goats are the hardiest ruminants. Unlike cows and sheep, they love roughage like brambles, blackberries, weeds and shrubs in their diets. A goat’s main nutrition however, should come from healthy, lush grass.
I have seen milk goats kept in urban backyards, but like all ruminants, they will be healthiest and happiest on pasture. Rotating goats on pasture is also important for their physical health as a form ofpest control, to help control internal parasites that reproduce in the soil.
On good pasture, goats can get all their nutrition from grazing. In the winter, or when milking heavily, does may need supplemental hay or grain. Here arefeed charts, with protein requirements.
Fencing For Goats
Fencing is the biggest challenge of the farmyard, for all animals all the time. Goats are smart, agile, curious and determined. A full grown doe weighs between 130 and 170 pounds, which is a lot of weight to lean against a barrier.
If you are not rotating your animals, you may want to invest in asturdy, permanent fence. Especially if you are living in an urban or suburban area, you want to prevent your backyard goats from becoming your neighbor’s backyard goats. Farm animals are the reason they say good fences make good neighbors.
Related Post:5 Goat Fencing Options And Details To Consider
Goats are also greedy and goal-oriented. They are much more likely to escape if there is something interesting visible (or smellable) on the other side of the fence, or if they are feeling neglected, or if they have over-grazed their pasture. Weigh the odds in your favor by making sure your goats have plenty of fresh forage, clean water, and attention. Considerenrichment toys and props,包括攀登结构。
If you want to rotate your goats on pasture, you need movable fencing, or a series of fenced paddocks, which is a large infrastructural investment.
Electric Field Fencing
Electric field fencingis a common choice for movable fencing. It is lightweight and extremely easy to move. Electric fencing alone will not stop a determined or frightened goat from running straight through, even if it hurts them, so fencing with electric relies partially on the psychology of the animal. It will work best if animals are already trained to understand electric. Typically that means beginning to use electric with a secondary, solid fence as well, before transitioning to electric-only (as with many things, this works best when goats are young).
With pasture rotation, you have animal psychology on your side, since new forage and new territory to explore makes your goats less likely to want out of the pen. Be careful with small animals and electric netting. Young kids, lambs, piglets and poultry of all ages can become tangled in electrified netting and die. Take a look at some great fencing advicehere.
Shade and Housing For Goats
Whether or not your goats are on pasture, they need shade in the summer and shelter in the winter. Summer shelters can be simple. A great design for ruminants on pasture is a lightweight shelter which can be moved as goats are rotated onto fresh pasture. Here is anexample.
In the winter, abarn or solid shedare great for goats, something with significant protection from drafts, but good ventilation. Young and weak goats especially need sturdy shelter, and potentially access to a heat lamp if it is very cold during kidding season. Whatever your shelter is, your goats need thick, clean bedding to keep them off the cold ground.
Related Post:Raising Boer Goats
If you live in a wet climate, goats will churn pasture into mud, and the grass needs rest to return healthy in the spring. Many owners of goats, sheep, horses, cattle and oher pastured animals have sacrafice areas, usually outside the barn or stable, so animals can have access to the outdoors during the muddy season, with the understanding that that ground will never be thriving pasture.
Muddy ground is a risk factor forhoof rot一种潜在的使人衰弱的细菌感染。至关重要的是,你的山羊能够走出泥泞,不仅仅是睡觉,还要在冬天散步和玩耍。像往常一样,观察你的动物,花时间和它们在一起2022欧洲杯葡萄牙vs德国,了解它们的性格,这样你就知道它们是否表现奇怪,是否生病了。
Breeding and Kidding Goats
To give milk, a doe has to be bred. Many people who own milking goats do not own bucks. Having male hormones and pheromones near a milking doe actually changes the flavor of the milk, giving a stronger, “goatier” flavor.
即使有一美元的财产,我仍然发现非常新鲜的羊奶比你在商店里能买到的任何东西都不那么山羊味,但有些人(比如我母亲)对羊奶的味道非常敏感。不管怎样,拥有一美元是一项额外的支出(而且是一种潜在的负债,这取决于他的性情),许多自耕农选择放弃拥有一美元。
Finding A Breeding Buck
That means that you need a breeding buck. Ask around in your community. Especially if you live in a rural area, but even if you live in a city, someone may have a buck they would loan at low cost or for free or trade.
If you don’t have goat-owning neighbors, there are breeding services available, where you can take your does to a property to be bred, or alternately have a buck loaned to you. The arrangement varies depending on the farm and your situation. Consider whether you want purebred kids, and if so, you will have to find a buck of the same breed.
Delivering Kids
Once the goat is bred, you have to deliver the kids. Goats gestate for150 days, or approximately 5 months, and carry one or two kids. If you have the opportunity to attend a kidding or lambing with someone more experienced or invite them to attend your first kidding, do it!
Normally, does do not need assistance kidding, but sometimes a human hand can save the life of a kid and doe. Many people teach themselves to lamb with books and online resources. Here is agreat guideto kidding and preparation, and here are someadditional tips.
Raising Kids
Once the kids are born, they require care. Kids get the best start in life when left on their mother for several weeks to bond and nurse freely. Watch for bloating of the udder and discomfort behavior in the doe; if the kid is not drinking enough off the mother, you may need to milk supplementally to remove pressure from the udder.
After two weeks, there are more decisions to make, including whether tovaccinate, de-worm,castrateorde-budyour kids. Here are more details oncaring for kids.
Even after the kids are larger, many homesteaders find that leaving thekids on their motherto nurse part time, and milking once a day instead of twice, is a balance that works for them and their animals.
This typically looks like separating the animals at night, milking in the morning, and letting the doe and her kids bond and nurse all day. That means you get less milk, but have more flexibility in your daily schedule.
Milking Goats
Milking is an art, not a science. The easiest way to learn is to get someone to show you, and it helps to have a patient animal to learn on!
Have a routine for your animals. Milking will go more smoothly if everyone knows what to expect. If you are using a stanchion, put your goat into it. It is fairly easy tobuild a free-standing goat stanchion. It is helpful to have food or something to keep the goat occupied while you milk.
Milking Hygiene
在挤奶过程的每个阶段,卫生都很重要,尤其是如果你想喝生牛奶的话。有人曾经告诉我,要经营一家生乳制品店,挤奶间必须足够干净,才能穿着毛茸茸的拖鞋和粉红色的浴袍去挤奶。
Always wipe down the goat’s udders with clean soapy water or a disinfectantteat-dip. This not only helps keep the milk you are drinking stay clean, it helps prevent bacteria crawling up into the udder and causing an infection. Before milking into your bucket, “strip” three or four squeezes of milk onto the ground to clear the teat.
当然,牛奶要倒进干净的桶里。一只易怒的山羊会在你眨眼之前把她的蹄子放进你的挤奶桶里,然后这些牛奶就需要扔掉或喂给动物。2022欧洲杯葡萄牙vs德国用你的前臂挡住不听话的蹄子,如果你的山羊真的很生气,准备好把水桶拉开。我的经验是,山羊清楚地知道桶在哪里,如果你没有防备,它们也清楚地知道如何把桶踢翻。了解你的山羊生气时的表现。
Tips For Hand-Milking Goats
There is a steep learning curve to milking by hand. The essential and non-intuitive part of milking is “capturing” the milk at the top of the teat, between your thumb and the pad of your hand. Without a firm capture, no milk will come out. Then you milk with a rolling squeeze.
我有时只用拇指、第一和中指来挤奶,而山羊的乳头很小。It takes practice and your hands (your entire arms, let’s be honest) will hurt while milking for about the first 2 to 4 weeks, but it will get faster and easier.
There aremechanical milkingapparatuses to use on goats, but I personally have found that cleaning and fussing with them takesabout as longand is as much trouble as milking one or two goats by hand, once you get good at milking.
You are done milking when the teat is only giving an inconsistent trickle of milk. The udder will feel distinctly different, soft and baggy as opposed to taut. Dip the teat in disinfectant again to prevent mastitis. Milk is sweet and bacteria love sugar, so it is especially important to leave your does’ teats cleaned.
For more information, here is anotherstep-by-step guideto milking, and here is agreat video tutorial.
What To Do With Goat Milk
When you are done milking the milk should be filtered through a thick cheesecloth and chilled or pasteurized then chilled immediately. All your equipment should be washed in hot water, or run through the dishwasher.
A strong milker gives up to a gallon a day during her peak, depending on the breed. That is a lot of milk to do something with! You won’t be able to make butter, because goats’ milk is naturally homogenized- it doesn’t separate easily the way cow’s milk does- but you will be able to make cheese!
People also make yogurt, kefir,even soapout of goat’s milk. My experience with milking regularly is that processing the milk takes as much if not more time than actually milking the animal. Plenty of room for creativity in the kitchen!
Keeping goats is a big step for your homestead or farm. Breeding, kidding, milking and processing will change the rhythm of your year and your everyday life. It ties you to your home in a way I had never experienced before having a milking animal. If the farm and homestead chores help you teach responsibility to your family, milking goats is the 201 level course.
Don’t let the step up intimidate you. Reach out for resources to your local extension office, to other goat owners in the area, anyone selling goat cheese at your local farmer’s market. There are plenty of resources online fromplans for shelterstomilking instruction.Even if none of your friends has experience with goats, invite a friend to be your buddy for moral support for challenging moments like first milking or kidding.
那年夏天,我为邻居们照看农场,我学会了既爱又怕养山羊。我是个挤奶新手,我的手和手腕总是疼痛。他们有两个好动的、不合作的舞者,他们在柱子上跳舞,想尽一切办法把脚放进桶里。当我去拿钥匙的时候,有一只雄鹿会向大门冲锋。
But there was also an incredibly sweet, patient older doe, and with her I learned the peace, connection and satisfaction that come from milking an animal. She was warm on chilly mornings, and smelled like milk. If I was in a bad mood, she would act out and misbehave.
Milking her required me to calm myself. I would lean my head against her hip and let my hands work, and have a moment when I couldn’t do anything except be present with her. She helped teach me what everyone who keeps animals learns eventually—we keep them not because they give us delicious milk, but because we love sharing our lives with them.
BARBARA HOLLANDSsays
我无法阅读评论,所以这可能是多余的。Facebook是一个寻找优质山羊的好地方。最重要的是寻找健康的山羊!从健康测试的饲养员那里购买。CAE、CL和Johnes是严重的疾病。爱上你的新羊,然后发现它患有严重的传染病,这是令人心碎的。