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J&J Acres

Big Family on a Small Farm

Choosing a Goat Breed for your Small Farm

A cross breed milking goat

Milking Goat: A mixed breed milking goat can satisfy a homestead as well as a pure bred. Photo by J&J

Much like chicken breeds, goats can be selected for either what they produce, milk or fiber in this case, for their meat, or for both. Before you look for goats for sale, take a moment to learn about the different breeds. Numerous varieties exist and each person who raises goats has a bias and opinion on which one is best – and rightly so. Everyone would agree, however, that goats are smart, or at least crafty. Because of that, you need to be sure to have proper livestock fencing installed before you purchase your goats.

Goat Milk: Selecting a Dairy Goat

Out of the view of most Americans, goats serve as the majority source for milk throughout the world. When you start looking into milking you will quickly be bombarded with percentages of butterfat and the volume of milk a particular breed typically produces each day. Unless you are determined to run a dairy goat factory, or you want as much butterfat as possible for butter, I would not be overly concerned with these numbers. Our milking goat is a cross-breed. I could not even tell you what breeds she comes from, nor do I care. She is a healthy animal that produces a fine tasting milk in quantities sufficient for our needs. Plain and simple. That said, a few of the popular goat breeds for milk, which are known as Dairy Goats, including Alpine, Nubian and several others.

Continue Reading for Page 2: Goats for Meat

Pages: 1 2

Filed Under: Raising Goats Tagged With: choosing livestock, Goats, Starting Homestead

« Choosing a Chicken Breed For Your Small Farm
Choosing a Breed of Cattle for your Small Farm »

Comments

  1. Ken says

    September 10, 2013 at 8:01 am

    Thanks for posting so much info about goats and fencing. We’re working on our property now, and we plan to include goats for clearing. I have a few questions about feeding them: How much supplementary feed do you provide? Is it all forage? What about during winter?

    We’re in Alabama in a very similar climate to you, so I’m guessing our experiences would be similar.

    Thanks!

    Ken
    The Ant Farm

    Reply
    • Jared Stanley says

      September 10, 2013 at 8:22 am

      During spring, summer and autumn it is all foliage except when we have to bring in our milker and we feed her goat chow while we milk her. During the winter we purchase round bales of hay and flake off pieces at a time to provide them roughage and supplement with the goat chow.

      Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  2. Jif says

    November 8, 2013 at 1:19 pm

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Jared Stanley says

      November 8, 2013 at 7:14 pm

      Thank you for reading along 😀

      Reply

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