I think that caring for a cow is a lot more work than you realize. You should really read up on it if you are genuinely interested, as it requires a lot more than just putting up some wire fence.

I found this article on why goats are better than cows for personal use:

http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/milk-goatvscow.htm

Perhaps it'd be easier to have a goat; we don't have a fence though.

Yeah funny thing about calves. They turn into cows. Then there is also the aspect of getting calves. The cow/calf thing is not a "set" - the heifer would need to be bred which means either stud fees or buying a bull. If you plan on having a bull around that is a whole other can of worms requiring much more space and a whole lot more fence.

As for the price of maintenance - I'd call your local large animal vet and see how "cheap" that is.

I'm not sure where you got the impression that farming is a part time thing. Not only do you need a lot of time to devote to the animals but then there is the maintenance of your buildings and equipment. (those fences have a tendency to fall down from time to time) Then there is the time needed to get the hay (got a big truck?), the feed, the salt.....

Goats also need care and if you want milk you need little ones. Sometimes animals have trouble giving birth. Guess what the farmer gets to do then.

So what are you opinions on goats? Have you ever had one? What do you have to do to keep it healthy, and how expensive might it be?

I have a truck, so hauling hay wouldn't be an issue. I'm more concerned with how to keep a goat from escaping my yard, which isn't fenced in. I suppose fencing is extremely expensive and hard to maintain as well.

*Voice of rural living dropping in unannounced*

Lets just say for the cost of the fence, let ALONE the price of the actual animal and upkeep, you could buy a lot of organic butter, milk and meat.

How far away are your nearest neighbors, and are you within the boundaries of a city or town? I'm asking since, unless you actually live in the country, outside municipal boundaries, you need to consider local zoning ordinances as well.

BTW, the only animals I've ever had to help butcher are chickens, and I've learned to clean fish (and not very well!). If you think you might be up to the task, I'd say start small... and sell tickets.

We're zoned residential, but most of our neighbors have horses, and we have two acres that we could use for goats. Being as I only thought up the idea to get animals so we could afford to have organic dairy/eggs/meat, I'm sure this isn't going to happen.

Unless we can find a cheap way to fence in the whole yard, the effort will be too expensive at this time.

I used to take care of a friend's little "farmette" from time to time, when they had to be out of town. They had goats, chickens, ducks and a few peafowl. All of the pasturage was well fenced. Goats are very, very good climbers! I was forever having to go catch the darn critters and bring 'em back and put them in their pen!!! It became such a daily ritual that I finally just decided to keep them in the pen and not let them out in the pasture at all, since my friend would be home within a few days.

One morning when I got up, I found one of the goats very ill. I called the vet, but the goat died before he arrived. "What do I do with a dead goat?" I wondered to myself. Obviously, I couldn't just leave it there to rot. I loaded the thing into the back of my pickup, drove several miles out into the forest, and dumped it for the scavengers to deal with. It might have been illegal to do, for all I know, but I didn't have a backhoe to dig a hole and bury it.

My friends had had trouble with their chickens escaping, too, so they had put a wire "roof" over the chicken pen. But the peacocks kept wandering over to the game bird farm next door. I always had to go shoo them home, because the game bird farm owners would call and complain.

Then, to make my last farm-sitting episode perfect, I slipped on some ice and broke my ankle. I was taking my friend's little dogs out for their evening walk, when I was suddenly confronted by a big ol' male coyote. He was about 10 feet away from me, showing me all his pearly white teeth, and he made it clear that he wasn't going to shoo away easily. I went back in the house and brought out my big dogs, and ol' Wily took off like a shot. Nevertheless, broken ankle or not, I still had to feed the animals every day and muck out their stalls! Man, was I in pain!

That's what it's like taking care of goats, chickens and other basically "small" livestock. And you have to be prepared to do it all by yourself all the time, no matter whether your sick or injured or the weather is nasty, unless you're lucky enough to have a friend who will fill in for you.

I'm up to it, and I think my mom is willing to try two goats. I'm not sure yet how this will work, but we'll figure something out. We pass this goat farm that has like 50 llamas, goats, and a few camels out on their front lawn on the way home when we go this particular way home sometimes, so perhaps they'd be willing to rid themselves of two fertile does, and maybe even mate one of them! or both..

And I suppose chickens would be a possibility too since building a chicken coup doesn't look that hard, and we have the space for one.

Ouch. I don't envy the ankle break..my mom once got pulled down on the ice a few years ago by our dog and slightly hurt her wrist. It's never happened to me though (because I never give the dog slack on the leash). And I never get sick; at least since I've been eating this way. I think I'd be able to handle a miniature farm; even two chickens, a rooster, and two pregnant does. And the upside to getting goats is they don't kick, pee, poop, or try to injure you while you're milking them. I bet the dog will make friends with them as well.

I don't think I'd like goat milk, so I'd not be too interested in them. Is it good?

I've read that healthy unpasteurized goat milk tastes just like whole cow milk that you buy at the grocery store..or better because the milk fat percentage is slightly higher..I'll post the figures of goat milk and cow milk compared to human milk and you make the decision of which seems the best for us to consume (human milk being the comparison).

http://www.fiascofarm.com/dairy/goatmilk-breakdown.html

Kisal- for future reference there is generally a 'rendering' truck that will come and get large farm animals.

How much milk does a goat actually give, though? Just asking, since nutritionally speaking, keeping some lactating women in the back yard would be the best, nutritionally... so I tend to judge on taste and cost, personally.

Is milk allowed on a low carb diet?
And why is human milk in the equation? Did we go from cow to goat to wet nurse? I'm confused.

I've read that a healthy goat will produce between 1/2 to 1 gallon of milk a day if you milk it once a day every day.



It's just a comparison to show that what we are naturally supposed to consume as a baby is closer in comparison to goat milk than it is to cow milk. As for goat milk being allowed on a low carb diet..that table was for a cup of milk (of all three kinds), and there are only 10 grams of carbs/sugar in a cup of goat milk in comparison to 12 grams for cow and 17 for human.

Because all the carbs in milk are sugar in the form of lactose, I don't suppose 10 grams would hurt you at one meal. I can see myself just eating a cup of goat milk with a hamburger at lunch and dinner..forget the damn peas and tasteless veggies. I'm going 100% on animal products.

Also, I read off that same site that fresh goat milk can be frozen in Ziplock freezer bags and stay as fresh milk for 6 months or more. Unpasteurized milk just doesn't go bad the way pasteurized milk does. I can so see this happening. I've already mapped out the area where they'd stay: in our basement garage, and we'd fence off about 50 square feet (on a hill lol) with reinforced wire fencing), and I think it won't cost over $500, and the outcome is a lot of goats that I can milk and sell the babies we don't need..and use that money to buy organic meat!) Voila..that's my plan. I've been thinking about this all day, can you tell?

100% animal products? Might want to check out the colon blow threads. I have a feeling those products will come in handy.