We have gotten a couple of goats. I have never had goats before so this is an adventure. Can anyone tell me important things I need to know now that I own a goat?
We have gotten a couple of goats. I have never had goats before so this is an adventure. Can anyone tell me important things I need to know now that I own a goat?
You have got to have good fencing. Once the fencing is in place, be sure they have clean water and lots to eat. From that point it is all smooth sailing.
By the way, what kind of goats do you have?
AbO 2012
Welding highlighted good fencing for a good reason. Some goats can be very sneaky. And goats milk tastes good after you get used to it.
I haven't had any goat's milk since my early teens, but my mother had said she thought goats stink, so my youngest brother did NOT want any goat's milk. But one day at lunch at my grandparents' home, I had a glass of goat's milk and he had a glass of cow's milk and when he wasn't looking, I swapped glasses with him and he drank that whole glass of goat's milk without knowing the difference.goats milk tastes good after you get used to it.
That's funny that you switched and your brother didn't know the difference. Did you ever tell him?
I like the taste of goat's milk and believe it's healthier for us than cow's milk. Did you know that you can make your own butter easily, too?
Of course I told him as soon as he finished that glass of milk. In those days, when we had fresh raw milk from our milk cow, if you set a glass of cow's milk next to a glass of goat's milk, the cow's milk had a slightly more yellow to the color; i.e., the goat's milk was whiter. Not a really big difference, but some. I had actually raised that particular goat as a pet, but an uncle who lived within a hundred yards of my grandparents had been going to a doctor complaining of stomach trouble and the doctor recommended ice cream, and especially yogurt, make from goat's milk, so I let my grandfather have the goat to milk so he could give most of the milk to my aunt and uncle.
Personally, my only experience with the goat's milk was just drinking it with meals, but I've sure made lots of butter from our own cow's milk.
I have never had goat's milk before, it tastes just like cow's milk? Which one is better for you, goat's or cow's milk? I know there is a guy up the road that has a bunch of goats I may ask him more about i.
Maggie, it's been many years ago for me, but you know when you milk a cow and just put the milk in the refrigerator, the cream rises to the top; separates out from the rest of the milk. In the days long ago when milk was delivered in glass bottles, you could see the cream on top. But now nearly all the milk in the grocery store has either been homogenized or had the cream removed. But the goat's milk came right from the goat already homogenized; cream didn't rise to the top. As to whether one is better for you than the other, I don't know. I know, in the early '50s, a doctor recommended it for my uncle's stomach trouble, but I don't know why or whether it actually had any benefit.
I'm really confused. When a friend had goats she would milk them and leave the milk in the refrigerator for a couple of days and make butter from the cream off the top, or I thought that's what she did. I know she made butter somehow from goat's milk. Is there a special kind of goat that doesn't produce milk that has the cream in it?
Ours had the cream mixed pretty well through the milk, but if you let it set for a couple of days, there is a small amount of cream that would separate and rise to the top. Not as much as cow's milk, most of the cream still stayed mixed in.
It helps if you can cool the milk as soon as it comes from the goat. We developed a way to milk directly into a stainless steel container that was surrounded by ice, so the lilk was cold by the time we took it inside.