Welcome, Dairy Goats!

What a wonderful weekend I had...even if being sick is still taking its toll a bit. (But enough whining already!)

I raised dairy goats for many, many years when my children were young back in the Midwest.

I had a beautiful herd of Oberhasli dairy goats, but life 'got in the way' for a while and as the kids grew up and interests moved from goats to sheep, I opted to sell my goats and to get out of them altogether for a while.

A year ago, I bought a share of a goat (that's the only way that you can legally buy raw milk in Virginia) and had a goatshare, which provided me with wonderful, fresh, raw milk and cheese for approximately nine months, until the herd owner dried up the girls to get them ready to kid in January.

The more I thought about it...the more I realized that the time was right for me to get back into the wonderful world of the dairy goat again. It's a big commitment, as when you have a dairy animal, you cannot just pick up and take a vacation or have a weekend away whenever you like. Rain or shine, in sickness and in health, you have to be there for your dairy goats -- they don't milk themselves, after all.

After much soul searching and weighing of pros and cons, I have decided that the time really IS right. I want to be home more than I have been in recent years. I love to travel, but being away so much the past few summers has caused me to miss out on so much that is occurring right in my own back yard. There are so many wonderful things to enjoy about the summers -- particularly, as a school teacher who has those summers off -- that I'm making myself excuses to stay home. I'm planning and prepping to begin planting the biggest garden that I have planted in years. I kept back several turkeys to, hopefully, provide me with poults that I will be raising for next Thanksgiving. I am building a new little goat/chicken/turkey barn so that all of my animals have the very best environment possible. I am starting a chicken flock again and...I recently purchased three dairy goats.

Once the decision was made to get back into goats, the next decision was...which breed?

Again...much soul searching went into my decision and, in the end, I came to realize that since it's mostly 'just me' here, I don't really need a high producer like a standard sized Saanen or Oberhasli. I don't need a gallon of milk a day...or anything close to that. I just want enough milk for drinking, for baking, for cheesemaking, and...if I have a little bit left over, for fun things like fudge and goat milk soap.

I researched and researched and I have happily decided to raise a mini-herd of mini-milkers. It's a mini-herd because I don't plan to have very many goats -- just enough to supply me with the milk that I need for my personal use. Mini-milkers are something that was not even heard of in the goat world when I was raising standard sized dairy goats back in the 90s.

For those of you who have not yet been enlightened to the wonderful world of the mini dairy goat, the minis are crosses between standard sized dairy goat does (Oberhasli, LaMancha, Saanen, Toggenburg, Nubian, or Alpine) with Nigerian Dwarf bucks for first generation minis. They combine the best of both worlds -- a goat that doesn't eat as much or need as much space, but that still has the wonderful dairy character of the standard foundation breed -- combined with the personality and the high butterfat content of the Nigerian Dwarf goat.

I feel a bit like Goldilocks. The standard goats are too big for what I want (too much milk, eat more, and need more space). The Nigerian Dwarves are too small (hard to milk with their tiny teats, escape artists, and back breakers when bending over them). The minis should be 'just right'. They are a mid size, give a nice quantity of milk, and...best of all, it should be great quality milk, too, with the wonderful butterfat content of the Nigerian Dwarves.

I picked up my first doe today....Jill, a sweet little mini-Nubian.

Jill is (hopefully) bred and due to kid in mid-April. My barn isn't quite done yet, so she has taken up temporary quarters in with my turkeys. Interestingly, there is a little doghouse that has been in that pen forever (I thought that the turkeys might decide it would be a great place to nest and to lay eggs...but so far, they have not set foot inside the doghouse.) Tonight, after getting Jill all settled in (photos coming soon), I went back out to see how she was doing -- if she had found everything okay. When she heard me coming, she popped her head out of the doghouse and looked as comfortable as can be. I think that little doghouse may just end up moving into the new barn with her when she goes. She's a little wild, but with gentle handling and lots of TLC, she should come around nicely. My other two girls, Iris and Millie (mini-Alpine),

will be coming home in a few weeks -- after the barn is done. This will actually work out perfectly, as it will give me time to get Jill comfortable here and to give her the chance to bond with me a bit before her new companions arrive at home in a few weeks.

Just had to share...more to come!