Dairy Goats

There's a question that's been churning in my brain for years now.  It's very serious.  A lot of careful thought and consideration is needed.  Actually, it's a pair of questions: DO I or don't I want to commit to dairy animals?  If I do, should we get goats or a cow?  I have decided answer to the first question is yes. (Yes, even though I'm pregnant.  Perhaps I want lactating buddies or something.  Nevermind.)  This next month will help us decide the answer to the latter.  We are goat-sitting for our good friends for a little over a month altogether.  We have in our care two of the cutest little oberhaslis you ever did see.  They are the sweetest things.  Almost like dogs.   These two does are quite affectionate and they love to be around people.  After my brother-in-law milked the first (and hardest) one, today, I milked my very first goat.  See?

The does were super docile and just chomped up their feed while being milked. (By the way, I had to stop myself from saying "nursed" instead of "milked" several times.  Uh...)  Guess how much milk we got from just one of the two milkings today?  This much!

Which translates to this much!

This was only the first day with dairy goats, mind you, but here are some observations made thus far:

• Listen.  I hate the flavor of store-bought goat's milk.  Barf.  But this milk tastes nothing like it.  No goaty aftertaste at all.  Even my very reluctant husband tried some and said, "Why do we not have goats?  This is amazing."  Whoa.
• Goat milk doesn't cause mucus production, so my kids could still enjoy raw milk from grass-fed animals even if they're stuffy.
• Goats are much smaller than cows and (I'd imagine) not as intimidating to milk.
• The fat molecules in goat's milk are so small, it doesn't separate from the milk and rise to the top, which also means no cream can be yielded. Which also means no butter.  Yikes!  Butter!
• Fabulously amazing soap can be made with goat milk, something I plan trying out sometime within the month.  Yippee!
• Goats are lower maintenance than cows.

There are a lot of pluses when it comes to goats.  But the thing is, I love butter.  And buttermilk.  And ice cream.  And cheese.  To have a dairy animal that can't produce cream for butter et cetera is almost too hard to consider.  We'll see what happens this month.  Maybe things will change.  I would so incredibly love to hear from those of you who have raised both dairy cows and goats and what your take is on it all.  Help a sister out, will you?

Time for bed.  Milking comes early, and I can't lie.  Writing that makes this sissy rancher just a little bit giddy.

I'm sharing this at Simple Lives Thursday, Barn Hop, & Farm Girl Friday.