In my quest for the most functional mini farm to provide the best range and quality of homegrown food, I decided that having a couple milk goats would be a very important component of our tiny farm (especially since I LOVE milk, but my body can't tolerate cow dairy products).
Then the question was: which breed? There are LOTS!
MILK Saanen Alpine Nubian Miniature Nubian Toggenburg Oberhasli La Mancha Nigerian Nigerian Dwarf Guernsey | MEAT Spanish Tennessee South African Boer New Zealand Kiko | MILK AND MEAT Kinder (many folks use meat breeds for milking also; you just get less milk, and the breed wasn't developed to be a true dual purpose animal) |
Friendly
Good milk/Good meat
Relatively quiet
Doing research online and on paper is great, but that only narrowed my top breeds down to 3.
To finalize my decision for our future goat purchase, I needed to go meet them in person: Are they good milkers? How does the milk taste? How does the meat taste? Are they bossy or difficult to manage? Are they particularly noisy?
Dual purpose (can be used for milk and meat), friendly, any color is acceptable, midsize - 110-125 pounds, milk is sweet and high in butterfat, 60% dress out rate for meat.
Dairy breed, lovable and playful, almost any color is acceptable, small - 75 pounds, large quantity of milk for their size, butterfat in milk is very high at 5-10%.
Dairy breed, docile and sweet, almost any color is acceptable, smallish midsize - 100-135 pounds, can average 2 quarts of milk daily.
First we went to meet Kinders at Zederkam Farm in Snohomish (where the Kinder was developed by Pat Showalter); they are larger than the Mini Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs, which was one of my concerns, but they are incredibly sweet and easy to handle, eliminating my hesitation about their size. I was not only able to try some fresh milk, which is absolutely sweet and rich and delicious, but I was also able to milk one of Pat's does - thankfully the doe was very tolerant of my obviously novice milking. At my speed, it would probably take about 30 minutes to completely milk the doe, but when Pat stepped in to finish, she was done in just 4 minutes! Pat showed us around her beautiful and well laid out farm, and provided an abundance of information on her goats and gardens. Although the kids were cautioned repeatedly about the stinging nettles growing all around, Abby did finally walk right into one; her left leg from ankle to knee reddened and blistered quickly, but Pat quickly pulled a comfrey plant from nearby, twisted and crushed the stalk to release the pulp, which was then smeared liberally on Abby's leg. The redness and blisters quickly diminished, and after a little while were completely gone. I do love natural remedies :) After thanking Pat for the visit, samples of milk, cheese and meat, and all of the wonderful information, we were off to the next farm.
Our next stop was a delightful farm in Enumclaw with cows, goats, chickens, Mini Australian Shepherds, and a peahen. We had a blast; it was a riot of easy chaos. Despite all the activity, there was a definite steadiness, connection and flow to everything. Like at Zederkam Farm, the owners care deeply for all of their animals, and it shows - calling each of them by name and sharing entertaining stories about each of them. I was able to try some very fresh milk here, too - the flavor was surprisingly similar to cow's milk. I talked at length with the owner, and found it more and more difficult to decide on a clear winner between these breeds.
After finally getting back home, I considered everything I'd learned about each breed: positives and negatives.
The decision I came to is that, for our family dynamic, size of land, etc - the Kinder is our goat. Meat and milk are superb, despite their larger size they are a remarkably calm and gentle breed, they are surprisingly quiet, easy milkers (even for a complete novice like myself), and their tendency to have multiple kids with each pregnancy makes them an extremely valuable homegrown red meat source.
Throughout this year and possibly next, we will create a suitable goat living area with a predator proof house, and collect all the supplies we will need. Then we will finally be ready to add a couple Kinder does to our tiny family farm.