While many individuals find videos of little goats romping and playing adorable, they do eventually grow up and these creatures come with the need for companionship and a large open space.
There are some species who are known to be docile while others species known for being ornery, be sure that before purchasing any farm animal you spend some time watching and learning their personalities. Ideally, you want to get three female goats to one male goat so there is a nice family dynamic and the male has no other males to compete with.
Goats are kept on large rural farms for meat, milk, income from selling kids, and wool. If you are a beginner homesteader, you want to start with a smaller task and ideally with wool production, you will need a large herd. Most suburban properties just don’t have the ability to have a large herd of medium to large sized goats and is best reserved for bigger properties.
As I’ve pointed out, before purchasing any animals labeled by the government as “farm animals”, do you due diligence and research zoning laws for you property through the federal, state, city, county and HoA. The Department of Making You Sad (the guv), have no problem slapping a large fine on you and/or taking every farm animal they deem to be unacceptable as long as you live within city limits. I can assure you, it won’t stop there as they will make sure your neighbors narc on you should you replace them.
You must have the ability to rotate the goats into little paddocks because they need fresh grass and animals being penned up in the same little place their whole life just isn’t good for the health of the animals. When your family is consuming an animal product, whether it’s meat, milk or eggs, you want to really invest in the best life for the animals nourishing you.
If you are capable of rotating the goats in small paddocks within your back yard, including small separate pens for when the moms are caring for their newborn, we can continue onwards. Do as much research for pricing your kids appropriately so you know what to expect and actually end up making a decent profit.
I’ve researched different breeds of goats that are highly sought after for their quality milk, as I live in America, the breeds I have access to will be different than in other countries. Be sure to do a deep dive on the internet for local breeds. If you don’t know of any local farms selling, try your luck on craigslist.org or the Facebook marketplace.
American Dairy Goat Breeds
- Alpine
Country of Origin: French Alps; Fat Content: 3.5% - La Mancha (American)
Country of Origin: United States; Fat Content: 3.5% to 4% - Nubian
Country of Origin: United Kingdom; Fat Content: 5% - Saneen
Country of Origin: Switzerland; Fat Content: 2.5%-3% - Toggenburg
Country of Origin: Switzerland; Fat Content: 3% - Oberhasli
Country of Origin: Switzerland/United States; Fat Content: 3.5% - Nigerian Dwarf
Country of Origin: Africa; Fat Content: 6% - Sable
Country of Origin: Switzerland; Fat Content: 3.5% – 4%
With all farm animals, they will need a sturdy fence surrounding them for security, water containers, food containers, probiotics, treats, predator proof housing, bedding and many other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten. Make yourself a spreadsheet to see if it’s really financially worth keeping your own backyard herd. In truth, my belief is that due to the size and costs of keeping goats, it would be better to wait until you are on a large rural property to invest time and energy into goat herding.
Suburban & Rural Homesteading Today 