Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Smallhold Farming and Rural Living => Livestock and Growing on a larger scale => Topic started by: jimbeekeeper on November 09, 2010, 18:12
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Hi
Having just seen the first episode of the BBC 2 The good life (the new factual one), and at the end they showed goats, quite keen on that idea.
Any tips?
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tip number 1 - keep the milk pail out of the goats reach :lol:
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I misread your thread title and wondered about goats that type ... there's a children's book about cows that type, and I thought this was a sequel ::) :lol:
Sorry, don't know the answer to your question. Does the BBC website contain any details?
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Toggenburg goats are certainly cute. Don't forget that milking goats mean annual billy goats and you know what happens to them.
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Pygmies are definitely good at escaping!! We used to have 2 of them. But they are wethers, so no good for milking either!! :D :D
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Must admit watched the program last night and thought the same. mmmm Free milk / goats cheese / Soaps. My only thought is how much work are they..... my wife friend inthe village keeps goats so think it maybe worth a call round and enquire.
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.... mmmm Free milk / goats cheese / Soaps. My only thought is how much work are they.....
Sadly, there's nothing for free with livestock. Feed, housing and vets bills to factor in. :(
Incidentally, David Thear told me that when the good life was first shown on telly they spent ages explaining to people that keeping goats, pigs and cows in small suburban gardens was not a good idea on animal welfare and keeping peace with the neighbours.
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I agree with you John, there is nothing Free within this world, and animals are one of the of most expensive I've found.
Being honst I find some condictions / sizes that chickens are kept in to small, but thats the joy's of living in just over a 1/3 of an acre. Even though I wonder if I still dont have enough space still, since Chickens have 1/6, Veg have 1/6 and Garden is 1/6. My thinking is reduce the size of the garden :tongue2:
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I once kept a couple of goats, a saanen and a toggenberg and certainly the saanen was a great milker.
Overall though I would say don't bother. They are a lot of work and you are totally tied with milking to be done. Also they shouldn't be left out in the rain so if you have them tethered you're forever dashing out to rescue them.
Also of course there are those sweet little kids to rear, rehome or kill :ohmy:
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Yes, scrubbed the idea of goats, Milking twice per day is way to much.
I have enough trouble collecting eggs every day...and as for my bees!
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you dont have to milk the goats,
will they not explode?
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The action of milking prolongs lactation. Nature designed the goat and cow to dry up if the young dies so they can have another go the following season.
This may not be accurate for the highly bred and developed commercial breeds of cattle.