Where's the Milk?

When the conversation comes up that I have goats, the first question that everyone has is “Oh do you milk your goats?” or “cool, free goat milk!” Yes, I totally agree that goat milk is wonderful and the thought of being able have my own supply free is great. But, my first response is usually something along the lines of “No, they have to be pregnant to get milk and I don’t want babies”. What do I mean by this? Get ready for some Goat 101…

Most don’t know that Goat Milk is a seasonable harvest. Unlike cow’s, goats only produce milk for a short time after a baby has been born. Babies are usually only born right after the breeding season: October-January. Now, there are a few exceptions to this, but it’s not easy. The only way goat milk producers can get milk all year around is by manipulating the goat’s hormones chemically to be in heat year around so they can produce babies year round, thus, year round milk. Even this method is difficult and hence the high price of goat milk.

Now, let me tell you, having a goat in heat can be a painful or a pleasant experience. In my herd, I have 3 girls and one “de-daddied” goat (as my kids like to call it). If I were to have babies, I would need to get an outside male to do the deed.

So, how can you tell they are in heat? The normal signs of a doe (girl goat) in heat are:
 "Flagging" (wagging) her tail.
 Mounting other does.
 Letting other does mount her.
 Fighting
 Letting herself get beat up without defending herself.
 Having a "crush" on another doe.
 No interest in feed.
 Swollen and/or pink rear end.
 Mucous discharge from her vagina
 Her side tail hair is wet and/or clumped together.
 Yelling for no reason.

Of our does have a mix of symptoms. Mama B, the queen of the herd, is the mildest mannered doe. She does the flagging, the lack of eating and a swollen and pink rear end. Other than that, Mama B is quiet as a mouse. Snowflake, the runt, is my middle ground doe. She is the same as Mama B, but she has the yelling aspect down as well but is not loud. She sounds the same as any other noise they make. It’s not really yelling like humans do, but more of a mild talking for no apparent reason. Now, Belle, she is the pain of my existence when she is in heat. The heat cycle comes around about every 21 days and for 48-72 hours they are in fact, in heat. Belle’s heat cycle is loud, I mean a LOUD non-stop noise making, window banging (she jumps up on the windows to get my attention), attention getting torture for 72 hours. It has crossed my mind more than a few times to ask if there is such a thing as Goat Midol. It’s that bad! At least I can see the end of the tunnel as I have notice the last two heat cycles for Belle, as well as Mama and Snowflake, as coming to a close as they have been short cycles; only lasting about 12-24 hours. While overall, yes, the heat cycle can suck a bit, the only option to have them not go into heat is to get them pregnant.

So it leaves me to two options really:

1)Get goat milk and have lots of babies to care for, feed and then eventually find homes

Or

2)Go through a few months of sporadic annoyance in the fall/winter time and less mouths to feed but no goat milk.

I choose option #2! I love having a small herd of 4. They are easy to take care of, but big enough of a herd to keep each other company. Four is the perfect amount to herd around the property to “naturally landscape” and move from area to area. Four is an easy enough amount to feed cheaply without damaging the household budget. The other plus side of not milking goats is that if they are in need of milking, you need to milk them two to three times a day (depending on the individual goats needs). To milk a goat, it takes on average 20 minutes. So that would mean 40-60 minutes per goat per day, unless you want to spend a small fortune on the milk producing equipment to take the time to milk down. So, again, I love my small herd of 4 non-pregnant, non-milk producing goats!