If you don't already have a large property, you'll probably need a loan or a significant amount of startup capital. You'll also need to find healthy goats. If you buy cheap or sick goats, you could lose money trying to get them up to the standards necessary to run a goat business. Before you buy goats, you should read up on goat ownership, and talk to farm animal veterinarians and other goat owners.
If you try to learn when you already have your goats, you may end up with a herd of sick goats. Goats need constant access to clean water and food, and will eat just about anything, so you'll need to keep them away from harmful items.
They also need shelter if they're kept outside, as well as regular veterinary care. If you want to breed pet goats or show goats, your goats will also require daily socialization so that they're comfortable and friendly with people. The nice part of selling adult goats is they have a chance to prove themselves as having good genetics and thus can increase the selling price. Sometimes you can make some more extra cash if you sell a pregnant doe. Then the buyer is getting a doe, the promise of baby goats, AND a doe that will be in milk!
The price you can sell adult goats will vary wildly. It will depend on the breed, their quality, if they are registered and your area. Maybe you want to sell the doe but want to keep the babies. They get a goat, the goat is in milk added value , and you can charge a little extra! Same pricing for does in milk apply as for adult goats and kids — but does in milk usually can command a slightly higher price in comparison to what she would be worth than an adult that is not bred or in milk.
But these people still want to breed their does. Since this is the case, why not let them use your buck? If you have a buck with quality genetics you can put the word out that you have an available stud.
For the same reasons mentioned above no space or aversion to stinkiness , some people are willing to lease a buck. This is usually when the breeder is not able to pay close enough attention to catch their does in heat. When they lease a buck they will likely put him in with their does for a specified period of time and he can breed any doe that comes into heat. This can be pretty lucrative, I just caution that you are picky about where you let your buck go and make sure the leasing farm is up to date on their disease testing.
Sounds like a dream job, but this does not mean charging people to brush your goats although you are welcome to give that revenue stream a try. A brush goat is one that someone will lease for a period of time to clear an area of overgrown brush. Often times, this is someone who works a lot or is no longer physically capable of clearing land themselves. In these cases, a goat can be a great solution.
Maybe not a full blown petting zoo unless you want to do that, of course. Bonus points if you can take some bottle babies for them to feed. For the benefit of those with flash photography or just a phone camera you can charge to have pictures taken with your goats. Since you are an expert on how you raise your goats, you can offer your advice and experience to others that want to follow in your footsteps. You can do this through on farm education classes.
Plan a few things you would like to teach basic goat care, herd maintenance, how to milk , how to trim goat hooves , etc and put the word out.
You can hang flyers at your local farm store or announce it online Facebook groups are great for this sort of thing. If you buy a goat from a farm, you can avoid some of these problems. This will make the transition easier e. For example, a friend of mine once bought a Saanen, a docile, pure-white breed. The former owner came over and was shocked to see the goat outside. It turns out the goat had been kept in a barn all her life and was now sunburnt. She was kept inside for a week, then introduced gradually to sunlight.
If you want to raise a goat organically, try to find one that has been raised using natural health care. A goat that has been given commercial dewormers and antibiotics regularly will be less likely to thrive in an organic setting.
Ideally, buy two or more goats from the same farm so they are familiar with one aspect of their new setting. For a high volume, consider Saanens. These calm white goats are the Holsteins of the goat world, each day producing a gallon of milk that is relatively low in milk protein.
If your main objective is to make cheese, the Nubian is your goat of choice. These floppy-eared high-strung goats produce up to 3 quarts of rich milk per day. Alpines and LaManchas both produce fairly rich milk, Toggenburgs produce thinner milk, and Nigerian Pygmy goats produce small quantities of creamy milk.
Angora goats can be raised for their mohair, Cashmere goats for their luxurious fiber, and Pygmy and dwarf goats are often kept as pets. Boer, Spanish and Kiko goats are meat breeds. Goats are sometimes bred at under 1 year of age, but they are usually bred as yearlings. After five months of gestation, a goat will have kids, usually two or three. After kidding, you need to milk the goat twice a day at the same time each day. If there is a single kid, you might let her nurse in the morning and collect the milk in the afternoon, but if milk production is your goal, the kids need to be bottle fed.
Most goat owners breed the does each year. If the goat is already milking, you can breed her and dry her off stop milking at least two months before she is due to kid.
Goats have about six to eight milking years. Bucks are smelly creatures and, worse than that, having a buck around a doe will make her milk taste awful. Also, once a doe goes into heat every 21 days in season , it will take sturdy defenses to keep them apart. Goats need protection from the elements.
Angora goats are particularly sensitive to wet and cold conditions. Of the dairy breeds, Nubians are the least cold-hardy compared with many of the Swiss breeds i. Adult goats can survive in uninsulated barns in much of Canada and the United States provided they are protected from drafts. If you have dairy goats, consider learning how to use their creamy milk to make soap.
Books such as Goat Milk Soapmaking and Natural Soap at Home can provide basic instructions; signing up for classes with an experienced soap-maker can provide valuable hands-on experience. Host Goat Yoga YouTube. Partner with a local yoga studio to hire an instructor and use social media to promote classes. Expect students to hang around for a while after classes to snap photos with the goats.
Establishing a goat dairy is a major undertaking.
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