If you want to raise your own food, pay for nothing but salt, coffee, and property taxes, and work for yourself, you must be a homesteader at heart. Having a small allotment of land and making it produce all the food you and your family need is a dream - but it can come true. Many achieve sustainability using goats as one of their domestic animals.
The goat is a versatile animal. It can provide meat and milk, is gentle enough for even transplanted city folks to handle, and it's small size means that it can be kept in a small barn lot. It requires only a small amount of feed. Two good milk goats can give enough milk for a family.
Actually you don't even need to provide a pasture for a goat. This animal is a browser rather than a grazer and prefers brush and weeds to grass. You can also keep one on hay, but that's more expensive than letting it eat weeds that are free. Save manpower and let the goat clear out all the weeds and grasses that grow where a mower can't go.
They do need hay during the winter, when browse is scarce, and grain if you want them to produce a lot of milk. The amount they need, however, is much less than what a cow requires. You won't be able to make butter, since goatsmilk has little cream. The milk is great for drinking fresh and for making cottage or soft cheeses, however.
If you need to clear out overgrown pastures, you can put up electric fence to keep the animals in. They'll do a great job on weeds and secondary growth. You can also tie them out and move them to a new area every day, as long as they are protected from hot sun and have water available.
Many people don't milk their goats but use them solely for clearing or use them for meat production. There's not a lot of meat on a goat, but per pound it's economical. Anyway, a small family can find it hard to use up an entire cow, so raising a beef cow may not be practical.
Goats are like sheep in that they often have twins, so it's pretty easy to get a herd going. You also don't have to breed a goat every year. Unlike a cow, a good milking goat can go for two years or more before needing to be bred back. Many health authorities say that goatsmilk is more digestible than cowsmilk, and it doesn't need to be pasteurized since tuberculosis is almost unknown in goats. Many cultures have used raw goatsmilk as a wound dressing, and it's considered excellent for infants, the sick, and the elderly.
Goats are fun to raise. They can be very affectionate. A family can keep a few chickens, a few goats, and a vegetable garden and make out just fine. Their 'barn' can be a shed, and even young children can handle most of the chores. The goat should definitely be part of a plan to live off the land.
The goat is a versatile animal. It can provide meat and milk, is gentle enough for even transplanted city folks to handle, and it's small size means that it can be kept in a small barn lot. It requires only a small amount of feed. Two good milk goats can give enough milk for a family.
Actually you don't even need to provide a pasture for a goat. This animal is a browser rather than a grazer and prefers brush and weeds to grass. You can also keep one on hay, but that's more expensive than letting it eat weeds that are free. Save manpower and let the goat clear out all the weeds and grasses that grow where a mower can't go.
They do need hay during the winter, when browse is scarce, and grain if you want them to produce a lot of milk. The amount they need, however, is much less than what a cow requires. You won't be able to make butter, since goatsmilk has little cream. The milk is great for drinking fresh and for making cottage or soft cheeses, however.
If you need to clear out overgrown pastures, you can put up electric fence to keep the animals in. They'll do a great job on weeds and secondary growth. You can also tie them out and move them to a new area every day, as long as they are protected from hot sun and have water available.
Many people don't milk their goats but use them solely for clearing or use them for meat production. There's not a lot of meat on a goat, but per pound it's economical. Anyway, a small family can find it hard to use up an entire cow, so raising a beef cow may not be practical.
Goats are like sheep in that they often have twins, so it's pretty easy to get a herd going. You also don't have to breed a goat every year. Unlike a cow, a good milking goat can go for two years or more before needing to be bred back. Many health authorities say that goatsmilk is more digestible than cowsmilk, and it doesn't need to be pasteurized since tuberculosis is almost unknown in goats. Many cultures have used raw goatsmilk as a wound dressing, and it's considered excellent for infants, the sick, and the elderly.
Goats are fun to raise. They can be very affectionate. A family can keep a few chickens, a few goats, and a vegetable garden and make out just fine. Their 'barn' can be a shed, and even young children can handle most of the chores. The goat should definitely be part of a plan to live off the land.
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