Buying Dairy Goats for Beginners

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By Alexis Griffee Beginners should remember housing, breed traits, feed, and health before buying dairy goats.

Although being a dairy goat farmer comes with its own unique set of challenges, it can be one of the most rewarding aspects of farming. Fresh milk is one of the most versatile items that can be produced on a farm. It can be used to raise other livestock, for your own consumption, for cheesemaking, or , where legal, sold to bring income to your farm.

While dairy farming is rewarding, it’s not something to enter into lightly. There’s a lot to know about buying dairy goats as well as caring for them.

Which Dairy Breed?

There are eight breeds recognized by the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA). Alpine, LaMancha, Nigerian Dwarf, Nubian, Oberhasli, Saanen, Sable, and Toggenburg. Each breed brings unique qualities to the farm. For example, the tiny Nigerian Dwarf offers a lot of punch for such a small package. On the other hand, the milk from Toggenburgs is sought for cheesemaking.

It is important when buying dairy goats to be familiar with the different qualities and characteristics of the breeds. In the dairy world, milk is measured in pounds, not gallons. The average gallon of milk weighs approximately 8.6 pounds.

Each breed has a different production average and quality to their milk. Nigerian Dwarf goats are credited with having the highest levels of butterfat in their milk yet only produce an average of two to four pounds of milk a day. This amount is great for a small family, but not ideal for dairy with commercial aspirations.

If you’re buying dairy goats to get some serious milking capability, you may want to look at a Saanen. Saanens are the heavy hitters of the dairy goat industry and produce an average of 2,577 pounds of milk per lactation! However, heavy lactation comes at a price. Saanens milk doesn’t have the same butterfat levels of other breeds. Understanding the differences between breeds of dairy goat will help you to determine which one will fit your needs the best.

Preparing for Your New Goats

Despite the jokes, goats need more than a stakeout in the yard and a tin can to eat. The first need that should be addressed is housing. The housing requirements of a dairy goat aren’t huge, but certain issues need to be addressed.

An average rule of thumb for the large breeds of dairy goats is 12 to 15 square foot of barn space per goat. Barns or shelters for goats don’t have to be fancy. The main requirement of a shelter is to keep the goats out of the elements. Goats don’t like rain and leaving them out in it can result in illness. Likewise, they need a break from strong winds.

If you live in a warmer climate, it’s best to place lattice at the top of the walls or have large door openings to allow heat to escape and for ventilation. In this situation, you want to prevent animals from overheating while providing shelter.

What to Feed Your New Goats

Dairy goats, especially those in milk, have specific feed requirements that must be met. Don’t assume that just because your goats have access to fresh grass their nutritional needs are being met. Buying dairy goats means being ready to properly support a dairy animal.

Lactating Does

Lactating does should be offered quality hay and grain. When feeding grain, it’s important to use a properly balanced feed and not overfeed. Overfeeding grain will cause health issues and an imbalance in the rumen. For a lactating doe, you want to find a complete or dairy balanced grain that is 16 percent protein or more.

Goats should have access to high-quality hay at all times. Alfalfa and perennial peanut hay are top choices when it comes to feeding kids and lactating does. Both of these hays are high in protein and calcium which are required by lactating goats.

Bucks

When buying dairy goats for the first time, understand that bucks need to be fed differently from does to prevent problems. Mature bucks can generally get enough nutrition from quality pasture and quality hay. In cases where the pasture is poor or non-existent, or with young maturing bucks, some may need grain. With bucks, they should be fed a properly balanced calcium:phosphorus ratio between 1:1 and 2:1 to prevent urinary calculi.

Minerals are Required

Another thing to be aware of if buying dairy goats for the first time is goats need minerals. Minerals will help with everything from coat condition, hoof problems, to parasite control. Minerals are location specific. Some areas may be deficient in certain minerals while others may have them in abundance.

Many companies will make different formulations for different parts of the country. Additionally, it’s highly recommended that goat owners offer loose minerals in lieu of a mineral block. Goats can’t get the amount of minerals they need from licking on a mineral block. Their tongues aren’t rough enough. Loose minerals are easy to offer and easy for the goat to consume.

A word of warning to producers that run goats and sheep: Copper is a vitally important mineral for goats and is in almost all goat mineral formulations. However, copper is toxic to sheep. If you have sheep, be sure that you keep them away from mineral formulations with copper as well as many goat feeds.

Another trick when keeping goats is to offer free choice baking soda. Free choice baking soda allows the goats to essentially “self-diagnose” when they may be starting to bloat or get a buildup of gasses. The consumption of baking soda will help to balance the goat’s system out and prevent or manage slight bloat.

Health

The health of a dairy animal is of paramount importance. Far more than just a pet, a dairy animal will be providing milk for your family or for other animals on your farm. Due to this special role, it’s vital that those new to buying dairy goats start with healthy stock.

Additionally, diseased animals simply will not have the longevity to be long-time producers. While some breeders may try to downplay the severity of certain diseases, always remember that it costs the same (usually more) to feed a sick animal as it does a healthy one.

Diseases

Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis

A common disease in dairy goats is Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis (CAE). CAE can have damaging effects on your animals, their longevity, and their ability to produce milk. CAE is passed through white blood cells. It’s transmitted primarily through colostrum and milk, but can also be spread through other bodily fluids to other herd members.

Although this virus is easily transmitted, it’s also one of the easiest to prevent. The biggest way to prevent CAE is to never start with it. When buying dairy goats, only purchase animals from breeders that run CAE-free herds themselves. Testing is easy and affordable for this disease so there’s no reason why a reputable breeder, especially one who claims to have a clean herd, can’t show goat buyers annual negative test results.

If you have an infected animal, you’ll always have to be mindful of the risk of spreading the disease to other members of your herd. Even while taking preventative steps like heat treating milk, accidents can happen. There have been numerous cases where goat kids were fed the wrong milk or the milk wasn’t heated to proper temperature for the proper amount of time.

If you’re about to purchase an animal, it’s not insulting to ask the breeder about herd health. If this offends the breeder, it’s a sign that maybe you should look elsewhere.

Caseous lymphadenitis

Another common disease that’s important to watch out for when buying dairy goats is Caseous lymphadenitis (CL), also called cheesy gland. CL is a bacterial infection that causes abscesses to appear both externally and internally on goats. CL is a major concern of dairy goat producers since it is zoonotic. Since this bacterium affects the lymphatic system, common places for these abscesses to appear are in the lymph nodes.

When CL manifests into an abscess, it begins as a small hard lump that grows in size. Once the abscess has reached a maximum size, it ruptures. The pus from the abscess is what carries the bacterium. This is especially contagious and can be transferred to humans!

When dealing with an infected animal, especially with an active abscess, wear gloves and wash appropriately. Since the bacteria can spread easily via transfer like shoes and clothing, adhere to proper biosecurity protocols to prevent the infection from spreading to other animals on your farm.

Whenever goat buyers go to a farm to look at a new potential goat, ask about CL on the farm. CL is harder to deal with since the test for it isn’t as reliable as the blood test for CAE. The only way to get an accurate result is to test a sample of an abscess to see if the bacteria are present. Due to this, you have to rely on the breeder’s honesty and also a bit of detective work.

Whenever you go to a new farm, ask questions. If you’re about to purchase an animal it isn’t insulting to ask about the herd’s health. If this offends the breeder, it’s a sign that maybe you should look elsewhere.

Knowing common locations for CL abscesses allows you to investigate on your own. Even if there are no active abscesses, there will often be scars leftover in those locations. Getting hands-on with the animals will allow you to get a better feel for the overall health of a herd.

Parasites

Even seasoned breeders are not immune to the fight against parasites. Far more than just an annoyance, improper parasite control can have lasting damaging effects on an animal even after the problem has been resolved. Some parasites can cause permanent damage to the lungs, which will predispose the goat to pneumonia or other respiratory woes. Also, damage to the gastrointestinal tract can result from poor parasite management. This can result in the animal being unable to properly absorb nutrients from its feed.

When starting out with goats, take a fecal sample to a veterinarian. This will tell you how you need to deworm the animal to target specific parasites. For goat kids, it is vital to keep them on coccidia and worm programs. As with any medication, the dosages must be done precisely. Under dosing or improper administration is leading to parasites developing resistance to certain medications.

When buying dairy goats, there are some things that you can look for to determine the possible parasite load of an animal. The first step in evaluating an animal’s health is to look at the big picture. An animal with a dull coat, or longish curly hair, show signs of a parasite load.

An important test for any goat is to check their FAMACHA score. By gently pulling down on the bottom eyelid, you should see a nice healthy red color. Lighter colors of pink or even white are indicative of anemia associated with parasites. Animals that are extremely pale need immediate medical attention to develop a plan for safely eliminating a heavy parasite load. Learn how to check with the FAMACHA score card.

Performance Programs

The American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) has created several performance programs to evaluate the quality and ability of dairy goats. The top two programs that they offer are the Linear Appraisal and Dairy Herd Improvement for the Registry (DHIR).

Breeders who are members of ADGA can sign up to participate in these programs. Breeders that participate in these programs will be able to provide you with a complete picture of the animal and its lineage. This is especially nice information to have if you are buying a goat that isn’t in milk.

The Linear Appraisal program has a certified judge come score the animal. They will score everything from the strength of the animal to all aspects of the udder. Being able to look at the scores of each animal helps buyers identify faults, and what to work on in their own programs.

Proper Udder Structure

One of the most important aspects of a dairy goat is its udder. When looking for a good dairy goat you want to look for things like udder capacity, the texture or feel of the udder, how the animal stands, teat placement and size, and damage to the udder. Unlike cows, goats only have two teats. It’s extremely important to inspect the udder before purchasing an animal.

An extra teat isn’t just a fault in the show ring, but can be a major problem for the homesteader. Some “extra” teats are non-functional. However, an extra teat that’s capable of “milking” can be a problem. Placement of the extra teat, can impede the hand milking process, or even the fit of the claws for a milk machine.

Often times extra teats are attached to the main teat. The problem lies when you go to milk that main teat, the extra one milks out all over your hand and not in the bucket. Even though you should always milk with clean, freshly washed hands, this can go beyond annoying and become risky, since the milk is coming into contact with your hand and all of the accompanying bacteria, before running down into the bucket.

Milk Before You Buy

If you’re purchasing an animal that’s already in milk, it’s strongly advised that you milk the doe before you purchase. Some goats can have a nasty habit of kicking on the milk stand. While not exactly a huge threat to your health, this never bodes well for the pail full of milk. Whoever said, “Don’t cry over spilled milk,” wasn’t a dairy farmer. Find a seasoned and well-behaved milking doe for your first dairy animal.

Milking the doe will give you a chance to get hands-on with the udder to inspect for any issues. Make sure that the teats are well placed, and not too large or small for your hands. Goats with poor udder attachment or extremely large teats can be a big problem down the road as well during milking time. This will also show whether or not the doe has good orifices. Small orifices means it take more effort to squeeze the milk out, which can make for tired and sore hands if Also inspect the udder for any lumps that can be felt internally or unnaturally hot areas that could be a symptom of mastitis.

Tasting Milk Before You Buy

Furthermore, if goat buyers plan on drinking the milk, it’s wise to taste the milk before purchasing. Certain breeds, and even individual animals within a breed, may have “off” or “strong” tasting milk. Sometimes this is due to what the animals are fed but other times it’s a genetic trait. Some animals produce more of the enzyme lipase.

While lipase doesn’t make for the most appealing drinking milk, it’s excellent for making goat’s cheese! Most cheese-making recipes actually call for added lipase powder. If an animal is found to produce higher levels of this enzyme, it may not be one for the regular milking line, but it can be a fantastic addition to the herd of a cheesemaker.

Disbudding

If you plan to show, horns aren’t allowed for dairy goats. Most dairy goat producers “disbud” all kids. Disbudding is a quick process where the horn buds are removed to prevent the eventual growth of horns.

This can be done in a couple of different ways. The most common way is to use a disbudding iron. The iron will heat up and can then be applied to the horn bud for a very short period of time. The heat from the iron will kill the cells that cause the horn to grow.

Great care should always be taken when disbudding with an iron as you have to be very cautious about how long you leave the iron applied to the horn bud. Leaving the iron on too long can result in injury or possibly death.

The second common method is to use a dehorning paste. Some people use this with success but it also has its drawbacks. One of the many enjoyable aspects of goat kids is their energy and quirky actions. When using a dehorning paste, you have to be extremely careful that the goat kid is unable to get the paste on themselves or others.

Dairy Goats with Horns

Another reason for goat buyers to purchase an animal with no horns is for safety, both for the goat and for you. Goats with horns are notorious for getting them stuck. While this can result in annoyances like damaged fences, the outcome can also be far more deadly to the animal. There have been numerous cases where a goat with horns has become caught in everything from a fence to a hay feeder, panicked, struggled to get out and either broken its neck or severely injured itself.

Goats do use their horns for defense, which means that in times of dealing with a scared or ornery goat, they can and will be used against you! On another note, I have seen firsthand where horned goats can unintentionally injure a person with their horns as well.

Danger of Horns on Dairy Goats

A friend of mine had a few horned goats. At the time, they thought nothing of it because they were going to be butchered for meat. While standing in the pen one day by the feed trough, an older goat butted the horned goat out. The young, horned goat tossed its head up and jumped back in an attempt to get out of the way.

When the goat threw its head back, it impaled my friend’s leg with its horns. The injury required stitches. This little goat was in no way being aggressive to its owner or even the other goat; my friend was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Also, if you have children, remember that horns are at eye level for many kids. All it takes is one accident, even if the goat does nothing wrong, for a child to be injured around a horned animal.

You Get what You Pay For

When it comes to dairy goats the old adage is true, you get what you pay for. There are numerous aspects to consider before buying dairy goats for the first time. Educating yourself on the breeds, conformation, diseases and milking practices is vital to having a successful dairy venture.

It’s vitally important as a buyer, and breeder that you breed to improve the animals, not just for the milk.

Dairy animals are a large commitment on the part of the producer, regardless of whether you’re milking one or one hundred animals. Rain or shine, sick or well, you have to milk your animals. Vacations have to be scheduled around farm sitters, and the cost of quality hay and feed can outweigh the price of buying milk from the store.

However, dairy goats can be an amazing and rewarding aspect of the farm. The routine can be a welcome break from the rush and chaos of society today. In our barn, milking is a time to stop, be able to think, and catch our breath for a minute. Milking isn’t something you can hurry, but it’s nice to slow down sometimes.

Dairy goats are a true labor of love and the reward is great. As a responsible dairy producer, we must remember that with the amazing gift of milk we get from our animals, we’re also responsible for their resulting offspring. It is vitally important as a buyer and breeder that you breed to improve the animals, not just for the milk. Always start with the best stock that you can, and never stop seeking to improve and learn more as you go.

What lessons have you learned while buying goats? Do you have any tips for new dairy goat buyers?

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Originally published in Countryside March/April 2017 and regularly vetted for accuracy.