How to Raise and Keep Goats

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Left: Simple halter for leading a goat. Right: Collar and light chain to tether goat in open field.
Left: Simple halter for leading a goat. Right: Collar and light chain to tether goat in open field.
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Left: Grain feeder with closing top to prevent continuous feeding. Make cover steep enough so goat can't jump up and stand on it.Right: A mineral feeder open for continuous access. Roof prevents goat from climbing into feeder.
Left: Grain feeder with closing top to prevent continuous feeding. Make cover steep enough so goat can't jump up and stand on it.Right: A mineral feeder open for continuous access. Roof prevents goat from climbing into feeder.
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The assorted parts of a milch goat are good to know if you want to know how to raise goats.
The assorted parts of a milch goat are good to know if you want to know how to raise goats.
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Apart from milking, you can use a platform and stanchion to help you with dehorning and hoof trimming.
Apart from milking, you can use a platform and stanchion to help you with dehorning and hoof trimming.
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Trimming a goat's rear hooves in this position should result in minimal injury.
Trimming a goat's rear hooves in this position should result in minimal injury.

At last! For the first time since the HAVE-MORE Plan was published way back in the 1940’s, a fellow named Richard W. Langer has come up with a 365-page book that really introduces a beginner to small-scale farming. Wanna raise your own fruit, nuts, berries, vegetables, grain, chickens, pigs, ducks, geese, and honeybees? GROW IT! tells you how to get started, we like it, and here’s another chapter from the book.  

God gives the milk but not the pail. -OLD ENGLISH PROVERB

Milk and cheese are staples in our diet, and the apprentice farmer’s first thoughts on dairy matters are apt to be of a cow. But while there’s nothing wrong with having a cow on your spread, sometimes she’s more trouble than she’s worth.

A cow will produce twenty quarts of milk or so a day, which is a lot for one family to consume, yet not enough to make a real business proposition out of daily milk sales. In a communal situation, of course, consumption would be no problem. But milking might. A cow will adjust to being milked twice a day at just about any hour as long as the schedule is regular; however, milk production is best if she deals consistently with the same person. Unless you have a real bovine buff in your midst, this might present a problem in labor allocation.

It may well be simpler to build up your flock of hens to the point where you can swap eggs for milk on a regular basis with a neighboring dairy farmer. Still, by the time you’ve been in the country a year or so, you may want a milk-and-cheese source right on your property . . . maybe meat and leather too. Well then, a goat is your answer.

  • Published on Jul 1, 1973
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