# Pros and Cons of Dairy Goats?



## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

I'm not one ot know about dairy goats, or breeds at all for that matter, as for I raise Boers. My best friend and I want to get a pair of dairy goats in order to make lotions, soap, and etc. to try to help with her many health problems and possibly sell the products. A few questions though.

-Pros and Cons of each breed?
-How often do they need milked? One or two times a day?
-Does milk have to be pasteurized to make anything? 
-How much are dairy goats compared to meat goats? 
-Is it better to get grow does in milk, or kids to raise? 
-Would they get along with Boers?
-What are the pros and cons of having the dairy instead of market.

I know it's a lot, but it would be wonderful if you guys could help out.


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## Emzi00 (May 3, 2013)

Well, I can't do pros and cons of each breed, as I only have experience with Alpines. They do well in cold weather(think woolly mammoth), come in a variety of pretty colors that have cool french names, I could go on and on... they are extremely smart, lock the gate every single time, they'll get out....

You can milk either once or twice a day, but it's a personal preference. If you milk twice a day you will have much higher production compared to once.

Grown does in milk have the advantage that they are already producing and their body will stay just about the way it is. Raising a kid can be fun, you get to bond with them, and they will grow up knowing you as 'mom.' You have to wait to get milk, though, and their bodies will grow, go threw awkward stages, and you might only have a vague idea of how their conformation will end up being.

They should, but would depend on the individual.

Dairy is a long term project, sell the kids and hang onto the stock. You get milk. You know you're not raising the animal to be shipped out for somebody's dinner...


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## Cedar Point Kikos (Oct 16, 2013)

I milk once a day, the kids spending the day with their mom, and getting locked up at night.
No, the milk does not have to be pasteurized to make something.
Here (Ontario) the price between a good quality milk goat and a good quality meat goat are about the same: $250-$300 and up.
In my experience, getting a doe in milk, that doesn't know you, is such a pain. She doesn't know or trust you, and would be hard to catch, wouldn't let down milk, etc. Over all, kids might be best, but think about what you want.
I would think dairy goats would get along with boers...

One con of dairy breeds is that the bucklings do not have a lot of meat on them. 

Have fun!


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

there are tons of threads on here about pros/cons on each dairy breed. ultimately, people have differing opinions on each one. I'm with Emma that I personally prefer Alpines.

price of dairy goats depend on your area, so you'll have to look around to get that answer. 

you can bond well with buying a doe in milk or a bred older doe. I bought a bred doe last year, and she's closer to me than the 5 month old doe I got the year before. milking is a very bonding exercise, so you can get pretty close to them.

I use our milk raw. it's up to you if you're comfortable drinking raw milk vs pasteurized milk. there are lots of info on google about pros/cons of that. again, it's personal preference.

getting along with boers depend on personalities of all goats involved. there are plenty of people on the forum with mixed breed herds.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

LLNkikos said:


> One con of dairy breeds is that the bucklings do not have a lot of meat on them.


great point! unless you breed boer buck to full sized dairy doe and have babies for market. they'll at least have a little bit of meat on them compared to full dairy goat.....


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

I don't want to make edibles, exactly. Is there pasteurization needed there? I know that I like minis, but I know they won't do so well in the case of having to live with the boers. Thank for the advice!


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## justspry (Feb 5, 2014)

If your not wanting to drink it why not just use a meat goat I don't think it matters for soaps what kind of goat milk ? But I don't have experience with making soaps either . But if its just the milk for non edible I would think it would work fine and then you still have one herd just train one from little to do it like you would a milk goat


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Boer goat milk is very sweet. No reason why you can't train a Boer goat to milk.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

-Pros and Cons of each breed?
Nubians are so loveable and friendly and adorable....con they can be loud and up your butt at times.
Lamancha is such a loyal breed.....my favorite on personality....their con is probably a pro for you but they produce a lot of milk....A LOT
-How often do they need milked? One or two times a day?
Depends on how much you want. The more you milk the more milk they should produce to a point.
-How much are dairy goats compared to meat goats? 
It depends sometimes more same or less. The same as Boers there's a lot of factors to look at.
-Is it better to get grow does in milk, or kids to raise? 
My kids were way more easy to teach to be milked. But you don't have to feed a grown goat for a year before you can breed her.
-Would they get along with Boers 
Yes and both breeds I mentioned breed well with Boers as well.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

wait, so you don't want to drink the milk and just make soap out of it? if that's the case, I agree with justspry and Karen that you can train your boers to be milked for non edibles. and no, you don't need to pasteurize to use the milk to make stuff


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

I'm going to politely disagree with teaching the boer to milk. Yes, you can. Yes, you'll get milk. But you're not going to get a lot and if there are 2 families (I read that right, didn't I? You AND a friend wanting to do this) You're going to be saving milk to have enough to do much with. One milk goat would most likely be all you need. I have a nubian/boer doe that usually produces a half gallon milking 1x daily with the kid on her. (this year has been different, but it's been a weird year for us all around) 

Minis are fantastic! I love my minis. Cons: they are small and therefore slightly harder to milk. You CAN keep them with full size goats, we do. BUT....you have to be really careful of the bucks. You really don't want your mini bred to a boer buck.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I milked a.almost full Boer when she lost her kids and I needed milk for a bottle kid. She was a old grandma saggy baged Boer so it was easy to milk. So as long as the teats are big enough to milk your good to go. The only thing is if your wanting to sell these products that you make then I would go ahead with your plan of a few dairy that way you have enough milk to make something now and still freeze some milk for when they are dry. You don't want to get someone hooked on something g then take it away for a few months.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

If all you are doing is soaps and lotions, I would start out milking your Boers to see if you like doing it and want to continue. Then if you really like doing it, then get a couple dairy does.


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## justspry (Feb 5, 2014)

It doesn't use much milk at all to make soap and lotion like a cup or two per batch so unless you have a huge operation boers would work  But if you plan to make a lot than get a dairy goat  But like your boers you gotta get two  Wish you the best making soap is fun !


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

Really? I didn't know that it only took a little milk to make soap! Would size and shape of teats matter? I do not have top notch milking goats on my farm. Most to all of them have messed up teats, and how would I go about training them? Does anyone have any good soap/lotion/shampoo recipes? What about a mix? Like Boer/(milking goat?) I'm glad to get all of these responses. Now, I jut need to find a way to convince my dad about it.  He's kinda against the whole, "let's dairy it out!" idea...
On the other hand, my best friend, the one who I will be doing this project with, is lactose intolerant, as well as the majority of her immediate family. I don't drink many dairy products straight up, so we don't want to make edibles that won't be eaten...


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## PantoneH (Nov 21, 2013)

and the milk is naturally homogenized~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! an does with higher butterfat is soooo good and makes the best cheese and soaps. :]


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## PantoneH (Nov 21, 2013)

the part that takes ALOT of milk is cheese. Not much to make soap. :]


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

you'll have to do some research on soap making. there's no way around it except doing lots of reading and video watching. Soap Queen has good articles and videos. Soaping101 has great videos, and lovinsoap has great info too. just fyi - you'll need about 8oz of milk to make about 8 bars of soap.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Size and shape of teats don't matter as far as getting milk but small teats are harder for some people with big hands. Just a matter of getting them on the milkstand and training them.


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

Thanks for all the help guys! My friend and I were planning on trying some milk from my boer, and if we like it, either go dairy or keep one or two milking. We were originally starting soap, but read that lye is dangerous (and hard to find) and decided to start with lotion and escalate from there if we (and others) like it.


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## cybercat (Oct 18, 2007)

I make milk soaps and lye is not hard to find you can find it in any home Depot or Lowes hardware store. It only takes an ounce per pound to make milk so basically it replaces the water that is used to make your lye/water mixture you split it with the water so you need very little milk to make milk soap.

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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

lye can be dangerous if you're not careful with it. safety precautions and following instructions make it easy to handle. you can order it online or find it in your plumbing section of your friendly neighbourhood hardware store (sometimes you have to ask for it)


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

I went to several home improvement stores, and asked. They either never heard of lye or didn't carry it. My friend and I will start with lotion and move up from there.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

SMB_GoatHerd said:


> I went to several home improvement stores, and asked. They either never heard of lye or didn't carry it. My friend and I will start with lotion and move up from there.


If you ask them for Lye they will not know what your looking for even if they likely have it. Go look in the drain cleaning section and look at the cleaners. You'll probably find it there. Don't get the liquid it has additives. You can also order it online. This is where I get mine. https://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=2drhdl I've made a couple thousand bars of soap with their lye and it works very good.


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## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

I get my Lye through Hoegger's. You can also get lots of other soap making supplies from them including scents, molds, books on how to do it and more


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## cybercat (Oct 18, 2007)

I know Lowes carries it for I buy it there. As was said you go to the pluming section. It comes in a 2lb plastic tall container. You have to look for the ingredient sodium hydroxide. I would suggest you get on The Soap Making Forum. They are the best online for all thing bath making related. Just do a search for them on the net.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

look in the plumbing section. this is the lye I use:


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

Thanks for the help! I went, and the guy knew exactly what I was talking about. I asked for lye, and he's like, "Oh, yeah! Let me check! For making soap and stuff like that!" He knew what I was talking about. My friend and I are making lotion tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes! We'll keep looking for lye around here, but I hope we can get a dairy goat, for 4 of my boers gave me about half a cup....


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

oh dear...that's not a lot of milk, but half a cup should be enough for a batch of soap....


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

No, it's really not much at all... But, they do have kids on them and they aren't best in show milkers. Actually, I think most of them would be disqualified first, just because of teat structure... But if it all works out, I'll hopefully end up with a dairy goat.  But only if I can get my dad on board...


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Take the kids away overnight and then milk. Even with a dairy goat you won't get much when kids are on them.


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

The kids are weening and nearly a month old. We might start doing that just to help with weening. The thing is, they aren't super friendly, and don't like being milked... They aren't even a fan when the kids nurse. I'm going to keep trying, but I don't know if them being upset can be contributed to it or not?


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## cybercat (Oct 18, 2007)

Half a cup will make a lot of pounds of soap. I use 9oz in just over a pound mold.

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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

just because goats are dairy doesn't make them friendly to milk either - there are SOOO many threads on here about people with problem goats they can hardly milk! just work on them and they'll eventually get it. when I was drying my doe off, she liked being milked so much she was demanding me to milk her, but she was a kicker at first.

like cybercat said, you don't need much to make soap. when those kids are weaned, you'll have a freezer full of milk dedicated for soap (ask me how I know....hehe).


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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

Yeah, well, it would have helped, but much effort wasn't put into taming these does down much. We found a few... They were Pygmy/Nubians and we are much closer to being allowed to get them. In other news, we tried lotion, but we messed up and ended up making lipbalm! It's actually not bad either. People have been trying it and really liking it! Yay!


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

Sydney, I saw in the chat thread that you had maybe found something for sale in your area, a alpine/Nubian mix. if you're interested, add pictures of them to a thread so you can get opinions (if you want those). make sure you ask the breeder how much they give (in milk), and whether they've been tested for CL, CAE, Johne's.


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## cybercat (Oct 18, 2007)

Pygmy/Nubian. Is called a Kinder, if you register them. 

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## SMB_GoatHerd (Jan 22, 2014)

I'll try to get pictures and then I'll post them.
Thank you!


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## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

When I had Boers, they lived with my herd of dairy does (standard sized as well as Nigerians). They did well together.

I milked my Boer does along with my dairy does. If they did not milk a certain amount, they were culled. My Boer cross does milked and average of close to a gallon a day for 9-10 months, the full Boers milked an average of 3/4 of a gallon per day for 9 months or more. 

Last year I kept 2 Lamancha wethers for meat. At 6 1/2 months of age they were shipped to freezer camp. One wether gave me 52 pounds of meat, the other was 53. They stayed on mom until they left for "camp" so the cost of that meat was not much.


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