Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Carrie Shepard <carrieshepard@yahoo.com>]

Dianne,

 

It's definitely an investment at first in setting up housing, but after that you have to plan on buying hay (and figuring out a plan for getting the hay into the property -- I didn't plan well for that at all here and have my little barn too far from the driveway! -- this means my garage frequently doubles as the hayloft for a bale or two now and then).   There are lots of ways of feeding goats, and everyone you talk to will most likely tell you a different way, so you have to look at your resources, and figure out what you believe is best.  Goats are very hardy and the best thing is to ask those keeping goats closest to you and start by doing things the way they are, then modify them as you learn your animals and develop your own philosophy and management plans.  You want to ask your closest people, because they'll be your best sources of supplies, help in times of crisis (sometimes goats get sick or something strange happens and they'll be the ones to know what to do next), and hay sources.

 

www.hoeggergoatsupply.com  is a great catalog for extras and beginning to learn a little.  You can also find the titles they recommend for sale often at your local library.

 

I also really like the holistic_goats list at yahoogroups.

 

Before I got my first two goats, I had a friend bring me a couple goats to babysit for a week so I could see if I could actually handle the everyday twice day milking routine.  I loved it.  It isn't easy at first as the goats are creatures of habit and don't like you changing milkers, milk stands, locales, order of milking, etc...but I was hooked on my own milkers almost immediately.  I also went to two different houses at milking time to see each routine

Right now lots of goats have just freshened and it's an excellent time to find a good quality milker with a long milking season ahead of her.

 

Blessings,

Carrie

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