Our Goat Keeping Days Part 1

 Weeks ago someone said they would love to know more about the years we kept goats at the smallholding.

Keeping goats for milk was something I really wanted to do (Not sure anyone else in the family was as keen as I was!)and moving to the smallholding in 1992 at last gave us the space. I'd been reading books about goat keeping for years so knew a little of the theory - what to feed them, never to keep one on its own, how their feet needed trimming, how they  could give milk for one or two years after kidding and keeping a billy goat or goats with horns was NOT a good idea - lot's of theory without any practical!

We were very lucky when moving to Knodishall as our only neighbour had been keeping goats for several years. She kept Angora goats and had a small business with people knitting up the mohair wool from the goats. She also had a few milking goats and gave us Daisy, who she'd been given and got her in kid to one of her male Angoras, plus an elderly goat Annie to keep her company until Daisy kidded. This gave us the chance to learn about keeping goats  and when Daisy kidded she taught me how to milk her.

There are seven main dairy breeds of goat in the UK: Saanen, British Saanen, Toggenburg, British Toggenburg, British Alpine, Anglo-Nubian and Golden Guernsey. Additionally the British Goat Society (BGS) recognises the British Guernsey and the British goat

 Daisy was a British Toggenburg and they were always my favourite with really cheeky characters. The goats we had for a few years at the beginning were usually being given away or very cheap as we couldn't afford a pedigree milker. We had a loppy eared Anglo Nubian called Shilling for a while but she didn't give much milk, and a rescued small Toggenburg who had been bred too young and had a really bad temper. The only breed we never owned was the British Alpine the biggest of British breeds and usually black with white.

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.At first we kept the goats tethered on a swivel stake and chain which was OK except for when they got tangled or pulled the stake out of the ground and it did mean moving them a couple of times each day and fetching them in if it rained.....goats are not weatherproof like cows are and they hate getting wet.

 Soon Colin put up some post and rail and wire netting fencing just outside the end of the big shed where we had them in pens we made inside. He put doors in the side of the shed so they could go in and out. We fenced another paddock on the field and I used to walk them across to this other paddock every few days for a change of grass.

By the time we needed to mate Daisy for the third time our neighbour had given up goat keeping but there was a man in the next village who kept an odd assortment of goats including a Billy and we took Daisy there.

Daisy and her two kids 1997

The goat below is a Saanen named Heather, I can't remember where she came from but I do know that sadly we lost her just before kidding the next year. Something goats and sheep can get is a deficiency during pregnancy and just like sheep, goats have a "death wish!" They go down hill very quickly and even after a vet visit and injection she became very poorly and I sat with her and had just popped down to the house for something and came back and found her dead. It was our worst loss. Losing a lamb or a kid had happened before but losing a fully grown goat just before kidding was awful.

There's a saying that every farmer with livestock knows " If you have livestock, you'll get deadstock!"

After having a few cheap but useless goats to keep Daisy company we travelled right down to Essex to buy a young goat in kid from a well know breeder but when she kidded I found her teats much too small for me for milking and the breeder agreed to take her back. Had I been more experienced I would have kept her and got her in kid again in the next Autumn when her teats might have been bigger from raising the kids.

Three girls in their paddock

 Continued Tomorrow

Sue

(The things with that very long list of ingredients were doughnuts which I thought were just ordinary jam but turned out to have a revolting chocolate sauce in them. As I said - shouldn't go shopping without breakfast! I ate them- not all at once I hasten to add - as I don't like waste but they were NOT nice!)