Sunday, July 24, 2011

big goat news

The Nigerian Dwarf goats we have Stormy and Joon are both doing well, and have settled into their normal routines.  I have continued to milk Joon twice a day since I got her and she is producing more and more milk at every milking, we're now up to about a quarter pint per milking or a half a pint per day.  We have all drank her delicious, creamy milk and I have a couple pints that I'll be using to make yogurt this evening for the first time with Joon's milk.  Yogurt just takes a starter and about 8-10 hours and is super easy to make.  I'll do a separate post on it later.  The problem I've been having is that to make all the dairy products I want, I need milk, not just a little, but a lot.

Friday I was trolling Craiglist like I always do looking in the farm and garden section, and I came across this ad that jumped out at me, not once but twice within a week.  The ad stated they were looking to find homes for their 2 goats one a Lamancha doe milking a gallon of milk a day, and one a Nubian from a local farm that I have followed  for years, there were no pictures, but I had a gut feeling about them.  They also said they had supplies and a milk stand.  Well this girl jumped on it quickly and emailed the very nice lady.  Come to find out she lives in the same town and  I scooted over there Saturday morning on my way to work, and of course fell in love with these 2 girls. 

I gave 3 bars of home-made soap as a deposit, and made a deal to buy them and the supplies.  I am so excited and plan to keep both of these goats long term as part of my foundation breeding stock.  I also just found out from a local Nigerian breeder that I have a new doeling that was just born that I put a reserve on about a month ago, she will be ready to come here in the Fall.  So we'll go into winter with 5 goats, a perfect little herd for this family.

Now I will finally get some milk to make all the dairy products I have been dreaming of making.  Here is a sneek peak of our newest additions, we're going to pick them up tomorrow.

A beautiful one year old Nubian doe, ready for Fall breeding.


Excuse the photo of her back end, I'm just trying to show the size of her udder.  This is a one year old Lamancha doe, and she was milked shortly before I took this photo, still look at the size of that udder.   This is a "Milk Goat"



2 comments:

  1. And the herd grows...now it's time to make chevre' with all that milk.

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  2. Hi Goatgirl, Yes I'm really looking forward to making chevre', feta, cottage cheese, and all the other dairy products. Tonight I made yogurt with our first 2 quarts.

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