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:

goatgirl said...

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

Jewel said...

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.