i've been thinking a lot recently about goat dairying. there is a natural food store near where i go to school and they sell a lot of local (new england) and imported dairy products. i always try out anything new that comes from sheep or goats. last week, i bought some goat butter that was imported from canada. i was instantly attracted to the label--i love the detail of her name on her collar. it was really tasty and it made me think that i would definitely make goat butter with my goat's milk. i love butter and cook with it constantly, so this might be a good way to utilize milk that we don't drink fresh. of course there is cheese, but i have yet to take a cheesemaking class and want to do that before i dive in to that endeavor.
i have a nigerian dwarf goat named daisy (above) but i had zero luck getting her bred this winter. i was able to detect her heats easily enough, but unfortunately every time she came into heat was the worst possible day ever and i was not able to put her in the volvo and get her to the buck which is 1hr away.
i've been reading a lot about goat dairying and now i am beginning to consider getting a large breed dairy goat like the nubian shown above. i am going to finish my master's this summer and this should free up a lot of my time. perhaps i can find a proven doe with a kid on her side at the end of the summer--what a cool graduation present!
7 comments:
what is the name on her collar...i cant read it...
her name is 'rosie'
I am really curious about the whole goat dairying thing. What I understand about goat milk, though, is it is fairly homogenized as-is, so it's hard to make into butter (and then cheese). I could simply be talking out my ass, though...we're just at the point of researching to get our own. I have convinced the husband that we're doing it just for the milk (and of course to rid half our land of briars and poison ivy).
I have never been able to acquire a taste for goat milk or cheese---but I have never tried the butter. Who knows I could like it. I LOVE sheep's milk and cheese though. Good luck getting your goat bred---when we had them we never had luck either until we bought a buck.
You will love the Nubians! They have great personalities and are great milkers.
you are right, el, about it being more homogeneous. so you won't get that cream separation as with cow milk. but, i think the trade off is that it has such a high fat content that you can make cheeses and butter right from the whole milk. i know goat cheeses are their own genre. but, i think goat butter is a little less common. it isn't as creamy as regular butter but i have to say i liked it.
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