When you begin researching goats, the phrase you"ll hear over and over is goats are herd animals and you really need two. In the first few years we sold goats, I would tell people this as well when they came to visit the farm and were considering adopting one of our kids. It's always nice for them to go as pairs or groups so they have someone familiar as they transition to a new home but, the reality is that goats can make good companions to other farm animals as well.
An article recently came through my email feed from our Vet sharing how goats and horses make great pasture partners since goats are so good at eating weeds and shrubs leaving behind all the yummy grass for the horses. Goats aren't necessarily grazers but rather enjoy browsing shrubs, small trees and love eating weeds, which is why they are so great at clearing blackberries and poison oak.
This was the reason we originally bought our first two goats....Pedro and Amigo. The blackberries had completely grown over the trees we had planted several years earlier, reaching at least thirty feet up into the branches. Every morning, I'd lead them down the road to a patch of berries and I'd chop for a while giving Pedro and Amigo an invitation to eat. They'd spend the majority of the day cleaning up an area and then back to the barn at the end of the day. The three of us cleaned a lot of blackberries that Summer, freeing the trees so they would have sunlight to grow and discovering a beautiful area with a year round creek. In two year's time, we had cleared most of the blackberries and Pedro and Amigo were rehomed to help another family clear their property.
Gilbert the Goat
A couple years ago, a woman came looking for a bottle baby for her small boys to raise. I gave her the "goats are herd animals" speech and she still wanted to take the little guy home and have her boys bottle feed him. They did have other farm animals, so off he went. A few weeks later, I received a text with the above picture attached, apparently Gilbert the Goat had become fast friends with their old dog and was often found sleeping on the back patio with him. How sweet is that!
After our experience with Pedro and Amigo, I decided I wanted to raise milk goats. I'd grown up with large dairy goats as a kid and my mom bred and milked. Of course, I learned to milk and my mom sold milk and we bottle fed babies....often times, I considered it to be a chore, which it was! So, with this experience, I purchased a Nigerian Dwarf doe and her wether kid. Madia and Jack were a sweet pair and filled our days with entertainment and joy. Jack had lots of spring in his legs and a streak of mischief and his goal in life was to be on top of everything! He was an adventurer and was never happy with the area he'd been assigned. He was constantly on the look out for new places to explore and a fence or enclosure was an invitation to break out. Madia was a patient mama allowing Jack to roam and explore. She tolerated his climbing on her and rarely missed a bite of grass in spite of his antics. What Madia wouldn't tolerate was being milked. I'd put the grain in her little manger and sit down on the edge of the milk stand to start milking and she'd kick, trying to prevent me from getting her lovely milk. I'd counter with a firm grip and then she'd lie down. I tried several different tactics, including a sling to hold her up....all to no avail; so, I finally gave up. I gave up and bought another goat! And then, another.
Our First Goat Madia and her kid, Captain Jack Sparrow
This was the Summer of 2010 that we began our goat adventure. Madia is our grandma goat now and is one of our sweetest ladies always ready to greet new people who come to visit the farm. In the seven years since we started raising goats, many have come and gone. Every Spring the new kids arrive entertaining us with their unique personalities and special moves while their moms provide us with creamy rich milk. Some of our mature ladies are milk trained and then head off to new farms to provide milk and fun for another family. Our herd has grown over the years and today, we have over fifteen does of varying ages plus our group of handsome bucks that keep us in fabulous kids. We still enjoy everyone of these creatures as much as the first two we bought years ago. Now when people come to the farm to purchase a goat....or two, I now tell them that goats are like potato chips, you probably won't have just one!