So… We Got Goats

For years, I dreamed of having a family milk cow and one day,  it happened. I loved Gertie so much and my family enjoyed her fresh milk. When we moved to Florida, we had to send her back to Tonya. ’twas a sad day in my life, indeed.

We’ve been planning to get a milk cow here in Florida but it hasn’t happened yet……. and then, we found out that we are A1 casein intolerant and most cow milk is A1 casein. There are cows who are tested for A2 status but they tend to be a little (or a lot) out of our budget. Uh-oh, this changes everything. What were we to do now? Get goats, of course!

So… We Got Goats

After lamenting over the fact that I couldn’t get a beloved milk cow for now, I put on my big girl pants and got over it. I started researching about keeping goats- breeds, milk production, butterfat content, and pretty much anything I could find about goats.

We quickly settled on the Nubian breed for our family homestead. They have a high butterfat content and their milk is very sweet. I was really expecting it to taste different than cow’s milk but much to my pleasant surprise, I can’t tell a difference when its fresh and cold.

The adventure began to find our very own goats. We thought we’d start with two and see how it went. You’ll quickly learn that goat math isn’t the same as regular math….. two quickly becomes eight. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.

Derek and I (along with a few of the farm kids) set out to look at, and hopefully, bring home a couple of does. We found a farm a couple of hours away and we were led to believe this farm had very nice, top quality goats. Well, I don’t want to go into too much detail here but we were severely disappointed upon arriving at the “farm”. As much as I would have loved to rescue the poor creatures, I know better than bringing sickly, problem animals onto our own farm.

We thanked the man for his time and told him that his goats weren’t exactly what we were looking for (that’s an understatement) and went on our way. We were totally bummed to the max very disappointed and frustrated.

I called my mom (who was watching the rest of the farm kids for us) and let her know that we didn’t get any goats. We were looking online for other farms near where we were. After all, we had driven a long way for nothing at that point. My mom sent me a link for a farm that was much closer to where we live.

I quickly browsed the site and it was very obvious that these were quality, healthy goats so Derek called them up.  Christy answered the phone and told us to come on over and look at one of her girls. When I saw Tango (the goat) I pretty much knew right away that I wanted her.

We wanted two goats because they are very much herd creatures and would be sad and lonely without another goat companion. That, and we need a lot of milk, there are ten of us after all. Christy made a call to her friend in Tennessee to see if she had and good does for sale. She did! Christy was going to Tennessee to pick up some of her own goats that her friend had leased for showing and would bring Maura (the goat) back with her.

We were set to pick both girls up from Christy in a couple of weeks…… then, Hurricane Irma threw a kink in the plan. Luckily, we didn’t end up getting much from the storm but Christy wasn’t able to travel due to all the evacuee traffic on the highways. She finally got to go and we got to pick up our girls!

I had no idea how much I would love goats! They are so personable and cute. They have funny antics and just love being with us. One of our favorite things to do it just hang out with them in the pasture. I may not be getting a milk cow right now but I am so happy that we decided to get goats.

Remember the two equals eight that I mentioned earlier? Well, Christy was going to be going on vacation and asked if we would want to keep her does in milk while they were gone. I immediately agreed, without hesitation. She said it would probably be two or three. She also offered for us to keep them for a while so that we could stock up on milk. Talk about excited!

When we went over to her place to pick up her goats, after chatting about it, two to three goats ended up with us taking five does and a buck. Yep, that’s goat math and I like it! So, for now, we have seven does (our two and her five), and Mr. Meeps. He’s here to make sure all of the ladies are bred.

And just like that, I’m officially a goat farmer!

 

 

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