Why Do We Fail With Dairy Goats?

[Tim Pruitt]

I moved my office from upstairs to a downstairs room this past week.   I carried all two decades worth of United Caprine News down from the closet to put away carefully in the new office and thought of all of the history that each issue contained.   There were pictures of my daughter in law Ruth (Rissler) Pruitt and her National Senior Showmanship win and other sentimental articles.  I scanned each issue briefly because I was looking for a certain ad that contained pictures of 7 Grand Champion does of a buck I am planning to use by AI.   While scanning the pictures of ads, I noticed issues of UCN were fuller and filled with more advertisements that those of today. 

Looking at some of the advertisements, I saw many of those ads were from those who were only a “flash in the pan” so to speak - lasting five years or less and then disappear forever from the dairy goat world.   Others were long time breeders who finally quit.   

Reflecting on this, I considered some of the many reason that people fail with dairy goats.   

One reason is because they did not count the cost.   Dairy goats are labor intensive and require hours of labor.   They must be milked twice a day.  Each has a mouth to feed and four feet to trim.   A buck is required for a few does, two and three bucks are required for more.   If you raise several breeds then a buck is required for that breed as well.   The bucks require housing as do the does.  Buckets, clippers, disbudding and tattoo tools, stanchions, semen and tanks and more – the list is endless.   Medicines and Vet bills, test for disease all add to the list of expenses.   Who is paying for all of this?  It will be a long time before the goats do.   Goats don’t fit in a get rich quick scheme.   

All too often someone jump into this venture without having the rest of the family on board.   Yep! We miscalculate the cost and think, “I am ABLE to do this by myself”  -  but what about when you are sick, or there is a new baby?  Who stays home on vacation to do chores? Where is the money coming from to pay a sitter?

Farm life requires that everybody be on board – teamwork is a must!   I was at a show once where a husband called his wife and gave an ultimatum, “Don’t come home with those goats or else!”  We all cried with her as she was forced to choose between mate or goats! Sad? Yes!  But someone went into this venture without having a husband on board.

Looking at the ads – I thought of one breeder who made it to 15 years – she once enthusiastically exclaimed to me, “I was born to milk goats!”   I asked her when she quit, “What made you give up?  Too many breeds?”  Her reply was “too many diseases”.  Standing back, I realized that although she worked outside the home, she depended on her husband’s income and since he had died, her income could no longer be used to spend on dairy goats.   The love of milking, showing and caring for animals had become too much.   She was not willing to cull for disease and to keep her numbers down to a manageable number.   She had hired help who had not properly pasteurized the milk and had spread CAE through her herd.  Had she culled diseased animals this might have never happened.    Having several breeds added to the mix – overwhelmed – she quit!

Too many breeds: 
Some might have succeeded if they had kept to one breed.   Families with children often allow the kids to chose another breed so that they don’t compete against another.   Each breed adds more cost.    One of my favorite articles is from the late Donald Smith of Sodium Oaks Alpine fame who said, “If you had the right does, I suppose you could take six and do everything you wanted in the breed, provided you could get them to the right bucks.   The problem comes when even though you are pleased with what you have, you may want to go in a different direction – so you have to keep enough to enlarge the gene pool occasionally.”    He suggested that there were at least 30 different types of Alpines!   To add this, I really don’t see how you are going to do with less than two bucks unless you are really good with AI.   AI is  a great tool - but it cost too and it is not always that reliable!  How many people have made the mistake of purchasing tanks full of semen?  Then we collect our own bucks too and that’s not cheap.  You really have to be a well known and successful herd to have many semen sales.   Also the tank must be kept supplied with nitrogen three or more times a year even for one straw and then multiply all of this with several breeds.  It would be better to become successful with one breed before adding another.   Focus on breeding the best instead of mediocrity and quality instead of quantity.     

Learning to cull:
One of my mottos is “too many goats are not fun – they are work!”   Work can be fun but too much work when you already have a full time job can push you into burnout.   Some burnout can be prevented by managing disease and numbers.   Keeping a goat for sentimental reasons is never a good idea.  They are livestock and when they have served their purpose it is time to move on.   Keeping a kid because it is cute will lead to failure.   It is better to find reason not to keep a kid.   Kids should only be kept because they meet certain criteria.   Money, time and labor will be put into this kid.  Think delicious and not cute!  Cute kids will look delicious on the dinner table.   Poor doers and chronic illness have to go.   Chronic illness cost money – money that could have been spent on more important things.   Goats that are poor doers or that skip a generation should be culled.   Require a goat to give you good reasons why to be her slave and caretaker. 
 
So how does someone succeed in dairy goat keeping?   
1.   Get rid of unneeded animals that don’t fit into your plans.
2.   Make sure the family is on board
3.   Prevent burn out and bankruptcy by keeping your numbers down.
4.   Don’t buy more animals or equipment than you need.     
5.   Learn how to market your animals.
6.   Keep it fun and wholesome – something that you just love to do because there are going to be days when you hate it.