Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Goat Milk?

I have been doing some research always having been fascinated by dairy statistics. Did you know, for instance, that a cow is bred at 18 months old for an 11 month gestation? Dairy goats are bred at around seven months old and have a five month gestation which is almost a year sooner to start producing milk. From there, the math continues to be surprisingly easy. A cow weighs 10 times more than a goat (135 for a goat, 1300 for a cow) and produces 10x as much milk (2000 lbs for a goat and 20,000 for a cow). Cow's are listed as costing the farmer less (per gallon of milk) than goats at $7 per day for a cow to $1 per goat. So milk, just the caring for the animals basic needs...not paying for electricity or equipment or any of the things farmers must have to do the work of a dairy...costs .96 cents to produce per gallon (and that's not paying the farmer a cent yet) and goats milk costs $1.46 per gallon to produce. Since I'm not running a milking machine or bulk tank that keeps my costs way down. It's a very efficient way to get the highest quality milk, cheese and yogurt money can buy!

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