It all started that fateful day when I pulled into my neighbor's yard in Iowa. I was from Houston, a city girl all my life, well known animal-lover from childhood. There in the yard, were the cutest creatures I had ever laid eyes on. I didn't even know what they were. With their floppy ears I thought "sheep"? but they totally lacked anything like wool. These were day old Nubian goats.
I asked my neighbor what they were and she smiled and said "goats". I was instantly in love with their clumsy antics and their little faces with those long ears which they tossed around like sassy pig-tailed girls. So I started to make a case with my husband for why we must have goats at our own house. We had five kids so we went through a lot of milk, I was sure we would save money there. I could make cheese. I could make soap...more savings. It was an idea I didn't really believe at the time but it was my story and I stuck with it.
We tried the milk and found it to be excellent. So, I bought my first doe, a pregnant first freshener named Twinkle. When I milked her for the first time I was brutally disappointed. She produced barely more than what her kid needed to survive. I was assured that this was normal for yearling first fresheners so I persevered. We didn't get much milk the first season so I bought Twinkles mother, Doree. Doree produced a gallon of milk per day, twinkle also produced a gallon per day her second season and soon we were not having to buy milk and even had enough to make yogurt and cheese.
I kept meticulous records to prove or disprove that the goats were economical for us to keep. What I found was pretty surprising. I couldn't sell any milk from the goats in Iowa (strictly against the law) so I calculated what I didn't have to buy according to what I was used to paying. I didn't have to buy any milk at $3.00 per gallon. That was the price for cow's milk at the grocery store. That was not the price for organic cow's milk even though I know my standards for handling and the freshness of my milk was much higher than the milk we had been buying. Even calculating at the lowest price, the milk my two little does produced paid for their feed and paid me back for their purchase prices (both $150) in one year. In fact the $1,095.00 savings in milk paid for every cost the goats incurred with a surplus of $200. Hay, minerals, shots, collars...the goats paid for all that with just their milk. Then, the next year I was selling babies for $100 for does and $50 for bucks. Five babies gave me an extra $300. So I bought a doe with papers.
Then my husband got a new job and we moved and all the goats had to be sold or given away suddenly. It was hard and sad to let them all go and I was determined to find a place in the country and get more goats as soon as we could. And the bottom line is the bottom line in this story. What other animals give you so much joy and fun and affection while also more than paying their way. Here in Vermont I can sell a certain amount of milk and goat cheese without a grade A certificate. I expect it will be even more profitable than it was in Iowa. Still my husband goes on about the price we paid for a ADGA registered Nubians and I just can't understand this attitude towards an animal that is so profitable and so productive and so unassuming and easy to keep.
Why goats? Let me count the why's :
*Fun
*Sweet
*Cute
*Profitable--meat, milk, cheese and kids
*Milk of a quality we could never afford to buy
*ditto the cheese
*don't forget yogurt
*soap that washes odors away
*Pride to have such beautiful animals
*It's good for kids to see how food is produced
*Meat from the bucks
*Lessons from the barn
*Being up at 3 am waiting for kids and seeing Hale-Bop in the sky
*The many priceless moments we've experienced goat-keeping
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