Baby Goats Rehoming Day + How the goats pay their rent

Reeses, Peaches, and Cream found new loving homes today. 

It's a reality, we have our goats for milk and they need to have kids to come into milk about every 8 months. Goat milk is a higher quality cow milk substitute due to my milk allergy. It has a higher cream content which makes for wonderful butter and ice cream (if it lasts that long!) Farm Dad says it makes the best mac and cheese! 

Nigerian Dwarf milk is known for its high butterfat content (usually around 6-10%), making it richer and creamier compared to other dairy goat breeds.

So Pebbles, Momma, Poppy and Twinkie all had twins this year. Reeses was Momma's buck baby, Peaches, and Cream were Twinkie's babies. They were a blast to watch playing on the mini trampoline. We have Reeses' brother and Pebbles' two doelings yet to sell this year. 

The profit from the sales of kids pays for off season high quality hay for our herd. It pays for their vaccinations, and required minerals. We feed high quality hay year round for about 6 months we get it directly on the farm, for the other 6 we have to purchase. Alfalfa is fed to nursing goats for its better nutrition profile in keeping the ladies in top condition after kidding. Sweet feed is their special treat for letting us milk them. 

Poppy is just now finishing up milking (being a freeloader lol) and will be bred again in the winter for spring babies. But even with those inputs it is a great ROI and I'll give an example scenario based on our results. 

We bought our original herd for about 200 per goat. We had three ill goats surrender to us, prior owner heard about us and asked if we had the ability to nurse them back to health. From there our costs were higher than most folks would be for getting into goats. I do all of our hoof care and vaccines. 

For you to have a reliable breakdown of the costs and returns on investment:

In this example we are taking for granted that you have a good 4 foot fence and a shelter or make one from scrap wood or pallets. 

Start with a healthy breeding trio ($600). Goats need to be in a herd for them to be in top mental health. 

Now ideally you are getting into young goats. Lower costs but longer wait for the milk. 

In one year of age Nigerian Dwarf (ND) goats can be bred safely. In 5 months after being bred ND will have anywhere from 2 to 6 kids. Fun fact world record is 7! 

In two to three months you can sell those kids. We will just say average out at three kids per doe, six kids. In our area unregistered goats go for 200 to 400 per kid, registered goats from great milk lines go for much more. You sell all the kids and now have on the low end 1200. 

Now you have fed them high quality hay for just over a year and a half. If you must buy that hay it can range from 300 to 650 dollars total. 

Your running cost total on the low end is 900 dollars on the high end is  1250. Add back the profit from the kid sales (1200-1250=-50). Your goats have now either completely or nearly paid for themselves and their food so far. 

Now you're getting fresh goat milk daily. ND goats give half gallon of milk daily. So your two goats are providing a gallon of milk a day! 

If you've seen cow  milk prices lately you know that they'll pay back that 50 dollars in about two weeks of milk production. If you're like me and need goat milk for allergies you know that it's been running about 5 dollars a quart. 

And they will continue to do so for 8 months to a year until they need to be dried off and bred again. 

Tldr (just give me the numbers!)

Initial investment year 1

-600 breeding trio, two doelings, one buckling

-650 hay (high estimate)

+1200 kid sales

=-50

Run those same numbers again in year two...

-650 high end for hay for the year

+1200 in goat sales

+800 in milk savings vs cow milk

=1350 in profit 207%!!!

I'm just a farm lady doing farm lady things. I love numbers and sharing them. I don't know if there is a financial advisor for goats, you should consult smarter than me people for your financial wellness, as this is our experience and our family loves goats anyway!

More investment costs but this is what we already had on hand minus the milker

This electric fence 

This fence exciter 

And this milker  (I tried doing milking old fashioned way but arthritis is a bad word 😭)

Yep these are affiliate links, if you decide to buy from these links I get a commission to buy goat toys 😂 

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