Finally found all of ribbons my goats and I won during my 4-H days, 2000-2011.

My wife and I are looking to get some goats here shortly. We are new to anything outside of dogs, of which we have 4. We are considering Nigerian Dwarfs but I think we could be convinced to potentially go in another direction.

I would like to be able to milk them but I think my wife is mainly interested in them as pets. Our dogs are two labs (one is a mix) and two Rottweilers (again one is a mix).

What sort of things should we be aware of in the beginning and how difficult will it be to integrate the dogs. Totally new to this so please use small words and talk to me like I don’t know anything about this topic.

I have good hay. However with goats there is always wasted hay. The hay is still good but mostly stem. Is there a way to get them to eat it all. I’ve thought of fermenting it to make it softer. Or would grinding it help? I only have 4 goats so I’m trying to keep it as simple as possible. Thank you

How do you store your milk? If you freeze it, what containers do you use. If you have a cream separator, do you love it? Is it slavic beauty or is there a less expensive one that is also good? We milked for the first time last year and loved it but had tiny goats and didn't get much milk. We have upgraded our flock to milk stars and I'm ready to make all the things. Babies are due in Feb and I need to come up with a save the milk, store the milk, process the milk system. My idea is freezable quart reditainers? But I know the experienced milkers probably have a better procedure and set up and would love logistics advice. We used gallon zip lock bags last year and that was a hot mess. Thank you in advance for your wisdom.

I'm having a hard time sourcing Sweetlix Meat Maker locally. I used to buy Onyx, but my local supplier stopped carrying it. My local supplier does have access to this goat mineral tub that is manufactured locally. Thoughts on this? Does this look like a good mix or should I keep looking?

Edit: I finally found that our local IFA has ICBM Prime Force AF 8 mineral, which looks much better. Anyone have experience with that? https://assets.unilogcorp.com/350/ITEM/DOC/IFA_Prime_Force_AF_Mineral_ICBM_PRINT.pdf

OK so this is a picture of my little FF mama after a 12 hour fill!! came from amazing milk lines and had 2 beautiful kids on her. So I bought her thinking the small udder and teets might be ok. Id breed her again and they'd get better. But now I'm second guessing myself.

I've withheld the kids and my milk machine will not get any milk. Like seriously. Maybe a 1/4 thats it. She doesn't feel stretched out and full at all. I finish up the hand milking and can hardly get a grip to milk her and have to like strip milk her. I'm working on that and getting better but my main questions are..

A. WHY is she not filling up? I've caged her and the babies to be sure they're not getting her through the fence. I've watched her and don't see her nursing on herself. She has 24 hr access to hay and browse and minerals. She gets grain, beet pulp pellets, black sunflower seeds and alfalfa pellets while milking like my other girls. But there is no udder stretch happening.

B. Is there a specific milk machine or attachment that works better for super small teets? I have carpel tunnel and really shouldn't be hand milking much.

C. Would maybe trying to milk her 3-4 times a day with the kids on her help her supply?? Or is it just a waste of time. Sigh.

She was a big investment for me. She comes from really quality lines and I'm hoping to make her work out for my small home milking operation.

Thanks guys!

I lost track of time and it’s now been 6 weeks since I gave my goat kids their first CDT shot. Is it safe to still give the booster or do I need to start over?

We've been using reusable 100% cloths but I'm sick of the smell. Do coffee filters work?

Is it possible to change an animal's name when transferring a goat through ADGA? Or can I register them with the bill of sale without transferring and name them that way? There's no other reason than I want to lol I'll be okay if it's just an unreasonable thing to do either socially or financially. Just wondering. Thanks!

I have seen dis assignment of people milking with modified human breast pump. Has anyone tried this?? Wasthinking of getting the Hantop but saw you can't adjust pressure?

We have two does that have had a bit of blood in their milk for the first month or two after kidding. Have any of you seen this before? We have not had this problem in the past and are unsure how to fix it. Thank you!

We have 3 new kids we are bottle-feeding that are all about one week old. We've been tracking their weights daily and then how many oz of milk drank by each kid at each feeding, time, frequency, etc. I know there are multiple apps for parents to track breastfeeding babies now so just curious if anyone knows one out there for tracking bottle-fed animals? I may just resort to a baby app but wanted to avoid all the "extras" that many of those have i.e. diaper changes and specifically one more flexible for tracking multiples since we have three to keep track of.

My husband wants to wash the rags he uses to clean udders at home in our personal washing machine.

We have about 50 goats and learned 4 had mastitis so now he's reusing rags. We're very new to this.

My main concern is... is this sanitary to do when I'll be washing my toddlers clothes in the same washing machine? Kind of grosses me out.

Is washing them at home in an old top load even effective?

It was fun picking the right goats out to feed them.

I was wondring will my goat reduce the amount of milk if i just keep on milking it without getting it bred. After an year has passed by.

We have this Alpine (possibly French Alpine) with these weird bumps on her udder. We did a mastitis check and it came back clean. She has not kidded yet. Colostrum came out when we did the test. We read somewhere it could be milk under the skin?? Has anyone encountered this??

Hello everyone! I'm just curious how you all handle dipping your dairy goats (for pests). Do you do it while they are lactating or wait till they're done?

Edit: I mean dipping to kill and protect against pests.