Beau Jackson

On Saturday, we traveled to Monett, Missouri (well, a little South of there actually) to pick up two goats.  Yes, I guess that makes me a goatherd as well as a shepherd.  Total mental jump here for just a sec - how come “shepherd” isn’t spelled “sheepherd”??? Ok, back to what I was saying.  Actually, I’m not a goatherd.  Dominic is a goatherd, and to a lesser extent Elizabeth is too.

Dominic is participating in the goat project in 4H this year - dairy goats in our case, although a lot of kids raise meat goats.  Now, I’ll confess that he was forced encouraged to take on this project, but in theory he will be taking care of the goats - feeding, giving shots, hoof trimming, milking, the works.  Elizabeth will help to the extent she’s able - she really likes feeding them of course, and she’s actually old enough to learn how to milk them.  I imagine I’ll have to help some, so maybe I’m a goatherd too.

So why was Dominic “encouraged” to take on this project?  Simple economics.  We drink a lot of milk.  If we don’t limit our kids milk consumption, we can quite easily consume a gallon of milk a day.  In my area, milk currently costs $3.75 - $4.25 depending on what grocery store you happen to be in.  Do the math.  Trust me when I say that it does not cost anywhere near $3.75 a day to keep a goat.  If the feed and other costs of keeping a goat worked out to be five bucks a week, I’d be truly surprised.

So why goats?  Why not get a cow?  Again, simple economics.  We bought two goats - both heavy producers and from very good bloodlines and both bred for March kidding - for $300.  A cow, especially a grown cow that is already bred, costs a LOT more than $300.  And frankly, even though we drink a lot of milk, I don’t think we could keep up with a cow.  At peak, these two goats should give us a gallon of milk a day each - maybe a little more.  So, we’re planning on making cheese too, and even still we’ll  probably have more than we can consume ourselves.  A cow can give four to six gallons a day (depending on the breed).  Another reason to pick goats over a cow:  Our kids will be milking these animals.  A cow can, quite literally, cave your head in with a well placed kick, or step on your foot and crush it.  A goat can kick you, or step on your foot, and mostly it’s going to hurt but not be damaging.

Yeah, but goats?  Who drinks goat milk?  Well, it turns out we have a friend that has a goat.  She’s an elderly lady from Europe and grew up drinking the stuff, so she keeps a goat.  We tried it and found that it has a very nice taste - very similar to cows milk, only I find it to be a little sweeter.  We’ve also tried goat cheese before and found it very tasty!  (I’m just crackers about cheese, Grommet!)

So anyway, now we’ve added goats to our three ring ranch.  The circus just keeps growing!