Looking to expand

[Southern by choice]

Smaller would be great, less intimidating to my city slicker children! I was going with those because of what some other site said the milk tastes like. Thinking back it was a silly way to go about it, but now I'm here so I'll have much better advice and information on hand.

LOL I love LAMANCHAS! I also love my ONE Nubian.
she is not a "normal" Nubian- she is quiet as can be. Not at all like Nubians.

You might want to look at Miniatures.
We breed standard goats, dwarfs, and Miniatures.

I think the miniatures are the best of all worlds!
They produce closer to a Standard breed by 2nd lactation (usually) but are significantly smaller. Butterfat is usually very good because both Lamancha and Nubian have good butterfat but dwarfs have the highest so crossed ... it is excellent!
Feed conversion is great! We try to stick to 50/50 to keep that small size (miniature) when going to high in either direction you lose the miniature part...

 

[babsbag]

@Latestarter. I can happily say that I have no more alpine/boer crosses and no more Boers. Once I decided to build a dairy I had to focus on dairy goats. I have Alpines, mini Alpines, LaManchas, and Togg/Alpine crosses.

Big goats can be intimidating at first but once I realized that they actually like people and like to be scratched I was ok with them. If I had little kids though a smaller goat could be nice but I know a lot of kids that handle those big goats better than I do.

 

[samssimonsays]

Milk is my main purpose because of my daughters allergy to cow milk and everything that happens to have milk in it. I've only just started looking at breeds and which produces the tastiest milk and enough to make ice-cream, cheeses and such. So far it seems like I'd want either a Nubian or la mancha (?). I've heard of Nubian before but nothing on temperament, health or anything just that it's a goat. Lol I'm definitely starting this journey with ZERO KNOWLEDGE about them. Hopefully I'm on the right track

I have Nubian and LOVE them. Nigerian also has high butter fat content for cheese and such. We just got our first full Nubians and they are love bugs but a bit dramatic. We have had a half Saanan, Half Nubian for about a year and she is the loudest but super friendly. Lamanchas are very easy going and what many 4H kids start out with for showmanship around here. People in my area favor the Saana/Nubian and rave that they are hearty and healthy as well as great producers. anything Nubian cross. Mini Nubians are also out there as an option.