Newbie from Ohio

[Hobby Farm]

Hello Everyone! A year and a half ago we moved to a rural 5 acre property with a 40'x80' banked barn and also a 30'x30' barn. My wife and I became interested in becoming more self sufficent for health and finacial reasons. A first endevor was chickens. We started with a few laying hens and have progessed to a total of 80 now, with chickens ranging from a year old to chicks that I just hached in my incubator. With the whole chicken thing under control now, we have set our sites on trying to supply our own milk. We considered getting a cow, but determined it wasn't for us, so we decided we want to try goats. After doing some exstensive online reseach, I discovered how benificial goat milk is and it's many wonderful uses. We are currently in the process of planting a 3/4 acre pasture to accomidate our future try with goats. Not knowing anything about goats, I am looking to the members of this forum for information.

I have been a member of the BYC for a year, The Easy Garden for 6 months, and my wife regularly browses the Self Sufficint Forum. Between these three forums, we have gained an abundance of useful information from people who have "lived and learned" and passed this information onto other members of the forums. With this forum being affiliated with the others, I'm sure we will learn many useful things as we start on this new expirience.

I look forward to asking questions that I have, and hope to be able to advise other new members as my knowlege grows from member here.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey! and welcome! i'm south and east of columbus


but wait - before you plant pasture - is it all brambly??? just let the goats eat it down - they love stuff like that and mine eat poison ivy

i have 2 dairy goats - a sanaan and a la mancha. we love the goat products - and the milking process is fun.

check out the goat section - lately there have been a lot of soon-to-be-goat owners ...tons of info

 

[Hobby Farm]

hey! and welcome! i'm south and east of columbus


but wait - before you plant pasture - is it all brambly??? just let the goats eat it down - they love stuff like that and mine eat poison ivy

i have 2 dairy goats - a sanaan and a la mancha. we love the goat products - and the milking process is fun.

check out the goat section - lately there have been a lot of soon-to-be-goat owners ...tons of info

No, the soon-to-be pasture area is all worked up and ready to plant. The area we're planting is where we put in our leech field. We had planned on putting grass on it, but after considering the goat thing, we decided upon a pasture mix. It is the same price as grass seed, so it really made no difference. The leech field area isn't good for anything else, so a pasture will utilize an otherwise wasted area.

Thanks for the welcome. If you're South and East of Columbus, we're probaly relatively close to each other. I think I've seen your username on BYC. I have Buckeye's if you're ever interested.

 

[ksalvagno]

I'm a bit north of you in Ashland County. Almost halfway between Cleveland and Columbus.

I just got goats this year for the same reason as you. Being more self sufficient. I had decided on Nigerian Dwarfs just because I knew I would want more than 2 and we only have 6 acres and already have alpacas.

We also just added chickens this yearl. We have 19 hens. None are laying yet but 3 should be laying in a couple of weeks. We are really looking forward to the eggs.

Good luck with your goat search and getting ready.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

would you look at us ohioans! yay for us!

we got a passel of buckeyes this year - they are the dickens! they are may chicks so i'm hoping they will lay by sept or oct. they seem a little silly - do they every settle down? or are they rambunctious when they get older too?

great work on the planting

what was your rationale for cows v goats?? space time or $$$???

and havent you had enough of this crazy weather? sure i like a cool evening but wow last nite could have been fall!

 

[Hobby Farm]

would you look at us ohioans! yay for us!

we got a passel of buckeyes this year - they are the dickens! they are may chicks so i'm hoping they will lay by sept or oct. they seem a little silly - do they every settle down? or are they rambunctious when they get older too?

great work on the planting

what was your rationale for cows v goats?? space time or $$$???

and havent you had enough of this crazy weather? sure i like a cool evening but wow last nite could have been fall!

After reading the link below, we were sold on goat milk.

http://www.roseofsharonacres.com/raw_goat_milk_benefits

I also clicked on some of the links at the website from above and found additional information.

I'm glad we're going to be able to use the plot of ground for something. The seed is in the ground, so hopefully we get some nice rains in upcoming months and it takes off.

I'm going to research more while the pasture takes root. By the time it's ready, I'll have read every thread on here and asked a bunch of questions. Hopefully after that, I'll know everything I need to know about milk goats and buy them.

Look forward to it.

 

[wynedot55]

 

[Bronco Hollow]

 

[hoosiergal]

would you look at us ohioans! yay for us!

we got a passel of buckeyes this year - they are the dickens! they are may chicks so i'm hoping they will lay by sept or oct. they seem a little silly - do they every settle down? or are they rambunctious when they get older too?

great work on the planting

what was your rationale for cows v goats?? space time or $$$???

and havent you had enough of this crazy weather? sure i like a cool evening but wow last nite could have been fall!

I got buckeye chicks this yr. also. Mine are about 2 months old and still flighty. When they get in the bigger pen hopefully they will settle down.