Newbie Goat Question

[Sarah Wilson]

I'm purchasing a couple goats for my own milk, as hobby. I would love to have a male and a female. Based on why I'm reading it sounds like I should have 2 females and 2 males as once the milk comes in the males will need to be separated for milk stink lol. Which would lead to lonely goats. Am I correct in this? Is there any way to house males and females together?

 

[babsbag]

Housing males and females together can be really hard. BUT...when your doe has kids she won't be alone. You can keep the kids with her and separate them at night starting at about two weeks, milk in the morning and then put them back together for the day. I used to keep my kids in a 10x10 dog kennel at night right next to mom. I would get a wether to live with the buck.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Also, if ya don't make plans to keep them separated, the doe and the buck, then your doe will be bred back each time after kidding. Some breeds will cycle the whole year, others only specific times of the year. Some bucks tolerate kids, others don't. It is better to have a way to separate them from the beginning, than waiting and rushing to put something together after you already have them.

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings and welcome to BYH. Glad you joined us. There's a wealth of info and experience shared in the various goat threads. Please make yourself at home and browse around. In doing so, you'll also "meet" a lot of our great goat folks. Please consider putting at least a general location of where you are in your profile. If/when you ask for help/advice, where you're located has a huge bearing on the answers (climate/hot/cold/wet/dry/soil/altitude/etc.)

 

[Alaskan]

I prefer not having to put up with a buck.

Ask around, see if there are any stud services in the neighborhood.

Often the people you buy the doe from will let you bring her back to be bred. For a fee of course.

However, not having the extra feed care and space needed for the buck...is worth it in my book. Also, you can then change bucks whenever you want.

Disease is more of a concern...but test, test, test, and only use tested bucks, and that part will be fine too.

 

[Southern by choice]

What breed of goat do you have?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I prefer not having to put up with a buck.

Ask around, see if there are any stud services in the neighborhood.

Often the people you buy the doe from will let you bring her back to be bred. For a fee of course.

However, not having the extra feed care and space needed for the buck...is worth it in my book. Also, you can then change bucks whenever you want.

Disease is more of a concern...but test, test, test, and only use tested bucks, and that part will be fine too.

X 2 - especially as a small hobby for you -- the issues involved with maintaining a buck for the occasional breeding that would be needed are just not worth it, imo. You would be surprised at how readily available stud services are in most areas, it just takes some asking around. Also, as Alaskan noted, it allows for easy change-up of genetics as you can simply choose a different stud vs. having to sell your buck/buy a new one. "Rent-a-buck" really takes a lot of the hassle out of things.

 

[Southern by choice]

Yikes... no way... very few test for STD's so that is a big risk.
I LOVE bucks have a bajillion of them.
This is our baby Nubian buck that walked in the open door of the house the other night.
He is a

 

[babsbag]

Personally I like owning a buck. I don't like having to drop everything and run the doe to get bred. I also don't like being responsible for someone else's animal on my land. I took my does to be bred for about 3 years and said 'enough'. I had 6 does at the time. Now of course I have 40 does and 5 bucks so we are covered.

 

[Latestarter]

When you're talking a "herd" of goats, what, really, is one more mouth to feed? Especially when every spring you are adding additional mouths when you're breeding and chances are great you will NOT sell/eat all the kids anyway... justsayin.