We needed more milk... although the four girls we milk every day give us upwards of three gallons a day. That seems like a lot until we feed our three bottle kids and then let the human kids drink their share. After that, there's basically enough to cook with. We like to make yogurt, kefir, and ice cream and would love to make more cheese (I've made mozarella and ricotta once, and they were quite good), but we just didn't have the extra. And even though most people think that goats' milk is grody because they either: a.) tasted some once and it tasted like a goat, or b.) know someone who tasted it once and it tasted like a goat, I can promise you that properly handled, fresh goats' milk is just delicious. Our kids complain when we have to buy "store milk"- they say it tastes rotten.
So, enter these girls. They look awfully skinny in the first image, but they're really not- they were just a little nervous their first couple of days here, and didn't eat much. They're slowly coming around. Talulah, the black and white doe, is in milk and giving us about three quarts a day, and I think she'll give more once she isn't so nervous about us and decides that we're friends. Raisins, animal crackers, and corn chips go a long way towards making friends with goats =0). Matilda is the brown one, and she was actually being dried off at her former home. We're trying to bring her back into milk, but I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to do that or not. She's a little more skittish than Talulah, but I think she's starting to like it here.
One thing that's super sweet about these two is that they do NOT want to be separated. So, we have to take them out of the pen together, and put them up together, or they both cry. And if they are separated for a minute, neither of them will settle down until they can see one another again. Then they touch noses and check each other out to make sure everything's okay.
Next year we have several more does that will be in milk besides the five (six if Matilda will begin to produce again) we are milking this year. Quite a few more, actually. We will definitely have enough milk for yogurt and kefir and lots of ice cream and cheese and maybe even soap. We plan on getting a cream separator also, so that we can make our own butter and sour cream (and have fresh cream for our coffee! Can't forget that, lol.)
Right now my oldest daughter and I are the main goat milkers; my oldest son can do a good job in a pinch but he doesn't really like to milk. We milk two full sized American Alpine does: Snickers and Sha-nan-a-gans; one Nigerian dwarf doe: Pillow (her registered name is Buttin' Heads Pillow Scham- there aren't a lot of nicknames you can come up with for a name like that, so she's just... Pillow, lol); one full size Oberhasli doe: Nutmeg; and the new girl. It takes us about forty minutes from start to finish- goats don't take long to milk at all- and we have the process pretty streamlined. I don't know what it will be like next year when we have several more does to milk. It should be... interesting!
Anyway, I'm sorry my camera cord decided to die, but I had a great time showing these girls to you all. When my camera is functional again, I'll introduce our other girls and guys =0).
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