Hmm….that article said several things that…..do not seem correct to me. But then, I’m not a BIG goat dairy. I milked for personal. There are definitely issues that I don’t have to deal with that would hamper a big operation.
The ratio of 10 goats to 1 cow….. uh, depends on the breed of goat and cow. But that seems awfully disproportionate to me. Just did a search and the numbers seem to be closer to 5 or 6 goats to produce the same as a full dairy breed cow. Now, I have knee-high Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats..the cutest on the planet [but still, utter hooligans, she says cheerfully…most of the time cheerfully] They are less milk yet but perfect for a family, since you need at least two for their companionship. Also, many towns and even cities will allow a couple of Niggie goats in a large back yard. 😉
It says cows can be milked year-round and goats are seasonal. That’s extremely unclear. The milking animal must be rebred regularly ….and give birth to refresh the amount of milk she’s giving. And given a rest from milking for the couple months before the birth. Both cow and goat. I assume it refers to the timing of being bred…which might be year round for the cows (?). Farmer can rotate births between the cows to have continual milking within the herd all year if they time the breeding right.
The larger goat breeds come ‘in season’ in the fall and will birth in 5 months. If you’re doing a commercial dairy, you will be stuck with those limits tho you can stagger births by several fall months to offset that somewhat. My Niggie goats come ‘in season’ monthly all year ’round. But their production isn’t right for the LARGE operations. It does mean Niggie owners get to listen to their wailing ‘bad opera’ rather too frequently every time they are ‘in season’. {roll eyes} Anyway, for the family goat, you can freeze the milk when plentiful or turn it into cheese that will last a while.
It’s true that some folks ‘allergic’ to cow milk can sometimes tolerate goat milk. But in reading this article, it’s clear that if BIG INDUSTRY takes over goats, the use of medications will increase until the pharmaceutical product being produced will kick off allergies and bad reactions in folks that aren’t even allergic to the lactose aspect. Small operations….I’ve never had a sick goat, never mastitis, and definitely with goats, you just have to be REALLLLY clean.
Point of Fact: If the milk tastes ‘goaty’….something wasn’t clean enough. Goat milk should never taste ‘goaty’. Cheese, maybe but I certainly don’t like THAT type of cheese. Literally, if one goat hair drops in your milking bowl/bucket….it’s tainted. But pigs, chickens, or other animals will love it. And I hear it’s a good fertilizer….if it’s wasted already. Found I needed more filtering…mesh over the milking container and then regular filters when pouring it into canning jars to put in fridge. But then…I was hand milking. In the big dairies they obviously attach the suction tubes and pipe the milk into vats.
Milking a goat by hand is a skill I learned late in life. One I ALWAYS wanted to learn. The goat and I were both new to this …procedure. Uff tah….the RODEO we had together! My DH built a milking stand with stanchion. That helped and she liked the grain offered while she stood there. Do not picture tying new-to-milking goat to the wheel of your covered wagon and proceed. LOL And then there is the Foot-In-Milk technique she pulled ….accidentally and on purpose. I kid you not, [yes her 2 kids were so adorable!] …it took me two full months to actually get that skill down. I had to be very determined …and goat could have cooperated better. But I milked that goat for almost two years without freshening. I co-milked…. [I separate kids at nite and take morning milk. They nurse freely the rest of the time. Mama refills quickly, according to need] ….with one of her twins that whole time. Other twin weaned herself but one got down on her belly to nurse when she was well over a year and a half. Odd. Not what you want to do if you’re developing a grande milking goat. But it suited my purpose of part-time milking.
OldMtWoman ….going on and on again. lol But one of my favorite critters…ah, most of the time.