Here at
LinderCroft, I raise registered Nigerian Dwarf** dairy
goats. These little goats are endearing, cute, and fun!
Even so, my primary reason for raising these cute
little goats is to provide fresh milk and dairy products
for my family. For their small size they give a
surprising amount of milk that is rich in protein and
butterfat. It is very good tasting milk!
It started many
years ago with a dream. A dream of getting back to the
land, growing all the food for my family and doing so on
a small piece of land. In the late 70's I inherited four full
sized dairy goats of different breeds, they were mostly
grade does. These were the first goats I ever had and I
really believe this was the true start of my dream, although I grew up in Alaska where Mother had chickens,
rabbits and a garden. Later, Mother had three acres in
Ohio where she grew almost all her food and this is
where I had my first goats. Over the years my dream
has went through many changes. Some changes were simply
finding better ways to accomplish all that I wanted. One
change in the thought process was to decide on what type
of goat I wanted. I went from full sized Nubians to Mini
Nubians, till I finally settled on Nigerian Dwarf goats.
(**see update at the bottom of this page) I had decided that I wanted a purebred goat that I could
resister. Although, I have no desire to show my goats, I
want to sell the kids and felt that registered goats
would sell better. That being so, I want to breed in a
manner that produces a goat that has good conformation
and a high milk yield, and yet be healthy. These little
guys I have researched and am amazed at all I have read
about them. For a bit I had a Pygmy; I thought she was
just adorable and she gave me 1½ quarts of milk a day.
Time and circumstances caused me to sell my goats and
hope that someday I could really do this in a permanent
way. In 2007 I moved to Klamath River, California and
started looking in earnest to find some Nigerian Dwarf
goats. Then in August of 2008, I found a breeder not far
from where I live and I finally bought a doe and wether
3 months old. I had wanted two doelings, but her does
were giving her mostly bucklings. At that time,
LinderCroft's Nigerian's became a reality. Now two years
later I have not just two goats, but four! I now have
two does, one buck and a wether. In June of 2009, we had our first kids; a buckling and a
doeling. They were unbelievably cute! They bounced and
jumped and life was just good! We are expecting more
kids in March and June of 2010.
Nigerian Dwarf
goats give a good amount of milk for such small goats.
Most Nigerians average 32 -
40 oz a day. But at first lactation they generally give
less than that. However, the volume goes up with later
lactations. I was very lucky in that my first freshener
gave as much as a doe that has had a couple lactations
under her belt. That being 52 oz at peak (I recently was
looking over my records and that is what I found) and then it
decreased to around 32 oz a day at 6 months. It has been
predicted that she could be a 3 quart a day milker in
her next lactation! Now that would be nice, but it is
yet to be seen. It is also interesting to note that the
more milkfat a goat gives, the lower the weight of the
milk even if the volume is still the same. Nigerian
Dwarfs are famous for their high milkfat which is 6% or
more, sometimes even going up to 11%.
Being that I want
healthy goats and healthy milk, I don't use conventional
methods of feeding and raising them. Over the years I
was almost discouraged from
getting goats of any kind because I have read
so much about the diseases and ailments of goats today.
It seemed that healthy,
vigorous
goats just
did not occur anymore. Then I realized, just as in
humans, part of the problems were related to diet.
In that
light
I have chosen to give them as natural care as can be
given in my circumstance and an unnatural environment; and penned and fenced
is unnatural.
Farming
practices today destroy the soil and particularly the
mineral balance in the soil and ultimately the plants
that grow in it. I have to buy a lot of my goat feed, at
least until I can grow most of it myself, so I can't be
real picky about the hay and grain I give them. I have
no real idea where it comes from or how it has been
treated. Even so I feel getting back to basics by using
a combination of a modern and
a
traditional
natural diet
may be a way
to have healthy goats again. I feed free choice
alfalfa pellets along with rough pasture.
Mature leaves from oaks, apple, and other trees and
shrubs are gathered and fed fresh as well as gathered dried
leaves and acorns for
the winter months. Herbicides and pesticides are not
used on the homestead. The pasture, leaves, and hay
pellets are supplemented with a simple homemade
mineral mix
of sulfur, copper sulfate, salt, and kelp. A
homemade grain mix I call 'COWS'* (cracked corn, oats,
wheat, split peas) which is purchased now, but will
be grown here sometime in the future, is fed twice a
day. In winter they receive carrots and other succulents
to supplement the pellets, leaves and grain. I give no
immunization shots and I don’t use modern drugs except
in an emergency and do not use chemical wormers.
Of course if I needed to I would worm my goats with
chemical wormers. However, the copper in the minerals keep worms at bay.
The added
sulfur in the minerals help keep off external parasites.
I add to the goat’s water homemade, raw, apple cider
vinegar on a daily basis. So far this has worked for me,
but only time will tell just how well it works in the
long haul. I found an excellent source of information
about raising goats naturally in Pat Coleby's book
Natural Goat Care.
Many goat keepers,
new or experienced, would benefit from reading this
book.
Our kids are dam
raised, but are handled a lot so they are very, very
friendly. I start weaning the kids at 6 weeks and they
are fully weaned when they go to
their new homes at 8 weeks. I seriously disagree
with weaning the goats just when they go off to a new
home. I think letting them adjust here, and then have
them leave keeps the stress level down in the kid. It is
hard enough on them as it is. Weaning early helps the
kids rumen develop and helps them have the huge capacity
they need to be good milkers. The kid has a better
chance of survival when he leaves home and we get the
milk he left behind. Of course weaning early is in
no way natural. But then milking the goat is not natural
either. It's just a win/win situation for me.
I disbud my kids when they are
about 5 days old. My first kids I waited until almost 3
weeks and they ended up with scurs. So now I do it
promptly. Please see my
Goat Husbandry
page.
The
current idea that cream will not separate from goats
milk is inaccurate, it just takes a bit longer than
cows milk. I have heard that the colder the milk, the
faster the cream rises. I can't say myself though. The
Nourishing Traditions
cookbook has a lot of information for using raw milk.
** Originally I had
wanted MiniNubians so in January 2010, when I found a
source of inexpensive Nubian kids, I jumped at the
chance and purchased a week old Nubian bottle doeling
and am going to pursue it. I hadn't thought about
developing my own, but now I am going to try it. I intend
to bred her to my Nigerian buck and develop MiniNubian
goats. This will take a few years but it is an exciting
prospect! Nubians are so cute with their long ears and
roman nose. I will strive to bred the goats to a small
size as the breed standard for Nigerians. This is
called, I think, 'Pixie' or in the UK, 'Nuwby' goats.
The roman nose I want to be just slightly more convex
than Nigerian's, that being slightly more than straight,
and the ears totally in breed character. The body shape
I want to keep as in Nigerians as well, with the shorter
legs, but dairy shape and conformation. Actually the
only thing I want to change is the head and
udders/teats. The udders need to hold a lot of milk and
the teats need to be such that they are easy to milk.
Nubians give very creamy milk, although not as creamy as
the Nigerian. I want to also breed for volume with high
butterfat. After the 6th generation, these tiny goats I
will be able to register as purebred MiniNubians.
Or perhaps PixiNubians because my
ideas are not quite that of a MiniNubian. It's rather
interesting that this process is exactly how Nubians
came about. Nubians are a man made breed to begin
with...
*
In essence my goats now get alfalfa pellets,
mixed grain, mineral mix,
dolomite free choice,
Selenium/Vitamin E
gel,
apple cider vinegar in their water, and
browse from my land. Those are very basic.
I will keep y'all updated on
Thanks for
visiting and stop back from time to time as I update
LinderCroft's Nigerian's!
