The male goats urinate all over themselves constantly and the females they are mating with. You will know by the smell how far away to keep them and it's a LONG way! Their smell will permeate everything around, including the milk and anything else nearby. The folks I know with a few dairy goats for milk just have females and young ones. They take the females to another farm for mating when they come in heat. If the kids are male they sell them before they get very big. You could also put them in the freezer. Mature bucks can be very aggresive and hard to tame, as well, but that might depend on the breed. If you get a fertile buck, you will need to keep him way out in a large pasture, but not by himself. A whether makes a good companion for a fertile buck. I don't think you want to put two fertile bucks together as they might fight a lot. You can also shear some goats, or comb them when they shed. Mohair (from Angoras) and Cashmere both come from goats. I have not kept goats myself, but have friends who do. I am considering it for when I have more time, though. I'd like milk and cashmere. I want a spinning wheel :-)

Well, the baby is around 2 weeks old now and I think he's going to be ok. Yesterday I picked him up and his belly felt full although he is still a little sunken-in looking near his hip and you can see his backbone for sure. Maybe he's just skinny! He has been grazing all week and I was'nt expecting that already! Someone told me if the baby is wagging his tail when he's nursing that he is getting milk and he does that! Thanks for your reply, boer.

Does your goat still have babies on her? They eat a lot as they get older. Also if you have pulled them off of her she could be depressed. You could feed her shredded beet pulp that has been soaked in warm water. That will boost milk production. Start off slowly though, and give her a handful to start. I buy it at the feed store. I does come pelleted as well, but you have to soak it longer. It MUST be soaked first. You could try to add some sunflower seeds in the shell to her grain which might help. Is she eating all of her grain? I give a large scoop full (3 or 4 cups) at each milking. You could also try giving her warm water or putting some powered lemonade mix into warm water to get her to drink more so she will subsequently make more milk with more liquid intake. It is odd that she has cut in half what she was milking. You could try milking three times a day to boost her production as well. The more you milk the more she should produce. Also, has the milk changed in texture or flavor? She could have mastitis. But, unless her udder is hot to touch and hard on either side, and the milk would be clumpy. Does she have a temperature or does she act like she doesn't feel well? Maybe check her temp and make sure she isn't sick. Good luck, let me know if she improves. Bonnie

Ooooh Cheese - my favorite topic! I have made lots of different cheeses over the years, but concentrate mostly during the summer time on soft cheeses, such as chevre (a french style cream cheese), feta, crottins, and camemberts. When I first got into cheesemaking, I stuck with soft cheeses, figuring it would be too much trouble to make the hard textured cheeses, but, I changed my mind after a couple of years. I milk my goats "through", meaning I don't breed them every year because they are big milkers (l gallon or more a day), and I milk them right through their breeding season and have milk year round. I milked one of my Oberhasli's continuously for 4 years. Milking them through is a nice contiunous supply of milk for me especially in the winter. That is when I make hard texture cheeses, such as parmesan and romano. It takes 4 gallons of milk to make one wheel of the italian cheeses. It also takes 4-6 months for them to age properly. So, I make these cheeses in the winter and age them in my basement, and then they are available in the summer. It is very satisfying to have shelves of your own cheese aging in the basement or wherever. The best source of cheesemaking information is The Cheesemaker's Manual by Margaret P. Morris. She is from Canada, and I also buy all of my cheesemaking cultures from her as well. She is a VERY nice person, Very knowledgeable, and a great resource for reasonably priced cheesemaking supplies. She has a website at: glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca. I own just about every cheesemaking manual published and hers is definitely the best. I teach cheesemaking workshops occasionally, and I tell any new cheesemakers to pick one cheese you want to make and perfect that technique before you move on to another one. It is easy to jump in and want to make all kinds of cheeses at once, but it can get complicated. I tell new people that cheesemaking isn't really hard, it is somewhat time consuming in that you have to pay attention to temperatures and cultures and try to keep ahead of mold growth if you are aging cheeses. I have also been selling my cheeses at the local farmer's market in the summer for the past 8 years. It has been a nice source of revenue for me as it helps pay the grain bill. I have also educated the northern portion of our city on the finer aspects of good goat cheese. Most people turn up their noses and tell me some horrible story about goat cheese they had that was awful. I usually tell them that most imported goat cheeses are fairly strong in taste and smell - but - fresh cheese is absolutely wonderful. I always have samples out for people to try and they love it (most of them anyway). I started out making cheese using goat's milk and vinegar to curdle the milk. It is an easy recipe, but after a while I couldn't stand the flavor. Making chevre is SOOOOOo easy and it is sooooo good and versatile that I was sold.