I assume you want a "dairy" breed for the milk. Mini's and Nigerians do not provide much milk and it is kind of similar to milking a cat :-). You might want to try and milk one of these breeds before you buy. They are cute, but depending on what you want the milk for, you might still consider one of the "other" dairy breeds, such as Nubians, or one of the Swiss Breeds. You might be able to find those breeds closer to your home and would be able to find a stud service closer as well. There was another thread on this forum about this same topic, it had some good advice. Look in the old postings maybe a month or so back. Good luck. Bonnie

There are so many differing opinions on these issues and feelings can get hurt over them. Since Chivas posted some time ago, we received a young buck raised for six weeks on his mother. He was WAY far ahead of where our bottle fed kids would be, in terms of weaning, and never wanted a bottle once we got him. I had to see this to believe it. My theory is that the natural nursing does get the kid further/faster along towards independence. Having said that, we will stay with the bottle feeding, right from birth because of the things Patrick mentioned. We pasteurize both colostrums and milk destined for kids, in order to insure that there is no possibility of passing on CAE. Our goats are most likely CAE free, but they are not tested. I spoke with the president of our dairy goat association, after Chivas thread, some weeks ago. She is a retired veterinarian who does dairy goats full time now. She completely agreed with PatrickÂs comments on feeding. She believes that un-pasteurized milk is better nutritionally, than the pasteurized. But there is the CAE issue, which leads her to go with pasteurized. On couple of occasions IÂve seen Patrick give the advise that one should get a good book, like "Stories Guide to..." say in this case "Goats." That is excellent advice. You can see, even in this thread, how wide a range of advice one can get on the Internet. A trusted, published guide, can help greatly with both information and perspective. On the subject of goats, I've often counseled that a person, who is really interested in them, plug in with a club or at least someone who is doing it successfully. They will serve as a "sounding board." And, if they are doing well (over a period of years) then you probably won't go wrong following their example. Our friends, for instance, who let their kids nurse on the does, have a distinctly different approach than the dairy goat association we belong to. Yet, they're doing well. Lil_chick_lady, consider the disbudding issue and make a decision as soon as you can. The sooner you disbud the better it generally works out. No one here suggested "de-horning." But disbudding is widely practiced and recommended. I personally have never met a goat person that I ABSOLUTELY KNOW is successful, in the manner I mention above, who would recommend that you leave the horns on. Lisainclyde is right on about their tendency to getting stuck. But I disagree about leaving horns on. That GREATLY increases the likelihood of problems. I've been at other folks' places where they had a goat or two with horns, and in every case they said they wished that they didn't (have horns). On one occasion, just as they were telling me this, the goat stuck its head through the fence, to get to a weed, and couldn't pull it back through! We live in OK where it gets HOT. Most here disbud. I've never heard anyone complain that it caused the goat to have problems in the heat. Have a great time with your goats! Nubians & Dwarves... you might call one Mutt and another Jeff.... George Tahlequah, OK

Kristen Marie, Congratulations on becoming a goat owner! Glad to hear the clarification on your dogs' livestock chasing- another example of how printed words can pack a whollop of misunderstanding. It seems to me if you taught your dogs to leave the rabbits alone, you can employ the same tactics by the goat fence/enclosure and get them 'goat friendly.' If you catch them barking or harassing the goats, yell NO and make it an unpleasant association for them. A bucket of water, squirt of water from a hose will get the idea across. Our visiting neighbor dogs (I KNOW people think neighbor dogs should be under control, but this is the way of life here and everyone is tolerant of the arrangement,) are half Great Pyr. and always lope and bark down the fenceline when it's goat feeding time, and the goats dutifully return to the barn (as if they would skip a meal!) They are unbothered as they have learned the fence is protective and the dogs know the fun stops when the goats arrive at the barn to get fed. Our first golden retriever was such a good goat nanny! When we got the little bottle fed kids, we'd tell her "get the goats" and she would so daintily grasp their little collars with her gentle teeth and escort them over to us. As they grew, 'get the goat' got a little trickier until they were full grown and well north of 100 lbs while she was only 65lb. She'd look at us with eyes that said " You're kidding, right?" But still, would go to them, daintily get their collars, hop on two legs, hobble or sidewind them back to us. No one ever got hurt and we enjoyed their cooperative efforts to get goat chores done. Enjoy the squirmy, springy antics of the youngsters especially! There is nothing like a baby goat for frolicking and sheer celebration of 4 legs and muscles.

Here's my 2 cents on Aruncus. I have Misty Lace, Horatio, Dioicus and Zweiweltenkind. Trying to stay with the question asked(hard). Misty Lace to my eyes does not appear significantly different then Astibe. While a pretty plant with all the Astilbe I have it added nothing different. Horatio is to new to comment on. AD and AZ I love for their size and brought a new dimension to the garden. In a normal year my soil is moister retaining and astilbe and aruncus do well for me. I'm struggling to understand growing them in dry soil. I've had AD and Az for eons and mine never have looked heathy in droughty years. Don't know why? I have also been unfortunate as to lose a tree that gave the north side of my house most of it's shade. Everything now receives at least 5 hours of hot afternoon sun. AD and AZ are very unhappy and struggling. Even with additional water. In it's previous moist shady environment blooms stayed nice for easily 6 weeks or better. Foliage lush thick and green' Never actually recorded bloom time. Now blooms fry as soon as weather gets hot or the soil runs dry. Remember please I'm only speaking of my experience with aruncus and that said, I would only recommend it for moist shadier spots or sun with very damp soil for it to look its very best. O'kay I didn't stay with the question asked. Darn!