Alright, so it looks more like a shot of my garden than a farm. It is. I also enjoy organic gardening. But if you'll look in the background you can at least see my goat barn and if you'll look really hard you may see a few of the goats and the dog enjoying the day lounging around outside the barn. Outside the barn is rare for Nubians. And no, it's not always summer at my farm but when it's not I'm wishing it was.
When I first starting raising Nubians (actually part-Nubians back then) I simply started with the desire to own a "poor man's cow". I had always wanted to own a milk cow since I was a child growing up on less than half an acre in a small town. As I grew up and learned how much milk a single cow can produce, how much feed they eat, and the amount of pasture they require I gave up on the childhood desire. Then I found out that goats can be milked too. I, too, had always heard about "stinky old goat milk" but I was game to at least try.
I still am amused at myself when I think of the first time I milked one of my goats and was intent to try goat milk for the first time. I carefully raised a cup to my nose expecting the worst. It smelled more like vanilla ice cream than the boy goats whose aroma I had by then learned. I tried an ever so small sip ready to spit it on the ground in case my nose had deceived me. If you found this sight because you're interested in raisng goats to milk you already know the rest of the story. It was better than any cow's milk that I had ever tasted and now when my girls are are all dry I drink soy milk until someone freshens again.
You may also already know that you can't just own one goat. I sold kids I didn't need, swapped, bought better, and bred so I could have better and better animals. My animals not only got better but also bigger and bigger. Then I began to notice mention of Mininubians on several of the goat forums. As I investigated further I began to realize that may be the direction that I needed to be heading. I also realized that during the ten years or so that I had been raising bigger and better Nubians that I had not gotten any stronger or younger and that feed prices had not gone down. Mininubians seemed like the answer.
My goal for having dairy goats since the start has been to have good milkers for myself. "Good milkers" to me doesn't mean that they are show winners or that they are perfect according to someone's appraisal scores. Good milkers to me not only milk quantities close to what breed standards dictate but are easy to handle, good natured, and easy to care for. If they also are nice to look at ("Pasture Decoration") that is a bonus. Registration and paperwork are important simply to keep track of transmittable traits, potential ability, and to help guard against unintended crosses such as too much inbreeding. "Good milkers" to me are those girls that someone might own one or two of to have milk for their family. Those individuals may never attend a show much less enter their animal in one. Most of those folks, like myself, probably couldn't be payed to carry their milker to a show and expose them and the rest of their herd to who knows what parasites, diseases, etc. Their "good milker" is more of a family member or pet than a show animal. That animal may indeed be "show quality" but may never get the chance to prove it because that is not what the owner deems as important.
During the time that I have had dairy goats I have tried several different breeds but have always kept some Nubians. There just seems to be something about those big 'ol drooping ears and that big Roman nose that's appealing. The only breeds that are here now are my purebred Nubians and the Mininubians. For me personally, the Mininubians are simply a more economical way to continue to raise the type goats that I have tried to raise since I started. They're still Nubians, they're just smaller and require less feed and pasture. That seems like a small farm owners' dream come true, doesn't it?
This site was updated 5/7/2009.