Goats or Cows?

We had this dilemma awhile back.  Do we want to get out meat and dairy from cows or goats?  To make a long story short - it depends.  Below is the lay-down of what we discovered about our cows and goats, both good and bad.

Goats as Pets, Dairy, and Meat:

I love goats.  My husband - only if they are on a plate.  Goats are awesome, because a well-selected goat can be a great childrens' pet, source of dairy, and source of meat.  They provide all this while they subsists on scrubby forage and minimal upkeep.  But I say this with a caveat, because a poorly-selected goat cam be hell on hooves.

General Goat Care.  A goat requires less space, feed, water, salt, and a lower quality of feed than a cow.  Because they weigh much less, goats do less turf damage.  A goat or two may be suitable for raising in a large back yard, depending on local ordinances (and enforcement) and the like.  Goats poop in pellets, which incorporate fairly well into grass and are easily swept from surfaces.  Goats are great for clearing brush and small trees, and they prefer these to regular grass (which also means they will strip clean any and all trees, bark, flowers, shrubs, and gardens to which they can gain access).  Goats require a good, solid fence (see Goat Fencing below). 

Goats as Pets.  I start off with pets, because animal personality, amicability, and temperament is the first consideration when choosing breeds and individual animals for our homestead.  We have kids (as of today a 6 1/2 year old and a nearly 3 year old).  The importance of safety here should speak for itself.  Despite good training and handling practices, housing structure stability, proper feeding, and good fencing, we have found that animal safety inevitably begins and ends with the personality of the individual animal. A goat with a bad personality is a danger to those on and off the homestead.  Most importantly, we look at the individual goat's behavior toward children and fences.  

Goats and Children.  This is so very important.  The animal should have absolutely no aggressive tendency toward people.  Never "play" with kid goats (or adult goats for that matter), as in letting them push their heads against you, rear up at you, or any other playing behavior.  It is practice for dominance competition, and with regard to people, dominance should never come into question.  It may be cute when the goat is a kid, but it is downright dangerous when the animal is bigger and "playing" with you, or - god forbid - a small child.  Goat skulls can withstand crushing forces, a small human skull will break or suffer concussion.  We take this so seriously that if we ever see a goat intentionally push over a child, the goat is expeditiously relocated to our freezer.  However, we are so careful in our animal screening and selection that this has only happened once.  Our current herd consists of a lamancha doe (the herd queen), a young nubian doe, and a buck nubian-boer cross.  All three goats will allow our boys to hug, kiss, pet, and lead them around by the collar.  The goats fight and play with each other all the time, but NEVER with us or our children.  On a lighter note, the goats that are most tolerant with children also tend to be the ones most tolerant of the milking stand. 

Goat Fencing.  Goats are notorious escape artists.  As the adage goes: If the fence can hold a goat, it can hold anything.  But not all goats are created equal.  Some goats are completely content to stay within the bounds of a couple strands of electric fencing (whether working properly or grounded out somewhere).  Others will climb the nicest woven wire fence (yes, like a monkey), shake off the pokes and shocks of barbed and electric fences, and force their way through the smallest perceived gap or flaw in the barricade.  These latter goats are also the ones who will play chicken in the road, ring strip the bark from your neighbor's apple trees (within minutes), and decimate any carefully tended garden within smelling distance.  Sound like a nightmare?  It is.  Choose your goat carefully.  When you accidentally purchase a fence challenger, cull it.  It may seem like a loss, but it will save you (and your neighbors) time, energy, stress, and money in the long run.  

Goat Milk Pros.  Goat milk is less fattening than cow milk and is naturally homogenized (meaning the cream doesn't separate while sitting on your fridge shelf).  This can be a good or bad thing, depending on your intended purpose for the milk.  Goat milk is great for fresh drinking for those who don't like having to shake the milk before pouring.  It also doesn't get the tiny globs of butter like in unhomogenized cow milk.  Goat milk is also suitable for making ice milk and simple cheese like feta.  Goat milk is also great for homemade soap making, if you are so inclined.

Goat Milk Cons.  Goat milk is not so great for butter, more complex cheeses (unless you are a pro - which we are not), and anything else requiring a separated cream.  In order to get the cream from goat milk, you pretty much have to acquire a cream separator device.  People also claim that goat milk has a "goaty" flavor.  We found that the goatiness of the milk depends on the individual goat, what she ate, and the handling procedure for the milk (must chill immediately).  We have found goat milk to have a shorter fridge shelf life than our cow's milk, in that it develops the goaty flavor after only four to five days in the fridge.  

And obviously, you get less milk per animal for a goat, as opposed to a cow.  Your goat may give anywhere from 1/2 to 2 gallons per day depending on the individual animal, feed, time since freshening, water consumption, and a litany of other factors.  The practical effect here is that it is more difficult to decide between a good milk producer and a poor milk producer, and a bad choice in animal can have a greater impact when it comes to meeting your family's dairy needs.  Everyone likes to claim that their goat gives one to two gallons of milk per day (and the fish I caught last weekend was THIS BIG!).  Only purchase a goat if she is currently in full milk and you can personally witness the 1) volume, 2) flavor, 3) udder conformation, and 4) temperament on the stand.  We have found that if the owner lets the goat dry up before sale, there was a reason, and it usually had something to do with the four previously mentioned attributes. 

Goat Meat Pros.  Goat meat is delicious with a flavor somewhere between beef and venison.  In our area it costs a little under $60 to have a goat professionally processed.  We usually get the ribs, a few pounds of stew meat, and the rest ground.  $60 per goat can be cheap or incredibly expensive, depending on the size of goat.  For example, a decent boer/nubian cross could yield around 35 lbs of meat at around $2 per lb.  A pygmy goat will still cost $60 to process, but will only yield - at most - 8 lbs of meat at $7.50 per lb.  Both of these scenarios don't take into account the original purchase price of the animals or the subsequent feed that went into them.  Either way, amount of meat per goat is manageable with a standard freezer - assuming it isn't already full with other stuff (definitely not the case with a cow).    We use the meat for everything from spaghetti to shepherd's pie.

Goat Meat Cons.  You don't get as much meat per animal as with a cow - not enough per animal to sell or share.  One large breed goat keeps our modest family of four in meat for about three months.  That means we would need to process four two-year-old (or older) goats per year to keep up with our meat consumption.  If you think about it, we would have to keep at least 11 goats year-round: 2 x breeding  does, 4 x newborn to yearlings, 4 x yearling to two years, and a breeding buck.  That is assuming no losses due to weather, breeding/birthing complications, illness, and so on.

Choosing a Goat.  We look for a goat that doesn't mind being handled by kids, shows no people aggression, doesn't challenge fences, puts out 1 to 1.5 gallons milk per day, is between 1 and 3 years old, and gets to a body size suitable for meat production.  Or favorite breeds so far are lamanchas, saanens, and nubians.  A good goat should cost between $100 and $250, depending on age, breed, registration, and history. 

Cows as Pets, Dairy, and Meat:

You read it right, our cows are big bellowing pets in addition to being a source of meat and dairy.  Like goats, cows can subsist on a scrubby field, but require slightly better and much more pasture than a goat.  Unlike goats, it is actually easier to find a dairy cow that adequately meets our personality and subsistence requirements - if you know where and how to look.  

Cows as Pets.  A good cow is docile, mildly curious, and much less stubborn than even the nicest goat.  It is not easily startled and loves to be scratched and petted.  Our Jersey, Clarabelle, lets our boys pet her, assist in milking, and even ride her.  She is so comfortable and trusting with us that we can walk up to her in the middle of the field and milk her.  And don't forget the calves - ADORABLE!  

It must be emphasized here that you or your kids NEVER play with the calves.  Just like baby goats, they will want to push on you and play.  It is extremely dangerous to allow this, as they will continue this behavior as they grow if allowed.  A full grown cow - even one as modestly built as a Jersey - can throw or break an adult human with a toss of her head or a well-placed kick.  Keep this in mind when the calf is young and learning how to properly interact with you and your children. 

Cows are definitely not for the backyard.  They poop in pies, instead of pellets, and their hooves and weight will turn even a large back yard into a poopy, smelly mud lot.

Cow Fencing - and Feeding.  Cows are known for ease in fencing.  A well-trained cow may be kept in pasture with as little as a single strand of electric or barbed wire fencing (although we recommend more than that as a general rule).  This is a rather large advantage over goats, in general.

On the flip side, cows need space.  A cow is economical for us, because we have enough pasture to keep her well fed eight months out of the year.  The rest of the time, she goes through a large round bale of hay every three to four weeks.  She eats as much - if not more - than seven full grown goats combined. 

Dairy Cow Pros.  Whole, fresh cow milk is beyond delicious.  The cream separates within 12 hours of milking and easily turns into the most fabulous butter.  Cow milk is both mild and rich in flavor.  It suits itself to the production of any dairy product you can fathom and have the time to make.  Which is good, because you will have plenty of daily fresh milk with which to work.

Dairy Cow Cons.  Too much milk!  Your fridge will go from empty to overflowing in only three days.  On day four, where do you put it?  You definitely have to have a game plan for what to do with the overflowing of wonderful, yet space-consuming and easily perishable liquid gold.  If you only need a gallon or so a day (or every few days) and are not inclined to go into daily crazy production of cheeses, ice creams, butters, wheys, and so on - there is a simple, effective, and equally productive solution (see Meat Cow Pros).

Also, some people do not like the inevitable butter chunks that will end up in your skimmed milk.  The stuff at the store is homogenized.  This stuff definitely isn't.  Furthermore, the cream separation totally grosses some people out.  I don't get it, but I accept it and thus mention it here.

Cow Meat Pros.  Lots of delicious, grass-fed beef!  A dairy cow births one calf per year, beginning her milk cycle.  A good dairy cow produces more than enough milk to keep both the calf and your family in ready supply of milk.  

Depending on the quality of your cow, she may be able to handle two calves in addition to your family's dairy needs.  If she is making too much milk for you to handle, put a calf on her or a second calf.  In our case, the heifer calf was allowed to stay with the cow.  The cow was still producing more milk than we and the calf could consume.  So we checked in the classifieds and found a dairy selling newborn bottle bull calves for $50 a head.  So we picked one up and put it with her.  Beef in the fall.  Our cow will accept just about any calf, but some cows are not as motherly.  You have to do your research and gauge each cow individually. 

A processed cow puts out enough meat to share or sell to family and friends (to help defray the processing costs).  Although the processing cost per animal is higher, the price per pound of meat is much less.  

Cow Meat Cons.  Too much meat!  If you don't have a large deep freezer, you had better have the other half or three quarters pre-sold to friends or family.  Depending on the size of the cow and the cuts you choose, a standard freezer may still not be enough space.  The best bet is to have a good sized deep freezer.

The processing cost per cow is much more expensive than for goats.  Be prepared to fork out from $100 to $300 (or more), depending on the size of cow and how you want it processed.  Prices and options vary from processor to processor.    

Choosing a Cow.  Although I said finding a good cow is easier than finding a good goat, the cost of selecting a bad cow is much higher.  For starters, a good cow in milk will run you from $1200 to $2000 or more, depending on the breed, age, quality, and market prices.  Above purchase price, a cow with bad temperament will cost you in medical bills (for your or another's hospitalization), property damage, and general time and trouble.  That being said, this is how we selected our wonderful cow, Clarabelle, after much research and advice.

We called up a reputable dairy farm that uses the breed we wanted (a Jersey) we learned about through a friend of a friend.  Dairies will generally be looking to down-size in the fall, looking ahead to the costs of wintering over cattle.  We researched the current market prices of dairy cattle (preferably of that breed, if available) and expected to pay at or near market price.  Next we made a list of the attributes we wanted for our family cow:

1) People friendly: not skittish, but not pushy.  Didn't mind being touched and milked.

2) Healthy.  (If it is a reputable dairy, all of the animals offered should be healthy, if not a little plump from silage.)

2) Good size and shape of utters for hand milking. (Dairies generally don't pay much attention to teat size, because they use machine milkers.  But for hand milking, a comfortable teat size is oh so important.)

3) Between the ages of 5 and 6.  (3-4 years is the peak production for Jerseys, and thus the peak price.  We were looking for a cow just past her prime, but with many good years still in her.)  

4) Currently in milk.  (That's what we're there for after all!  Please allow for a little immediate gratification.)

5) Pregnant, preferably in the last trimester of pregnancy.  (Cow and calf - a two for one deal!)

After saying our hellos, we went straight out to the lot.  We timed it so that we were there about a half hour before milking,so we could see their udders while full and get the best idea of teat and udder shape.  

We walked around to each of the cows in the lot, gauging their reaction to my presence.  Most were skittish, some were mildly curious and liked a good scratch, and was downright pushy about getting attention.  We took down the ear tag numbers of the cows that were mildly curious and liked a good scratch, and took those numbers into the office.

Good dairies keep meticulous notes on each of their cows.  On file they should have her birth date, age, calving history, current milk production, milk production history, and stage of breeding or pregnancy, and - if pregnant - her due date.  Way better than trying to guess at an auction or stranger's homestead, right?  Based on the data from the files and our notes from the cow lot, we discussed prices and settled on cow number 874 for $1350, which was right around market price for her.

And just to be sure, we walked back out to the feed lot to take a final look at cow 874 before shaking hands and sealing the deal.  She was big, friendly, very pregnant, and absolutely beautiful!  That's how we found our Clarabelle.  Three months later met her beautiful heifer calf, Annabelle.  

But wait...  So which is better?

We keep both cows and goats for meat and milk.  We also keep sheep for wool and meat; ducks, turkeys, rabbits, and geese for meat; and chickens and guineas for meat and eggs.  If you have the space and resources, it is best to keep a variety, especially if you are learning what you like to use for what.

Over a few years we learned our animals, their personalities, and something about ourselves.  We settled on a balance that works best for both the animals and us.  And our balance will be different than that of the next homestead.  On our (roughly) five acres of pasture we keep a mature cow, her two calves, three goats, and four sheep.   

We like our goats for their brush clearing, companionship for the kids, and flavorful meat.  We prefer their milk as a base for making soaps.  We like our cows for their ability to better keep the pasture "mowed", their abundance of meat, and that wonderful milk for making just about anything.  Clarabelle is too large for the boys to play with like the goats, but they have fun with her when an adult is helping them milk and holding the halter for cow rides.  But it took us a few years (and we are still learning) the perfect balance of critters for us.

The most important thing is to do your research to figure out what will probably be best for you in your situation and take the time to carefully select your individual animals.