Sallygarden Smallholding - The Forum For Sustainable Living

Just interested to find out why goats are so popular for milk in ireland yet you never hear of any body having a house cow. Does a cow not make more sense, as easier to fence, heifer/bullock for freezer every year, larger yeild of milk etc.I have very little experience of goats and only some of cows, so if anybody can enlighten me, please feel free to do so

Well just the thought of handling such a huge beast as a cow made me a bit nervous! Then having however many gallons of milk every day from a single cow ... I'd have no idea what to do with it all besides make cheese everyday, and I don't have time for that, making cheese once every couple of weeks maybe, but not everyday as it's impossible to anything else on cheese making day.

The other thing is that where I live the soil is clay and so having a cow on it year long the place would be a mud bath. Wouldn't you also need at least two cows to keep each other company?

For me a goat is small, easy on the ground, easy to handle, two of them gives just the right amount of milk for a family, or even one milker is enough if the companion isn't bred (3 litres per day as compared to 30 litres at least a day from a single cow). Milking is much quicker because there's less volume. In comparison to size/feed ratio a goat is more efficient at milk production. It's milk is also far more easily digested by humans than cows milk as the fat globules are much smaller, many people intolerant of cows milk can drink goats milk. Eczema sufferers also fair much better on goats milk.

With a Nanny goat the normal kidding number is two per year, rather than a single calf from a cow. They are ready for the freezer at just 3 months.

Those are the reasons I love goats over cows, but I've never had a cow. I've seen Dexter's the very small cows and loved the look of them, and of course the jersey cow ... but dealing with the sheer volume of milk is still a no brainer for me.

They are very good points. 30 litres is indeed a lot of milk. I assumed you would keep the calf with the cow and just milk off any surplus required for the house and keep the calfs till slaughter age of 18-24mths, thus providing company and a very full freezer. What does goat meat taste like? Is it difficult to make butter from goats milk as the cream doesnt rise so well as cows milk?

Goats have more personality than cows. They have a sense of humor.
Our cow was grumpy and always preferred to keep her milk for her calf son.