Goat Products

Milk and Meat

As the picture at right shows, goats can definitely produce milk! In fact, worldwide, more people drink goat's milk than cow's milk.

Goat's milk is sweet and highly digestible, and is often given to children and adults who are unable to digest cow's milk.

Goat's milk has been used to raise a variety of orphaned animals ranging from kittens and puppies to calves and foals.

Average milk production for a dairy goat is 6-8 pounds per day. A high-yielding doe can produce 16 pounds of milk per day!

Mechanized milking machines are available for goats, but many owners of small herds milk by hand twice a day.

Goat breeds range in size from very small (African Pygmy) to quite large (Saanen, Nubian, and Boer).

Goat breeds were developed according to the desired utility of the animal. There are 6 breeds of dairy goats recognised by the American Dairy Goat Association: Saanen, Toggenburg, Alpines, Nubian, Oberhasli and LaMancha. Lamanchas don't have any external ear parts but can hear normally. Boer goats are large fleshy fast-growing goats from Africa that are primarily raised for meat.

Fiber

This goat produces both milk and a fiber that is used to make cashmere sweaters. Actually, two types of fiber are produced from goats: cashmere and mohair.

The cashmere goat is not a true breed of goat. More correctly, a goat of any breed that produces the typical downy cashmere undercoat is called a cashmere-producing goat.

Angora goats are a true fiber-producing breed. They produce the mohair that is used to make fine garments.

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