Episode 127 For the Love of Goats If you’ve ever thought about starting a business with your dairy goats, today’s episode will give you a lot of valuable information. We are talking to PJ Jonas, founder of Goat Milk Stuff, which sells all sorts of products made from goat milk. Although they focus on soap and body care products today, they also sold cheese, yogurt, gelato, and caramels before the pandemic. PJ talks about why she started making soap and how it got turned into a business. She explains how she scaled the business from making batches of 28 bars in her kitchen to one of her sons ma ..read more

Episode 126 For the Love of Goats Who wouldn’t love free food for your goats? But before you call your local brewer or distiller and ask if you can pick up their spent grain, listen to this episode with Dr. Robert VanSaun, vet professor and ruminant nutritionist at Pennsylvania State University. Spent brewers grain and distillers grain are popular feed for cattle, but are less commonly used to feed goats. We’ve used brew grain to feed our pigs and chickens for about ten years, but have shied away from feeding it to our goats because it doesn’t come with a guaranteed nutritional analysis or ev ..read more

Episode 125 For the Love of Goats If you’ve been looking for a smaller breed of goat that’s parasite resistant, has excellent mothering skills, and comes in a variety of colors, the Arapawa goat from New Zealand might be a good fit, especially if you are interested in conserving rare breeds. In this episode, we are joined by Emily Nyman, Arapawa Goat Breeders Association President and Livestock Coordinator at Conner Prairie in Indiana, a living history farm museum that has a herd of Arapawa. Their feral history means that this breed is very hardy, but there are also challenges for those who w ..read more

Episode 124 For the Love of Goats Can goats threaten your health if you’re a pregnant woman? If you are a woman, there are some specific precautions you should be taking with goats giving birth and also when using drugs for synchronization. Dr. Jamie Stewart, Assistant Professor at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and a reproductive specialist, is talking about zoonotic diseases that are of special concern to pregnant women, including toxoplasmosis, chlamydia, campylobacter, brucellosis, and q-fever. We talk about wearing gloves, a face mask, and even eye protection to pro ..read more

Pygmy goats are a miniature breed of domestic goat that originated in Africa. They are a popular choice as pets due to their manageable size, friendly demeanor, and low maintenance requirements. Despite their small size, pygmy goats are hardy and adaptable animals that can thrive in a variety of climates and environments. History and Origin of Pygmy Goats Pygmy goats are a breed of domestic goats that originated in West Africa, specifically in the Cameroon Valley. They are also known as African Pygmy. These goats were primarily kept by the Bantu tribe in Cameroon for their meat and milk. They ..read more

Episode 123 For the Love of Goats If you’ve ever had a goat with wonky knees, today’s episode will shed some light on the problem. When a goat has carpal hyperextension, it means that the knees bend backwards rather than being straight. We are joined today by Dr. Erica McKenzie, Professor of Large Animal Medicine, Oregon State University and Dr. Leah Streb, 3rd year Laboratory Animal Medicine Resident, UC Davis, who are just putting the finishing touches on the first study ever to look at this disease. They are talking about how it is diagnosed and the possible genetic link that they are seei ..read more

Episode 122 For the Love of Goats Have you ever had a goat get an udder even though you are 100% sure she has not been anywhere close to a buck so could not possibly be pregnant? Normally, goats have to go through pregnancy and have a baby before they produce milk, but it’s not impossible for a doe to start making milk without getting pregnant. A precocious udder is one that fills up with milk even though the doe has not been bred. Most of these will just go away as mysteriously as they appeared with no intervention needed. However, that is not always the case. In this episode, we are talking ..read more

Whenever the temperatures start to fall, questions start to flood our inboxes from goat owners asking if their goats will be okay in the cold weather. The interesting thing is that these questions come from Florida and Canada and everywhere in between. Giselle, five months pregnant, was warm and cozy in the barn during a blizzard one February. Shelter for goats in winter The most important thing for goats in cold temperatures is to have a shelter that will keep them dry and out of the wind. A wet goat can wind up with hypothermia at 40 or 50 degrees if it’s windy. They can easily handle tempe ..read more

Episode 121 For the Love of Goats Milk testing can provide you with a plethora of information about your does’ milk production and the components of their milk, and they can even earn milk stars, but a lot of people never get started because they find the process daunting. Lisa Shepard, board member and former Performance Program Coordinator for the American Dairy Goat Association, joins us to talk about the different types of milk testing and how to get started. We talk about where to find a tester, as well as owner-sampler and group testing. You’ll learn about one-day tests, 305-day tests ..read more

Episode 120 For the Love of Goats Some of the most common questions I receive from new goat owners are on the topic of manure management. Many new goat owners think they need to clean out the barn weekly or even daily, so in this episode I’m talking about how our barn cleaning practices have evolved through the years. I am also joined by some of our Goats 365 Premium members so they can ask questions. We cover everything from the basics of mucking out stalls to deep bedding, stall mats, straw versus shavings, and different types of barn flooring. Listen right here… …or on your favorite platf ..read more