future farm critters - part 4: goats

I've already eluded to the fact that I'm not real sold on goats. When I first started thinking about farm animals, goats were at the top of the list, but when I think about why, my only conclusion is that it's because people talk about them so much and how cute they are and all, but I'm in this for the end product. If cuteness is a by-product, all the better! But I'm not going to get any animal just because it's cute.

So goats can give milk, meat, and/or fiber, depending on the breed. In order to get milk, the goat has to be a mother, right? Which means you must have babies. Which means you might have boy babies, who are only good for meat and/or fiber. I don't care about fiber, so they're really only good for meat in our situation. Truthfully, I've never eaten goat, but I really doubt that it's better than pork, lamb, or beef. I'm down for trying unique or exotic meats, but I'm really only semi-adventurous when it comes to food, and what if we end up with a freezer full of goat meat that we just don't want to eat?

And I've read that, for whatever reason, male goats stink to high heaven, and I think we're gonna have enough stink as it is with all that excrement from cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens.

I don't know if goat's milk is better than sheep's milk, but at least I can eat the sheep without question, and my favorite cheese eva is feta, which is made from sheep's milk. I'm sure we can adjust our palate from store-bought cow milk to sheep's milk when the time comes.

The one redeeming quality of goats is that they're good for clearing shrubbery. But the other livestock breeds I'm interested in are well known for their foraging ability that is almost on par with goats. Besides, I don't think we even have that much shrubbery to clear anyway, and what we do have can be done with a bush hog if it really comes to that.

I'll probably end up insulting someone, but goats are kinda in the same boat as horses for me. Like, what are horses good for? Riding: ok, so you ride a horse somewhere, then what? I supposed if you had hundreds of acres of farmland, a horse might be a worthwhile investment instead of motorized transportation. Maybe people who don't want to own a car would rather have a horse instead. Draft work and plowing: makes more sense. But a pig can do that for me. And then I get to eat bacon and ribs and sausage and tenderloin. And I want to do the whole no-till gardening thing anyway, so I only need it done once (if at all). I suppose people do eat horses (didn't they just pass a law about that?), but I'm not going to join those ranks. Ew.

Besides, we already have a horse. His name is Clyde Dog.

He's supposedly a St. Bernard, but we suspect he's actually a Clydesdale in disguise.

Although goats can apparently be very friendly and fun to watch, I think we will have our hands plenty full with the vegetable garden, forest garden (aka fruit trees), bramble, mushroom, and wildflower patches, watch dogs, barn cats, sheep, swine, cattle, canning, freezing, root cellaring, hunting, and most important of all, porch sitting.

Goats = perfect for someone else!