:) why not? You might be able to get them to stand still...

Me I would get a few goats. Here is my reasoning:
1. 1 cow would be lonesome
2. you also could use the goats milk to make soap, cheese and other goodies.
(Don't be fooled goats are just as much work as a cow would be.)
3. a few goats would be warmer together in the winter than a cow would be.
4. goats would take up less pasture/barn space
5. they are cute but have evil looking eyes.
6. they would be great company on walks down the street

On the other hand cows:
1. have beautiful eyes
2. cute wet noses
3. look cute wearing a straw hat or at least I think so

Karyn

post pictures when you decide and add the new addition.:) I love baby pictures.

A few Nubian goats would be my choice. Their milk tastes just about like cows milk as long as you don't keep a buck anywhere near the milking does.

Goats are smaller and you can always keep more of them if you want more milk, it's pretty hard to keep just half a cow.

Goats are not as likely to crush your foot when they step on it or crush you when they push you against the wall or a post.

If something happens to one of your goats you don't lose your entire milking herd. If one goat stops milking for whatever reason, you will still get milk from the others.

Goats can forage on all kinds of brushy stuff and save on yard work, too.

Baby goats are really, really cute!

I grew up on a Black Angus / Quarter horse farm. If you would have asked me this question 5 - 6 years ago...I would have said a cow. The only thing a goat was good for is cleaning up the weeds along a fence row.

Now I is a goat herder...LOL!

There are a hundered reasons to get goats and probably another hundred to get a cow...but you have more flexibility with goats than cows. They don't eat as much hence they won't cost as much to feed; they are brousers / not grazers; they are much easier to handle and have personalities. If they get out of the fence or barn you will not have to search the country side looking for them. They will probably be on your front porch eating your flowers.

Goats do not need as much real estate as cows either.

I would be lying if I said I didn't miss having cattle...because I do. I do not have the land for them. But after experiencing goats for the last 5-years if I did buy that 100+ acre farm in the future...I would have a small herd of cows but the majority of the property would have goats on it!

Just my humble 2-cents.

Brian

I would go for the goats. Lots of good reasons posted above.
And it's a lot easier to get a goat freshened than it would be a cow. You would need a trailor to haul a cow to get her bred...goats ride well in cars and vans.
The start up cost. Goats are less expensive than dairy cows.
And personally, I think goat milk is better for more people than cow milk is. I have people with babies asking if they can buy goat milk, because the babies have trouble with formula and cows milk. I can't provide it for them due to government restrictions.
You can feed just about any orphaned animal goat milk. I just hand raised a litter of bunnies on goat milk. From birth to weaning, and didn't lose any of them. All they had was goat milk with probiotics and they are happy and healthy.
Make sure you check teat size and how easy the goat is to handle if you are new to milking. I don't think you would want a pastured raised goat that hasn't had much human contact for milking.
Good luck! I enjoy milking. It's a relaxing time of day for me.

I have been contemplating this subject as well. My only other arguement for the cow is butchering the calf. I have bulls all around me (Colorado is cow country). I just don't like how the goats jump on everything and the cow could barn and pasture with the horses.

Just thinking out loud...
Billie

LOL! Thanks for the great info everyone! You all bring up some good points, like the cow being lonely, if one goat stops producing, etc. I always liked goats too, ever since I was a little kid at the petting zoo and the one kid tried to eat my dress. :)

If I kept a billy goat, how far would I have to keep him from the ladies? I have heard that they really stink when they are in 'heat' or whatever it's called. I have a lot to learn, hee hee!

I have goats and cows, I really don't want to mess with milking the goats. I really don't like goats milk too much. Cows milk tastes better much longer. I can keep raw cows milk fresh at least 2 weeks. Goat milk gets very goaty after only 2 days. We now only milk once or twice a week and the calves take the rest of the milk. I rely on my sons to milk as I have corpal tunnel syndrome, and my best milker is fixing to leave for college. My up and coming son is much slower and less productive, but he will do better with experience. We only milk once or twice a week now and let the calves take the rest. They grow so fast and healthy on a good jersey mom.

With cows milk you can make cheese and butter and sour cream and yogurt, and kefir, icecream and have the best milk to drink. And fresh milk is soooo good and doesn't cause stomach upset like pasteurized milk does.

My main milk cow has raised 3 calves this lactation, her calf is 12 months old, she has two foster calves now about 6 months old, we are weaning the bull calf and only keep the Brahman heifer on her right now. She is such productive member of the farm and family. She can feed (clabber) pigs, chickens in addition to her calves. I would not trade her for anything. My other milk cow is giving me fits as she just freshened and won't let down drop of milk for us. We have a plan, just hesitant to use it, but I guess we will tonight...keeping her calf from her till she lets down. She will learn one way or another.

lesli8, call your vet and tell them you need a dose of oxytocin. pull the calf off a few hours ahead of time, then dose her up and away you go!

mersiepoo, I work on a large Jersey dairy. If you are new to milk animals, please get goats. If you give a modern dairy cow the kind of care she needs, she will respond with MILK. You will have more than you can possibly use and if you don't, your cow is probably suffering. If you get one with a bad tempermant, you won't be able to use her. Jerseys are the most forgiving of the milk breeds, but they do need a level of care tha most aren't prepared for.
Goats, on the other hand, are easy to handle and will give you more than enough milk even if the care isn't exact. You can handle pretty much anything that a goat throws at you. And, If you staggar their freshening dates, you will have production year round. They are more than willing to survive and even thrive on conditions that will kill a dairy cow.

Well, we cracked her code, she gave it up tonight, didn't even keep the calf off long, except the day like normal. We certainly didn't get it all, actually hardly noticeable on her bag, but she is a lower producing jersey would probably only give 3-4 gallons a day. Her tiny little bull calf is pretty good at taking care of her udder. I think what was the trick was that her calf went to the other cow when we had her in the milking chute, his mama could see it but not get to him, she went nuts so she was willing to do what ever she needed to do to get to him so she would nurse her!

We have only been doing this 3 years, no where near experts, but we have been around the block a few times and know a good bit about what we are doing. It was important to me to get good quality low producers. The calf always plays an important role in our milking routine. We share milk and our calves grow large and healthy with never a problem scouring etc. This little guy (half Brangus)was taking care of the udder for 10 days and was very diligent about hitting every quarter and kept the udder milked enough for her comfort with out her getting mastitis since she would not let down for us. We still ALWAYS monitored her udder closely and it never felt hot or got red with lumps or anything. Not every cow can be handled this way, some are just too heavy of producers.

lesli8, do you pasturize your milk or use it raw? what are the pros and con for raw vs. pasturized fresh milk?

You may want to check out this link about the benefits of raw milk. Do some google searches if you want to find out what pasturization does to milk. You will be surprised.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raw Milk

While most of the time raw milk is safe, there are organisms out there (salmonila) that can kill a cow so fast that she seems ok at the morning milking and by the time you figure out she's sick, she's dead and you've already drank the milk. Rare, yes... but it does happen and it's not worth taking a chance on.
Please pasturize. It doesn't change the taste much and most of the nutrition is left, but above all else it's safe and all the health benefits in the world won't save you if you get a glassfull of salmonila or Ecoli.

Raw of course. If I was going to pasteurize I would not bother with the trouble or cost of keeping a cow. Pasteurizing makes the milk virtually worthless in food value, it is actually worse than worthless it is a detriment.

You can go to http://www.westonaprice.org/ and find nearly anything you could imagine on raw milk, And please join us at Keeping A Family Cow http://familycow.proboards32.com/index.cgi It is such a warm and friendly place. We have veternarians that visit often who keep family cows and are very knowledgeable in times of trouble. Loads of knowledge.

Lesli

Here is a link that might be useful: Keeping a Family Cow

http://www.ghlcom.com/content/MilkGoodBad.html Here is a good article. Still looking for the study, it was done for a large raw dairy in California, I believe.

The trick to getting goat milk to taste like cow milk is the feed. I have a Nubian who gives the best milk when stalled and I feed her corn and hay, but when left out in the field to forage, the milk is awful tasting. I made the mistake of throwing her some Juniper branches once; the milk tasted like Cedar for days. Yuck!

In the US Raw milk is very rare, yet still dozens of people get seriously ill every month from it and several die each year. Unless you are examining the milk under high power microscopy and performing a number of expensive expensive chemical tests every time you are at risk for E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria, among several other things.

Those who say that raw milk is healthy and pasteurized milk is not are the same people who claim that microwaving water will cause it to become toxic Its not inspired by scientific research on the impact of milk on the human body, and is at best supplemented by looking at the chemical changes that occur in the milk and excessive levels of post hoc rationalization (i.e. since protein A denatures and lipid B breaks down protein A and lipid B must be important to human health)its all bass Akwards and back science and people kept dyeing from raw milk, thats why you can't buy it anymore.

Don't eat raw meat, and don't eat raw eggs and don't drink raw milk, most of the time you will live, but there are billions of nasty critters that can easily get out of hand and have some serious negative impacts on your life.

Brendan,
It's kind of a religious fanaticism for many of these raw milk/raw food folks. Don't try to confuse them with facts.

lesli8, there's some much misinformation and outright bullcrap in that 'Coach G' article you linked that I don't have the time or inclination to take on dismantling it piece by piece right now.
If you want to drink raw milk - and I grew up on it - that's fine, but don't go making statements like "Pasteurizing makes the milk virtually worthless in food value, it is actually worse than worthless it is a detriment.", because that fits right into the pure BS category.

You would think some of those many deaths from drinking natural milk would make the news like it does when people get sick from eating spinach, tomatoes, and beef. ;-)

hpw,
I don't have any numbers, but I don't doubt that some US citizens become ill from food-borne illnesses contracted from consuming 'raw foods' every year; but, I suspect they're fairly low in number, and since the vast majority of people in this country get ALL of their food from the grocery store or restaurants and the minimal numbers of folks doing the raw thing, the small numbers of illnesses are probably sporadic and random, not triggering an epidemiologic investigation by FDA and CDC.

When we have a situation like the recent Salmonella outbreak which FDA 'finally' traced back to Mexican-origin peppers(Duh! They're largely a third-world country with poor to nonexistant sewage/water treatment facilities in much of the nation, and it's likely that the farm workers aren't provided toilet facilities, so they are probably 'relieving themselves' right there in the fields), in which a large quantity of contaminated foodstuffs from a single source are widely distributed across the nation, then we get large numbers of persons affected.

I would have no qualms whatsoever about consuming raw milk from my own personal cow - because she would have been tested negativefor brucellosis/TB, and *I* would be in charge of every aspect of cleanliness and sanitation from udder prep and monitoring for evidence of mastitis to refrigeration of the 'finished product'. But, I wouldn't necessarily trust anyone else purveying raw milk to take the same care that I would.

There is no doubt that milk is a healthy food, but the claims that raw milk is so vastly superior to pasteurized milk are without rational scientific basis, and it's ludicrous to make claims that pasteurization completely destroys milk's nutritional content, and in fact renders it into a toxic substance.

Lucky P: I have no problem about pasturizing a batch of my goat milk if I any doubts about the quality or accidental contamination. Plus I pasturize when I'm going to be making cheese or yogurt--I don't want anything growing in there except the cultures I add to it. I never drank raw milk before I had my goats, I didn't drink milk at all except for soy milk. Goats actually have a natural immunity to TB.

I grow almost all my veggies and I don't buy things imported from some 3rd world country that's probably spraying it with things we banned years ago, then sold abroad.

I see six thousand cows a day. Most of them have been milked within the last hour when I arrive. An average of once a month, I see cows that have been milked by professional milkers less than an hour earlier that I would call "off" that were fine when they were milked. I hold these cows out in the hospital pen for the herdsman to treat...Most are dead within five hours and their milk is already being shipped!
Please, please, pasturize your milk! I milk my own cow in addition to working in the dairy industry. I won't touch raw milk because there are things out there that will kill you and your cow before you know there's a problem.

The CDC does study outbreaks from cowshares every once in a while. Some people get around the laws about selling raw milk for human consumption by selling shares in a cow and giving people what their cow produces. When something goes wrong a whole bunch of people get sick, and no one is happy about that.

Isn't Soymilk made with high heat?

cpp,
Those mastitic cows that crash, burn and die in that short period of time almost certainly have 'coliform mastitis'; I saw them commonly in my veterinary practice career. Those usually occur due to E.coli, Klebsiella, or one of the other enteric bacteria gaining access to the udder, either through 'impacts' - liner slips sucking air and bacteria around the teat and actually propelling it through the milking machine claw and up into a teat on the other side of the claw, or by lying down in manure or otherwise getting those manure organisms up into the teat canal before the teat sphincter has had a chance to close and re-establish a good keratin plug. I wouldn't want to drink mastitic milk from one of those cows, but it probably wouldn't harm you - other than maybe a mild transient case of diarrhea, if at all - but it's just another good argument for pasteurization.

hpw,
While goats are relatively resistant to infection with the human strain of tuberculosis bacteria(Mycobacterium tuberculosis), the tuberculosis that we're concerned about in livestock(it can also infect humans) is M.bovis, which goats are quite susceptible to. TB in goats in the US is quite rare, but tuberculosis has been all but eradicated from virtually all of the domestic food animals in the US - with the exception an occasional case popping up in MI cattle - crossing back into cattle from the whitetail deer population, who probably initially contracted it from dairy cattle decades ago, and in Southwestern & CA feedlots & dairies that accept cattle from Mexico, where it is still relatively common.