Of Goats and Breeding Plans

Kinder goat sales collapsed this year. Of the registered kids I had on offer, I didn't even receive an inquiry on any of them. Of people who wanted to be notified of this year's batch, no one was still interested. In one of my rare visits to the Kinder Goat Breeder Association's facebook page, I discovered that I wasn't alone. Breeder after breeder across the US was reporting no sales, no interest, and people backing out of previously arranged sales. Individual goats and entire herds were being advertised for sale at big discounts. 

This is a huge turnaround from when I first got into Kinders. Then, I had a 2-year waiting list for kids. Most breeders did. This year, I made the decision to cancel my fall breeding plans until I could do something about thinning my herd. If I couldn't get down to manageable winter numbers, I wasn't going to add more goats. It was definitely time to rethink things.

I've never considered myself a professional breeder. While I love the breed and have had fun working toward improving my stock according to the breed standard, it's never been a business or a money-maker for me. I've been fortunate that since I started with registered Kinders, I've been able to break even. Every year I've made enough sales to buy feed and hay until the next year's sales. My goats have been self-supporting. The bonus for us has been the milk and dairy products I make, manure, brush control, some occasional chevon, a sense of purpose, and hours of entertainment and joy. Kinders' personalities and antics never cease to make us happy. 

The knee jerk reaction to this turnaround is to blame the economy. I do think this is the underlying problem. Animal feeds, for example, have skyrocketed. Except for the lucky few, most of us have gotten to the point of having to make tough decisions about our household finances. I've overheard sad conversations in the grocery stores of people having to give up their pets. We've managed because of our homesteading lifestyle. Yes, we've been forced to choose to not buy many things, but because we produce quite a bit of our own food, we've been able to hang in there. Even with our pets because our cats are working animals. They keep the rodent population down and supplement their own diet in the process. To that I add eggs and milk, and so keep the boughten kibble to a manageable amount.

Of course the economy always rises and falls. This is nothing new. But one thing that I find different from the past, is that in the past, what was seen as an untrustworthy economy usually found people flocking to buy land, seeds, and livestock to become more self-sufficient. My first experience of this was the anti-establishment back-to-the-land movement, of which I was a part. Eventually, participants trickled back to society as we know it and sold off. Life went on.

But that wasn't the only time I observed this as a social trend. 

• The 1980s, when my kids were little and breakfast cereal was pushed up to $4 a box (absurd then, but we topped that this go-round!) Self-sufficiency was the buzzword and people started flocking to the country. 
• Y2K. The most memorable story was told by someone in my weavers guild. She was contacted by a woman who wanted to learn to spin and weave, because she was thinking she'd have to learn how to grow her own cotton and make her own bed sheets. 
• Eight years ago, I had contacts about buying goats because of fears over the new administration's economy.

So it is curious to me, that this time, people have been reacting differently. There has been no trend to get land and get self-sufficient. The biggest difference that I can identify is that now, society is totally consumed with the internet.

Anyway, after putting my goat breeding plans on hold, my next action was to start advertising my extra goats as Nubian-crosses instead of registered Kinders. Kinder genetics are a 50/50 cross between Nubians and Pygmies, which has resulted in a stout mid-size goat with excellent production and great personalities. Most people aren't familiar with Kinders, but they do go for Nubians. 

Along with that, I asked bargain basement prices and managed to sell off five goats and get my herd to a manageable number. Every buyer was delighted with their purchases, and between you and me, they got some absolutely excellent breeding stock at prices that would make a Kinder breeder cry. But value is ultimately relative and needs must.

With my herd thinned appropriately (with one more I would be willing to sell), I could once again entertain breeding plans. As much as they are like big dogs, our goats have never been pets. We love them dearly, but they make a contribution in return for good care. I chose goats over sheep for their milk and everything I can make from that milk. It's an important source of protein and calcium for our diet. 

For now, I'm going to breed two does for next year's milk. Of their kids, it's wait and see. I've chosen an optimistic outlook because I'm tired of the doom and gloom. I need a healthier new normal. We all do.

Of Goats and Breeding Plans © Nov. 2024

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Buck Barn Progress

I've got more pictures than words for this post (a good thing, right?!) Progress (always weather permitting) is continued from here. 

Dan's old pick-up still has some use.

So far, we've had to purchase very little for the new buck barn. Almost all of the materials have either been milled from our property, or re-purposed from other things (like the buck shelter). 

Ridge beam

Dan "treats" the bottoms of the posts with fence paint.

Posts are set on cap block instead of a footer.

Dan drills holes in both the cap block and the bottom of the post and inserts rebar to stabalize the posts on the blocks. 

Roof rafters over the buck side of the barn.

Where the bucks' door will go.

Knee braces and roof rafters in place

Most of the roof rafters came from the demolished
buck shelter. The rest Dan purchased.

Continued here.

Buck Barn Progress © Jan 2021 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Learning How To Make Ghee

I don't get a lot of cream from my goats' milk, so I've adjusted how I use it. That means, it accumulates faster than I can use it, so I end up storing it in the freezer. When I want cream for ice cream, whipped cream, cheesecake, or butter, I defrost what I need. But eventually, I need the freezer space for something else, and that's what got me thinking about learning to make ghee.

Butter is fat plus a little remaining water (as whey) and milk solids (proteins). Much of this is washed out in the last step making butter.

Washing goat butter to remove residual whey.

Even so, some of these remain and that's what can give old butter an off-flavor. It's also why butter smokes when heated too high. If the water and solids are removed, however, the result is pure butterfat, which is shelf-stable. It can be stored for months without refrigeration and has a low smoking point, making it a very useful product. There are two forms of this - clarified butter and ghee. Ghee has a nuttier flavor because because the milk solids are browned a bit after the butter melts. Clarified butter is commonly used in French cooking, while ghee is used in Indian cuisine.

I'm not an expert at ghee making yet, but I'm starting to get the hang of it; at least enough to share some pictures and explanations. It starts with unsalted butter. Plop it in a pot and turn on the heat to medium. Then watch for three things: fine foamy bubbles, large airy bubbles (from simmering), and the milk solids floating to the top of the simmering butter. The foam forms first.

After it melts, it begins to bubble and foam. Stir gently and watch.

In every tutorial I've read or watched, the bright golden yellow color is mentioned somewhere along the way. I'm using butter made from goat cream, so I won't get that beautiful color because goat milk lacks beta carotene. It's the beta carotene that gives cow butter its yellow color. My goat butter and butter products are very pale in comparison. The color variations you see in this series of photos are due to whether or not the camera auto-flash engaged.

The simmering butter is stirred gently until the foam dissipates and the milk solids form and float on the surface of the simmering butter. Turn the heat down to medium-low.

As the foam (fine bubbles) disappears, the milk solids begin to rise and float.

For clarified butter, you can skim the milk solids and then strain the melted butter through cheesecloth. For ghee, simply stop stirring and continue to watch. Soon it looks like this...

The milk solids sink to the bottom of the pan.

If you look carefully, you see surface bubbles, but
also the milk solids lying on the bottom of the pot.

Now the milk solids are allowed to brown until the butter starts to foam a second time.

When the butter starts to foam again, the ghee is done.

Then it's removed from the heat and strained.

I use a fine strainer, but several layers of
cheesecloth would improve the product.

Some people actually discard the browned milk solids, but I would at least feed them to the chickens! Others recommend them as a popcorn topping, and they'd be good in an au gratin topping too. I've eaten them myself because they're too tasty to waste.

I spent too much time fiddling with the camera, so my scrapings are a little
dark. Usually, they are more of a golden brown, but at least they didn't burn(!)

The jars are then lidded and placed on a pantry shelf for storage.

Maybe a little difference in color depending on the browning of the milk solids.

The ghee on the right is the batch made in the photos. The jar on the left has been stored in the pantry since April. It's my test batch for non-refrigerated storage.

The other day, I made some from unsalted cow butter because I was curious about the color. Here's how the two compare ...

Cow ghee on the left, goat ghee on the right.

For the uninitiated, I'm pretty sure the one on the left looks more appealing.

A pound of butter yields about a pint of ghee. It can be used the same way butter is, and since it doesn't smoke when heated, is excellent for sauteing. Plus, it frees up room in the freezer. 😺

Any ghee or clarified butter fans out there? What's your favorite use for it? Recipes?

And here we go again, another shameless plug for one of my little how-to eBooks. This time for the revised edition of How To Get Cream From Goats's Milk: make your own butter, whipped cream, ice cream, and more. It now contains more photos, more information, and updated links. It includes how to make clarified butter and ghee!

For more information or where to buy, click here. 

Learning How To Make Ghee © November 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Cheesemaking: Chèvre

While I was working on another blog post, I wanted to link back to my recipe for chèvre. It was then that I realized I had never posted one! I was sure I had written it and finally found it in my drafts folder, where it's been sitting for almost a year. So at long last, here it is.

Chèvre is a soft, supposedly easy-to-make goat cheese that is often recommended for beginners. Yet I hadn't tried to make it until last year. Why? Well, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because most recipes for it call for chèvre starter culture, whereas I lean toward sustainable cheese making, i.e. without purchased starters.

The other problem is that it requires such a teensy amount of rennet. The starter culture already contains the rennet, but without that it's another challenge. It only takes a few drops of liquid rennet, but because I now use powdered rennet (why here), the measurement is a little trickier. A regular dose of powdered rennet is only 1/32 teaspoon per gallon of milk, so a smaller dose for chèvre was near impossible. I needed to figure out another way.

A "smidgen" (2nd smallest spoon) of rennet is all I need for a gallon of milk.

I finally started making chèvre the same time I make a firm cheese. I use a scant 1/8 of the regular dissolved rennet, which is perfect for the desired consistency of chèvre. Here's the recipe.

 Chèvre

1 gallon fresh goat milk (see recipe note)
1/4 cup fresh kefir (can use cultured buttermilk or cultured whey)
1/8 of regular rennet dose
1 tablespoon good quality salt

Pour milk into a heavy-bottom pot and stir in the kefir. Slowly warm to 90°F (32°C). Add the rennet and stir well. Cover the pot and let sit for 24 hours. The curd will sink when it's ready to ladle into a cheesecloth lined colander. Cover and drain for 6 hours. Then mix in the salt, tie up the cheesecloth like a bag, and let drain for another hour or two. After that it's ready to eat!

RECIPE NOTE: Most recipes for making cheese call for fresh milk. If you're buying your milk, then it's logical why this is important. If you have your own milk supply, however, there is another reason. As non-homogenized milk sits in the fridge the cream rises to the top. If this milk is used to make cheese, the cream doesn't recombine with the milk, it is lost in the whey. So the fresher the milk, the the higher the fat content in the cheese. Most people think it's tastier this way, but if you want to make lower fat cheeses, this is how.

Chèvre is basically good any time a softer cheese is wanted: for snacking, as a substitute for ricotta in lasagna, as a filling for stuffed pasta or enchiladas, in sandwiches. It's delicious on crackers, perhaps seasoned with herbs or salt and pepper. My favorite ways to eat it are as chèvre cheesecake and cheesecake ice cream (the links will take you to the recipes).

Chèvre and elderberry jelly sandwich.

Chèvre is an expensive cheese to buy, but inexpensive and easy to make!

If you have a favorite recipe for chèvre, I'd love for you to share it.

Cheesemaking: Chèvre © June 2019 by Leigh
at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Trying Again for Year Around Milk

A year around supply of fresh goat milk has been one of my self-reliance goals. I know some folks like to take a break from milking, but for our chosen diet, I need fresh milk all year long. This is mostly for my kefir grains, which need milk to stay alive. If I don't have my own source, then I have to buy milk. Seems better to always have my own available!

There are two ways to accomplish year around milk. I've blogged about these before, so I won't go into a long explanation (see "Year Around Milk" and "Dry Days Ahead"). For me, the best option is to breed at opposite times of the year: in the fall for spring kidding and in the spring for fall kidding.

Standard size dairy goats can't do this because they are seasonal breeders, but Kinders are aseasonal breeders. Even though they are half Nubian, they inherit the ability to breed in any season from their Pygmy genetics. This is one of the reasons I chose the breed, and one of the reasons I think they are the perfect homestead goat! (Pardon my prejudice, LOL. Just ask me and I'll tell you all the reasons!)

Unfortunately, this isn't as easy as it sounds! Fall heats are always the strongest with the rest of the year being more subtle. So far my several attempts to produce fall kids have been unsuccessful. But this spring I'm going to try again. Hopefully, I've learned more about detecting subtle heats and will have success.

My candidates are:

Iris

 and

Colby

Miracle

and

Hudson

The best way to guarantee success would be to leave the girls with their prospective suitors for at least three weeks or more. The boys love this but I find it upsets all of the does terribly with a whole lot of hollering going on. It's less stressful for them to just visit for an afternoon for a couple of days in a row with a followup visit three weeks later. More predictable kidding too. But, since that hasn't worked well for me for spring breedings, I may try extended visits instead. Wish me Good Providence!

Trying Again for Year Around Milk © April 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Cheesemaking Challenges in a Hot Climate

I love my Kinder goats!

Milk products are an important part of our diet, especially cheese and kefir. (Also ice cream!) Milk production is highest during summer, so that's when I work on making as much cheese as possible for the upcoming winter months. Because I don't have a cheese cave, I've had to learn what cheeses I can make in a hot, humid climate, and how to preserve them for winter eating.

What's a cheese cave? Commonly it's a small refrigerator set between 45 to 58°F (7 to 14.5°C) and 80 to 98% humidity. These are the conditions necessary to properly age cheese. People often keep a small fridge like a wine cooler for this purpose. I've thought about getting one, but I honestly don't have the room for it. Instead, I've experimented with cheeses I can make without controlled aging. Here are the ones that are working well so far. The names of the cheeses are hyperlinked to directions for making them.

Mozzarella

Mozzarella is always first on my seasonal cheesemaking list. It's easy to make, requires no aging, freezes well, and is a must for Friday night pizza! I grate it, measure it, and freeze it in freezer bags. Each bag contains enough for one pizza. These individual bags are stored inside a large paper grocery bag in the freezer.

Paneer

Paneer wrapped and ready for the freezer.

I first made this for fried cheese. Then we figured out it was great for snacking, for sandwiches, in eggs, and for added taste and texture in things like refried rice or spaghetti and meatballs. It is absolutely the easiest cheese in the world to make. Follow the link to learn how. The bonus is that it freezes well.

In the photo above you see my substitute for freezer paper. Freezer paper has really gone up in price, so I started wrapping things first in wax paper, then in a paper bag or packing paper. 

Feta

Last year I learned to make feta and experimented with ways to keep it. This is a brined cheese, native to the Mediterranean area where caves for aging and storing cheese aren't readily available. Instead, it is aged and stored in a salt brine solution. The aging requires no special temperature, which means it can be done in a refrigerator. Those things make it a good cheese for my climate.

Feta curing for two weeks in brine.

I made several batches last year and tried two ways to store it: some in brine and some with herbs in olive oil. The feta stored in brine gradually got saltier as time passed. It can be rinsed off in cool water, but what I really liked was the feta stored in herbed olive oil.

Crock of feta, rosemary and oregano sprigs in olive oil.

The cheese kept a wonderful flavor and the oil's cheesy herb flavor makes it wonderful for sauteing vegetables, for cooking eggs, as a salad dressing, as the oil in pizza dough, or as a dipping oil with French bread. I'll make a couple of crocks-worth of feta in oil for winter eating.

Farmers (fresh) Cheese

Salting a Farmers Cheese

For a harder cheese I've been making farmers cheese. It's mild, tasty, and meltier than paneer. Farmers cheese is meant to be eaten fresh, so I make as needed. However, this same basic cheese can be waxed or bandaged and aged for a more flavorful hard cheese.

Aged Cheeses 

Since aging (curing) a hard cheese requires a specific temperature and humidity range, that means waiting for autumn when our daytime temps drop to facilitate curing cheese. Last fall I made one aged cheese, Farmhouse Sage. It was fantastic, so I'm hoping to make a variety of aged cheeses this year.

The problem is that winter is usually the time the does are dried up in anticipation of spring kidding. So my goal is to have at least one doe in milk at all times of year. You can read more about that in my "Year Around Milk" blog post. I'm planning to only breed two does this fall, and milk the other two throughout the winter. Plus, I have Ellie.

Hopefully Ellie has been bred for an October kidding.

She is my first attempt at an early summer breeding for a fall kidding. For that, we're on wait-and-see status, because I haven't had her pregnancy confirmed. But if I can vary when kids arrive, then that will help with that year around milk supply. Year around milk supply will not only add variety to my cheese making, but also let me keep a year around supply of kefir and chèvre. These are examples of dairy products that can't be stored and so need to be made fresh.

Part of seasonal living is learning how to adapt to one's seasonal challenges. It takes a bit of trial and error, but in the long run it's well worth it.

Cheesemaking Challenges in a Hot Climate © Aug 2018

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Cheesecake Ice Cream

Our days have turned hot again, so what better treat than ice cream! After my Heavenly Chèvre Cheesecake turned out so well, I got the idea for cheesecake ice cream. The cheesecake batter is so similar to the custard for making ice cream that it seemed a logical step!

Cheesecake Ice Cream

My ice cream freezer is a small Cuisinart. I love it because it makes it easy to make ice cream for just the two of us. The proportions in this recipe are for that and make about a quart and a half of ice cream. Adjust for a larger machine.

• 2 cups chèvre* (how to make here)
• 1 & 1/2 cups cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• pinch sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla or flavoring of your choice

In a sauce pan heat cream, milk, sugar, and salt until sugar melts. Beat egg yolks in a blender, continue blending and slowly add milk and cream mixture. Add the chèvre and flavoring. Blend well. Refrigerate overnight. Churn it up in the ice cream maker the following day.

This paired really well with carrot cake. I'm not keen on cream cheese frosting, so I bake carrot cake in a bundt pan and we enjoy it without frosting. The cheesecake ice cream, though, was better than frosting!

*If you don't have chèvre, ricotta or cream cheese would substitute nicely.

Cheesecake Ice Cream © August 2018 by

Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Heavenly Chèvre Cheesecake

This cheesecake is to die for. An absolute keeper of a recipe.

Having plenty of milk means finding ways to incorporate more of it into our diet. One of those ways has been by experimenting with a soft goat cheese called chèvre. It's commonly used in spreads and sandwiches, so we've had plenty of those lately. But when I found Midel gluten-free crumb crusts in the discount grocery freezer section priced 6 for $1, I stocked up and started thinking about ways to use them. For the ginger snap crust, cheesecake came to mind. Cheesecakes are usually made with ricotta, cottage, or cream cheese, but why not substitute chèvre? I'm so glad I did.

Heavenly Chèvre Cheesecake

• 3 cups chèvre (recipe for that here)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• dash salt
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped
• 1 tsp vanilla (or whatever flavoring you wish)
• prepared crumb crust

Beat eggs and sugar until light. Add salt and vanilla and mix well. Add chèvre and blend. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into crust and bake at 350°F (180°C) for one hour. Turn off oven, crack the door, and let the cheesecake cool inside the oven for another hour.

This will make one cheesecake if you're using a 12-inch cheesecake pan. My ready-made crumb crusts were for 9-inch pies, and I filled two of them with this recipe.

The cheesecake was such a success that the wheels kept turning. More on that soon. 

Heavenly Chèvre Cheesecake © July 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Sometimes I Miss Having Pigs

Waldo and Polly. Photo taken June 2015.

I think of the various farm animals Dan and I have had, pigs have been a hands-down favorite. We had American Guinea Hogs, a small heritage breed native to the South. They were good foragers, friendly, excellent at turning all food scraps into manure, but hard on fences. So when our fences began to experience a lot of collateral damage from falling pine trees ...

A lot of them fall over roots and all. This one
made a handy get-away hole under the fence.

This one fell on top of the fence.

As did this one.

This one is leaning just inside the fence corner!
Another fence disaster just waiting to happen.

... we decided to sell our Waldo and Polly until we could deal with the problem and repair our fences. That seemed a better alternative to keeping them penned. Eventually, we will have pigs again.

I miss them most at times like now, when I have a surplus of milk.

I'm currently milking three does, one twice a day and the others once a day because I'm milk sharing with their kids. Total, they give me a little more than three-quarters of a gallon per day. That isn't much by cow standards, but for two people who don't drink milk, it's a lot. And it accumulates quickly! I use it to make cheese, kefir, and ice cream, but sometimes I have more than I can attend. Feeding it to the pigs was an excellent way to deal with a surplus.

The other thing the pigs were excellent for was consuming whey. Whey is a byproduct of cheese making and since there is more water in milk than milk solids and butterfat, cheesemakers end up with a lot of whey.  The chickens and cats aren't interested in that, but the pigs loved it!

Whey leftover from 3 half-gallons of milk

There are a number of things can be done with whey. I use it in place of water for all my cooking and baking. (As it sours it is excellent with baking soda as a leavening agent). It can be used to water plants. My favorite way to use whey is to make gjetost and primost.

Gjetost is Norwegian goat whey cheese and it is absolutely divine. You can read my "Gjetost (Norwegian Goat Whey Cheese)" post for details and the recipe. Primost is similar, the difference being that it isn't cooked down quite as long as gjetost and so is spreadable. I make both, which one depending on how far along it is by bedtime (in other words, I don't want to let it continue to simmer down overnight). Besides being delicious, both products use up all the whey.

Makes a wonderful sandwich spread on toast with jelly.

I also like to make the more traditional whey product.

Whey Ricotta

I use ricotta for a lot of things. Lasagna and cheesecake are traditional favorites, but I also use ricotta in my no-fat ricotta biscuits, gnocchi (Italian dumplings), and gelato (Italian ice cream without the cream). You can read how I make whey ricotta in my "A Simple Ricotta Cheese" post.

But! Ricotta still leaves whey, and that brings me back to missing having pigs. Looking forward to the day they can be part of our homestead again.

Sometimes I Miss Having Pigs © July 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Year Around Milk

We don't drink much milk, but sometimes nothing
beats an ice cold glass with freshly baked cookies.

One question I had when we first started producing our own food, was how to have a year around supply of everything. In the beginning I canned, froze, or dehydrated all the vegetables, fruits, and eggs I could. As we shifted toward a more seasonal model of living, I began to build my menus around what was producing well rather than what was stocked in the pantry.

This shift in eating habits shifted other things as well. By that time I had learned what grows well for me and what doesn't. Initially I wanted to grow a large variety of foods, but by focusing more on seasonal eating I realized I didn't have to grow dozens of different fruits and vegetables, because our variety is seasonal. Just about the time we're tired of one thing, it's done and something else is ready to eat.

I used to freeze and dehydrate a lot of eggs, but now I use
them if I've got them, or plan meals without them if I don't.

I can have variety in other ways too. For example, I save both watermelon and cantaloupe seeds, but we can only eat so much melon. Rather than devote a large amount of garden space to growing both, I grow watermelons one year and cantaloupes the next. Planting every other year also works well for things that tend to cross-pollinate, such as cantaloupes and honeydews.

I still preserve foods, but by focusing more on extending my gardening season, I can preserve less, which is a time and energy saver. Even so, I combine my biennial plantings with my food preservation plan. One year I grow enough green beans to can two years worth. The next year I grow enough black turtle beans to dry two years worth. These space and work savers help me manage my time and energy better.

And then there's milk. The traditional way of preserving milk is as cheese. It's a rare person who doesn't love cheese, after all, and most folks like to take a break from milking. However, fresh milk is one thing I would really like a daily supply of. Why? Two reasons. Most importantly, feeding my kefir. Secondly, because I find it easier to make fresh cheeses to eat as we need them, rather than going through the business of waxing, aging, and storing them (things challenging to do in our hot humid climate).

Still waiting...

So what are the options for having a year around supply of milk? Dairy animals require a two-month break at the end of their pregnancies to let them put all their nutrients into their soon-to-be-born young. One way to keep the milk supply going is to stagger breeding and birthing. In fact, that's what I tried to do this year. Last year Anna was bred a little later than the others, in hopes she'd still be giving milk while they are dry. Alas, she's pretty much dried up herself now, with less than a month until my first due date. So that's an experiment that didn't quite work out as I hoped.
 
Anna gave me milk for about seven months, but some does don't dry up as quickly. Some will produce milk for as long as two years or more. These individuals make good candidates for breeding every other year. With an extended lactation, it's possible to "milk through" the breeding and kidding season without taking a break. Some Kinders are capable of this, but none of my goats so far has had this trait.

The other option for me would be to breed twice a year. Once for spring kiddings, and six months later for fall kids. Most goat babies are born in spring after a fall breeding. Kinders are aseasonal breeders, however, which means they can conceive and kid any time of year. If I bred half my girls in fall and the other half in spring, it seems I'd have a better chance at having year around milk.

Jessie, Cinnamon, Anna, Violet, Ellie, and Daisy

So that's the plan, assuming no one gives birth to quads and needs all her milk to feed them. I have one yearling doe that will probably be ready to breed late this spring. If that works out, maybe next year I'll achieve my goal for year around milk.

Year Around Milk © Jan 2018 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/