Milk, cheese and meat

In short

• A good dairy goat gives roughly 500 L of milk, 15 kg of meat (kids) and half a tonne of manure a year.
• The spring surplus goes into cheese: 6 L of milk makes roughly 1 kg of fresh cheese, 9–10 L roughly 1 kg of hard cheese.
• Boil or pasteurise milk for drinking and for fresh cheese. Children and pregnant women don't eat raw-milk cheese.
• Kids for roasting at roughly 8–12 weeks, grown-on kids at 4–6 months; meat yield roughly 45–55 % of live weight.
• Slaughter and the sale of meat and cheese are regulated. A goat on medicine doesn't go for slaughter until the withdrawal period is over.
• Every year 20–25 % of the herd is replaced: the best doelings stay, weak goats leave.

What's inside

Chapters

1. What the herd gives in a year
2. Milk through the year
3. Safe milk and cheese in the kitchen
4. Goat milk products
5. Kids for meat
6. Slaughter and the rules
7. Kid and goat meat in the kitchen
8. Skins, horns and manure
9. Selling and value
10. Which goats stay and which leave
11. Common mistakes
12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Milk plan for the year
• Cheese and dairy calculator
• Meat plan
• Production record
• Yearly herd costs and value
• Product calendar