Monday, June 14, 2010

cow vs. goat

Taking this online hand milking/ cheese making and the goat soap making course is making me wild to get a goat or 3.
This weekend I bought some goat milk from the grocery store. Just to see if I could drink it. I think I've had goat milk at the farm before but that would have been 20 years ago easy.

It has a very distinct smell but it was much sweeter than cow milk. I can drink it (although I'm not sure I would put it in cereal just yet. But the best part was Nathan LOVES it. Like L-O-V-E's it. He insists on getting to drink the "special" goat milk and won't touch his regular milk right now.-Which is great news for when we get goats, that he'll drink the milk. But bad news right now since the goat milk from the store is double the price of regular milk.

So I'm all hyped up for getting goats and then I read this article about keeping a dairy cow in Mother Earth news. I still like the idea of cow milk better , but I assume that's because I'm more accustom to the taste.
However goat milk seems much more versatile. In terms of cheeses and the soap. Both of which I think I would be able to sell at local farmers markets.

I did like the article in Mother Earth. and thinks it's worth a read. But I do think their stats are a like off in the "annual Budget for keeping a Family Milk cow." as they quote the "Value of milk available for human consumption:$3,000 to $ 5,215"
1) I don't believe my family spends 3000 a year on milk- I could be wrong but that seems awfully high. so...
2) The rest of the value would come from being able to sell that milk, and the excess that your family is not able to consume, which I think would be more difficult than selling goat milk. Since Cow milk is available literally everywhere how would you be able to compete?

So although at some point I would love to get a cow, I really still think we'll start with goats and go from there.

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