Viatouch Teacher Articles
Science

Milk, Please!
by Samantha Bell

Eleven year-old Jenny has the usual morning chores to do including making the bed, feeding the guinea pig, and getting ready for school. She also has another chore on her list—milking the goats!

Jenny and her six year-old sister Hannah help care for their family's goats. There are fifteen goats in all, and seven of them are dry goats. A dry goat is like an empty container. It doesn't have any milk to give. Goats are dry if they haven't been bred or if they will soon have a baby goat, called a kid.

Jenny's goat, Esther has one kid. But, goats can have two, three, or four kids at a time. A breed of goats called Nubians have been known to have five or even six kids at a time, although it's rare. Hannah's favorite job is playing with the kids, which helps make them tame and easy to handle when they are grown.

Some goat farmers use bottles of goat's milk to feed the kids. Jenny's family prefers letting the kids nurse from their mother. Jenny began milking Esther when her kid was two weeks old. Each time Esther is milked, she has enough for the kid and an extra quart or two for Jenny's family. The amount of extra milk a doe or female goat gives depends on how much milk she produces, how many kids she has, and how old the kids are.

A doe has two teats. If a kid is big and takes all the milk, Jenny puts tape on one of the teats. That way, the kid drinks its fill, leaving half of the doe's milk. The kid will drink its mother's milk for at least three months, but it may continue to nurse until it's
six to eight months old. Jenny will milk the doe for ten months. After that, the doe will be dry for two months before she has another kid.

Goats love to be on a schedule. Jenny milks them at 7:00 a.m. every morning. To milk a goat, Jenny leads it into a stall that has a milk stand inside. The goat is held in place by a bar near its head and kept content with some grain. As it munches on the food, Jenny grabs hold of a teat. She squeezes the teat starting with her thumb and top finger, works down to the last finger, and squirts the milk into the bucket. When there isn't any more milk, Jenny sends Esther back to the pasture. Then it's on to the next goat.

When she's finished, Jenny takes the bucket of milk into the house, where her mom stores it in glass bottles in the refrigerator. Extra milk is made into yogurt, cheese, sour cream, and butter. Jenny and Hannah like to watch and work with each doe and baby. You could say that the goats take care of the kids, and the kids take care of the goats!

Fun Facts about Dairy Goats

1. The American Dairy Goat Association recognizes six breeds of dairy goats in the United States: Nubian, American LaMancha, Saanan, Toggenburg, Alpine, and Oberhasli.

2. Goats can live up to twenty or thirty years, but most usually live about eight to twelve years.

3. A doe gives birth to a kid about five months after she is bred.

4. Although goat milk isn't as popular as cow's milk in the United States, more people in the world drink goat's milk.

5. Two dairy goats produce enough milk to supply a family all year.

6. If goat's milk tastes strange, it's probably because the farmer kept a buck or male goat with the herd, especially at milking time. His strong smell can get into the milk.

7. Some people who can't drink cow's milk can drink goat's milk because it's easier to digest.

8. Besides food products, goat's milk is also used to make soap and other skin care items.

Bibliography

Books

Hetherington, Lois. All About Goats. Suffolk: Whittet Books Ltd, 2002.

Jaudas, Ulrich. The New Goat Handbook. New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1989.

Weil, Ann. Nature's Children: Goats. Connecticut: The Learning Source, Ltd., 1997.

Personal Interview and Consultation

Hitt, Debbie [Goat raiser and mother of Jenny and Hannah Hitt.] Interviews by author.
June 20, 2006; July 2, 2006; and January 7, 2007.

Internet Sites

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Livestock-and-Farming/2002-06-01/Want-Milk-Get-Goats.aspx

http://www.dairygoatjournal.com/issues/07_08_05.html

http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/15/25/09.html

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=131

Illustration by Samantha Bell