Mr Hog,well,a goat is like a cow,you milk her after she (freshens),has a kid(s),like a cow the baby is removed so the farmer can keep milking the doe,because we have no market for our milk,let the kid(s) wean until 3 1/2--4 months,one is still able to milk the doe even with a baby(s) not as much volume but still she can be milked.Most dairy doe can be milked for approx. 300 days,60 day rest before kidding,all starts again.If one was close to a dairy or had a ready made market,the more does the better,more milk,we taught our relatives how to pasturized the milk first,Mr Hog you are right,the kids would really benefit from milk in their diets.Dairy goats need special feeds high energy when in the milking mode.Shelter,well metal roofs are better,our pens are 5x5 for each doe and buck,going to Cebu soon to buy the plastic flooring,saves on time cleaning,dries faster,less maintance,expensive a imported product.The bus. of the dairy market is also the meat side,one can always sell surplus dairy goats for meat,one can play both ends here.The best to my knowledge the meat market seems to be larger than the dairy end in the Philippines,breeds like the boer and crosses non milkers.This is a different market,but expanding all the time.Someone is going to put us in touch with connections in Cebu for the goat meat market,we will have to get the goats there ourselves.The wife and I will run 25 does in 2008,15 fullblood anglo does,10 upgrades f1 and 3 way mixes,we have 2 fullblood sires anglos and a boer terminal sire,will take 3 workers to operate,the barn is under major renos now,just doubled the work force,want it finished asap,when completed will be 16x75 have to build a house for the cartakers and we pay the elect. and all their food plus the wife sends them shoes and clothing,candies etc,the wages is 3t pesos,a husband/wife and our main caretaker is a young man,been with us for approx. a year now,have invested approx.1/2 million pesos so far,one can make money after the 2nd/3rd year,depends on how many heads one has starting out with.Selling of breeding stock is another market.Going full speed ahead now with the goats,next year may expand again,we have the meat market as a backup for unloading our surplus goats.
Did read some time back that the price of milk per litre was 10/12 pesos,may be farm gate prices,just trying to remember now.Doc Nemo can help me out here,he may know of the current prices of milk/meat for goats.
Hope this may have been of some help to you Mr Hog,the supply end of the goat meat market is low compared to demand, (high demand but low supplies) right now worldwide.
Good Farming Boys/Girls
Support the goat:brought to you from the independant goat produce(s) of the Philippines.
mikey
