Goat soap and cheese questions...

[farmerlor]

There's a lady down the road offering goat milk soap and goat cheese lessons-she's charging 75 bucks for each day of training and she gives you your own starter kit whatever that might entail AND of course she just HAPPENS to have milk goats for sale-talk about your win-win! But as cynical as I sound over this deal, it's exactly what I've been looking for and hoping to find. Now the questions....does making your own goat cheese and milk actually save you any money? I wouldn't need housing for a goat, but I would have to milk the goat twice a day and pay for food of course and whatever things I need to help process cheese and soap....
Is it worth the time and effort involved from a simply monetary standpoint?

 

[big brown horse]

I was going to do that about a year ago. Couldn't make it work in my schedule though. I think that price is very reasonable. My class was going to cost $50 (everything included) but was only an afternoon or so long.

Don't know about the rest...seems to me you would save money in the long run while you fed and cleaned your crew.

 

[freemotion]

Whether it is worth it or not depends entirely on you. I have no regrets financially....but....I put a very, very high value on pastured animal products as food for my family. If I compared the cost of goat's milk to the cost of a gallon of what they call milk in the grocery store, it might not be such a good value. But I would be willing to pay far more than that for good milk from animals that are outside every day and eating growing food in season, and good food in winter and access to the sunshine regardless. But I can't get it here. The two dairies within an hour's drive keep their cows inside 24/7 during lactation. :/

We also use far more milk and products since we have them. If I had to buy it, I'd probably buy a gallon a week for $8 or so and make it last. Milking daily....I can drink a quart a day easily by myself and that doesn't include kefir, yogurt, dressings, dips, chowders, cheeses, pudding, ice cream, etc that I make to use up the milk.

The chickens and pigs get milk that gets by me and gets old. That wouldn't happen if I were buying milk, but it still has a dollar value.

I say go take the class! It will give you an idea if this is something you might enjoy or not. You can also make some money on the soap and pay for your goat habit, something I need to start doing!

There is nothing more invigorating on a frigid winter's day than chasing a buck across the hard snow when he finally realized he could walk over the fence in places......Woo-weee! I feel so ALIVE!

 

[freemotion]

Oh, yeah, she might be pasteurizing for the class, and this can make the milk taste a bit goatie. So don't dismiss it if you don't like the taste. Talk to her about it privately and see if you can't get a sample of raw milk to "take home to your cats" wink-wink and to see if your family likes the milk from her goats that you might buy (wink-wink!)

 

[peachykeen]

I would absolutely do this if I saw it offered in my area. I really want to get into goats and soap/milk but I worry I won't really know what to do once I get the goats. Would be great to be shown!

 

[farmerlor]

Okay, y'all convinced me and then I called the lady and she was very nice, told me she'd show me how to milk the goat, trim the goat hooves, make the soap, make the cheese and tell me about all the stupid stuff she did so I can avoid those mistakes. She makes it sound like I can save quite a bit of money and that the goat will basically pay for itself in about 3 months so we'll see. I signed up for the class that starts on the 19th. We'll be talking about a goat soon.

 

[freemotion]

Will you be the only student or will there be more? This sounds like a great way to sell goat kids! Please let me know how it goes, with full details, so I can duplicate it if you think it was worthwhile....or if not, how you would've liked it to be taught. I'll have a bunch of kids to sell soon (hopefully!) and would love the doelings to go to good homes. The bucklings, too, but I am a realist.

 

[farmerlor]

Will you be the only student or will there be more? This sounds like a great way to sell goat kids! Please let me know how it goes, with full details, so I can duplicate it if you think it was worthwhile....or if not, how you would've liked it to be taught. I'll have a bunch of kids to sell soon (hopefully!) and would love the doelings to go to good homes. The bucklings, too, but I am a realist.

I can tell you that she's already got six classes planned and has some students signed up for each one. She says if she only gets one or two students that's still okay because the cheese and the soap have to be made regardless, she'll just have less help if there aren't too many students. I'm definitely going to get one of her goats as she is a tester and one of her goats ranks 19th in the nation for milk production and another is 10th for cream content. I'm hoping to get a bred doe and then take her back to be bred with her buck every other year. The starter kit that she sends home with us will be a soap mold, milk and the other ingredients needed to make one mold of soap on our own. I don't know what the starter kit is for the cheese as I'm taking the soap class first.
I think it's a very, very good idea to offer these classes. I KNOW the basics of how to make the soap and how to make cheese-I've got recipes, I've got instructions and I even have many of the ingredients (essential oils, etc.) but I really didn't feel confident without having someone SHOW me. And the whole goat care part of the lesson is going to make buying a goat that much more appealing. I'm excited about this and I KNOW that you could do something just like it Free. With your gift of gab and knowledge, your class would be fun and everyone would go home confident and excited about one more self-sufficient skill. I've been thinking about offering a canning class as there's nothing like that around here right now.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I think this is a great idea, and extremely enterprising. for someone who is buying a goat for the first time, the idea of milking is always daunting, and I would have loved a demonstration the first time I milked. as it is, I figured it out on my own, and I didn't know when the bag was empty, which I honestly believe had an impact on how much milk we got from our sheep. I believe if we knew what we were doing, we would have known when the udder was properly empty. Oh well, lesson learned. And the fact that she is teaching how to make cheese and soap too, I think it is great. I wish someone around here would offer that. I would definitely go for it. Even now, after the fact, (although I will be milking a cow next time.)


And I agree with Free regarding the price you put on it.

Whether it is worth it or not depends entirely on you. I have no regrets financially....but....I put a very, very high value on pastured animal products as food for my family.

Also, my critters only eat hay and pasture, I may decide to grain them a bit when preggers or lactating, but none of my critters are pregnant as of now. I already have th pasture, and we need to buy hay for the horses anyways, so it's just a little extra for the cow and sheep. And usually what the sheep and cow won't eat, the horses clean up. in my opinion, it is more than worth it.

Sometimes you really don't want to go out "right now' and milk, but it really is enjoyable. Plus, if you realy don't feel like it, send a child out to do it. worked for me.

 

[Bettacreek]

Sounds like a pretty darn good way to get some help around your place AND make some money!!!