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Posted by GoatWorld on June 09, 2002 at 17:10:39:
June 7, 2002
Dairy goat retail outlet is Missy Isder’s dream
By Keith O. Axvig, Managing Editor
Missy Isder has a dream and her dream is starting to become a reality.
Missy Isder’s dream is to develop a retail outlet to sell goat dairy products.
The 21-year-old Isder currently has about 200 dairy goats on her parents’ farm in Belle Prairie Township, northeast of Little Falls near Freedhem.
Missy’s parents, Ken and Arlene Isder, also milk about 45 Holstein cows on the Belle Prairie Township farm.
Today, the Isders are building a 40 foot x 120 foot milking parlor for the goats.
“We are not a dairy goat retail business yet but we are getting closer,” explained Missy.
The Isders never had a goat on the farm before Missy decided to have a goat for a 4-H project in 1994.
She started with one female goat, which is called a doe. She then bought another doe and they borrowed a male, which is called a buck.
The goats on the Isder farm then started to multiply. The baby goats are called kids. A castrated male goat is called a wether.
Today Missy has about 200 Nubian dairy goats. She is presently milking 51 goats.
Dairy goats are hardy, gentle, intelligent animals. Their life span is eight to 12 years.
“The goats, like our cows, are milked twice a day at 12-hour intervals. It takes about two hours for each milking,” the young entrepreneur explained.
The goats are milked with a regular milker with special goat claws for the two teats. A good goat will produce about a gallon of milk per day.
The Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) also tests goat milk and makes regular stops at the Isder Dairy Farm.
A doe milks approximately 10 months following kidding, then is held dry for two months before her next freshing.
Twins are common but single or triplet births are not rare.
“We expect 100-plus kids out of 50 does,” Missy said.
“We had one doe give birth to five kids this spring,” added Missy’s mother, Arlene.
The wether goats are kept until they are 60 to 70 pounds or about four or five months old. They are then sold for pets or for meat.
Most of the goats that will be slaughtered are sold to a wholesaler who lives near the Twin Cities. The market is about 70 cents a pound.
Several ethnic groups eat goat meat as part of their religious ceremonies.
The Spanish word for goat meat is Cabriot. “I guess the rest of the world calls goat meat, goat meat,” Missy said with a smile.
“Today, almost all of the milk is going to feed the kids. Hopefully, the main business in the future will be the retail sales of the goat milk and other goat dairy products,” she said.
“Some of the goat milk market may include milk for young horses and other baby animals. Some people who have allergies are also told by their doctor to drink goat milk,” she added.
Goat milk today sells for about $4 a gallon.
The dairy goats eat alfalfa hay and have a 16 percent grain mixture of corn, oats and protein pellets.
“The cows and goats eat the same alfalfa hay but we have a different mixture of grain,” Missy explained.
Most of Missy’s goats have names. “I think some of the animals know their names,” Missy said with another smile. Some of the names are Lilac, Dairy Queen, Ice Cream, Cookie Dough and Poison Ivy.
“The goats and cows get along good together. The goats, however, don’t like grass and require better fencing,” she also said.A three-year-old milking goat is worth between $200 to $250; a three-year-old buck is worth about $300; and a two-month-old kid is worth about $120.
• On a worldwide basis, more people drink the milk of goats than any other single animal.
• Goat’s milk has a more easily digestible fat and protein content than cow milk.
• Glycerol ethers are much higher in goat milk than in cow’s milk which appears to be important for the nutrition of the nursing newborn.
• Goat’s milk tends to have a better buffering quality, which is good for the treatment of ulcers.
• Goat’s milk can successfully replace cow milk in diets of those who are allergic to cow’s milk.
• Goat’s milk has 13 percent less lactose than cow’s milk and 41 percent less than human milk.
• The milk-fat particles are small, making goat milk very easy to digest. Babies do extremely well on goat milk formulas, when a mother does not nurse her own baby.
• Goat’s milk fatty acids have a unique metabolic ability to limit cholesterol deposits in bad tissues.
• Goat’s milk and its products, including butter, are pure white. All the yellow betacarotene is already converted to colorless pure vitamin A.
• Compared to cow’s milk, goat’s milk has similar amounts of protein, fat, iron, vitamin C and vitamin D. Goat’s milk has more natural vitamin A, more vitamin B and less lactose.
• Goat’s milk and cow’s milk taste about the same.
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