Raising Goats for Milk, Meat, and Fun on the Homestead

Goats are a homestead favorite for milk, meat, or fun. Discover tips on care, breeding, housing, and health for these versatile animals.

Three goats huddled around a pile of hay in a snowy field, staying warm in winter.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

How to Make Livestock Windbreaks Using Free Materials

Goats, horses, and sheep standing in the snow next to a stock tank.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

How Do I Keep My Livestock’s Water from Freezing?

A white Nigerian Dwarf goat displaying a precocious udder.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

What to Do When Your Goat Develops a Precocious Udder

Two goats eating dandelion greens off a stump.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

A Guide to Selenium Supplements for Goats

A goat nibbling herbs in the garden.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Natural Herbal Dewormers for Happy, Healthy Goats

Two newborn baby goats in a field.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

How To Euthanize A Goat Kid With Compassion & Respect

A black and tan Nigerian Dwarf goat out in the pasture.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Nigerian Dwarf Goats: Perfect for Every Homestead

A Simple DIY Strip Cup Trick for Milking [with video]

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

A Simple DIY Strip Cup Trick for Milking [with video]

What is Fodder? Is it Right for Me? Sprouted Barley for Livestock

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

What is Fodder? Is it Right for Me? Sprouted Barley for Livestock

Goat Hoof Care: How to Trim Goat Hooves Correctly + Goat Hoof Health

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Goat Hoof Care: How to Trim Goat Hooves Correctly + Goat Hoof Health

Sunflowers in a tin pail sitting on a table on the porch.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Help Livestock Deal with Summer Heat on the Homestead

We are looking to expand our homestead by purchasing a gorgeous farm that has everything (except pasture). That's fine for the goats I already have, but it simply doesn't work for my dreams of fiber sheep and a guard llama. With a technique called silvopature, I might just be able to make this work.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Creating a Silvopasture to Benefit Your Farm & Goats

Many people aren’t raising goats to earn massive profit, but taking stock of cost versus benefit is essential to making the most of your time and money.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Raising Goats on the Homestead – Assessing Expenses

A lavender scented goat milk shampoo with sprigs of fresh lavender tied with twine.

Simple and Sustainable Homestead Living Tips

Goat Milk Shampoo Bars: A Recipe for Healthy Hair

There are some shady "rescues" out there. Here are some things you should be looking for when choosing a goat rescue to donate to or acquire a goat from.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Goat Rescues: What you really need to know

A milk pail and milk jug on a picnic table outside.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

There Are 100 Ways to Milk a Goat – Find the Right Way for You

A newborn Nigerian dwarf goat.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

What to Expect When Your Goat is Pregnant and Laboring

A very pregnant Nigerian dwarf dairy goat standing out in the field.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

What to Expect When You’re Breeding Your Dairy Goats

Naming Your Dairy Goat for ADGA Registration [all the rules]

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Naming Your Dairy Goat for ADGA Registration [all the rules]

Animal enrichment is activities that create a more stimulating environment for the animals and elicit some of their natural behaviors.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

What is Enrichment? How It’s Important for Livestock

Make Your Own Herbal Goat Treats with Flax & Supplements

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Make Your Own Herbal Goat Treats with Flax & Supplements

A stack of homemade butter blocks.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

4 Ways to Make Homemade Butter from Raw Milk (Cow or Goat)

Disbudding, the procedure of burning off the horns, is unpleasant. Every time we disbudded our goat kids we would ask ourselves, Is this necessary?

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Pros and Cons of Disbudding Your Goat

An herb crusted chèvre with a slice cut from it.

Wholesome Recipes and Real Food Inspiration

Homemade Chèvre: A Homesteader’s Guide to Crafting Cheese

Pouring a glass of milk in front of a dairy goat.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

A Simple Trick for Great Tasting Goat’s Milk

Hand milking a goat into a pail.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Homemade Teat Wash for Goats & Cows

A lean-to style chicken coop with a red door in a snowy backyard.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

How to Prepare Your Chicken House & Barn for Winter

“Are goats worth it?” And to that one question, I can answer an unequivocal “Yes.” New skills are not won easily; they have to be earned.

Raising Healthy and Happy Homestead Animals

Goat Dreams, Goat Realities