Sebastian Hammer wrote:I was wondering what y'all thought about raising cows as compared to goats. I am looking for both meat and milk. I am going to be moving to a ~40 acre spot next Spring and was thinking a few goats or cows would be great. I am thinking of devoting 3 to 5 acres to the livestock. Of course, that allocation could change, well, tomorrow even based on what I learn.
My thoughts on the comparison are below, this is just what I have gathered from my initial research and talking to people.
Goats:
Smaller and easier to transport
Eat a wider variety of plant material
Can keep a larger number in the same area so I can keep more females (does?) leading to, seemingly, more consistent milk production
Try harder to get out (even though I do know a dairy guy who seems to think his cows automatically appear outside the electric fence when it is off)
Males seem more territorial
Easier to butcher at home
Cows:
More docile and easier to keep in a fence
Produce way more milk
Little more finicky about what they eat
Easier to control and paddock shift
Milk seems to have more milk fat (which is a definite plus in my book)
Can be used for work easier if need be
So, what do you think?
So far as I can tell the "cows have more milk fat" isnt always true, it may be true of some cows and some goats but a jersey cow(famed for her comparably high milk fat content) has about 5% butterfat(or milkfat whichever you prefer) where as Nigerian dwarf goats have 6-10%. This doesn't mean goats always have the upper hand in terms of fat content, a goat bred for high volume milk goat(saanen) produces around 3.5% milkfat, far less than our high cream content lower milk volume jersey cow.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is that goat milk is naturally homogenized. It is far more difficult to get the cream to rise to the top though some patient people say it can be done than it is in cow milk which is not.
Also goats produce white milk wheras some cows produce yellow milk though others also produce white milk.
Both goats and cows are herd animals but I suspect that cows are less "clingy" goats really require a companion, many people successfully keep a single cow though.
Cows are considered to be mostly grazers, they prefer to eat more grasses and forbs while goats prefer woodier things, not just trees, they are great for clearing any kind of brush.
I am going to put in something obvious that we kind of danced around: goats are smaller than cows. This means that they are easier for predators to get and for humans to handle as well as needing less food. This also means a lower total volume of milk per capita.
Have you considered sheep? I think they are harder to tame but they are a good multipurpose animal, fiber, milk, and meat. You cant really do that with goats they put most of their effort into either fiber with angora or milk with milk breeds, though milk and meat can be dual purpose. They also have a very high milk solids content, higher than both goats and cows.
