Cow vs. Goat!
If you’re thinking about getting into dairy animals, there are two primary choices: Cows or goats. You might think that the cow is the more obvious of the two, but it’s said that more people in the world drink goat’s milk than cow’s milk.
There are a number of factors to consider when choosing which way to go. We’ve tried both, so I thought I’d share our (admittedly limited) experience on the differences between the two. I’ll start with some of the more obvious differences, and then get into some that you may not have considered.
I won’t get into breed selection here - that’s a whole different topic, and it’s been well covered elsewhere. I will just tell you that we have had Nubian dairy goats, and we currently have a Jersey cow.
Size
Under almost any scenario, a cow is going to be much larger than a goat - more than ten times larger by weight. If an 80 pound dairy goat goes where it shouldn’t, you can generally push, pull, or carry them back to where they need to be. With a half-ton cow, you’re going to have to rely on your powers of persuasion. And you’re not transporting a cow in your pickup or minivan.
Shelter
Bigger animals need bigger shelters. This will add expense to your operation if you decide on cows over goats.
Water
Both need access to fresh water. As you’d expect, a cow drinks a lot more than a goat - up to 15 gallons a day. You can carry a water bucket to the goat pasture, but you’d probably need multiple buckets or multiple trips to keep your cow’s water full if you’re carrying it by hand. Just something to keep in mind if you’re starting from scratch.
Cost
In most places, you can get a good dairy goat for $100 - $150. A cow can cost ten times that or more. And in some places, available dairy cows have been bred for machine milking rather than hand milking. Both my neighbor (who raises beef cattle) and my vet took one look at our Jersey cow and said, “Amish cow?” I asked what tipped them off and they said “long teats.” Easier for hand milking, you see.
Space
A goat will need a lot less pasture space than a cow. The rule of thumb I hear is that in terms of pasture space, one cow is roughly equivalent to six goats. Which leads to…
Pasture Quality
A cow is going to be a lot more picky about what she eats than a goat, and she’ll be less tolerant of a weedy pasture. Actually, grazing cows and goats together can work well, since they’ll eat some different plants. Goats’ reputation for eating everything up to and including tin cans is not really deserved in my experience, but they are willing to eat things a cow won’t. Goats are browsers, cows are grazers. Many goats love chicory and other “weeds,” and ours loved clover. Both will pull the spark plug wires off your tractor though, so be careful where you leave it…
Fencing
At first blush, you might think you need bigger fencing for bigger animals. But goats are mountain climbers. They are adventurers. They are escape artists. They are the Houdinis of the barnyard. There’s a joke among goat people that if your fence won’t hold water, it won’t hold goats. And despite brand new 4 1/2 foot wire mesh fencing, we had multiple escapes - including a 200+ pound Boer buck who was very aggressive. Not cool. And once he figured out he could do it, he could do it at will, so he had to go bye-bye. A doe will generally be a little better about this, but still, they will try to go over, under, around, through, between, and any other prepositions you can think of.
Cows will occasionally test fences, especially if they’re in heat and think they might have some breeding opportunity, but they are usually much more docile and complacent. Speaking of which…
Temperament
Different breeds have different personality types. So do different individual animals for that matter. But in general, goats are much more gregarious, curious, friendly, and outgoing. We’ve heard Nubians referred to as dogs with udders, and with good reason.
At the risk of anthropomorphizing too much, cows are generally more laid-back, more contemplative. They’re also bigger and stronger, and can do more accidental damage just lugging those big bodies around. And they can easily push you around if they’re feeling ornery.
Cows also handle solitary life better than goats. Both are herd animals and have a strong preference for living in groups, but cows have a longer history of living alone among humans and seem to handle it much better.
Feed Quantity
Even with good pasture, you’re going to need to feed some grain if you’re milking. With the exception of a few adventurous experimenters, all dairy cows and goats need grain when they’re lactating. Dairy animals are bred for high production, and high production means high calorie intake. Otherwise they keep giving the same amount of milk, but at the expense of body condition and health. And for most dairy animals, leafy plants like grasses, alfalfa, and clover just don’t have a high enough calorie density. That said, goats are more efficient users of those calories - they give more milk for fewer calories than does a cow.
You’ll also need a lot more and better hay for the winter with a cow than you would with a goat. Don’t get me wrong, goats will turn their nose up at low quality hay too. They’re just not quite as picky.
Milk Quantity
A typical Nubian goat will give up to a gallon and a half per day. A typical Jersey cow can give over five gallons a day, and some commercial Holstein cows regularly top 10 gallons a day. Of course, more is not always better, especially for the homesteader or small-scale farmer. And especially in places with very restrictive raw milk laws.
Milk Qualities
You may be shocked when I say this, but I thought our goats’ milk tasted more like store-bought than our cow’s. At least for us, there really wasn’t a “goaty” flavor to the goat’s milk - it just tasted like milk. Jersey milk is high in butterfat, and has a creamy color and a slightly different flavor. In any case, you may want to find a way to sample the milk of whatever animal you’re considering - individual preferences do vary, and even milk from individual animals.
The big advantage to goat’s milk, besides the more manageable quantities, is that it’s naturally homogenized. This means that the cream doesn’t separate the way unprocessed cow’s milk does. This is at least part of the reason goat’s milk is more easily digestible than cow’s milk. The big advantage to cow’s milk is that the cream does separate. This means you can skim it off and make whipped cream and butter much more easily. You also have a lot more flexibility in making dairy products with cow’s milk. Goat’s milk is great for drinking, and makes great yogurt and goat cheese. But with cow’s milk you can add butter, whipped cream, cottage cheese, and a huge variety of familiar cheeses - mozzarella, ricotta, cheddar, swiss, you name it. Trying to make some of these with goat’s milk will almost certainly draw out any “goatiness”. And if you want cream from goat’s milk, you need a cream separator. And even if you get one, you might be disappointed.
Ease of Milking
A goat requires a much smaller milking stanchion than a cow. It also requires much less muscle strength and stamina in your arms and hands - because a goat has only two teats, and there’s generally much less milk to be extracted. And their short tails mean they can’t swat you in the face if the flies are bothersome.
On the other hand, they’re more apt to dance and fidget during milking, since they don’t have that tail to swat flies with. And being smaller, their body movements tend to be quicker, which will probably result in a much higher percentage of kicked milking pails.
With a cow, you can usually tell the movement is coming in time to grab the pail and move it out of harm’s way. Of course, if she does manage to kick the bucket, you’ve lost a good bit more milk.
And let me tell you, watch out for that tail! It’s not like the fluffy tuft on your kid’s stuffed animal. Keep in mind that it’s a fly swatter. The first time you’re sitting on the milking stool and she deftly whacks you with her tail in such a way that it wraps around your head and those coarse hairs get you right in the eye…. you will not soon forget. Some people tie up the tail during milking, but I gave up on it. First, she’d become obsessed with getting it loose, which she nearly always did. And when she didn’t, a couple times I forgot to untie it when I let her out. Thankfully my twine gave out before her tail was injured.
Now I just let her have her tail. It can be a pain, but at least she can swat some flies and dance a little less while I milk. And she can use it to let me know if I’m doing something she doesn’t like.
Manure
Have you ever noticed that almost all animal manure has food-oriented nicknames? Horse apples, cow pies, goat berries, llama beans… Well both goat berries and cow pies have advantages and disadvantages, depending on your preferences and plans for the manure. Goat droppings are pretty innocuous, and in many cases, they can more or less stay put. They’re actually kind of hard to clean up, because they fall through the cracks of your fork or roll off your shovel. But stepping on them is not nearly as messy as other varieties of poo. Cow pies, on the other hand, are often pretty generous and pretty messy. But if you’ve got straw or rejected hay as bedding in your stall, they’ll actually hold together well enough to be forked up whole and transported to your compost pile.
Breeding
You can’t get milk without making babies first. For both goats and cows, most people aim for once-a-year breeding, with milking stopped over winter, and calves / kids born in early spring. The downside with goats is that the bucks stink to high heaven. And if you even go near them, much less touch them, your clothes and your skin are going to stink too. It’s like a strong, musky, skunky smell that coats you like a film and can be detected quite a ways off. Male goats can also be very aggressive, and if you’re keeping them yourself rather than borrowing a buck from somebody else, you’re going to need a separate paddock - with really good fencing.
You might be thinking, well, a bull may not stink, but they don’t sound like much of a picnic either. You’re absolutely right, especially if you’re talking about dairy bulls. They can be very dangerous to have around, even for the experienced. The good news is that there are a couple of alternatives. One is to breed your dairy cow to a meat breed, like an Angus. The bulls are generally not aggressive, and the resulting calf can then become high quality freezer beef.
The other alternative, used by the majority of dairy cow owners both large and small, is artificial insemination. For a surprisingly small fee ($20 in our case), you can have somebody come to your barn and take care of business in under five minutes. [Fill in your own jokes here.] And with this method, you have a whole catalog of potential fathers, from prize-winning purebreds to beef cattle to rare and unusual breeds that might make a good cross. The one challenge is knowing when to make that phone call. Some cows make it obvious (like ours) by bellowing day and night for a special friend, but many don’t. Depending on your preferences and philosophy, your AI technician can give your cow an injection that will trigger ovulation, and then come back for the insemination the next day.
Offspring
As I said before, you can’t make milk without making babies first. And you can’t milk indefinitely after those babies arrive. Anything over a year is stretching it in most cases. So what are you going to do with the inevitable calves or kids that arrive on a regular basis? In either case, female offspring are going to be worth more and will be easier to sell than males. Goats average two kids per birth, while cows almost always have single calves. It’s also worth noting that goats, with a gestation period of five months, can be bred twice a year if more kids are desired. Cows have a gestation period of nine months and are generally bred only once a year.
Goat kids, at least in our area, can be sold for 4H projects (especially if they’re registered), to livestock auctions, sometimes as pets or “lawnmowers,” or even directly to some consumers of goat meat. There are a number of cultures who prefer goat meat, especially for special occasions. Find out if there is any demand in your area.
The market for dairy cows varies also by location (4H, other homesteaders, livestock auctions), but it seems there’s always somebody willing to pay for beef - and these days more and more people are seeking out grass-fed beef specifically.
Summary
You’re going to have to look at your own circumstances and your own preferences. You’re sure to find passionate preferences on both sides of this issue in Internet circles. In either case, just keep in mind that you have to milk every day - generally twice a day. Romantic notions of milk pails and butter churns aside, there’s no sleeping in and no weekend getaways without making arrangements for somebody else to do the milking. And it’s not something that you can teach someone the night before you leave. It takes some practice, and in the case of a cow especially, stamina. Having a dairy animal is a big commitment, and it’s not for everyone.
If you’ve never owned livestock before, you’re probably better off starting with goats. The costs are lower, the animals are smaller, and the volume of milk is more manageable. But as we’ve just seen, there are quite a few differences to consider. Hopefully this will help you make an informed decision.