WILLIAM THE Conqueror, a Kiko goat, is one of 70 goats on the Three Wishes Farm near Albion, Pa. Goats are gaining in popularity as a meat and dairy alternative, as well as for pets and fleece. The Goat Fest, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 5 in Albion Borough Park, gives novices the opportunity to see many breeds of goats, meet breeders, taste goat products and connect to resources for rural living. CARL E. FEATHER
A celebration of goats & country living
Goat owners to gather July 5
By CARL E. FEATHER - Lifestyle Editor - cfeather@starbeacon.com Star Beacon
Club members use the festival to promote the benefits of goats. Murkens is particularly strong on their milk-producing qualities and ability to rid pastures of brush.
Sue and Pam Hudson of Pierpont have 11 goats, some of whom have the task of clearing the farmland of multiflora rose and other invasive species.
“We got them to eat the brush,” Pam says.
“But they are much better brush eaters than we are fence builders,” Sue says.
Unlike herbicides, these efficient eaters do their work without leaving a toxin in their wake.
“You got to love an animal that eats multiflora rose,” Sue says.
“But you don’t want them around your prize rose bushes or tomato plants,” Pam adds.
With gasoline at $4 a gallon and diesel fuel even more, farmers and home owners with lots of land to maintain should consider several goats to keep their grass in check.
“We are cutting our grass mowing by at least a third by putting the goats out there,” Sue says.
The female versions of these lawn mowers can provide a family with milk, and the male versions can be butchered at the end of the season if there’s no interest in wintering them over. A female goat will typically produce two kids a year.
Murkens says it does not take a lot of land to keep a goat or two. Even urban dwellers can maintain a goat in a small space by feeding it purchased hay and grain.
“For small holdings, you can’t beat a goat,” she says. “The neat thing about a goat is one decent goat will supply a family with all the milk they need. If you have two goats, you can have it year around by staggering them.”
Excess milk can be made into cheese; about a pound to a gallon. There’s also a market for the milk in some communities.
Goat milk, says Murkens, is superior to cow milk as a human food because it is easy to digest.
“Goat milk is one of the best things you can feed any young animal, including humans,” says Murkens, who supplied goat milk to the Erie zoo for their baby giraffe.
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