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If you’re looking to add your first dairy goats to your homestead, it can be overwhelming when learning everything you need to know to care for them properly.
It’s also an exciting time! It’s so rewarding to take care of goats and to get to know their individual personalities. Animal husbandry offers so much joy in addition to offering a bit more self-sufficiency.
As someone who takes care of two breeds of dairy goats, I’ve come up with an essential supply list for first time dairy goat owners. We’ll look at the necessary equipment to keep your goats healthy and specific tools to ensure successful milking.
Let’s get milking 🥛
What do goats need to thrive?
If you have pasture available, you can really maximize the efficiency of your land by sowing seed for goat forage. Then, rotate the goats in sections throughout the pasture for regenerative rotational grazing.
This goat forage mix from Albert Lea Organic Seeds provides a great mix of goat favorites that will work in most temperate climates.
It might be challenging to find locally grown hay that is certified organic, but usually “no-spray” hay is available.
Hay is usually necessary to supplement pasture in cold and wet weather. Our goats graze daily from late spring through fall, but prefer to stay inside from fall through winter. During this time, I feed them hay.
While herbicide, fungicide, and pesticide-free hay is best for the environment, it also helps you in the garden. No-spray hay paired with no-spray straw will keep harmful chemicals out of your compost piles.
Goats will need something to keep their hay off the floor. While no hay feeder will prevent that completely, a good hay feeder like this one will help reduce waste.
For the most part, goats don’t need a lot of grain. If none of your dairy goats are pregnant or milking, it’s common practice to just give the goats a small amount of grain as a treat.
Locally sourced organic grain cuts down on the environmental impact of raising and feeding goats.
If you're unable to find locally grown and milled grain, Tractor Supply has an affordable alternative for Organic Goat Pellets from Nature's Best.
I give our goats grain in bowls like this. They are easy to wash and are very rugged.
Goats need minerals that are often not found naturally in pasture soils or hay. Goats are native to rocky areas where they could source these minerals naturally in the wild. On farm land, these minerals need to be supplemented.
Baking soda is necessary to reduce risk of bloat when goats are on pasture.
Our goats flip for these minerals:
Our goats graze on minerals and supplements “free choice,” meaning they have access to them to eat as they please. These mineral feeders are where I put out their different supplements for them to graze on.
My baby goats always seem to climb up on this brand of mineral feeders and they have never broken, which is pretty impressive.
Of course, goats need water too. These water buckets are easy to carry around, simple to clean, and very sturdy.
Before you bring home your first pair of goats, make sure that there is a local livestock veterinarian that can help you keep your goats in top health.
Some livestock veterinarians are a part of cat + dog vet clinics, so you may wish to call around to see if they have someone available. In this way you have the option to bring your goats into the clinic if necessary, which is less expensive than having a vet come to your homestead.
However, sometimes it’s more convenient to have the vet come to you. For this reason, it’s nice to have a vet that can accommodate both types of visits.
If you’re going to buy one book to support you with goat care, let it be this book. Gianaclis is renown in the goat world for her high quality dairy goats and goat cheese. This book goes into great detail on goat feed, toxic plants, goat minerals, hoof care, parasites and other common health issues, and goat birthing.
I also recommend her cheese making books too. Her recipes are tried and true, and easy to follow.
Goats have a reputation for being mischievous and will find ways to move through any weak fencing. They have a “the grass is always greener on the other side” kind of mentality.
Make sure your fencing is at least 4 feet tall, sturdy, and has no gaps underneath that a goat can sneak under. You’ll want taller fencing for larger breeds of goats, especially male goats.
If you have baby goats, you’ll need to take extra care that there are no large gaps in gates that they can move through.
-> Have a look at my article on the best fencing for goats
Hoof trimmers are a necessary goat tool to have. In the wild, goats climb on rocky mountains all day, which keeps their hooves worn down. On most people’s land, their hooves will grow.
It’s kind of like human nails or dog nails. They’ll need to be trimmed occasionally. We check our goat’s hooves monthly.
I prefer to use straw bedding for our goats. For me, it’s easier to source locally and lower in dust than wood shavings.
I have had the unfortunate experience of seeing how straw sprayed with Grazon can wreck havoc on a garden when used as mulch or when turned into compost. It’s a persistent herbicide that will remain in your garden and hinder the growth of legumes and other crops for years.
If you have a goat who is sick or weak, nutri-drench is great to give them. You will need a drench syringe to get them to drink it, so be sure to have both in your goat medicine cabinet.
A digital thermometer is the easiest way to take a goat’s temperature if necessary.
Selenium comes in tubes like this, and you can measure out the doses to give to your goats. Check with your vet to see if it is necessary for your goats, and for dosing amounts and frequency.
An herbal dewormer can be used as a preventative measure for dealing with parasites. This dewormer by Molly's is what we use, and it's very popular in the goat care world.
Be sure to read the instructions on this, especially for pregnant goats, who should not have "formula 1."
Since the stronger dewormer medicine can persist in composted manure and bedding, I try to avoid needing to use it in the first place.
Of course, if your goats have signs of worms and illness, call a vet for medicated dewormer and follow all instructions.
You can obtain proper goat vaccines from your local vet. They will often provide the syringe and needles.
However, sometimes they will give you a bottle that you’ll need your own syringe and needles to extract and give to your goats.
One thing to know about collars is that there is a risk for curious goats to get stuck on fencing and trees with their collar, and not be able to get free. This can cause them to hang themselves and die.
Plastic break-away collars are usually recommended if collars are necessary keep on your goats long term. A collar helps you to lead your goats around. Most of my goats are fine without a collar long-term, however.
A regular heavy-duty cloth collar is nice to have for moving goats around temporarily, and then removing them once they’re settled into a new area of pasture or your homestead.
Leashes are great to lead goats around your property too. I have my boy goats in a separate area of my property than my girl goats. When it’s breeding season, I use a leash and a collar to lead my boy goat over to the girls’ area.
Goats are playful, curious, and energetic animals. This is especially true when they are young. A climbing structure like the one pictured here allows goats to carry out their innate passion for climbing. It's also entertaining to watch them jump around!
An essential goat tool, you’ll need a pitchfork to clean out your goat’s stalls and your barn. I’ve found it to be easier than a shovel. This pitchfork from Tractor Supply has a lifetime warranty.
You’ll move the goat bedding and manure out of their stalls with the pitchfork, and then toss it into a wheelbarrow to move out of the barn.
I recommend this one manufactured by True Temper and sold by Tractor Supply.
A large 3+ compartment compost bin is great for storing your goat manure and bedding as it breaks down. It keeps things tidier than one loose pile.
This cedar compost bin from Gardener's Supply is USA made and comes with add-on options, so you can easily turn this into a three bin system.
Goats like to have their own small cozy rooms to sleep in. Sometimes they will bunk with their siblings or children. Make sure that their stalls are secure, so that they can’t escape and so that other creatures, like coyotes, can’t get in.
Depending on your needs and end goals, you may wish to dehorn all of your goats. Dehorning is a really hard topic. On one hand, dehorning goats prevents them from potentially getting their horns stuck in fencing and hanging themselves. I’ve had to rescue a goats from situations like this, where if I hadn’t been home, the goat would have died.
For this reason, some registries and the 4H require goats to be dehorned.
On the other hand, dehorning goats can be painful. You can use local anaesthetic, or take your goats to the vet where they can put them under for the surgery.
The real solution is to look to add “poled” goats to your herd and integrate them into your breeding stock. Poled goats are born naturally without horns, so then this hard topic becomes a non-issue.
You’ll want to have a box of nitrile gloves on hand to keep yourself clean while delivering babies, and to keep babies and the goat mom clean, too.
These gloves are biodegradable, but I have not tried to compost them to confirm.
These shoulder length gloves are only necessary if you need to reach into the birth canal and make adjustments to breached babies. While you can always hope you’ll never have to do that, it’s good to be prepared just in case.
In her book on goat care, Gianaclis Caldwell recommends puppy pads. Puppy pads catch any birthing fluids, are a “clean spot” for babies, and can wipe off the noses of the baby goats.
You can also use old towels for this purpose, and then throw them in the wash afterwards.
Either way, having something to wipe off the fluid from the noses of the babies so they don’t breathe it in is great.
Normally, goat babies will get this nutritional drink straight from their moms. Sometimes though, a mom will decide not to let a baby feed from her. Other times, this supplement is necessary if the goat mom passes away during labor.
Either way, having some colostrum supplement on hand will improve the health and vigor of the goat babies. It’s only necessary if they don’t get milk from their mom during their first few days.
A bottle especially designed for baby goats, this will help you to give kids colostrum or just to bottle feed them milk.
Many people like to bottle feed their baby goats, because then they become very friendly and sociable with humans.
Bottle feeding may also be necessary if a mama goat rejects a goat for being sickly or the runt of the litter.
I've tried a few brands of baby goat milk bottles, and they all leak when feeding.
If you have a situation where your mom has passed away or isn’t allowing a baby goat to drink her milk, you may need to buy milk from the store to give to the kids.
I had a situation where a first-time goat mom gave birth to three baby goats. One of the three was extremely tiny - she only came up to the shoulder of her sisters when she stood up! At first, her mom allowed her to drink milk, but after a few days she refused to let her drink. We had to run to the store to buy goat milk to feed to the runt, since the mom’s supply was going to her other two kids.
Molasses is a great energy boost for goat moms right after delivery. You can mix some into water right after the birth, and add some to their water for a few days afterwards. All of the goat moms that I’ve had love this treat.
A scale is helpful for weighing babies if you’re worried about their health. It can be useful to make sure they are gaining weight instead of losing it.
Iodine is needed to disinfect the area around the severed umbilical cord on the baby goats. Apply iodine to this area daily until it’s healed up.
A goat with mastitis will not allow her babies to drink from her teats because it will be too painful. It’s good to know if your mama goat has mastitis so that you can treat it properly. A vet will be able to give you medication to make sure that the mastitis resolves and doesn’t damage the goat’s udder.
A mastitis prevention spray helps to avoid issues with mastitis.
Once the baby goats are old enough, you can now start to milk your mama goats and enjoy some for yourself! Here are the supplies you’ll need to have when milking goats.
This is kind of like hand lotion, but for udders. It helps to prevent dryness, chapping, and irritation on the udders. Apply it after you milk your goats.
I use quart and half gallon mason jars to store our milk in the fridge.
A breeze to clean and disinfect between milkings, and the wide bucket is easy to milk into. The medium size is great for milking Nubian goats, but get this smaller size if you're milking Nigerian Dwarfs. I've learned that the medium size is too tall to fit under smaller goats.
I like these buckets because they do not have a seam. I had other buckets for milking before but grime would always build up in the seam. In my experiences, these are much easier to clean.
The wash cloths are what I use to wash off the goat’s udder before milking. You can also use disposable goat udder wipes.
Milk should be filtered so no goat hair, hay, or dirt is in the milk that we drink. It’s best to filter the milk as soon as possible.
A milking stand keeps the mama goat in place while you milk her. I offer my goats some grain as a treat while they are being milked, and many milking stands have an area for this purpose built into them.
Often, leg straps aren’t necessary. But some goats like to kick while they are being milked, which causes your bucket to spill. This prevents a loss of your milk.
You’re going to want to make cheese with all of your goat milk! Have some muslin cheese cloth on hand for cheese making projects.
Many cheese can be made with apple cider vinegar or regular vinegar. But other cheese, kefir, and yogurt will need starter culture to work.
I found this milking machine to be essential when milking our Nigerian Dwarf goats. They have small teats, which make it kind of hard to milk them.
You'll want to buy smaller bottles if you're milking Nigerian Dwarfs with this milker, the standard size is too big to fit under them.
I like hand milking our Nubian goats and find their longer teats to be much easier to milk.
The milking machine is faster, and I’d probably use it if I had more than a few goats to milk each day.
I hope this list was helpful!
I also have a full review of different kinds of goat fencing, too.
