Episode 25 For the Love of Goats   Have you ever dreamed of starting your own goat milk soap business? That's exactly what Jill Spruance and her family did almost a decade ago, and they are still going strong. They make about 20,000 bars of soap annually and selling them on their farm and online, as well as wholesale through 35 retailers across the … [Read more...]

Episode 24 For the Love of Goats     There is probably no other goat-related subject that confuses goat owners more than deworming. If you check five different online sources, you could wind up with five different recommendations about how to use dewormers. The problem is that there was not much research done on worms until the last 15 years or so, which means … [Read more...]

Episode 23 For the Love of Goats       Rather than waiting for spring and wondering why your goats didn't get pregnant, now is the time to get your ducks in a row -- er, um, goats! In this solo episode I'm talking about all of the things you need to consider during breeding season. If you breed your goats now, will they give birth at a time … [Read more...]

Episode 22 For the Love of Goats   How does a goat breeder go from judging goat shows to helping people raise goats in Nepal? Prior to our interview in this episode, Dan Laney said to me via email that after he spent a month in a coma and then lost his mother to cancer, his life was drastically changed. "I was devastated," Dan wrote. "Then one day as I was … [Read more...]

Episode 21 For the Love of Goats       Today we are talking about two separate problems that a lot of goat owners encounter -- milk that tastes "goaty" and does holding back their milk. First, I'm talking to Katherine Boehle, Ph.D., about how bacteria in milk causes a bad taste -- and it doesn't matter whether that bacteria is alive or dead, … [Read more...]

Episode 20 For the Love of Goats       If you are homeschooling or thinking about it, you might find today's episode interesting. We homeschooled our children until they went to college, and the experience changed a lot when we moved from the Chicago suburbs to our farm in 2002. Our youngest daughter, Katherine, was nine years old when we moved out … [Read more...]

Episode 19 For the Love of Goats     Are your goats or goat expenses tax deductible? It depends! Learn the many ways goats can affect your taxes (or not) with Harley Raptor CPA and "Accountant Warrior" as she describes the different ways to treat goats on your taxes and what differentiates a business from a hobby. 2:00 What's the difference between a … [Read more...]

Episode 18 For the Love of Goats     If you ever thought about starting a commercial dairy, today's episode is for you. I am talking to a couple of New Yorkers who moved to Vermont to start a goat dairy selling gelato!  Michael and Lisa Davis of Sweet Doe Dairy in Vermont talk about their decision to leave corporate jobs to become goat farmers and … [Read more...]

Episode 16 For the Love of Goats   Learn about your responsibilities and liabilities as a goat owner with Eva Moss, Farmer and Partner Development Manager at Farm Commons, which is a non-profit specializing in legal education for farmers. If you want to know why I'm not doing goat yoga on our farm, it's one of the first thing we talk about in this podcast. We … [Read more...]