Episode 29 For the Love of Goats    Many people who have owned pet dogs assume that they know all about choosing, buying, and training dogs, but livestock guardian dogs are a completely different animal. In this episode we are talking about those differences with Bill Costanzo from Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center in San Angelo.  See below for a … [Read more...]

Episode 28 For the Love of Goats     Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis, usually referred to as CAE, is a disease unique the goats and sheep, which has no cure. It spreads easily because goats in the early stages of the disease have no symptoms, and some may remain symptomatic forever. In the 1970s, it was discovered that most goat herds in the United States … [Read more...]

Episode 27 For the Love of Goats       Have you thought about renting out a room or a small cottage or cabin on your farm through Airbnb? Meet Tammy Gallagher of Texas who has done just that! In this episode, she talks about why they opened up their farm to guests and exactly how that works with her goats and other livestock. For a complete … [Read more...]

Episode 26 For the Love of Goats     It might sounds like it's too good to be true -- take your goats to someone else's land and have them eat the brush and weeds while you are being paid. Goat landscaping is now more popular than ever, but it is not quite as simple as loading up your goats and having someone pay you while also providing free food for your … [Read more...]

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...]