Living with Goats: Everything You Need To Know To Raise Your Own Backyard Herd

by Margaret Hathaway

Overview

In the newest addition to the successful “Living With” series, Hathaway and Schatz let readers in on everything they need to know about how to raise one – or twenty – goats in their own backyards. Readers will discover how to raise goats either for milk, meat, or companionship, and how to shelter and care for their pets depending on the breed (whether they’re eventually going to eat them or invite them into their family circle). Between the friendly advice, first-hand wisdom, and hilarious stories, Living With Goats reassures readers that raising goats is a rewarding and sustainable endeavor well worth their while.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762784400
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/05/2013
Series:	Living with
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Residence:

Gray, Maine

Margaret More Hathaway was born and raised, for the most part, in Wichita, Kansas. After graduating from Wellesley with a degree in English and Anthropology, she received a Fulbright grant to Tunisia, where she studied madness addiction in the lives and works of American writers in North Africa. When she left Tunisia, Margaret spent six months wandering, dog-sitting in a suburb of Paris for two months and then backpacking by herself through Central and Eastern Europe. After returning to the States, she moved to New York and spent a brief, unhappy stint in book publishing. Since then, she’s worked on freelance writing projects and a novel, while also being a manager of The Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village. Margaret is excited about the goat adventure because she loves any combination of the following: reading, writing, cooking, napping, animal watching, traveling, making puppets, and being outdoors. She is the author of The Year of the Goat

Karl Schatz is a photographer, picture editor, web designer, and journalist. Before embarking on this great goat adventure, he was the online picture editor for Time Magazine. He received is BA in Soviet and Eastern European Studies for Tufts University, and is MA in communications for the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University. From 1992-1993 he lives in Moscow and worked on the documentary project, A Culture Rekindled Jewish Traditions Return to Russia. In 1994 he traveled to Poland to document the creation of Warsaw’s first Jewish day school in 45 years. Karl was born and raised in Maine, he is a member of the National Press Photographers Association, and Red Sox Nation.

Visit them at http://www.livingwithgoats.com/

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments v

Introduction Why Goats? vii

Chapter 1 Things to Think About in Advance 1

Chapter 2 Where Your Goats Will Live 19

Chapter 3 The Eternal Problem of Goat Fencing 29

Chapter 4 Feeding Your Goats 41

Chapter 5 On Bucks and Breeding 57

Chapter 6 Raising Kids 79

Chapter 7 The Health of Your Goats 107

Chapter 8 Goat Milk? 125

Chapter 9 Slaughter and Butchering 147

Chapter 10 Other Uses for Goats 161

Afterword 171

Appendix A The Year in Goats 175

Appendix B Equipment and Essentials by Chapter 179

Appendix C Resources and Suppliers 184

Appendix D State Cooperative Extension Offices 187

Index 193

About the Author and Photographer 198

Recipe

Ever thought of raising a goat (or two, or twenty)? If you already do, you’re not alone. This age-old practice is enjoying a renewed popularity, and for good reason. The goat is one of nature’s most incredibly versatile creatures. With proper care and attention, a goat can feed, clothe, and comfort you. It can thrive on one acre or one thousand and can adapt to virtually any climate. It can show you immense affection. Other times, it can be the most stubborn, mischievous, and maddening animal in the barnyard or cauliflower patch.

In Living with Goats, author Margaret Hathaway and photographer Karl Schatz show and tell everything you need to know about raising goats. With the same lively prose and charming color photos that marked their widely praised memoir,  The Year of the Goat, they address a wide range of topics—including breed characteristics, raising goats for milk or meat, shelter requirements, how to prevent injury and illness, and goats as pets.

Replete with friendly advice, homespun wisdom, and entertaining anecdotes, Living with Goats offers reassurance of just how easy and rewarding it is to raise goats. Whether you’re an armchair farmer, a hobbyist, a do-it-yourselfer, or already a proud goat-owner, it is the ultimate guide to your own backyard herd.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Year of the Goat:

Reading Margaret and Karl’s delightful journey reminded me of the ideals that brought many of us at Moosewood together over thirty years ago. Margaret Hathaway’s spirited storytelling and off-beat humor not only reawakened my own memories of adventurous times, but revealed that the dream to go “back to the land” to lead a simpler life is alive and flourishing. And boy did I learn a lot about goats and cheese! —Wynnie Stein, co-owner/author, Moosewood Restaurant

 

“Back-to-the-land fantasies aren’t new, but Hathaway gives theirs a modern twist by emphasizing “terroir,” the idea that “food is rooted in the land,” and of connecting “the palate to the place.” Local-eating, slow-food activists will find much to chew on here.”

—Publishers Weekly

 
"Hathaway's descriptions of the various characters they meet - both human and goat - are funny and vivid.. . . This is a book for anyone who's ever imagined going back in time to a simpler life - or anyone who loves cheese." —Entertainment Weekly
 
"Hathaway pokes fun at her naive notions of rural life with a sly humor that nicely balances the naked earnestness of the endeavor. The details of animal husbandry and cheese production will intrigue those interested in foods origins, and many readers, particularly city dwellers, will also be captured by the personal story of a young couples unusually thoughtful efforts to build a meaningful life together." —Booklist

From the Publisher