About
Mount Tabor Goat Farm
Our
Story
Our family lives on a five acre farm in Toronto, Ohio. When we moved to the property, we simply wanted to immerse ourselves in God's beautiful countryside and give our 8 kids room to run and play. We started a vegetable garden, flower beds and planted a few fruit trees.
Several years later we began to think about adding dairy goats when one of our sons developed a bad case of eczema. the prospect of making goat milk soap for our family, together with my own interest in raising livestock, and spending more time working with the family outdoors, led us ultimately to the Nigerian Dwarf breed. In 2014 we bought our first two does, followed by two bucks the following year.
Nigerian Dwarf
Goats
We chose Nigerian Dwarf goats for their small size, sweet personality, and delicious tasting milk. When we first visited a Nigerian Dwarf farm and sampled their milk, we were surprised to find that the milk tasted nothing like what we had obtained from the grocery store. Instead, it was quite similar to cow’s milk.
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Nigerian dwarf goat milk has a butterfat of 6 - 10 % making the milk an excellent choice for both soap and cheese making. Their milk is rich in skin loving vitamin A and lactic acid and contributes to a silky moisturizing bar of soap.
All of our goats are registered with the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA). We are very interested in breeding for good milk production and parasite resistance. Kids are dam raised for all of its health benefits but handled/played with often by our family. While we keep a small, closed herd (no goats taken off site), our goats are quality animals that would make a great 4H project!
Herd Management
Our goal is to keep our goats in optimal health since we use their milk not only to make soap but also to drink and make cheese, yogurt, and ice cream.
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To achieve this we:
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Limit the use of chemical dewormers using them only on individual goats when necessary.
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Use rotational grazing on both grass and wooded paddocks.
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Feed grain and alfalfa pellets to does in milk.
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Offer free choice Sweetlix MeatMaker goat minerals and baking soda.
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Feed high quality 2nd cut grass hay.
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Daily cleaning of the barn and fresh water.
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Give Copper Oxide Wire Particles (COWP) twice a year.
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Trim hooves every 6-8 weeks.
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Maintain a closed herd.
We usually breed our goats to kid in the summer. All kids are disbudded, tattooed,
vaccinated for CDT, and wethers castrated before sale. They can be registered with the ADGA.
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Our herd tested negative for CL, Johne's, and CAE in
August 2023.