We took a vote, and the goats lost.

We have owned 3 Alpine does for a year, and they have given birth to 3 babies - 2 does and 1 buckling. We enjoyed them for the most part, except for the boys complaining about having to take care of and milk them. Based on the facts (1) No one was drinking goat's milk any more; (2) our refrigerator was over flowing with bottles of goat's milk; (3) the boys had to be forced to milk the goats; (4) the goats are eating more grass in the pasture than weeds; and (5) the goats are also eating grain I give our pregnant and lactating cows, I came to the conclusion that we needed to eliminate dairy goats from our farm in order to concentrate on Dexter cattle and St Croix sheep as our main livestock.  

We sold the 3 adult does and traded the 2 young doelings to our neighbor Sarah who has several Alpine dairy goats. She loves goat milk and just recently began training and showing goats at local fairs. Our remaining 2 bucklings will go into the freezer later this fall when the weather is cold enough to butcher and hang them in the barn without fear of flies. We will also be butchering a cow and 2 rams the same day, probably in late October or early November.

As of this week, we will be getting fresh raw cow's milk from Darlin. We separated her from her calf this evening, and K7 will milk her each morning, and then put her back in pasture with her calf. After calf is weaned in 4 months, K7 will milk Darlin twice a day, at which time we should get 2 gallons a day. The boys and I are cow milk drinkers and are very happy. K7 is the full time milker because I gave him part ownership of Darlin. I am sure he will figure out a way to make money from this deal!