Welcome To The Goat Dairy Library

This Wisconsin-based library holds information for setting up and managing a commercial goat dairy.  Materials are extracted from professional articles, journals and books, and from interviews with experienced goat milk producers.  The site is arranged so that readers can quickly find a topic, scan the best information currently available, and locate links.. Wherever possible, the entries are followed by a short citation, which corresponds to a full entry in the site bibliography.  The Table of Contents page lists all of the topics and sub-sections on the site, with direct links to the material.  The "What's New?" page has an events calendar, notice of news and new research findings, and announcements about new material on this site.

You will notice that, at times, the facts listed on a page may be contradictory.  For example, under "Stocking Rates" in the Building and Planning section, you will find multiple opinions about how many animals should be placed in a given area.  All opinions are presented, and producers will have to decide what works best under the conditions on their farm.  

You will find information from meat goat resources in the Library as well as dairy information, because much of the latest research on goats is coming out of universities with meat goat research programs. Many of their articles contain general goat information which we can use.  Our focus is dairy, with some meat goat information in the Value-Added section for producers who want to raise their bucklings for the meat market.

The librarian's job is to do research, organize and store information, but not to give advice.  Please contact your veterinarian or extension agent, or call one of the help lines listed in the Reference section if you need specific information for your farm.  The following link is a listing of extension agents in the U.S. who are goat experts: http://www.usextension.org/goatspecialists.pdf.  

Please e-mail goatdairylibrary@frontiernet.net to report broken links, to suggest new topics, to share Producer Tips or to contribute photographs for the Disease Database.

Off-line Use Of Materials

You may make a single digital or printed copy of materials on the site for your own personal use.  School teachers, 4-H and FFA leaders may distribute materials to their students without requesting permission, within the provisions of the education exceptions to the copyright laws, as long as they include the following statement at the beginning or end of the material.

These materials are the property of Goat Dairy Library,  www.goatdairylibrary.org.  (date).

For all other uses, please request permission.  I am very interested in providing education, and will work with you if I can.  Under no circumstances may anyone other than the owner of the Goat Dairy Library, use these materials for financial gain.  All communication with the librarian should be through e-mail.

Goat Dairy Library's Goals

To provide education and support to commercial goat milk producers

To promote agricultural practices that preserve the environment and maximize goat health

To provide a link between the goat research community and commercial goat milk producers. 

Thank you for accessing the Goat Dairy Library