Are mountain goats really goats?

The other day I saw a magazine in a gas station with a picture of a mountain goat on the front cover. I naturally wanted to know what they had to say about them, so I decided to take a peek. Just as I opened the magazine to the appropriate page, my mom called me to the car. Still, as I was closing the magazine, one sentence caught my eye: Mountain goats aren't really goats; they're a type of Antelope.

Now, that came as something of a surprise. It never had occurred to me that a mountain goat might be an antelope, not a goat! So I looked it up. Here's the information that I gathered:


Mountain goats are close relatives to goats, but they are more properly known as goat-antelopes (click here for a description of a goat-antelope.) The mountain goat belongs to the subfamily Caprinae along with 32 other species including goats, sheep, the chamois, and the musk ox. The mountain goat is not a member of Capra, the genus that includes the wild goat from which the domestic goat is derived, but he is the only species in the genus Oreamnos.

A Day In The Life with Dairy Goats

I found this 5 Part Video Series called A Day In The Life with Dairy Goats. I thought it quite entertaining and also learned how to make a natural udder wash. Hope you enjoy it too. Here you are: http://www.onthegreenfarms.com/raising-dairy-goats/goats/.

Handy Goat Supplies

Here is a list of some supplies that I especially like. You can click on the picture or name of an item to go to the website that sells it.

Feeding and Cleaning:

Storage crate- When coupled with a bungee cord it makes an inexpensive hay feeder that can be attached to fences. It's handy when you just have a couple goats or if you need a portable feeder.	Rubber feed pan- I like to use this for feeding young kids grain. It's low enough to the ground for them to get to and wide enough to feed four or five at a time. The rubber is bendable, so it doesn't crack if a goat stands on it
6 quart mini feeder - This is easily hooked over the front bar of the milkstand to hold your doe's grain. You can get circular ones, which are narrower and deeper, but I prefer the rectangular ones.	Feed storage bin - Works very well for storing grain and chicken feed; it's easy to open and it seals tightly when closed. You can also use a garbage pail to store grain.
Gerber 9oz. baby bottles - Inexpensive and effective, these are what we used these for Dicey's triplets last year. Carina did have to replace the nipples after the kids bit through them, but they work amazingly well for the price.	Rake - Rakes are handy for raking up stray pieces of straw, hay and goat berries from the yard. I like ones with bendable metal tines best; they rake out the dips in the ground and last a lot longer then plastic ones.

Milking:

Stainless steel pail - These come in a variety of sizes; you can get a Nigerian dwarf sized pail or one that you could milk your elephant into. I got mine from Hoegger Supply but you can also get it from Amazon.

Kirkland Premium Baby Wipes - I like to get these for cleaning goats' udders before milking, and wiping my hands if they get dirty.