Why Free Range Goats

Goats that are allowed to “free range” provide the most energy efficient, healthy milk.
Energy – Most milk consumed in the U.S. comes from large confinement dairies (cow or goat) that are very energy intensive in terms of feed, operations, distribution and processing (see “Real Milk”).  Confinement dairies are also dependant on large monoculture farms for feed (alfalfa and concentrates) that are themselves very energy intensive operations.  Unnatural, crowded conditions of confined animals encourages disease which necessitates a constant flow of antibiotics (another energy intensive system) into the animals to keep them well. (See bacteria under “Cultured Dairy”.)  This all amounts to an avalanche of energy costs leaving dairy products from these operations highly susceptible to the vagaries of middle eastern oil producers – which explains the skyrocketing costs of milk.
Goats lend themselves to local or regional markets.  Since dairy goats are much smaller than dairy cattle, goats need less land and can derive more food per acre from diverse ecosystems than cows can.  This means that goats can be raised on smaller parcels closer to densely populated markets without the need for massive quantities of feed to be shipped in as would be the case for dairy cows.  Goats milk has a higher percentage of nutrients than cows milk, it’s easier to digest than cows milk and it has a higher butterfat content than cows milk (this is a good thing, see About Milk), all of which make it a better choice.
Like cattle, deer and llamas, goats are ruminants.  The first chamber of their stomach is the rumen where billions of bacteria work to break down the course browse (a mix of weeds, herbs, forbs and woody perennials) that goats love.  Food is regurgitated from the rumen to be re-chewed as cud when the goat is at rest.  The health of the goat and the quality of its milk are dependent on the quality of the forage it gets and there is no better forage than what a goat can get when it has free range access to large amounts of living, diverse browse.
Health – Many people who have digestive problems with cows milk can enjoy easily digested goat milk.  Additionally, goats that are allowed to browse on diverse ecosystems will produce milk that is much richer in nutrients than cows and goats fed a mono-diet of alfalfa and concentrate.  This mono-diet is sufficient to maintain a cow or goats needs, but it often translates to nutritionally inferior milk products, especially considering the degraded state of most farm soils where the feed is grown.
Organic certification does not solve these issues.  Organic goat milk products are still encumbered with the same energy and mono-diet issues as the previously discussed modern confinement dairy.  Organic just means that their mono diet is organically grown – not that the goats are free range.  Milk from an organically fed confined cow or goat will be inferior to milk from a goat allowed daily access to “free range” on a healthy ecosystem that is not certified organic.  Unlike the confined goat or cow that is left with no choice but the same daily mono diet, the free ranging goat gets to choose what it needs for optimum health and nutrition.
The ideal ecosystem for goats will closely resemble the ideal ecosystem for deer.  Because the two animals are both ruminants and browsers, their habitat preferences are similar.  Its because of this that when properly managed, goats can safely dovetail into ecosystems that support deer.  This type of ecosystem is typically one that is high in diverse woody perennials with many of those being leguminous – along with some grass.  That is exactly what we have here at Erda Kroft. Our goats are allowed to do what they do best – express their goatness by free ranging on a healthy ecosystem rich with browse.  In return, we get naturally healthy goats producing high quality milk.