Annb
Expert
One goat, without some extra input, won't give you milk. But they are funny, friendly creatures and worth keeping. Once you have the milk, you have to think about what to do with the extra goats (usually multiple births) - male? Either put it down in short order or raise it for meat and then get it slaughtered. Female? Keep her to increase the milking herd eventually, or sell her on. But the kids are so cute and amusing that you just want to hang on to them. Bad idea if the kid is a male - they become pretty obnoxious as they grow up. It's never as simple as it sounds. Goat meat can be pretty good, though.
Edit: Actually - just noticed that Ian said that goats stink - they shouldn't if they are properly cared for. The males do, of course, once they grow up, but the females are clean and really don't smell. They will, though, eat some odd things if you don't watch them. Ours loved my Dad's burned pipe tobacco and would keep trying to get the lit pipe out of his mouth. Alternatively, they liked to pluck feathers from the tail of any unwary chicken within reach. Daffodils are supposed to be poisonous to goats - in the goat v daffodil battle, the goats won, the daffodils died! Never found that they wanted to eat our washing though.
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