The goat is a fairly small, agile, very curious animal. The males are called goats and the young ones are kids or chevrettes. On our farm we have a herd of around 150 dairy goats, 40 kids and 10 goats. The entire milk production, around 120,000 liters per year, is sold to the AGRIAL cooperative in Crest (Soignon, Grand Fermage, etc.) to be transformed into Picodon AOP.
Like all mammals, goats must have a young to give milk. Our kids give birth for the first time at one year old and thereafter every year in February, they then give birth to 1 or 2 or even 3 kids. Goats are naturally in heat when the length of daylight decreases, in our case the goats are introduced into the herd at the beginning of September for giving birth at the beginning of February after 5 months of gestation.
Our goats have an average daily milk production of 2.5 liters in two milkings, one in the morning and one in the evening, for 10 months of the year, or around 750 liters per year. The goats are then dry for two months in December and January, this is the rest period for the goats as for us, they no longer produce milk so there is no more milking. This is why it is more difficult to find farmhouse goat cheese during this period.
The goat is a ruminant, it has four stomachs. At first, she swallows her food roughly then regurgitates it when she is calm to chew it, this is what we call rumination. Our goats graze outdoors from April to November and all of the fodder and part of the cereals (barley) consumed indoors are produced on our farm.
Goats have some physical peculiarities, their pupils are rectangular and horizontal, this allows them to have a wider field of vision. Some goats also have growths of skin on the neck called tassels, the function of the tassels is not known, they are hollow pieces of cartilage, covered with hair.
Our herd is visible in the afternoon (12 p.m. to 4 p.m.) in the park below the campsite. On request, it is also possible to visit the goat farm during morning or evening milking, times vary depending on the season.