We chose Nigerian dwarf goats for our little farm because they are a small, strong dairy breed. We love goat cheese, which was the whole reason we wanted goats to begin with, and Nigerians give a surprising amount of milk for their small stature. Our first year, we only milked Star, which was more than enough for us to make lots of chevre and French toast and tapioca pudding -- and gain weight!

We milked two does our second year, and in order to keep the weight gain to a minimum for us humans, we learned to make goat's milk soap! We also started making yogurt, kefir, ice cream, more varieties of cheeses, including both soft and hard varieties.

In 2004, we attended our first goat shows, and our daughters became completely addicted -- so much that they both wanted to have their very own goats. As you tour our Web site, you will notice that we raise goats under two herd name -- Antiquity Oaks and Maly. Although Antiquity Oaks is the original herd and still going strong, Maly is the name our oldest daughter chose for registering the offspring of the goats she purchased.

From Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats:

The Nigerian Dwarf is of particular interest to backyarders. Introduced in the early 1980s when they were seen mostly in zoos, some of these little imports are excellent milkers for their size. As more serious breeders continue to develop them, their milk production is constantly increasing. What's more, they are considered dual-purpose animals, providing both milk and meat. The Nigerian Dwarf was the breed chosen for the Biosphere 2 experiment, in which eight people spent two years along with 3,500 plant and animal species and no outside supplies or support except electricity. Biosphere 2 was designed as a space-colony model, though ecological research became the primary, scientific goal. At any rate, future space travelers might be milking Nigerian Dwarfs!

One Nigerian Dwarf doe gave a whopping 6.3 pounds of milk on test day, and another had 11.3 percent butterfat. (2006 Update: the new one-day high is 6.8 pounds of milk!) A well-bred and well-managed Dwarf can be expected to produce an average of a quart a day over a 305-day lactation. Many of these good producers have teats as large as those of the full-sized breeds and are milked just as easily.

Although Nigerian Dwarves are a dairy goat, not every breeder milks his or her goats. Some people raise them for show or for pets. Our goal is to use and promote these lovely little goats as the ideal family milk goat. Since one goat provides the perfect amount of milk for most families, there is no need to buy an extra refrigerator for storing gallons of milk. Because these goats are small and friendly, they fit nicely into families with small children. Because some lines of these goats cycle year-round (rather than seasonally like the big goats), you can have a fresh supply of milk all year with two or three goats, breeding them four to six months apart.

If you are looking for a milk goat, it is important to get one from a breeder who has milked their goats and has first-hand knowledge of their goats' mammary systems and production capability. Not every goat is easy to milk or has great production, and the only way you know how much a goat produces or if they have easily-milkable teats -- or the right personality -- is if you've spent time milking that goat. We milk all of our does, and if we have trouble milking them, they wind up on the sale page.

The three most important things to us are:

1) Personality -- A goat has to have the right kind of personality to be a good milk goat. If she is doing pirouettes on the milk stand, it's rather challenging to hit the milk bucket.

2) Production -- If a goat can't maintain at least a quart a day for several months, she isn't really making enough for most families.

3) Teats -- If we can't get our hands on her teats to get the milk out, then she isn't the right goat for a home dairy.

Although our daughters now have a new emphasis on show quality, Mom won't let any beauty queens stick around if they aren't also good milkers. When we decide to sell an adult goat, we are honest in our assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, and we make sure we understand why you want a goat so that you won't wind up with an aloof brood doe if you really wanted an in-your-face pet. We attempt to make the same good matches with kids and future owners, but since we're dealing with genetic potential, rather than a mature personality and conformation, it becomes much more unpredictable. No goat is perfect, and our goal is to make each goat's kids a little better than the parents. To that end, we have purchased bucks whose mothers have mammary systems that we believe will improve upon what our does already have.

We hope you enjoy your cyber tour of Antiquity Oaks, and if you are in Illinois, we invite you to personally visit us and our goats.

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