Family’s goat herd grew through the years
CLEARFIELD TWP — It’s late afternoon and the old dairy barn on Allen Drive is filled with bleats and bawling. It’s feeding time for the young goats.
As Emily, 16, David, 12, and Philip, 10, work to bottle-feed the young goats, their mother Amanda Kramer explained how the family came to be the owners of 60-head goat herd.
Up until a decade ago, she and her husband, Dave, worked a dairy farm that had been in the Kramer family for six generations. But then the costs began to outweigh the profits, and they sold off the cows.
“About eight years ago, we were looking for an animal to do with 4-H, and my husband wanted it to be not cows,” Kramer said. So, they decided to start with a couple of goats their children could use in their Kashmere Kids 4-H animal group.
Kramer said they started off with two Nigerian dwarf goats, but switched to Nubian goats: Poppy, Marigold, Brownie and Diamond.
On this particular afternoon, Kramer watched as her children bottle-fed 11 kids, the latest generation of goats. The young goats get fed by bottle twice a day, in the mornings before the Kramers go to school and in the late afternoon around 5 p.m. The kids will be weaned to strictly solid food at about six weeks old.
Kramer said their herd expanded over the years to include a mix of Nubian and Alpine goats. The Nubian breed has a long snout and long ears. Alpine goats can be identified by their erect ears.
Both breeds grow to top out at between 150 and 175 pounds and can live for 10 to 12 years.
“They can be a dual purpose breed. You can use them for meat and for milk,” Kramer said, although the Kramers use their herd mostly for livestock shows.
Philip said of one show goat, “Brownie is a tank. She has been showing for years and still places. I got a trophy for her last year.”
Emily has won grand champion with a Nubian, Rosie, at the 2021 and 2022 Butler County Farm Show.
Emily said Rosie was judged or her shape and her udder size.
“I did clean her up and used coconut oil to make her coat shiny,” she said.
“They’re pets pretty much. Philip has a soft spot for them,” said Kramer.
“They are smarter than dogs. You can train them to do tricks, run obstacle courses,” said Philip.
Whether the goat acts like a pet, said David “depends on the goat. They can pick up on your mood.”
“One or two of them have an attitude and they are not afraid to tell you about it,” he said.
“They’re livestock,” said Emily.
“They’re a little bit of both,” said David.
“They are more of a pet for Philip than anything,” said Kramer. The 11 kids all have names. “Philip knows them all by name, and he can tell them apart.”
Most of the goat herd was born on the farm because, Kramer said, there are not a lot of Nubian goat breeders in Butler County.
During the winter, the goats are kept in the barn and fed hay. Kramer said they will pasture the goats in the summer which is easier still because goats will eat mostly everything including weeds, brambles and poison ivy.
Kramer said that’s what makes renting goats out to clear brush is becoming more popular.
They do have three goats they milk by hand daily.
“We drink it ourselves, and make cheese and ice cream,” Kramer said. “It’s a bit more rich than cow’s milk.”
Kramer, who’s a biology teacher at Butler Senior High School, said they’ve taken their goats on a visit to Summit Elementary School as part of the school’s community agricultural partnership.
Amy Metrick, Butler County 4-H educator for Penn State Extension, said the 12 members of the Kashmere Kids “have a variety of projects but a large portion of them have goats.”
“Kramer said the goat population in the county will increase in the future.
“They are becoming more popular because they are a lot more easier than cows to take care of,” she said.
“I don’t know about the county, but the goat numbers in 4-H and at the farm show are going up,” said Metrick.
