I would like to start by saying
that I am new to the world of goats. If I were asked to take care of a goat, I’d
be completely at a loss, but I’m determined to learn about them. When I was ten
years old, I started a campaign within my household to get a goat. I wanted a
gray female, and I wanted to name her Lucy. I drew picture after picture of
goats on the chalkboard in our kitchen and spent hours forcing my parents to
sit and listen while I explained exactly how wonderfully I would care for the
animal. The reality of goat care may have been missed by my excited young
imagination. I envisioned a dog-like goat that would follow me around town; I
could picture tethering her outside my friends’ houses, or to lampposts in
front of shops. My parents, somewhat unreasonably, responded by saying that a
goat would need more than our quarter of an acre backyard to graze on, and that,
if she escaped her fencing, she could decimate our neighbor’s prize flower
garden in a matter of minutes.
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| Feeding baby lambs |
My goat
wish was only put on hold. When I turned fifteen my parents bought a house in
the-middle-of-nowhere, Vermont; suddenly my backyard grew by 99.75 acres: goat
paradise! And the campaign began again, I considered purchasing blown up pie
charts to emphasize my persuasive points, but my dreams were once again
squashed too soon by my parents reality check: in just two short years I’d be
leaving for college. They said I could have a goat as long as I was ok with it
living in my dorm room while I was at school. While I saw no problem with this,
I realized my future roommate and the school janitors could feel differently.
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| Sheep Walking! |
Last summer
my parents bought two lambs. Six months later they slaughtered those two and adopted
two more (this time not for meat). These not-so-little girls are extremely
wooly, cuddly, and cute. And while I adored them from the start, I also realized
that adding a goat to their happy family in the field would be ever so simple.
Since then my imagination has run wild. I’ve revised my life plan to include not
just one goat, but a herd. I’ve gone from wanting to own a goat cheese bakery,
to wanting to have possibly the world’s first goats milk ice cream truck
The truth
of the matter is that I’m still stuck in college for another two years; so all
goat plans must wait. However this scheming has brought up some interesting
questions for me. As I’ve imagined the different roles goats might play in my
future life, I’ve also wondered if goats can financially and environmentally
sustain themselves. This question took on new life this January when I moved
onto the university’s new farm to take part in SLU’s first Sustainability Semester.
Currently I am one of eight college students living on an off-campus farm
devoting these four months to learning how to live without negatively impacting
our planet.
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| Sustainability Semester |
Each of us
are designing our own semester-long project wherein we explore an area of
sustainable living that interests us. Shockingly, I’ve chosen to explore the
sustainability of goat farming. I’m going to spend the rest of this semester
visiting North Country goat farmers and reading goat books to figure out how a small
number of goats can be a sustainable choice for a family. I’ll explore the
different ways they can financially help a family as well as reduce their
ecological footprint and support themselves financially.
With all
this new knowledge I hope to gain, I can begin to make a plan for my first
grand goat adventure, effective immediately upon graduating from college. (if
not sooner.)
