Venti, grande or short? What goat size is best for me?

There are many different variables to consider when choosing a goat breed. One that comes up a lot is the goat size. I’m going to assume here that you are looking for a dairy goat. There are size considerations with meat, pack, cart and any other sort of goat. That is out of scope here.

I joke that the Nigerian Dwarf and Mini Nubians seem to have an excellent marketing department. It seems with the full-sized goats that breeders aren’t usually insisting their breed is the best for your needs.

Small goats

I started with Nigerian Dwarf goats and that remains the majority of my herd. I thought that small goats would be easier to handle and in some ways they are. Most of the Nigerians I could pick-up if I really needed, though it would be awkward. I could pull them if I had to as well, though it is much easier to work with goats if you can cooperate with them.

Small stature big personalities

My background with animals prior to goats was with horses and dogs. In both cases usually the smaller animals are a bit more high strung than than the big ones. Think about a mini horse vs a draft horse or a chihuahua vs a mastiff. Nigerians are very similar to the mini horse. I still love them, but sometimes I just wish they would settle down a little.

Feeding small goats

Many of the Nigerian Dwarf goats seem to get fat really easily. They also aren’t producing as much milk in many cases. Each individual goat does eat less than their bigger friends, but if you end up with 50 of them or measure it in terms of milk output I’m not sure there is a difference.

Medium goats

In terms of medium goats I’m talking about the mini versions of the large goats here. Toggenburgs and Guernseys can be considered medium sized goats under some classifications, but here I’m speaking specifically about the mini breeds created by breeding Nigerian Dwarf bucks to full-sized goats to create Mini Nubians, Lamanchas, etc.

Medium or average?

I have most experience with Mini Nubians as that is what my milk test group has. I would say in terms of personality they seem to be a mix of Nigerians and Nubians depending on the goat. Generally they seem a little calmer than the average Nigerian.

The same goes for how much they eat and milk production.

Large and extra large goats

I remember the first time I showed a regular sized goat. She has a Lamancha and I thought, wow this goat is so calm. I then got a pair of Togg wethers and decided I needed a Togg doe. The different breeds of goats certainly have different tendencies, but from what I see the average large goat is more mellow than my tiny Nigerian Dwarf goats. My Toggs do eat much more, but in terms of milk production it probably evens out.

Back of the Napkin Analysis

I thought about spending a bunch of time looking at milk records to try to balance the cost of feeding, milk and personality in this post. It is hard to do. Also the reason many people can’t compare the various size breeds is they tend to have only one. It isn’t uncommon to have multiple full-sized goat breeds, a few people have Nigerians and a full-sized goat and some mini breeders have all three to create better foundation stock.

Top 10 Milk Records

I looked at the 2021 Top 10 Milk records for all goat sizes to compare, I do think to be fair there aren’t as many minis on test as the Nigerian Dwarf and full sized goats but lets look at records. You can find the Miniature Dairy Goat Association Records and the American Dairy Goat Association Records here if you want to check my work. I’m just going to look at the top goat for production for Nigerian Dwarf, Mini Nubian and Full Sized Nubian.

It seems like in this case that the minis just aren’t there yet in production. Though to be fair they are newer than the Nubians and the Nigerians. In my experience the production of the Nigerians also really varies between the Top 10 goats and your average one as well. This is perhaps the case with all breeds. I also think it is interesting that with my full-sized goats the record for volume is often from a long time ago. I wonder why that is the case.

Look at Toggenburgs for example. Royal Cedars Amelie Audrey was the number one Togg in production at 3870 pounds for 2021, which is an excellent amount of milk. The record is from the 90s though 7965 pounds from SGCH Western-Acres Zephyr Rosemary. It is the same case with Nubians as well. I would expect there to be production improvements since then. Or were the record holders like the Secretariat of milking, they had some genetic abnormality that helped them reach this record. Confused by the racehorse reference? Secretariat had a much larger heart than is normal for a horse.

What goat should I get?

I can’t tell you which goat to get. You should get the goat you like the best be it because of the ears, the milk components, the attitude or anything else. As long as you are happy with the goat you look at and milk everyday you have picked the right one!

Personally if I had started with full sized goats I probably wouldn’t be where I am today with goats. I wouldn’t have met the people I’ve met and I might not even show. I certainly wouldn’t have rushed out to get a milk machine. Twyla is very easy to hand milk compared to my average Nigie.