Lorberau Goat Farm

My friend Janie owns this farm -- we went out to Alice, Texas to see it during their annual open house. It was an amazing experience! Baby goats everywhere - it's baby goat time at the goat farm. They also make award winning goat cheese there - we tried some. We saw where they make the cheese, keep the goats, feed the goats, play with the goats. Yes, I definitely will have goats on the future farm.


As you can see, the grass really is greener on the other side of the (goat) fence....

This baby goat was one of a set of triplets that was born within 12 hours of our visit...

Triplet sleeping....I love their ears. Nubian Goats are beautiful in that they have these long ears, their coat color is very variable and they have super sweet dispositions.

All the goats have their names around their neck - this one is Oreo. He is a little underweight but they are working on that...

Totally unfazed by the visitors....

Some of the Mommy Goats -- very happy to see me. I swear they were wagging their tails....

This is inside of the room where they are milked. The whole farm was IMMACULATE - Martha Stewart would have been impressed! Owned by a female and having a female staff makes a difference :)  The equipment must remain very clean and so must the goats as the health inspector comes frequently since this place also sells its goat cheese. These troughs are where the goats line up while the milking apparatus is hooked up.

Here are the tubes that attached to the udder of the goat. They have to washed and sterilized between EACH goat. The goats are milked twice each day.

Kelly explaining how they make cheese. It's very laborious as everything is done by hand...the skimming, for example, takes three hours and is completely done by humans.

Ron busy adding garlic and chives to the cheese which was DELICIOUS!

Goats have a way of making everyone happy :)

Another Mom - wanting her head scratched. I happily complied...

Baby sleeping....

Janie from a publication with her goats. You can read more about it here:  Janie said this is a ton of work. They work from 6:00 a.m. to midnight every day...but, Janie is doing EVERYTHING at her farm. Most other people have someone else collecting the milk and yet another group making the cheese. Janie is super industrious...and her caring really shows as her farm is beautiful, the people happy and the goats are super happy and extremely well cared for.

This is me...trying to figure out how to get one of these goats in my purse to take it home....

So, what do they do with all the baby goats, you ask? They keep the females for breeding and milking. The males, when they reach a certain weight, are sold. I will only sell my future goats to licensed vegetarians....

It was an awesome day. I learned so much, made some new friends (both four- and two-legged) and can't wait to go back.