Dairy Goat Awareness Week
The second week of June each year.
The modern dairy goat is ideally suited to today’s changing farm and scene. A large breed dairy female (doe) weighs approximately 150 pounds at maturity and will milk an average of 14 times her body weight in a 305-day lactation. The smaller breed Nigerian Dwarf provides less milk due to its size.
Each year sees an increase in exports of these feed-efficient, structurally sound animals. American-bred dairy goats are being used in Third World countries for increased food production.
The growing US dairy goat industry is well aware of the need to educate the health-conscious American consumer to the high nutritional value of goat milk products. While all of the above facts are well-known to diary goat breeders, few consumers are conscious of the role in the American economy which the dairy goat fills.
The first nationwide effort to promote dairy goats was made in 1986. In Washington, DC, then Secretary of Agriculture, Richard E. Lyng, accepted six kids as a gift from members of the American Dairy Goat Association to the school children of America as part of the celebration.
Each year since 1986, the second to third Saturdays in June, National Dairy Month, have been designated DAIRY GOAT AWARENESS WEEK. This designation has done, and will continue to do much to enhance the efforts of dairy goat breeders to educate the American people to the potential of dairy goats and their products for both the American and world economies.
If you are already a goat owner, here are some ways to promote dairy goats: Donate books or subscriptions to local public libraries, high school ag classes, university libraries, county extension offices, etc. Contact your Chamber of Commerce about promoting or providing information on local herds and ADGA. Promote state-level recognition of Dairy Goat Awareness Week by state governors and/or legislatures. Participate in “June Dairy Month” activities with dairy cattle breeders or independently. Consider a tasting party with products made from goat milk, a poster contest or a milking competition in town with local “celebrity” participants. Purchase copies of “Own a Dairy Goat” from ADGA or reprints of articles of general interest from dairy goat publications. Arrange for them to be made available free in libraries, extension offices or high school ag classes. Arrange a tour of one or more dairy goat farms for 4-H, FFA, ag classes, kindergarten classes, etc. Arrange a local interview about dairy goats or write an article about dairy goats for your local newspaper. Have a display at a shopping mall featuring kids, brochures and maps where local breeders are located. Take some dairy goats to a 4-H day camp and pass out samples of dairy goat products. Make an informational display in a public building or store window.
Promote the goat!
