The Benefits of Raising Goats on Off Grid Homesteads to Provide Milk and Meat

Sayyidatuna Ummu Hani (radiyallahu’anha) reports that Rasulullah (sallallahu’alayhi wasallam) told her:

‘Keep sheep/goats, for there is certainly barakah (blessings) in them.’

(Sunan  Ibn Majah, Hadith: 2304)

Raise your own meat. Raising goats for meat can be a great thing to do for your own family, to provide for your food needs, but it can also be a profitable small farm business — if thought through carefully and with an eye to where you will market it.
Produce milk. Dairy goats give copious amounts of milk, usually more than a family can use.

You can make goat cheese, goat yogurt, and whatever other dairy products you can dream up (goat kefir?). If you are a small farmer, goats can help you achieve a goal of producing value-added products like cheese, and yogurt—or just sell fresh goat milk. There is a good market for it with folks who can’t tolerate cow dairy milk.

Produce soap. Goat milk makes a wonderful, soft and mild soap that is often used by people with sensitive skin.

Produce fiber. Goats can be used for fiber as well as milk and meat. They’re so versatile. Angora and Pygora goats yield mohair, while cashmere goats produce cashmere. Again, you can take raw goat fiber and spin it into yarn and knit, weave, or crochet it into any number of value-added products.

Clear land. Goats are great browsers and they love to eat weeds and blackberry brambles. Pasture them on whatever you want to clear out and let them act as living brush hogs.

Use their skin and hide. Goat skins can be dried and tanned like leather and used in any number of products, including goatskin gloves. Goat hides (with hair still intact) are traditionally used in Africa to make drum heads. Goatskin rugs can also be made.