Kidding around: Goat farmers expecting bumper crop of cute, hungry new livestock

FLORAL CITY — At Tolisse Farm in Floral City, there’s a lot of kidding around this time of year.

Brian LaPeter

Lily Perez, 15, feeds one of the new kids Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 15, at Tolisse Farm, a goat farm her family runs south of Floral City. From now until April, Lily and her mother Toni will stay busy taking care of pregnant does and delivering new babies.

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Brian LaPeter

The Perezes have 31 goats on their farm.

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Brian LaPeter

Lily and Toni Perez feed the baby goats three times a day.

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Brian LaPeter

In addition to plenty of goat milk, the Perezes make cheese and skin care products out of the milk.

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Brian LaPeter

Lily Perez feeds a group of baby goats on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011.

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From February through April, the mother-daughter team of Toni and Lily Perez stay on-call, helping their pregnant does deliver their kids (baby goats), caring for and bottle-feeding them three times a day and milking the lactating does twice a day.

“During kidding time, raising kids the way we do is quite labor intensive, but it’s better for us and it’s better for the kids,” said Toni Perez.

On a recent sunny Tuesday afternoon, 15-year-old Lily gathered up some of the youngest kids for a mid-afternoon snack of bottled milk.

Some of them nibbled at her pant leg, others leapt sideways, others tripped over themselves and each other.

“They’re curious by nature,” Lily said, “and they’re always getting into trouble. They’re really fun, though. They’ve got great personalities, especially the LaMancha (breed). That’s one of the reasons I like them so much, because they just express themselves tremendously.”

In all, they have 31 goats, 29 LaManchas and one Nubian, a castrated male.

“LaManchas are the only true American registered dairy goat,” Mrs. Perez said.

Lily, who is home-schooled, milks the does twice a day, at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. They enter through one door of the milking room, step up on a platform, get hooked up to the milking machine, then exit through another door.

“It only takes about five minutes,” Mrs. Perez said. “They know the process and have their own routine, and if you get them out of order they sure get upset.”

After they’re milked — each doe gives about a gallon per day — Mrs. Perez takes it up to the house to process. The milk is weighed and tested for protein and fat content, then it’s pasteurized.

“We practice what’s called CAE prevention,” Mrs. Perez said. “Dairy goats carry a non-curable immune deficiency disease that’s passed through the milk, and we pasteurize the milk for our kids.”

The rest of the milk is used for the family’s personal use — Lily said goat milk is sweeter and richer-tasting than cow’s milk — and also for their side business, Simply Caprine: soap and skin care products.

To make soap, they take frozen milk, mix it with lye, oils such as olive, coconut or palm kernel, and essential oils for scents such as rosemary, lavender, anise and patchouli. Next, they pour the mixture into rectangular molds. After it hardens, they slice it into bars, which are then left out on shelves to cure for a few weeks before packaging.

“We started selling our products at the Wildwood farmer’s market and we’ve picked up some wholesale accounts,” Mrs. Perez said.

They also have a booth at the Inverness farmer’s market and will be there from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Inverness government center parking lot.

They also use the milk to make cheese.

Although the kidding season is only a few months in late winter/early spring, they generally milk the does year-round, with short breaks in between to give them (and the goats) a bit of vacation time.

The kids are bottle fed until they’re three months old; at six months they go into the herd, males with males and females with females.

“We let them go on ‘dates’ at breeding time,” Mrs. Perez said. “We have equipment to do artificial insemination, but we haven’t used it yet.”

The does give birth to as many as six kids at a time, although twins are the most common. Does live between 10 and 14 years; bucks live between eight and 10 years.

Two livestock guardian dogs live among the herds, offering protection. The goats’ enemies include coyotes and domesticated dogs; they had a dog attack about five years ago.

And no, goats don’t eat tin cans, Lily said. “They get that reputation because they’re browsers,” she said.

That’s how the Perez family started their herd. They were living in Georgia and a neighbor had a goat that ate up the poison ivy, so they got one for that, too.

The Perez family has lived in Floral City for 11 years, where they also raise Paso Fino horses. Lily shows both horses and goats and is involved in 4-H with the goats.

Jesse Perez, Toni’s husband, works at home as a software engineer.

“It definitely keeps us busy,” Mrs. Perez said. “This is our life.”

GET YOUR GOAT (STUFF)
 Visit Toni and Lily Perez at the Simply Caprine booth from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Inverness farmers’ market at the Inverness government center parking lot.
 Visit their website at www.simplycaprine.com.

Chronicle reporter Nancy Kennedy can be reached at 564-2927 or nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.