Sibling duo dotes on goats

By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Autumn and Greg Smith know a thing or two about dairy goats.
The brother-sister duo from Salineville spend most of the summer traveling to goat shows in several states. The Columbiana County Fair is just one of those stops.
During dairy goat competition this week, Autumn, 14, captured intermediate showmanship and showman of showmen honors. Greg, 16, won the senior showmanship title.
Showman of showmen is a competition among the junior, intermediate and senior showmanship winners, so that competition put Autumn and Greg against each other, which Greg said isn't unusual.
"Autumn won, but it was pretty close," Greg said. "The judge took a long time to decide. That happens all the time. We're really competitive, so we usually take the top two spots with one or the other winning. It's kind of a back-and-forth thing."
Breeds of goats
Greg shows Alpine and Toggenburg goats, and Autumn shows Lamanchas. All are breeds of dairy goats.
"It's a hobby," Autumn said. "It's what we do for fun. We're somewhere every weekend."
Autumn and Greg have traveled to competitions in Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky as well as the Ohio State Fair in Columbus and a national dairy goat show in Harrisburg, Pa. They began raising goats after Greg worked for a woman who raised them.
"I mowed her grass and cleaned the stalls, just helped her out, and one year for Christmas she gave us two milkers," Greg said.
"Then she let us breed them for free, and that was the start of our herd."
Milking routine
Now they have about 40 goats in the herd and milk the does twice a day.
They pasteurize most of the milk and feed it to the baby goats, which are called kids.
"The milk is good to drink," Autumn said. "Some people like it better than cow's milk. You can use it to make fudge and cheese, and you can also make soap out of it."
Greg said that besides milking the does, dairy goats are easy to care for.
"They can live 10 years or more, and they don't need much care," he said. "They're in the pasture and they can live a good long time as long as nothing happens to them."
Autumn said they feed the goats a pellet food, which is a mix of grains, including corn and oats. They also eat hay. Autumn said they feed the goats high quality alfalfa and clover hay, which helps the goats produce more milk.
tullis@vindy.com