Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

We are generally small enough not to be able to afford a lot of chemical /antibiotic/ hormone inputs like rBGH.

I decided to do some googling.

I think the blog post I saw referred to the fact that goats are seasonal breeders. Does are bred in the fall to give birth in the spring, resulting in less milk production through the late winter. Some people are concerned that keeping cows continually pregnant results in unhealthy sex-hormone levels in their milk. The goats' natural reproductive cycle makes forced milk production a little harder. Goats spend less time pregnant, too (5-6 months instead of 9, like a cow).

Like cows, does are bred to produce one baby per year, but does are supposed to go through a two month "dry" period, in which their milk production is deliberately reduced or halted. I'm not sure if cows do the same thing (google "dairy cows," you get some dubious sources).

I read that cracked corn is considered an appropriate food for dairy goats, but that goats should be fed a mix of grains and roughage (i.e. high quality hay or grass). So I don't think too many goats eat mutant American corn (a food that leads to health problems in dairy and meat cows).

I also read that goats are milked on stands, which might imply that dairy goats spend more time outside than dairy cows, because you don't need a large barn to milk them. Might imply. But you can no doubt box-stall a goat, too.

Kids, like calves, are separated from their mothers after they receive "first milk." They are raised on cow milk or formula.

Goats produce much less milk than cows, averaging 3-4 quarts a day. Holstein cows can produce 30 liters a day. I'm guessing that goat bodies go through less stress during milk production, simply because they're not producing huge yields).