When I decided to add milk goats to my backyard farm I envisioned pitchers of milk cooling in the fridge while cheddar rounds age in my cellar. Spirit, my first nanny, had other ideas. There is an old saying I just made up: ?Don't expect instant gratification from your very first dairy goat lactation.? Like dating, expecting nothing is the first step toward not being let down. Perseverance is the next step toward surviving goats with your sanity moderately intact.
Spirit proved mutinous in milking. Even with twins at her side, she had ample milk to share. Generosity was simply not her forte. However, like falling off a bike or getting thrown from your horse, when you find a goat leg lodged in your right ear, you must climb right back on. To help other potential farmers deal with inevitable frustration, I have provided the following journal. It documents my first full month of milking Spirit. From this draw hope. There is light at the end of the nipple.
Day 1: Leashed goat runs around tie post kicking and bucking. Never got near the teat.
Day 2: Build ?EZ One Hour Goat Milking Stand? from online instructions. Define five hours in hell.
Day 3: Adjust Goat Milking Stand so goat's big fat head will fit through the stocks into the feed box.
Day 4: Adjust Goat Milking Stand so goat's skinny little head will not retreat from feed box out through the stocks.
Day 5: Collect 3.5 tsp. milk from flailing goat on milking stand.
Day 6: Ditto.
Day 7: Tether goat's leg. Goat kicks loose in .3 seconds.
Day 8: Tether goat's leg better. Goat kicks loose dumping over 3.5 tsp. of milk.
Day 9: Try new tethering technique. Collect entire ounce of milk. Goat's effort to kick loose succeeds only after she sheds 3.5 tsp. of hair into the shot glass of milk.
Day 10: Go to store. Buy milk.
Day 11 ? 14: Discouraged. Just squirt some milk straight onto the milking stand so that the apparently dwindling right teat stays active.
Day 15: Goat now standing still while I collect three ounces of milk. Then the cantankerous witch sticks her foot in it.
Day 16 ? 18: Ditto, ditto and ditto.
Day 19: Right teat has all but vanished.
Day 20: Right teat empty.
Day 21: Spirit's legal team serves me with papers declaring her functional left teat off limits and for her babies only.
Day 22 ? 23: Practice milking technique while coaxing droplets from withered right teat.
Day 24: Have mastered milking with right hand while my left hand holds the receptacle up, dodging the maniacal wenches attempts put her foot in the milk. Net bounty from flat tit approx 1.4 oz. Note: Goat still shedding.
Day 25-26: Milk rations slightly increasing. Goat and cottonwood trees now both shedding into the milk receptacle.
Day 27: Babies distract me by biting my shirt while I am milking. Spirit's foot returns to the milk receptacle.
Day 28: Babies adamant about eating my clothes while I milk. I steal milk from their precious left teat.
Day 29: Babies try to distract me by eating my hair. I try to ignore them. Goat flinches. My foot avoider reflex overcompensates, hurling the milk directly inside my protective LASIK goggles. Startled by my French, both babies run off in opposite directions with my hair still in their mouths.
Day 30: And the beat goes on.
Day 31: Average daily yield now totals around 10 oz. Source: two milkings per day from 1.2 tits.
Remember, when the day comes, and it will, where you just walk up to your nanny and quickly squirt a little milk straight into your morning coffee then wander off sobbing, bear in mind with a little patience, all this can be yours. Oh boy!
We all know that setting up a business means taking a share of the market and defending it from your competitors. In doing your online or offline business, this is a fact. Hence it is imperative that you understand your competitors, whether direct or indirect, before you can be successful.
To understand your competitors, you can perform a SWOT analysis. This is a good tool to analyse your competitors and yourself too. You should do this first before you even start up your business.
Review your competitors' product offerings, price range, quality and features. Then you take stock of your own product range, features, price range and quality. By benchmarking your competitors' products to your own, you can map out your competitors' as well as your own strength and weaknesses. This will help you to formulate your strategies to compete more effectively. Use your strong points to challenge your competitors, don't use your weak points to attack your competitors.
On the flip side of it, your competitors can challenge your weak areas to gain market share, so you have to make sure that your strong points are good enough to compensate for the weak ones.
Take note take your competitors' weaknesses can be new market opportunities for you. And your weaknesses may be a threat to your business survival.
2. Distribution channel
Most products available in the market have complements and substitutes. Eg, a customer walks into a supermarket and wants to buy ham. However, he could not find ham, so he may choose to buy Spam instead. As a buyer, we will always find substitutes for products that we cannot find.
So what does it mean? Well, having an effective distribution channel that can reach your target customers at their location will help you greatly in closing your sale.
3. Future Competitors
Apart from your existing competitors, you have to brace yourself for new competitors jumping into the market. By establishing a strong customer relationship and a good strategy, your business should be able to hold off new challenges.
In general, new entrants like to compete on pricing, ie they focus on low price. This strategy can work for you as a double edged sword. If the new competitor offer low priced and inferior quality products, then you can establish your brand as a superior quality product. However, if they offer superior quality products at a cheaper price, then you may have to engage in a price war.
All in all, you need to strategise your plan of attack and defence constantly. Only after you understand your competitors' strengths and weaknesses and your own charateristics, can you formulate good strategies. With these information you can take advantage of your competitors' weaknesses by using your strong points while defending your weakness from competitors' attacks.
As the business environment is in constant fluid, you need to constantly know your enemy and know thyself as well.
Hai Liang Tan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Travel and Leisure, Pets and Your Online Business. strive to help people who would like to succeed in their home based business. For proven home based business opportunities visit :. Hai Liang Tan's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.