Meet the Herd
Liten Dal Farm
Fountain, MN
A familly-owned micro-dairy farm offering fresh milk and cream direct to consumer, registered dairy goat breeding stock, and other farm goods. Established 2008.
Located in Fountain, MN (southeast Minnesota)
A family-owned micro-dairy farm offering fresh milk and cream and dairy goat breeding stock. We have been raising goats since 2008.
What Breeds Do We Raise?
NUBIAN
Distinctive breed characteristic with a “Roman nose” and long, pendulous ears. This breed is also known for the high butterfat and protein content of its milk.
OBERHASLI
The color is bay, ranging from light to a deep red bay with correct black markings. This breed is also known for its calm disposition.
SAANEN
Saanens are white or light cream-colored only. They're a favorite for dairies due to high milk production and a calm temperament.
What do we like about goats?
Goats are incredibly intelligent and loyal. Our goats come in for miking in the same order everyday, youngest to oldest. They come by name and will wait their turn to come into the parlor if they know it's not their time yet. They get a little pushy sometimes, but know they get rewarded with treats for good behavior. They also lounge in family groups. Even though the kids are not reintroduced to their adult families until they are one-year-old, they instantly know their family group. Goats are also incredibly affectionate and most enjoy being petted or brushed.
What kind of setup do we use?
We utilize an eight-goat group milking parlor and a four-goat milking machine that allows us to handle the does quickly and efficiently. Milk is immediately chilled for 90 minutes to drop the temperature as rapidly as possible and bottled. It's stored for up to 10 days.
Kids are pulled at birth and raised on a lambar system to ensure proper nutrition, weekly weight checks, low penning density, and close management. They're penned in groups of four based on their gender, weight, and health.
How much milk do we get and what do we do with all of it?
We milk between 16 and 24 does a year. That's the equivalent of 29,280-43,920 pounds of milk per year. We track all our does milk production through regular milk testing. This measures our milk weight, butterfat and protein content, and somatic cell count.
The majority of milk is fed back to the goat kids from birth until 12-18 weeks, depending on growth. We also sell fluid and frozen milk and whole cream direct to consumer. September-January of each year, we make butter for our family for the year. During the year, we also make cheese, yogurt, kefir, ice cream other dairy products for our own use.
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Other fun facts about us:
We got our first goat, Brown-Eyed Susan, as a calming goat and companion to our pony. We soon fell in love with her and now the goats are the star of the farm and horses get to wander with the cows.
We've only purchased one Nubian doe and bred up from there. Since then, we've had 312 Nubian goats born on our farm. Two of our daughters have started their own herds - one with a single Oberhasli and the other owns four Saanen does.
We have retired some of our favorite goats over the years and our oldest two are Cafe au Lait, age 14, and her daughter Frappuccino, age 11.
