BUSINESS

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QC woman’s love of goats leads to a business

BY MELODY BIRKETT

Tribune Contributor

Michelle Hays raised goats as a kid in 4-H and has been in love with them ever since.

When she got married, her husband bought her two Nigerian dwarf goats but Michelle had to sell them when he joined the Navy.

After that, the couple traveled but when they were ready to settle down, Hays said, “I told my husband I’d like to get a farm again and have goats because I love them so much.”

Within two months after buying property in Queen Creek, eight years ago, Hays said her husband bought her two goats.

“I tell everybody if he had known what I was going to turn it into, I don’t know if he would have bought me the first two because I have about 60 Nigerian dwarf goats at this point,” said Hays, owner of Bella Luna Goat Farm.

“I basically have turned it into a hobby farm. I love having them. I love milking them.”

Babies are bottle-fed.

“These guys are built for milk so they’re leaner, they’re smaller,” explained Hays. “You’re not going to get a ton of meat off of them. So, we just sell them for dairy. Most of the boys sell as pets because they’re small. And then the girls I sell go to people that want milk eventually.”

Hays is milking 18 of her goats. The rest are either dry or pregnant.

Currently, she has 50 females and 10 males.

Maintaining the farm involves more than feeding and milking the animals as she also has to clean the stalls and wash the milk machine. So, Hays gets a hand with feeding and milking the goats from her three children.

“Generally, I take my time and make sure everybody’s healthy, do a welfare check, check to see if anybody needs their hoofs trimmed that day and rinse out water Michelle Hays started Bela Luna Goat Farm in Queen Creek partly out of a fondness for the animal that she developed as a kid. (Special to the Tribune)

buckets,” said Hays.

“They’re really an easy-going type of an animal. They have their pasture and grass so they have food all day. I do give them hay, as well, because that helps their milk production in addition to the grass. I also like to have auto waters so it lessens the workload.”

The farm isn’t a public one so there’s no admission.

“If people want to come to pet the goats, we let them,” Hays said. “It’s something I do for me and for my family.

“I drink the milk,” she continued. “I sell the babies. I make goat milk soap and sell that. And then we sell the milk, as well. According to Arizona law, you can’t sell goat milk for human consumption but you can sell it for craft use or for animal consumption.”

Customers can purchase soap on Hays’ Facebook page or they can stop by her home and pick out what they want.

The male goats sell for $150 and the females are sold as registered dairy goats and start at $450 and go over $1,000, depending on the awards their moms have earned.

“We do monthly milk testing on all my milkers,” said Hays. “And it goes into a huge database and you can tell how much milk each goat milks, their butterfat, how much protein is in the milk.”

The information is tallied up at the end of the year for the average amount of milk each goat produces.

“So, that delegates how much their babies sell for,” Hays explained. “A goat that milks a lot is going to eat the same as a goat that does not milk a lot. If you want milk, you want a goat that’s going to make a lot. You could get a goat that milks a cup a day or a goat that milks a gallon a day.

“And that’s mostly a genetic thing. The idea is to keep breeding up to get the goats to milk a lot so you can get more milk with fewer goats.”

Hays said feed costs skyrocketed this year with an average bale of hay selling for $20. One bale feeds all of her goats each day. Minerals cost $50 a month and Hayes spends $200 monthly on grain.

For those with only two goats, a bale of hay should last two weeks, according to Hays.

Selling baby goats, the milk and soap nets Hays enough money to feed them.

“I don’t make a ton of money,” said Hays. “I’m not getting rich, but it pays for itself. I love to do it. I don’t do it because I have to, because it’s my job. I do it because I love it. I love to sit and watch them. They’re just so fun. It’s such a passion.”

Zoning does not permit goats to live in homes in a subdivision. Hays said you must have at least a 1/2 acre.

“I think goats are absolutely fantastic,” Hays said. “They are so smart and funny and super intelligent animals. People don’t give enough credit for what they are. I compare them more to dogs than other livestock animals. Some act like dogs.

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They’ll follow you around and run with the dogs. And they’re just really neat and fun to watch.

“And you get the milk out of them which is so good for you – so much better than cow’s milk, so much easier to digest. It’s good for people who are lactose intolerant.”

She also enjoys teaching others how to raise goats and watching people fall in love with them.

“People get a couple of cute little babies, not knowing what they’re doing, and they’re absolutely loving them and coming back for another one and another one and another one,” said Hays.

“They’re just a really cool animal and make the greatest pets. And with the crazy population explosion we’ve had over the last year, I’ve had a lot of new people coming to me and basically saying, ‘We’ve never had goats before but we always wanted them. We finally got property.’ “Helping them get set up with their first two goats is so fun for me because I know they’re going to love it. People that have never had goats just think they’re cute beHays said she’d compare goats to dogs than to other barnyard animals because of their

loving nature. (Special to the Tribune)

cause everybody loves goats.”

Information: bellalunagoatfarm.com, 4343 E. Hash Knife Draw Road, Queen

Creek, 480-626-3292. 

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