(MILTON, Del.) - Milking goats early in the morning is routine work for a pair of hardworking female farm hands in Milton.
"Right now she's finished milking so she's going to take the milker off of her and we can show you how much milk comes off of one goat," said farm owner Michele Sapp.
"That comes out to about a gallon," said Nicole Lallier, the farm's second-in-command, as she showed WRDE a container filled with a gallon of hot, fresh goat milk.
The goat milking and other caretaking duties happen daily, rain or shine, at Daddy's Money Market and Show Goats in Milton.
"My husband came up with it," said Sapp, "he said it was his money that was going out to start [the farm] so he said, 'why don't you call it daddy's money?'"
Eight years ago Sapp and her husband started caring for goats as a side project and as a way to help their son, a struggling student at Cape Henlopen High School, pass his science class.
"We just like the temperament of the Boer goat and the Saanens," she said.
Now they show goats at the Delaware State Fair and sell them for meat, dairy or personal use. Many of the goats in the pen at the farm will be shown at the fair this year come July 28 and 29.
"We do have people coming in buying them as pets. I just had a gentleman come in from Pennsylvania last week and bought one of our babies," Sapp said.
Sapp's 19-year old cousin Nicole Lallier plays a vital role in the farm's upkeep.
"It's seven days a week. It's all day long. I get here 6:30, 7:00 in the morning. They're fed by 7:30am," said Lallier who's been helping out on the farm since she was a senior in high school. After graduating from school last year, Lallier's work load has picked up since Sapp had neck surgery and was limited in the amount of work she did with the goats.
All of the baby goats at the farm have been bottle fed by Lallier since birth, strengthening a maternal connection with the goats.
"I'd rather be here with them than anything else. If you have a bad day, a lot of people go home to just hang out, but I'd rather be out here with them," she said.
Without Lallier's help, the fairly new family business would struggle.
"Nicole has done such a great job with all of the animals. I can't do this without her. Especially after my surgery," Sapp said.
It's a charmed life both the goats and Sapp's family lead on the farm where much of their food and water is cultivated right on their land.
But, there's just one thing Sapp wants people to know as they pass by the farm located along Route 5 near the Sunland Ranch in Milton.
"This is a very busy road to be stopping on," Sapp said, "so we would rather that you don't feed the animals. You can admire them all you want to. Just don't put your hands in the fence."
And they're not kidding.