The Brooks family has turned their love of goats into a unique business
MARSHFIELD, MO. – After years of working as a urology nurse for Mercy, Bobbie Brooks traded in her stethoscope to work with registered Nigerian dwarf goats on her 21 acre farm outside of Marshfield Mo. in Webster County. She and her husband, Johnny now work on their Whiskey Throttle Farm with a herd of 30 goats and she makes goat milk soap two days a week. Johnny also operates Brooks Hardwood Floors out of Marshfield.
“We started with goats in 2019,” Bobbi explained recently. “I’d been working as a nurse for 15 years, our three boys were nearly grown and I was looking for something different. I’d taken an interest in homesteading and had started to research that and other ways to move into a healthier lifestyle, using less chemicals in our daily lives. Making the goat milk soap grew out of that. Our soap is made from all natural ingredients. Goat milk is the only liquid ingredient I use. We don’t use any powdered milk or other water-based ingredients. I use my own recipe which I have tweaked over time from other common recipes out there.”
She continued. “We keep a line of soap made with essential oils and even some with no colors but we also make soaps with 30 different fragrances.”
The Brooks’ herd includes six to eight does which kid in the spring. This particular breed is known for having twins and even triplets so each spring now adds about 20 new babies to their herd. While the Brooks may drink and cook with some of the goat milk, Bobbi shared that she freezes much of it to make goat milk soap throughout the year.
“We get some calls to sell milk to folks who might need it for puppies or even for drinking but most of it goes into the soap,” she continued. From there, once the kids are eight weeks old, Bobbi has to choose which of the new doelings she will keep and which she will sell.
“The decision is based on their milk lines and their body confirmation as well as their general personality, in other words, their ease of handling. This breed is famous for their milk production so their genetics and the mother’s genetics all play a part in it.”
The bucklings, the male kids are castrated and now referred to as wethers. They’re sold as pets, for use in brush removal, as meat goats or as companions. “Goats are herd animals so you can’t keep just one. The wethers are sometimes used as companions, to accompany others when the interest is not in breeding.” She markets the younger goats primarily through word of mouth, using Facebook and on occasion, taking them to the weekly goat auction at the Buffalo Livestock Market.
“In the beginning, there was a lot to learn,” she admitted. “Goats can be pretty finicky and there are certain plants, for instance, that are toxic to goats. Moldy hay can be another serious problem. You can lose a goat in just a couple of hours. After our first show several years ago, I could see that we needed to change the way we feed and take care of our goats. I feed a specific mineral buffet that I order online and we feed horse quality hay, the square bales.”
Bobbi added that they are or have been members of three different goat breeders organizations including the American Dairy Goat Associaton, the American Nigerian Dairy Goat Associaton, and the American Goat Society which have helped them with important genetic information and the scoring in the commonly used appraisal system in accessing a goat’s appearance and presentation.
“We were involved in showing our goats some like at the Missouri State Fair before Covid but not since,” she added.
In November 2025, Johnny and Bobbi Brooks opened the Bath Parlor , a one-stop bath shop on the square in downtown Marshfield where they offer a variety of bath accessories, including non-goat products. “The response has been good so far,” Bobbi added. “I’m there four and a half days a week and making soap the other two days so it is definitely my full-time job now,” she laughed. “The goat milk soap takes six weeks to cure so I am already working on Valentine’s Day products and special offers.”
When asked Bobbi explained the source of the unusual name of their farm and goat milk soaps. Whiskey Throttle is actually defined as a slang term for an accidental twist of a motor bike’s throttle to wide open – like slamming a shot glass – causing the bike to lurch forward uncontrollably, often leading to a crash.
“My husband chose the name because he said this is how we get ourselves into things – full blast and kinda out of control but able to recover. Like we got some calves before we even had our fence done and started milking goats to see where that takes us. Life’s too short to have all of the answers first.”
