Marmalade Dairy Goats

Wordless Wednesday-photos for fun

2012-02-08T03:45:00.000-06:00

Wishy Washy Weather & The Countdown

2012-02-06T11:08:00.001-06:00

First off, the weather this winter has been, dare I say (?), delightful. As far as winters go, I am happy with the way this winter has gone so far...several cold days, but nothing absolutely terrible. There have been lots and lots of warm days and they really have just been so very nice! And, we've gotten rain!!!

Yesterday I put the boys out on their new pasture. There's nothin' in it to eat besides some cedar trees to nibble on and they were kind of apprehensive about what to do but they just had a grand old time running and jumping and being goats.

I walked the girls out to the far end of the property. This is one of my favorite places to be in the summer. The hills make it impossible in places to see our house or the neighbor's and it just feels like the end of the earth.

Our neighbor dropped off a HUGE log the other day we plan to use as a gun range back stop. I used it as a lounge chair yesterday while the girls nibbled on whatever they found tasty. It was only about 45 degrees out but there was little to no wind and the sun as shinning. It was so nice just to relax an nap.

The does who are due first, Apricot and Toddy, are starting to fill their udder. Dare I say I find it ever so cute? The time has come to begin getting everyone back into the routine and start thinking about setting up kidding pens. Every morning most of the girls get their chance in the milk stand. Miss Iris thinks she should have her own turn plus one for each of the other girls too and will stand there waiting impatiently while I shoo her out of the way. She goes first, mind you. Even the little girls get their turn in the stand and if I am in a hurry and do not have time to grain them, they balk at me! Silly things. No one gets much. The big girls get a 1/2 a cup at best which is "cut" with 1/2 a cup of alfalfa pellets. They are all a real good weight. I've taken them down to a 10% sweet feed and not a high protein grain because they don't need it. They get a real good alfalfa in the morning and now with these pellets, my belief is they're getting plenty. Too much can be hard on the organs.

Most detest the pellets but I'd really like to get them used to them. Reason being is that now that I am feeding more brome, with the possibility of going to all brome depending on how this summer shapes up, I'll need/want supplemental calcium. One of the easiest ways is pellets.

I spent about an hour cleaning up their mess in the barn this morning from this 1st cutting round of alfalfa I let them have free reign on. Much of it was just stem, learned my lesson there not to buy that cutting again. Pretty soon we'll have new babies bouncing around. Tomorrow a quick moving front is supposed to move through and drop some rain and snow. We'll take it!

That's all for now.

Feeding dairy goats

2012-02-04T09:55:00.004-06:00

**Edited** After re-reading for grammatical errors, I've decided that auto-spell correct really irritates the heck out of me! Makes me look like I don't know what I'm talking about at times.

I admire the writings of Sue Reith. I know some will not agree with her feeding technique(s) but I, for one, do.

I have known several people who feed incorrectly and have problems come kidding time with both kids (floppy kid syndrome) and does (ketosis & hypocalcemia, kidding problems such as retained placenta, poor labor, etc.), not to mention urinary calculi in bucks and wethers. Just last year a good friend of mine lost a good doe to hypocalcemia.

I urge you to read the following:

http://goats.wetpaint.com/page/Hypocalcemia+-+Feed+for+Prevention

Down toward the bottom there is a good analysis of protein and calcium. : http://www.barbibrownsbunnies.com/hay.htm

Page 1, bottom right will give you a better understanding of calcium and phosphorous ratio in some of the more common hays: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/pubs/id146.pdf

Now, these are general guidelines. When hay is cut, how and when it is baled and how it is stored, and location where it is grown along with any type of fertilizing will all affect the nutritional value of hay. But, as a general guidelines, these are good to use.

Remember, having too much calcium is also a problem. And for wethers, it's not about making sure they have little to no calcium, the balance has to be correct. Too much in either direction (i.e. too much calcium, to little, too much phosphorous or too little) also can cause major problems. Goats need a balanced diet, just like people.

I am sort of experimenting with a diet of alfalfa and brome. Last year, brome was only available free choice and they received alfalfa in the AM and PM. This year, with alfalfa prices being through he roof, we've gone to alfalfa in the morning (super good quality high protein alfalfa) and cut back on our protein in our grain (too much protein is hard on the organs and too much is really just unnecessary). Last year we did not get as nice a cut as we did this year. They also get (basically) free choice early (May) cut brome, which they love. Their feeders are filled with it in the morning, mid-day and then in the PM as well. I am watching them closely for signs of ketosis. So far, so good.

The early gestation does get NO grain. As soon as they are dry- which this year was before being bred or shortly there after, I did not milk to 2 months prior to kidding this year- I cut out the grain. About 6 weeks before they kid I have started giving them just about 1/4 cup of grain on the stand and slowly adding alfalfa pellets (they hated them at first), just to get them back in to the routine again and to get the first fresheners used to the routine. It also gives me a chance to feel fetal movement, checking udders that are starting to fill and going through (fake) milking motions which helps when it comes time to be milked. Waiting until kidding often makes for very jumpety first fresheners which is no fun. I take the time before hand so it's not a stress afterwards.

So, following good feeding techniques, along with plenty of proper minerals and possibly additives (Vit A & D, selenium an/or copper bolusing, etc. ) is a real good way to keep healthy producing goats!

Spoiled Iris: Free Reign

2012-01-03T18:12:00.000-06:00

PJ and Metritis- An Update

2012-01-03T15:46:00.000-06:00

It's been a fairly long time since I have updated information on PJ. This breeding season started out with the tell tale vaginal discharge again from this doe. After some more researching, I began to wonder if, in fact, she was (or used to) suffer from a Vitamin A deficiency. If you'll remember, the summer of 2010 when we first moved to Kansas, PJ had come down with a severe case of Cocciodisis. As an adult, it can happen even if treated for it as a kid. She lost a lot of weight, lost condition and of course would not eat for a period of time.

Vitamin A deficiency can happen if if the goat is eating good green forage. Many sites will tell you that Vit. A deficiency will not happen as long as they are eating good green grass/hay. Not true, in fact. While I cannot say without a doubt, I think the Vit. A deficiency caused by lack of eating due to coccidiosis caused her immune system to be compromised thus leaving her susceptible, especially, to a uterine infection. As far as any night blindness, I have not witnessed any but I did note the scruffy coat which, I thought, was due to copper deficiency. She did improve after copper supplementation last year along with a couple of good rounds of worming. While I do not recommend being willy nilly with any supplementation, I will say that I do supplement with the utmost caution. There is very little information on Vit. A deficiency and uterine infections specifically. Believe me, I've checked but there is info available if you just search!

Fast forward to present. I have since done a number of intra-uterine flushes on PJ. The first with a diluted LA-200 (3 rounds, 3 concurrent days) through her open cervix. Please read up on Sue Reith's articles on fertility issues in does. I did not breed her on that cycle in November. I also picked up some Nolvasan Uterine Suspension which I ordered from Allivet.com. This is for bacteria sensitive to chlorhexidine. Since her lab results came back last year for bacteria 'immune' to tetracycline, I was pretty sure the LA-200 would not do much, if anything. Now, flushing is not something that can be done unless you know a little about artificial insemination. First off, the cervix has to be open and it's not open unless they are in heat (or giving birth). I ordered my speculum through Hoegger. Well, to be truthful I ordered a metal one used on humans but ordered a small and it wasn't quite big enough to do the job easily. A large human speculum would have worked just as well as a goat specific speculum.

I have yet to receive my full A.I. kit with special light source so using a flashlight and doing all of this on my own was a bit tricky. But, necessity is indeed the mother of all invention and the mouth comes in real handy at times for holding certain things...like sheaths, flashlights, etc.

I was able to flush her 3 days in a row with half a tube of Nolvasan and bred her that same cycle...right now we're just waiting to see if she settles. As before, the discharge is off and on though since flushing her with the Nolvasan, I haven't really seen much, if any, discharge. It was especially copious on warm days though the amount varies and whether she's on her cycle or not makes no difference. It's hard to say whether or not it will do the trick. Oral antibiotics has not proven to help (last year). I did not do concurrent antibiotic injections with the Nolvasan flushing but did with the LA-200 flushing. It's late in the year and I have succumbed to the fact that I may not be able to fix her. This flushing is my absolute last ditch effort...and she may need several. I would imagine, after overe a year of having it, it's going to be a pretty stubborn case. At this point I wish I would have started earlier in the year but as I've mentioned, this has been an especially strange year of cycling so catching her in a good standing heat and knowing she still had an infection was a long drawn out process.

Anyway, so, I just thought you might like to know what was going on with Miss PJ.

Wrapped up

2012-01-01T06:44:00.001-06:00

I.think.we.may.FINALLY.be.done.breeding!

I was able to catch Mea- my spotted 2010 doe- in a good standing heat yesterday after a couple rounds of 'Lut.'. She spent the night with her on again/off again boyfriend, Storm, and with any luck, in 5 months we'll have babies!

I am telling you, it has been an awful breeding year. It started out quick and strong with does cycling all at once too soon for me to breed (Sept.). I swore up and down I would not start breeding until at least Oct. but it seems they came in with a bang in Sept. and petered out quickly from there!

I ended up 'Luting' both Granite and Mea. Granite finally came in to a good heat before we left for St. Louis and was covered, at least, by Moon.. As of January 1, being bred on Dec. 2, I am calling her settled. Mea, however, I could not catch in a good heat and I contemplated putting her in a separate pen with a buck for a month, and did try but literally she carried on for hours and I did not feel that was doing her any good being stressed out and upset. So, she got a round of Lut. before Christmas, one after when we arrived home from St. Louis and 4 days post injection #2, she was in a good standing heat. Thank heavens, I was getting very worried something was going on fertility-wise!

A person starts to wonder what is going on when 'things' keep happening (i.e. PJ with her infection and not settling, Iris not settling after the first breeding, aborting from the second, not catching a cycle in Granite or Mea but knowing full well of the few times the bucks did break out early in the season neither was in heat for the several hours they had access to them). So...it'll be yet another long kidding year, which has its pros and cons but I am just happy that it's over or pretty close to.

Check the right hand side for the breeding line up/schedule.

We bought a couple rounds of prairie hay round about Sept. I've been feeding it free choice on top of their AM alfalfa. I can honestly say I do not feel they are doing real well on it. It could be due to parasites though I doubt it as everyone's coat and membranes and overall condition does look very good. The fact that they do not devour it like the alfalfa or brome is an indicator that they don't like it, never-mind the fact that I do feel they are loosing some condition. So, for now I have busted open one of the round brome bales and I will feel off that and worm them real real good and see what happens. I bought the prairie because a friend of mine uses it exclusively. I had enough hay put up but thought I'd try it as she had a good source, of which I am always leery of buying hay in the round bales because I've been so burned with crappy hay several times before. The hay looks beautiful, I just don't think it's enough for bred dry does. I will worm the bucks well too and continue feeding it to them free choice and see how that goes. With winter upon us, I think it's an ideal time to test it. If I feel they are also loosing condition I'll switch them to brome free choice.

High Tensile for Goats - Revisited

2011-12-29T08:09:00.005-06:00

This time last year I was researching the best fencing options for goats. We've used several in the past to include welded wire and woven wire, but the cost and work (read: stretching and seaming*) involved to put woven wire (as we will never again use welded wire for goats) around 15 acres with hills and heavily wooded areas would be astronomical. Upkeep was a big concern too.

I had read that high tensile wire, even if electrified, will not keep a goat in. I read from others that it will... providing you have a minimum of 8 wires (not gonna happen!). After a whole lotta research, a whole lotta reviews, we decided we were going to put it anyway with 4-5 strands, despite naysayers.

High tensile should not be confused with other electric wire fencing. High tensile is a lot thicker than the average electric fence wire and needs to be installed with an in-line strainer within each line. The system also require special insulators (pin lock) and is a complete fencing system rather than a partial fencing/deterrent/back up system as most other electric wire fencing. Granted, we have seen some keep in herds of cattle with temporary single line electric wires, but these are usually only for rotational grazing on fields that aren't a herd's normal grazing parcel and often times the cattle are trailer-ed to these parcels.

I am here to say that after a 8 months of 'normal' (for us) use, given the right conditions (which I'll explain later), high tensile wire in 4-5 strands works fabulous, is easy on the pocket book (and actually SAVED/SAVES money), will last longer and keep the goats in to boot! In total, replacing several wooden corner posts, reusing many of the t-posts from the old fence and buying used ones, the Wedge-Loc components, wire and insulators, to fence the entire property was about $2000. Anything else would have been at least double that, without taking into consideration the work stretching it which is my LEAST favorite part. Stretching woven wire vs. high tensile, well, there is no comparison!

http://herdmarmalade.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-love-of-high-tensile.html

Now, we're set off a main road but on a main road nonetheless. The goats are quite a ways back off the main road and we have neighbors on both sides with nothing else out there besides property. If the goats had access close to the main road, I would consider something else (cattle panels perhaps?) along that stretch mainly because, while I would doubt they'd go through it under most circumstances, I'd be afraid that if conditions were right ( predator attack) they'd do whatever was necessary to get away, including going through the fence to the road. But as it is, they are quite a ways from the road. I know and have seen people run their goats along roads with just a few strands of wire, but for us, if it were a question of them being along the road, we'd use a different type.

The goats have the run on much of our acreage. We needed to be mindful of fencing that would work well with other animals too (namely horses). The prior fencing (non-electrified) twisted non-barbed 4 strand wire was falling down, posts were rotting etc. which is the main reason we wanted to replace it. We could have simply -probably- strung a few electric wires on our side with insulators and called it a day, but being as how the whole fence was 30+ year old, it was time to come out.

I would not use this type of fencing for pens or smaller (i.e. less than 1/2 an acre) enclosures where the 'pressure' would be high. I would go cattle panels all the way there. We've been extremely happy with the panes performance in high pressure enclosures.Expensive yes, but east of use and durability can't be beat!

Putting in woven wire would have required so many wooden posts that it would have blown the fence budget. Not to mention, if a goat got the urge, they will stand on that stuff and with the woods we have, and ice storms, if a tree were to fall on it, we'd be seaming and stretching* another piece back in. Not my idea of a good time. This high tensile is supposed to be very bouncy. It actually is very bouncy (read: limbs on line*).

Most said said that the part that takes the longest is the stringing of any type of fence. Not this fencing! The part that took the longest was the removal of the old fencing and posts! The stringing, once the end/corner posts are sunk, goes quick! It can be a one person job but Jeremiah and I got into a good rhythm and were both pretty much working all of the time in sync. Some jobs, you know, require help only some of the time so one person may be sitting there getting bored. After the first line goes up (which acts as your guide wire pretty much), between your two set posts, we'd just go along and sink t-posts in. After that he'd start stringing another line, I'd start in putting up insulators and it's history from there.

I do recommend tightening your first wire with your inline strainer before putting in any more wires (or your line posts) or running a guide wire as with any other type of fence but shy not save time and sip that step and just use the first wire? As for wooden posts, we only used theme every 30-60 feet or so (depended on the terrain, ours is hilly with some straight aways). Our t-posts required closer setting and we determined that spacing based on where the wire as coming too high off the ground (valleys) or hitting the ground (hills). If you have nothing but flat property, they say you can get away with farther spaced line posts, and it's actually recommended as this fence was designed for long stretches which helps with bounce back, though batten spacers are recommended to keep your lines evenly spaced . You try long spances between any posts with any other type of fencing, and the outcome will not be good.

I am happier with the wooden corner posts than I am with the t-post we used with the Wedge Loc system to create our "Z" braces at (1) start and (1) corner. In the future we may loosen up the fence at the in-line strainers and replace them with wooden but they are holding up just fine under the strain...they just bowed naturally in the middle. We didn't use two to create one 'post' like some recommended for strength, I seriously doubt it would have made much of a difference though may not have bowed with a second. It'd more for looks that we'd like to replace with wooden than anything.

The Wedge-Loc system made putting in braces go so quickly and we did use them for corners, places where we put in cross fencing and where the fences started both on the wooden posts and t posts! So far, they've held up fine. Time will tell how well they weather though they are made from alunimum so there's no reason they should corrode, etc. (As for stability, strength, and speed, they are fabulous and can't be beat.!)

We started out using a t-post for a corner post and while it has held up just as well as a wooden one in terms of the pull on it, it did bow a little in the center (which has not affected anything) but is not as aesthetically pleasing as a wooden post. You could weld 2 t posts together for the corners but it will not work with the Wedge-Loc system. You'll need to weld your braces on too, which isn't a big deal, if you weld, which hubby does, but this works just fine.


This is actually a cross fence section, not a corner but we prefer starting a fence with a wooden post as opposed to a t-post

As for how it's holding the goats in? Just fine, BUT, as with any electric fence, YOU MUST TRAIN THEM TO IT! We started out in an acre section (mostly because that's what was up). As I explained in an earlier post, I stood on one side with grain and pretty much let them walk in to it. It only took the adults once to learn that they wanted nothing to do with the fence. For that 1 acre section, we did put in 5 strands with the first being a mere 6" off the ground. At the time we had small kids, and will have them again and we want them to know what the fence is and that it's not something you really want to mess with. Occasionally they'd get too close but unless the fence is off, they stick to the 'right' side of the fence.

In addition to training them to it, you need a fencer big enough to do the job you are wanting it to do. Too small a fencer will get you nothing but a weak to non-working fence somewhere in the line. Making sure that your lines aren't arcing and your system is property grounded is important too. Gallagher has some info we found useful.

For the majority of the property, we went with 4 strands set at 8", 10", 12" and 12". For the acre parcel they were set ay 6", 8", 8", 10" and 12" apart- 5 strands. For the bucks pasture (in which we only did 5 strand as a cross fence which will separate them from the does as the rest of it is property line), they are set at 8", 10" 10", 12" and 12" apart. We have yet to test the bucks in pasture in rut with cycling females as of yet because by the time the breeding season started, with so little rain, there wasn't enough forage to bother with putting them out to pasture on. So, time will tell if the electric fence will be any match for that. I am thinking, however, we'll go ahead and cross fence a few more sections so that the does cannot be right up against the fence to tested them and thus the fence will not need to be tested to the max nor will there be any chance for the situation to be inhumane if the bucks or does continually test the fence trying to get to one another.

To date we've had several large limbs* fall onto the fence and we've just lifted them off and the fence bounces right back. We do go around with the weed eater occasionally though we could solve this by taking the lowest line(s) off the 'juice" eliminating grounding. However, right now we have them on for predators or nuisances...but then that's where King, the LGD, comes in. He doesn't like intruders.

The fence keeps the dog in and even though he's not out there all the time (he spends his days near the house in the back yard and some nights as well). I am pretty sure deer are not coming onto the property at all any more either. I think this is partially to do with the electric, though they can easily clear the lines in a single bound. More than likely though, it's because of the dog. I don't mind deer except for the fact they can carry deadly (to goats) parasites. So, best if they just keep off.

Anyway, we're extremely satisfied with the high-tensile fencing to say the least!

I've included some sites that we found useful when researching and installing. Happy fencing!

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/442/442-132/442-132.html

http://www.dareproducts.com/pdf_s/DARE_htfs.pdf

http://www.maxflex.com/HTsmooth_wire.htm

http://www.zarebasystems.com/store/electric-fence-high-tensile

http://www.premier1supplies.com/list.php?mode=list&cat_id=51

Finishing up breeding season

2011-12-20T07:32:00.000-06:00

It's been somewhat of a quirky year as far as breeding season goes. I had not wanted to even start breeding until October but it seemed like one issue after another! Most of the does are bred now, however. PJ continued to have her discharge and not settling and 2 intra-uterine flushes later, which was an experience to say the last and I missed her last cycle as far as breeding her goes so, we'll just wait and see. Breeding season happens all too quickly it seems and then, it's over!

Breeding season came in with a bang, the boys were behaving very badly and so I moved the two yearlings (Moon and Andy) over to another pen with little contact of the girls which calmed things down considerably BUT I forgot to take into consideration the 'buck affect' and the girls who weren't bred, suddenly stopped cycling strongly! I didn't realize it until a month went by and there went a month!

Iris miscarried a month into pregnancy. I am pretty bummed about this but such is life. Deciding whether or not to re-breed her or just let her be for the year. As it stands kids would probably arrive in June but with her tendency to gain weight easily when not in milk, has me thinking I ill go ahead and breed her again.

I've decided to hold the kids not to freshen in the spring so there will be no milking yearlings, which is just as well. I want to see big and strong dry yearlings. I was really happy with the way Apricot and May turned out by not breeding their first year and with hay prices being sky high, I am just as happy to hold them.

Wooded Venture

2011-11-04T13:06:00.000-06:00

Cover that scrotum and keep urine scald under control

2011-11-01T17:27:00.000-06:00

Yes, you read right. Today we're talking about chapped scrotums and urine scald.

Posted recently on a dairy goat group I belong to, someone wrote in asking how to relieve chapped scrotums. In this cooler weather I have noticed that the hair on the bottoms of the buck's scrotum falls out and/or is somewhat sparse to begin with exposing them to the cold weather. Anything expose to the cold and/or windy weather is bound to get chapped, just like your hands get dry and you need hand lotion.

On top of all their peeing- on their front legs, in their mouths, on their bellies, etc- you're bound to need to keep skin protected from the elements. Prince Charming (a buck we used to have) would get so bad on his front legs from urine scald the skin would peel off and forget about having any hair. It was just a gross mess. We'd wash him up real well with a good antiseptic soap (carefully of course because he'd usually be pretty 'ouchie'), apply a thick layer of Vaseline and he'd heal. I admit, the chore was none to fun, but I am sure his discomfort was even less fun especially if we had left it. Obviously you want to apply Vaseline in a location that cannot easily lick off.

So, if your buck is looking a little chapped back there or a little raw in other parts, apply a good layer of Vasiline or Bag Balm, A&D ointment (diaper rash cream) or the like and see if it doesn't help.

Tecosa APS Storm ABrewin (pending)

2011-10-26T04:25:00.000-05:00

Good things come in brown packages.

Winterizing

2011-10-24T13:17:00.002-05:00

There are pros and cons to an open front barn. I think I've solved the con- in this case, even though it faces south, cold air, snow and rain still blow in during the worst storms and the wind just makes it miserable. Cold is one thing, cold wind is another.

On the left hand side the gate to the barn is holding the tarp open enough for the girls to get inside. This gate will be closed more during bad weather and with grommets along the bottom of the tarp, it will help hold the tarp more securely with clips so it doesn't flap about so much. The right side gate is completely closed as we have some round bales in there I don't always want the girls to have free will at. But this gate can/will also be slightly opened during bad weather to allow them to come and go but still be sheltered.

These tarps wont solve the cold problem entirely but short of a fully heated barn, which isn't going to happen nor is it good for the animals anyway, this is the best it's probably going to get.

A friend of mine makes cattle panel hoop houses from these types of tarps. Believe it or not, they are actually used billboards. The funny thing, in my case, is that ironically the one we used for the front of the barn is an old Comfort Inn advertisement! It's somewhat funny being on the inside seeing a huge Comfort Inn Logo and whatever catchy phrase they were using at the time to make you want to stay at their place. I should have gotten a photo of that!

I feel badly for the bucks though as they'll probably end up with a State Farm billboard and one of them has a not to attractive gentleman's photo on it. Fortunately, I don't think they'll care =).

These billboards were purchased from a company in Minnesota. If you're interested, please message or email me and I'll give you their name. They ask that you put the advertisement portion of the billboard to the inside or facing down (whichever is the case).

These billboards come in several different thicknesses but generally they are about 13-17 mil's thick on average I believe, and literally a fraction of the cost of similar at any farm store and will outlast any blue or grey tarp! Of course, they come in different sizes too.

You will have to install your own grommets, as we did, if you need grommets but that's a pretty simple and inexpensive task really.Though I do recommend you do it in the sun if it's a cool day and forget about getting it unfolded if it's cold! They need to heat up to be pliable, a simple chore when it's warm out and there's sun. An impossible task if it's not which is why we wanted to get them up not rather than later.

Eventually I'll get enough clips to clip them to our installed eye bolts but for now, zip ties will due. We ran out of grommets too to put them down along the side which will keep them from flapping too much in the wind. I'd also like to make them roll up for nice weather and to air out the barn/allow sunlight in but we ran out of time to get that all hooked up.

They'll probably come down in the summer time to prolong their life and there's no need for them during warm weather anyway. This is a task I can accomplish on my own as they are not so heavy that I cannot drag them to the grass to fold them up. The friend who uses them on her hoop houses is going on a 3rd winter with them and I believe they are out all year long.

I probably could have cut off all the parts on the one side that have measurements on it but to be completely honest with you, as I did some of this alone, I wasn't in the mood to making it look pretty. It's functional, and it's a barn and while I am not opposed to making things look nice, in the middle of a snow storm, I don't care what it looks like if it works!

This billboard was cut in half as we had used it to cover hay on a trailer during a bad storm and it was just too big to be efficient. Little did I know that if I had cut it in 3rds I could have gotten 3 tarps out of it instead of 2 and a 3rd that is seamed together but not matter, this can go up on the lean to and the grommets holding the 2 pieces together won't make much of a difference. They'll be peep holes, lol.

Houston, we have a bleeder!

2011-10-24T06:09:00.001-05:00

Several friends/people have mentioned lately that they've had bleeders while trimming.

I was just trimming hooves yesterday on my bucks, a chore I admittedly have put off because they are just so disgusting and Andy in particular has had a horrible attitude. Yesterday I locked the girls out of the main pen...well, actually they were off somewhere gobbling up fallen leave so I just shut the gate on them so they couldn't come in to get the boys all riled up.

Storm, my 8 month old buck, was great about the whole thing. He'd become a bit skittish being in with the older boys-which is yet another reason I wanted them moved because they were beating him up- but has been a total sweetheart (did I just say that about a buck???) while not with them. He stood there so nicely to have his feet trimmed and came right up to the gate to get his wormer. He had no idea what it was of course and had he known, I am sure, he would have run.

The bigger boys have been getting along in our north shelter. The girls go over to eat out of their feeder from their side of the fence which puts them into a frenzy but, for the most part, things are a lot calmer! None of the bucks was too bad and I should have done it before they went into rut so they weren't so gross smelling but nonetheless, Andy was actually (almost) a total gentleman and only flapped his lip once before coming out o hid pen and nicely walking to the milk room and up on the stand. What a change!

I have sort of gotten off track here. Trimming Andy's hooves took little effort and making it down to the quick took no time at all. I trim so very little at a time that I usually see faint red before I hit red. Occasionally though, no matter how little you trim, you can hit a gusher. Since 2 people I know in the last several weeks have had bleeders, I thought I'd tell you some ways to help stop the bleeding. A goat really can bleed out like this if you've got one who won't quit.

I would recommend, when you hit a very bad bleeder, to immediately put pressure on the wound. If you can, get your dis-budding iron heated up. Ideally, you have one or all of the following on hand in a location that's easy to access for just this very moment.

Flour: Good all purpose flour will stop bleeding. While I have not used this on a hoof before, a friend has and it works. I have used it on a broken scur when it was a geyser.

Pepper: Regular house hold pepper. Again, I have not used this on a hoof but have on a broken scur and it works.

Cayenne pepper/Tabasco: I have been told cayenne pepper is used in some countries for people (taken orally) with bleeding stomach ulcers. I joke that things like cayenne pepper and Tabasco can CAUSE a bleeding ulcer but I know first hand that cayenne pepper paced into a wound will coagulate the blood (it's also a natural antibacterial). I know cayenne pepper can be expensive, however I keep it on hand as part of a worming regiment (used in conjunction with a chemical regiment), so I have a big bottle from a bulk food store that wasn't all that expensive actually.

Blood stop powder: Works on occasion. I personally no longer keep it around because I have been happier with these other alternatives.Do you know Alton Brown from the food channel? I am forever following his advice of muli-taskers reigning supreme. There are very few uni-taskers (in his case, for his kitchen, a fire extinguisher) around here =).

In the event you need to cauterize the wound, use your disbudding iron and hit the hoof in the spot(s) where it's bleeding until it quits. Watch it to make sure it won't re-open.

Keeping a baggy of these items in your milk shed/tack room or wherever you do goat chores is not a bad idea. You never now when one of those gushers will pop up having these things on hand is important, especially if you are alone!

Rowdy bucks

2011-10-16T06:26:00.000-05:00

Fall has descended upon us and this year the hormones have gone into overdrive. I have never had a problem keeping all my bucks together. In fact, I think they quite enjoy it, both old and young. That is, until this year!

I have two yearling bucks and a 2011 spring buck. All was fine until literally a couple of weeks ago when all hell broke loose! Every since selling my 2 year old buck a month or so ago, Andy has taken over as lead buck and he hasn't been real nice about it. Poor Moon and Storm has suffered his wrath and I have had enough of that. Not to mention the fact that he is lashing out at me and I just won't stand for any of it. He's to the point where I cannot be in the same pen without him going out of his mind flapping his tongue and going after me. A 2x4 up side his head would do no good, I tell ya.

So, hubby and I spent the better half of the day rehabing one of the north pens. It didn't need a lot of work but we finally took down the decrepit field fencing along the back and put up cattle panels and added a 6' "walk though" gate so they can directly access that pasture. I don't like the pen for winter because there's no electricity or running water to it. Which, there's no running water to the south shelters either but it's closer to the spigot at the main barn. We do eventually plan to run water piping the short distance but all in due time. Maybe NOW would be an ideal time though with the ground being soft from the rain.

I'd prefer to at least have electricity to run a water heater during the very cold days and nights but I did without last year and it wasn't too much of an issue. I did take hot water to them 2 times a day. I have it on good authority this winter will not be as bad as the last (famous last words perhaps?).

The issue with the bucks fighting and caring on is a culmination of things really. The past several weeks I have had several does either in heat or coming in and out of heat (different does) all at the same time and it doesn't give the bucks a break. They also do not like it when they can see another buck in with a doe. It drives them mad! The north shelter is not in a place where the does normally congregate, hopefully that will calm things down! It is also hidden for the most part too by some large round bales of straw. We have a new pen location mapped out but I seriously doubt we'll get to it by this winter. We've talked about putting a new pen way out in the buck pasture but that causes a few issues, one being...it's a bit of a walk in the snow up a hill! I already hate walking in the snow! Two is that it's a bit of a ways to take water and electric piping out to. It's not impossible but I like to have everything centrally located. I also like having the bucks up close. It makes it real easy to tell when the does are in heat but it's becoming an issue an in Ca. we ha the bucks quite a ways a way and I never had a problem detecting heat...I did have an issue with loud does though! There's no win win here.

If I can just get the 2 larger bucks away from Storm, my spring buck, I think we'll be okay. Storm will stay in the South shelter closer to the front of the barn, at least until all the does are bred. I may put a whether in with him for company. If Andy was easier to handle, I'd put then all in the north shelter and breed in the south shelter. Storm and Moon are easy to handle...a little rowdy if they are in the main pen with the girls and being walked but that's to be expected. Andy has just lost his mind though and quite honestly, if he does not change his ways after the move, I'll get the does I want him bred to bred by the middle of Nov. and send him to auction and he can become someone's goat burger because I will not put up with this. If he ends up going off, it'll be one less mouth to feed and I'll keep a buck out of granite or Mea next year for spots.

On that note, I did have Bonnie in with Storm in one of the south pens for breeding yesterday, I went up to make dinner and Andy shimmied his way through the gate somehow. He did not jump over I don't think. He's not done that to date, none of the bucks have but now I am stuck with a double breeding! I'll have to Lut. her as I cannot in good conscious register any kids and while I do not register buck kids from her anyway, I did want to keep her doe kids as my plan is probably to sell Bonnie after freshening. So, such is life. I don't think Andy was in there long but still, I can't/won't take that chance.

Oh, and I guess I may have forgotten to mention that breeding season has officially started as of Thursday. Apricot and Toddy were both cycling. Moon went in with Apricot an Toddy with Andy. Kidding season should start around March 12.You can check out breeding/kidding info to the ride side of the screen and all info is on the breeding/kidding portion of my website too accessible on the right as well.

Storm, as a Feb. kid, seems to know how to do his job. Poor guy is a little short but that doesn't seem to stop him so this is good news! It's unfortunate his first doe will be "Luted" but it shouldn't be too long before I can know for sure if another took. He doesn't get too many does this year but I think he'll take what he can get, in a manner of speaking =).

Fall

2011-10-14T16:03:00.000-05:00

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS GIRL!!!!! (Branicur Farms SG Iris) Such a sweetie pie.

Leaves, YUMMY!

If I were just a little taller.

REEEEEEEEEEEEEACH!

Breeding Plans:2011

2011-10-09T07:25:00.000-05:00

Breeding is not yet underway here on the homestead. I was patiently waiting for Oct. to roll around because after February's middle of the night kidding in negative temps after a good snow storm, I did not want a repeat of that! March was good to us this year and so March it is but it looks like it may be later March than I had hoped.

The does all seemed to be pretty close in cycling so it may be a hectic few days of moving does around with individual bucks, in and out of pens, etc and come kidding time it may be a hectic few days too. A few of them I have not caught which is very unusual for us as by this time we've had at least 2 months of cycles written down but it is what it is.

I am anxious to get Apricot, the single dry yearling left in the herd, bred. I'm also anxious to see if PJ will take and was half tempted to breed her at the end of Sept. but I held her back and so we'll see if she's healed from this metritis on her own. I sure hope so. She's really never looked so good! She's a bit overweight, but that isn't the bigger issue. I am not seeing any of the signs I saw last year- i.e. short cycling, copious amber discharge, etc.- so here's to hoping!She's been given the whole spectrum of antibiotics and it did not help her last year. I was afraid a uterine flush would be necessary, and it still may. I has considered herbal dosage over the summer but she was looking so fit and fine, I decided to take a chance to see if maybe, just maybe a year off would see her back. Fingers still crossed that nature took care of itself! I have every hope she'll take.

I'll be breeding our new junior herdsire, Storm, to a few does. He seems ready. I have a few does in mind that I would like to keep doe kids from but I think Andy will get the majority of does this year after seeing his sister's first freshening udder, and of course I have him dam too who's 1st and 2nd freshening udder is fabulous and milk output it NICE to boot. I won't see any udders this year from Moon as I don't plan to breed his doe kids this year but I have no doubts he'll compliment what I've already got. I've seen his 1/2 brother's get and they are truly lovely.

As it stands, this is the line up:

Ann x Moon - a bid to tighten up those shoulders in Ann. I'm also looking for a bit more femininity but I love her power, length from hip to pin, levelness of rump, top line and her udder is there.

Iris x Moon - I am most interested in leveling out Iris' rump some and getting a more level top line and not that most of my does don't have nice top lines, but Moon really threw some nice rumps and top lines in his kids this year so we're going with that match up. I'd like to see better teat placement too but that's not as important to me as rump and top line for this breeding. b

Bonnie x Storm (Please keep in mind: Storm's registration info is pending with ADGA. I have used his littermate's info as the buck for this pedigree planning) -Bonnie's foreudder and medial need help. I love her for her long dairy body, great top line and temperament. She's easy to milk and milks out to nothing but really needs mammary improvement. I'm considering keeping a doe kid from her and selling her once she freshens but we're changing things up a bit come spring and I may not have any milkers for sale after all, we'll see. If any improvement is made in doe kids, whatever buck she was bred to is a real keeper! It's a true test!

FD x Andy- Doubt I'll keep any does out of this breeding. FD has been a slow mature. I like her very much and I am much happier with her mammary this year over her first freshening udder as a 2 year old. She's a doe I'll hold on to and Rachel kept a doe kid out of her and Moon this year but she's going to be one of these does I think that is like a fine wine who will age gracefully and get better with it.

PJ x Andy - A bit of line breeding. I'd like to see more height here. PJ's rump has leveled out very nicely, the mammary is there, I see little need to improve that but would like a more level top line.

Granite x Moon- Hoping for that older style looking Nubian with more body capacity and a bit leveler rump. The top line and mammary I have no questions about =).

Mea x Storm- (Please keep in mind: Storm's registration info is pending with ADGA. I have used his littermate's info as the buck for this pedigree planning). Hard to say what I am looking for here for improvement. Mea still very young but everything I see about her I like! I already have kids out of her and Moon and I love them so let's give this new herdsire a chance =).

Toddy x Andy-Toddy is another who is slower maturing. I want to grow this girl out for at least another year.

Emmy Lou X Andy Yet another who I'd like to see at several years old. I am hoping that medial is a bit better as a 2 year old making her teat placement better. I have been thoroughly impressed with her as a milking yearling regardless though. She has beautiful fore and rear udder attachments. Her rump is quite nice also.

Apricot x Moon - I have no doubts this girl will have a fabulous udder. She has a beautiful topline and rump, great rear leg set, lovey escutcheon and lots of attachment. Just beautiful breed character all around. If her udder turns out anything like her grand-dam Pruitville's Huckleberry Frost (a doe I greatly admire, truly truly), I'll bid the rest of the herd ado and focus on this line (probably not but I like to joke anyway.) The only thing I'd like to see in this doe (besides her udder of course) is a bit more length of body.

I think that's everyone. I have not weight taped the little girls but I don't think I'll be breeding them this year. I was really happy with the growth on Apricot as a dry yearling.

Kansas State Fair

2011-10-03T10:28:00.001-05:00

I guess I have fallen behind on blogging lately...lots going on around the homestead for sure as we gear up for winter and lots of holiday company!

Our own Marmalade Bring Mea Dream was the 3rd place milking yearling at the Kansas State Fair with a special note of "excellent teat placement" made by the judge. She does need more growing time for sure but such a lovely little doe she is!

We also took home 3rd place Dam and Daughter (with Mea mentioned above and her daughter Ada).

Our doe kids were middle of their class for both shows. I'm happy with that and I know they'll freshen with fabulous udders and will be extremely competitive then.

Last but not least Aja-Sammati Apriot Strudel was 3rd place dry yearling. Can't wait to freshen this girl!

Fall breeding pans are in place and I am chomping at the bit as usual! Oct. has finally arrived and I the next doe to cycle will be make one lucky buck very very happy!

For now, I think I will hold of on breeding the doelings this year. While I have yet to freshen Apricot, I have been much happier with the growth on the dry yearlings than the yearling milkers. Course, it means they cost more to raise to freshen for sure, and unless the doelings grow with leaps and bounds, I am just as happy to keep them dry to freshen as 2 year olds. But it also means another year without seeing an udder from my yealing buck Moon too =) but I have no doubts from his genetics in other herd members that the mammaries are beautiful!

Copper Bolusing

2011-10-03T10:08:00.000-05:00

As mentioned before, I've always had a "problem" with copper deficiency. I think most do, and a lot don't even realize it. A friend said to me, when I mentioned a doe of hers may be copper deficient, that no, she does not have a fish tail, she cannot possibly need copper. Well, given the fact she is a black goat and she was rusting along her stomach and back flanks, a good copper bolus dose of copper oxide rods saw her coat an health back! She was to the point of loosing hair. I think I made a believer out of her that just because the doe does not have a fish tail does not mean she is not copper deficient.

That said, I just happened to be going a little reading this morning on copper bolusing. This next site has nothing to do with goats per say, but does have some very good information on copper oxide rods themselves. I have tried the Irene Ramsey's method of copper sulfate diluted in water and Pat Colby's free choice copper sulfate method which most will not even go for. I really have much preferred the bolusing because A. I am accountable for how much they receive (and know how much they get) B. In the end, it takes much less time than other methods and C. nothing is wasted (much of the sulfate, when left out free choice, despite being under cover became old, water drenched, hard and un-edible, according to the goats =)

http://pharmplex.com.au/Technical/copper_deficiency_cattle_sheep.htm

There are so many sites in regard to copper deficiency and goats. I think I may have even posted some. I don't list them here, but I did want to offer up some valuable information as to why bolusing may be better based on factual findings (and is better in my personal opinion) than any other type of copper supplementation in goats.

I have not had so much as of a problem bolusing them either as far as the actual act goes (nor any other problems for that matter). I use a thin bolusing stick I picked up from Jeffers Livestock, put it to the back of their throat, press the plunger and keep their mouths closed until I know they've swallowed it. I find it to be one of the easier chores for sure.

I don't normally measure in grams. Although if you were to, it's 1 gram per 22 lbs. of goat for Copasure. However there is an easier way of measuring Copasure by using a syringe, which I would hope everyone with goat owns. Please read the following forum as someone has so graciously figured out measurements using a more common "household" item over a gram scale.

http://thegoatspot.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12539&start=0

So, all in all I have been happier with the results of the copper rods vs. any other type of copper supplementation. Now, if I could just remember to get the bucks BEFORE they go into rut, I'll be doing good =).

Whittling down

2011-08-20T20:08:00.000-05:00

We have been lightened by 5 today. Three wethers and a buck kid went off to auction this morning. It was tough to do that to them and I've kinda been thinking on it all day. Hubby said that's the cycle. I know that but it still stings a little! I've always been to find homes to pet wethers but then, in California people had the means to take on pets like you wouldn't believe. We're keeping one kid back to put in our own freezer in the fall and I could not continue to hold the spotted buck kid out of Emmy in hopes of a sale and it's stressful for the oes to have the kids calling from a pen while they want to go out and graze. It's a real shame too if he goes for meat, Emmy's udder was very full this evening and man oh man, it's a thing of beauty!!! She has a for udder like you wouldn't believe and the way it protrudes in the rear...I wish I had remembered my camera! Maybe tomorrow. She needs more growing time though but I expect she'll be some major competition as a 3-4 year old!

Prince Charming went to his new home earlier this week in Arkansas City.

May (Aja-Sammati Opal) also left us today to make the long drive down to Oklahoma City. I sure do hope to see some photos of her once she freshens. I feel much better about the load these days and getting the weight back on FD and Emmy after those ravenous buck kids! I have FD in the 3 year old class for the state fair, I just hope she's in condition by then.

I look forward to breeding plans this fall. I think I have much of the line up taken care of and next spring will be a bit different in how things will go around here. While I did not enjoy the bottle feeding at all, come show time the kids are a lot easier to deal with when they aren't screaming for their dams. We've always had very tame dam raised kids but kids screaming for their dams and visa versa stresses me out.

One can only hope we can even out the numbers a bit better gender-wise and it would be fantastic if it were an even ratio to each doe wouldn't it??? I'd leave all the buck kids on and remove all doe kids to bottle. That said, I am really chomping at the bit to get some of the does bred but I keep going back to that bitterly cold night in February kidding in -24 or whatever it was! Life with bottle babies really is so much nicer once they are weaned and I just hate the thought of 12+ weeks of all the work. Ug.

Apricot and PJ are really packing on the pounds and I hate to hold PJ to breed later on for a couple of reasons. One being the fact that she is putting on weight and 2 because of that uterine infection. I cannot be totally sure she has gotten over it and the longer I wait to see, the less time I'll have to know if she's settled, the less time to deal with it if I do decide to go forward with a (uterine) flush and the more time I am feeding her if in the event I do not decide to flush her and send her off. I really do feel she has healed on her own. I have seen no indication that she still has an infection. Last year-and I'll have to check my records- I am fairly sure she had discharge at this point I just thought it was urine scald though.

All the does are cycling. It's driving the boys nuts. They seem to be keeping the weight on pretty well though and once we get the windbreaks up on all the fronts of the barn and lean tos, they should be a lot warmer this winter.

We've finally gotten some rain and the pastures sure have greened back up. The girls spend so much time out there that I have to call them in to drink. They'd prefer to be out grazing than eating from the feeder.

Speaking of feed however, I have some oats that need to make their way out to the barn. I'll say goodbye for now.

Copper bolusing

2011-08-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

It's become a fact of life with goats that I've needed to copper bolus. I buy Copasure boluses for cattle and break them down into smaller units. These gelcaps are size #00 I believe. Each goat is dosed based on need and weight.

I use a bolusing stick (for lack of a better term since it's not technically a gun), douse the gelcaps in corn oil and down the hatch. Within 2 weeks most look much much better!

Drying up

2011-08-09T22:22:00.001-05:00

We were drying up here in Reno county until just about a week ago when we finally got some rain. But this post isn't about the weather. I am writing this as a request to a comment left on the blog.

There are so many different ways in which to dry up a dairy doe. I know my way is controversial according to some and I can't say that it's the best way to do it for all, it really depends on a case by case basis. Some does just refuse to dry up. In that case, I don't know what to tell you because I have no experience there. I can tell you the experience a friend with a heavy milker that tried the "gentle" weaning technique discussed later, but the ONLY way she was able to get this doe to finally dry off was a cold turkey method.

I have had does who refuse to wean their kids and in those cases, I start taping teats and force wean the kids. Most often though, come fall, the does will wean their own kids if I haven't done it by then by separation.

For an average milker (gallon a day), I just quit milking altogether. **GASP** YES, you just read right. I STOP milking. I milk them out in 10 days then not again. Depending on body condition, I may or may not withhold grain. If htye are on the plump side, I withhold if they are on the thin side I do not withhold and for everyone in between, I usually just cut it back.

The body is a pretty amazing thing. Most goats will get a full udder, you need to watch that they are not so uncomfortable that it restricts them and/or to make sure nothing is brewing, but rest assure I have NEVER heard of an udder popping because of being too full of milk. I've heard people who have known people who have known people, but I am pretty sure that ranks up there with Sasquatch tales.

I'll repeat myself though, it's a case by case basis. For extremely heavy milkers, you may want to take them down to once a day milking for a week or so, then skip a day for a week or so and wean them slowly that way but more than likely your doe who is not an extremely heavy milker, with a cold turkey method altogether, will reabsorb the milk and just dry off. It's no different than humans. Granted, most lactating and breastfeeding moms don't wean by the cold turkey method but it's not unheard of either. The body just naturally reabsorbs the milk.

Quite honestly, I don't feel that a "gentle" dry off is any better or worse than a cold turkey dry off. The body is not being asked to make as much milk as it once had. When the the milk is not asked for, the body makes less. There may be the occasional doe who does not do well with this method so you'll need to watch each individual to see how she's handling it and make adjustments appropriately. I will also interject to say it depends on time in lactation too. Newly freshened odes may not handle this method as well as does well into their lactation.

I am not expert by any means, this information was given to me by a goat mentor of mine and has worked well every time for me and several friends.

So there it is.

Hay

2011-08-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

I am pretty sure my brain has turned to hay.

We've had an extremely dry year here in Reno county and it was harry there for a while in trying to find hay. I hated going 100 miles north to get it from the same supplier we got it from last year but such is life. I know the quality is good and he had what I needed.

We're cutting back on the alfalfa this year and giving more brome. We'll be supplementing with more grain and adding in some food grade lime as well to make up for the calcium. I'm not 100% happy with the fertilization rate of the brome as it was only 60 lbs. per acre which is actually average I guess. I did pick up some brome that was fertilized at a rate of 125 lbs. per acre and next year I'll be sure to stock up on that. He's closer by half but it was a pretty dry and short year for him too and I bought all he had available. Regardless, all the brome is nice and green and good quality. The reading I've done though on testing shows that the more the brome is fertilized, the more it's closer in nutrition to alfalfa and it's a bit cheaper. However, with dairy goats you do have to keep in mind the ever present calcium vs. phos. ration which is the reason for the extra lime. I don't want to be dealing with ketosis or hypocalcemia next year!

We've finally gotten more rain and I am so very thankful to have it! The pastures have pretty much greened up overnight but the burnt grass is still there and I don't know if we'll see any significant growth to make any difference in the amount we're feeding.

I don't know if I mentioned finishing up the fencing or not when we returned home from California. We cross fenced for the bucks and will eventually put up a new shelter for them and new pen. I really don't like their pen is within the does pen, they loose a lot of weight during rut and even if we were to separate all the bucks from each other, it wouldn't make a lot of difference as they still wouldn't eat a whole lot. I was happier with them being completely separate from the does altogether, they didn't loose nearly as much because there wasn't as much temptation. A new buck shelter will probably not happen this year though. Maybe by next fall.

I have been very happy with the way the high tensile fencing has kept the animals in. We do have to use the weed eater along all the fence lines every few weeks or so- more when we get more rain- but I really hate to spray for the weeds and if we do not, the lines loose a lot of juice and aren't as effective at zapping the goats. The adults don't trust it one way or another but the kids still manage to test it and if it's not full power they'll walk right through it.

Marmalade Bring Mea Dream (yearling milker, 2010) "Mea"

We've taken some new photos of a few of the goats. It's just been so hot that I don't feel like doing much else other than necessities- feeding, milking and making sure they have plenty of clean fresh cool water. To view new photos of the junior does place visit the website at www.herdmarmalade.webs.com.

Aja-Sammati Apriot (name was accidentally misspelled on her registration paperwork) Strudel (dry yearling, 2010) "Apricot"

We're gearing up for the state fair. I have decided not to allow Rachel to enter the 4H FFA open show. It's just all too much for us this year. Next year will be better organized and she'll be a year a older. Drew may show next year at the Hillsboro show and in wanting to keep the numbers down, I may just transfer many of the goats in my name over to theirs so that they can show at youth shows (animals have to be in their names, not a herd or family name).

I've considered keeping a spotted buck kid out of Emmy Lou just because he'd eat a heck of a lot less than his sire "Andy" but I think I've decided against that. Emmy does have a fabulous udder and is a real nice doe. She needs more time to grow though and after all is said and done, I'm happy with Andy. He's a real nice buck kid anyway and is available for $150 without papers. He'd make a fantastic grade herdsire and with his genetics, I believe he'll throw some milking powerhouses! He has a nicer rump than his sire's though it doesn't really much look like it from the photo.

We're gearing up for breeding plans but we don't plan to breed until Oct./November. I do not want any February babies!

Herd Update: July

2011-07-20T04:41:00.000-05:00

I realize it's been a while since I last posted. June and so far July have been extremely busy. May's lack of rain really set the pace for a very dry and hot summer thus far and for us here, we're making tracks picking up our winter's stock of hay. There will be little to none this year for those who do not as much of what is available is being shipped to the drought ravaged south, again.

Reno county is suffering its own drought and there is little hay to be found. We're hauling alfalfa and brome in as fast as we can from 100 miles north of here and we are not alone.After a few more loads, I will finally feel comfortable about the winter's stash.

Bonnie's buck kids have gone off to their new home. Toddy's buck kid joined the Gravel Ends herd in Hillsboro and Granite's buck kid went to the Pruett's in western Kansas. I've been making some majorly hard choices and I am ready to cut ties with a few of the does I had planned to keep. I debate on keeping Andy as a yearling buck eats quite a bit more than a kid and I have a nice buck kid out of Emmy who I think would do what I need him to and eat quite a bit less, this year anyway. Though, I still don't know for sure that I will go ahead with that decision. I like Andy very much and am ever more so impressed with his dam,Granite, this year! Her udder is really socked on and she's milking like a cow.

Our trip to California went swimmingly. We had a good time and hauled back one more doe than I had expected. Our new Junior herdsire (registration pending (twin brother's genetics) was one of quads. I love this guy's top line, rump and power. We also added his dam (Walnut Farms Ann Darrow), a very upstanding doe scoring 90 VEE and last but not least, Branicur Farms SG Iris. A doe with wonderful breed character and a mammary to die for! (photos can be seen here on Lynda Dowdy's site)

We made the hard decision not to participate in linear appraisal this year. With the heat that has been zapping us for the past month, I cannot see putting the herd through a hot august day of stress along with the sprint to the finish to get the barns filled with hay before it all sells.

Emmy Lou is for sale as is Prince Charming. I have not used Prince as I thought I would and hay prices are forcing the sale of both. The last of the whethers go to the auction next month and I hope to be back down to a manageable size at that time for fall. Plans are in the making for 2010/2011 breeding.

Pride of the Plains

2011-06-05T05:13:00.000-05:00

What a weekend! What a week leading up to this weekend and I am exhausted, sun burned but exhilarated and proud.

I started clipping on Wednesday! The temps have been something awful here and I've been show clipping in the early mornings and late evenings partly because of the heat, partly because I have darker goats and wanted to clip them before the others and partly because the clippers get hot and I need the break. Everyone was cranky so short stints made them easier to work with. I was still clipping Saturday morning at 6 AM!

Our first show out as a family and we had quite an assortment of placings. Cheedoe, who is quite a nice junior doe, looked horrible once clipped and I don't mean in confirmation. She has lovely Nubian attributes but her coloring underneath, in my opinion, just made her show awfully. It could have been my clip job for sure but she's so many different colors in all the "wrong" spots and had I known, I would have left her un-clipped or left her really long anyway! I almost hated to take her and she showed at the back of her class each time and it's just not her fault.

Rachel, our dear sweet 7 year old, made our hearts burst with pride. My husband and I were at opposite sides of the ring and both of us were nearly moved to tears watching her in that show ring like she'd done it a million times before. Every thing we'd worked on she followed to a "t"! The way she payed attention to the judge and moved when the judge moved. The way she set up the goat, she was just awesome.

Friday night the judge made a mistake in thinking Rachel had gone the wrong way in a showman ship class when she hadn't. She was at the top of her game that night! I cannot tell you the utter disappointment to be called out like that by the judge and I had half a mind to say something but the lesson was that people make mistakes and while the lesson from the judge to be learned was that you always go in a clockwise rotation around the judge, it was still a hard pill to swallow when it hadn't been her at all!

I was not showing my best being totally exhausted and a nervous wreck about a late start on Saturday morning and helping the kids get ready and making sure everyone knew which goats we up next. I don't do well in the heat, couple that with a soda I shouldn't have had, not enough sleep, dirt and it makes for a participant who should have handed it over and under the right circumstances, would have gladly.

Saturday brought hot temps, cranky goats and exhausted participants and show goers alike. Rachel showed Dawn for her junior class. Dawn didn't want to walk and wanted to lay down and just quit. Rachel, being a bit nervous to begin with and is somewhat of a child who wants to blend in, became overwhelmed when the crowd began laughing (not at her, at the fact that animals are animals and in the middle of the show decided enough was enough, she just wanted to be a goat, lay down and chew her cud). Rachel, partly thinking they were laughing at her and partly just plain frustrated, broke down and began to cry. Daddy and mommy to the rescue with a few encouraging words from us and the judge and she pulled herself up by her boot straps and drove on to come in 2nd in a class of over 20 (where our 2 juniors placed 5&6th I believe) and went on to show Dawn yet again just a short while later with Apricot and I in the class for Grand and Reserve Grand (which we didn't win but still).

Her perseverance was testament to the whole weekend, truly. Saturday morning after such a long week for me with the kids home full time from school, trying to get goats clipped along with all the usual chores and regular work and all the work Rachel, Drew and I had done with the goats, I really just wanted to fall back to sleep at 5 AM when the alarm went off. I wanted to call it quits at 6 AM while shaving udders and knowing I'd run out of time before I could get it done. But in my heart, as a mother and teacher and leader, I knew despite my desire to want to give in and give up, it wouldn't be fair to the children nor would it show them what we try to instill in them. And with a grateful heart, it brings me to tears to think of her strength and will in mirroring us as a family all weekend.

After a disappointing morning with our yearling milkers placing at the end of their class, we went out on a high with our juniors doing very well and Moon taking Reserve Grand with lots of gushing over him by quite a few folks. I don't take the credit, I give that all to his breeder and Jeremiah did a better job of showing him than I would have. Moon seems to like him better anyway, must be a guy thing, and I was just a wreck at that point anyway- completely overheated and spent. Jeremiah, being the ever patient man he is and probably wondering why on earth he was showing dairy goats of all things instead of 4 wheeling or something more manly, admonished that while they may be dairy goats, it was an event the whole family could participate in and if we weren't at a goat show, we'd be at home working on something around the farm for the goats, so, you see, one may as well have fun with it.

I was happy to be home. I was happy to get the goats back home. King, our LGD, was overjoyed to have his goats back home and we were glad to take a shower! I didn't mention yet that King was so upset about us leaving with half the herd he jumped over the back fence and chased us half way down 4th street! I had to run him all the way back home-just another thing that made me want to call it quits.

But anyway, a very good time was had by all despite. Not wanting to forget our newly 5 year old son who, with his admonition, wasn't ready for showing yet, was as good as gold all weekend. I was expecting him to be bored and cranky and let that be known by acting out but he was just as involved as everyone else minus being in the show ring. The toys and coloring books didn't even make it out of the truck and his "shell" of shyness an unsure-ness has either broken or was temporarily put to the side because he sat and talked with folks he didn't know and chatted and stepped up to the plate and did what was asked of him happily. This goat showing thing, while it may not be my husband's cup of tea, sure did bring a lot of positives to our already close family this weekend.

Blessed by the buck god

2011-05-27T12:42:00.001-05:00

Ug, 2 more bucks. Flashy little things but gee wiz! One of them has spots though those dark brown spots will lighten to white, or at least that's been my experience so he'll look nothing like he does now later on.

I've retained 4 doe kids, the 2nd of the "for sales" left yesterday and I am not keeping any buck kids-except those that will go to the freezer- this year but did get some real nice ones.

Ariel will go with me to the Hillsboro show next week where she'll be taken to her new home. Still unsure on Emmy. As a yearling she doesn't fit into my herd. I can list every dislike/"fault" of the goats in my herd (which are just as much personal preference/dislikes as conformational "faults" because no goat is perfect) but her udder came in very nicely, just as I had hoped. I've yet to actually shave her completely, that's the chore for this weekend to prepare for the show next weekend and while she's not going, I would like to see her show clipped.

I am tired this year for sure. My home business always takes a lot of time as do our kids which I am not at all complaining about. I love being here for them and doing school stuff with them. It's why I stay home in the first place.

The winter kicked my butt in some ways and I dread it. Sad that I'm already thinking about next winter. I know as we spend more time here I will become accustomed to the hardships that people here are probably used to (and probably don't consider hardships). Even the rain is a bit of a hardship and it's difficult to carry a heavy 3 gallon milk bucket up to the house sloshing through mud there and there.

My herd goal changes ALL the time. I'm telling you. We started out in just grade family milkers and then bam (!), showing and it's not that we don't enjoy it, but we're still trying to get settled in here. And not that I'm complaining, I'm not at all. But like I said, I'm just tired.

I've learned a lot this kidding season. For one, it's the first year I haven't had to go into at least one doe. So as far as mineral balance on that front, I've got it figured out I think. Secondly, I will NOT bottle raise exclusively again, not with our schedules the way they are anyway.I really REALLY like the bottle feeding only part time schedule. There were people who said it couldn't be done. Well, I've proved that theory completely wrong.

I'm so happy with the growth on my kids this year and how friendly but not overly irritating (as bottle kids tend to be) they are. It always amazes me that my kids are nibbling hay at less than 3 days old and even my bottle babies this year who lived full time with the herd from 3 days on were eating hay sooner than bottle babies of friends. That's as it should be.

I will never be a "real" dairy and I am just fine with that. It doesn't fit in to our lifestyle. I like dam raised kids and dam raised kids like me. I have learned a lot from my mentors and people that I have talked to over the years who continually maintain a CL and CAE free herd and still dam raise their kids despite all the showing they do. I'm confident with continual effort on my part when it comes to these types of social events and disease, I can also maintain the same status while continuing to raise as I do. Which I know some people are against, but so be it. You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but it's impossible to please everyone all the time and I am okay with that.

More on Metritis

2011-05-18T06:16:00.001-05:00

**There is updated info to this ongoing issue with my doe as of the 2012 new year.**

Phew, we got quite the storm last night! I love when it rains at night...waking up to thunder and lightening, being lulled back to sleep by the rain, walking out to do chores later that morning when the rain's over, everything's fresh and smells good AND the garden doesn't need water. WOO HOO!

But, this post isn't about that. It's yet another post my plan of attack on this doe I have that never did settle, has a confirmed case of metritis and everything to date has failed to cure her. I won't go into detail about what metritis is. If you want to read my previous posts on it, please use the search engine at the top of the screen and type in "metritis". It should bring up everything I've written on it.

I may have stated at some point that the vaginal discharge that was leaving nasty brownish crust down the back side of my doe stopped and so I had really hoped the infection was clear. After 3 different rounds of different antibiotics, douching, etc., she's still no better and still has the discharge, which apparently comes and goes. The only reason why I know she still has an infection is because of the discharge. Many people think they will show outward signs of being sick by their body condition, or lack there of. So not true! My doe has never looked so good in years!

But at any rate. I may have to wait until this coming breeding season to try infusions on her but before that, as I obviously have time to kill, I'm gong to try an herbal plan of attack, can't hurt! There isn't a whole lot of info on the subject of animals and metritis that I've found. I've scoured my "Herbal Book For Farm and Stable", read some of what Pat Colby had to say, contacted a few herbalits, read some Google online books and I think I've got my mix which will include, black and blue cohosh, nettle leaves, comfrey, and red raspberry leaves. All of that will be top dressed on her grain twice a day. I haven't put apple cider in their water in quite a while but that's something I had planned to do later on in the year for other reasons anyway so may as well start and heck, who knows, maybe it'll keep their water fresher longer because right now I'm dumping and scrubbing their water trough a few times a week!

Wish us luck. I'd really like to get this doe bred! She's got a lovely udder and I am back and forth on selling her 2010 daughter Emmy because I don't want to loose the lines so I think I'll be holding Emmy at least until fall and hope to get PJ cleared up and settled. If PJ is infertile and I've sold Emmy, well, there goes that!

Hay, an ongoing saga

2011-05-17T06:54:00.001-05:00

Our biggest complaint since coming to Kansas in regard to the goats has been hay. I'm anal about hay. I've known too many people to have ugly vet bills and/or dead goats because of cruddy hay. Which isn't to say that I think there aren't goats who cannot survive and maybe even thrive on moldy, cruddy nasty nutrient depleted sun-bleached rained on hay. I'm just not about to give it to mine.

I won't even go into my thoughts on Kansas hay growers. You may be offended by the offender list. So far I've met two types and there is no gray. There's just good and bad and to date, I think I've met more bad than good unfortunately. Or maybe it's not that at all and maybe they don't know what "good dairy AND horse quality" actually is despite my repeated attempts at trying to explain it clearly and easily. FORTUNATELY I've met or been steered towards a couple good hay growers. And, of course, it's all about perception too but I've got dairy goats, I'm picky, I'm anal and I'm used to a certain standard. Call me Californian, call me snooty, I don't care...I expect good quality when I pay a premium price and I will squawk about it when it's not up to par.

That said...the biggest debate in my head has been types of hay lately. With alfalfa sky rocketing, drought taking the wheat harvest, part of the nation flooding, parts of it burning and the whole world going to hell and a hand basket...I wonder, where does that leave me? I am already reducing herd numbers more than I wanted to. I like selling home milkers. I like keeping kids to raise them to see how they will turn out. But with prices for hay what they are, it's not possible to keep them all which has lead to some very hard decisions!

We're still working on fencing which has been a painfully slow task. Doing it right the first time will ensure little to no maintenance for about 30 years and what's up, er, was up has been there for 20+ years and it's time to come down. I'd rather spend the time now than later. I've done more than my fair share of hay research and I concluded prairie hay just wasn't something I wanted to venture in to until I could find someone with quality I could be happy with. As it is/was we were having a hard time finding someone who knew how/when to cut, grow and store alfalfa! I can't imagine what prairie hay would be like. I envision all sorts of craziness, and I'm probably right! Our neighbor across the way has his cut and baled and his last cut last year was left out in the rain and then baled and sold for the same price as his un-rained on hay and I know darned well it's not as good for one, and for two, I want to know the grower who selling so I can trust they'll tell me how good it is and trust they'll be tellin' the truth. Right now, I trust few!

On somewhat of a different note, I'd like to know what the calcium/protein content is in prairie hay. Now, I know unless each batch off a place is actually tested, asking this of one field compared to another could very well be night and day, which leads me back now to trust and time. Until I have the time to find someone I trust, prairie hay isn't something I want to get in to.

On the topic of nutrition however, obviously I want a very nutritious hay but I also need to know to balance the calcium/phos. ratio between hay and grain and a grass hay would put a kink in the current feeding plan. Which isn't an impossible thing to overcome, it just takes some calculation. I know the problems that can arise because of an imbalance, especially come kidding time! Goats really do require a lot of forethought on their nutrition to maximize yield and keep them at the peak of health. I don't claim to be there 100% and I'm sure there are some who will say that I am over-analyzing things and being too nit picky. Well, I may be, but this is my herd and I don't jut follow the advice of one on how to raise them. I look at the whole picture. I wish I could keep my heavier milkers from milking off their back as much as they are while keeping the dry does from being overweight and keeping them all co-living as they are and maybe by going to a complete pellet for them may be the answer but all in due time. On the flip side, I didn't have to go in for a single kid this year. It's not coincidental I don't think since reading an article written by Sue Reith last summer when all along my goat's diet was one that I had followed because that's what everyone I knew had always done or 20+ years. Getting the selenium issue corrected finally with better minerals (designed for cattle and NOT goats) was part of that along with the calcium/phos. ratio was crucial. Now to work on getting costs down.

I'd be thrilled if I could go to a grass hay during the summer. Heck, I'd be happy to get our fencing up so they could eat the 13 acres of pasture so we don't have to mow it. I'd be just as happy switching, at least for the summer, to a grass hay that I'm happy with, that they'll EAT and costs 5 times left than the alfalfa we've been hauling out.

So, there's the next project.

New Homes

2011-05-16T21:24:00.000-05:00

"Pie" and Granite's Buck kid will be going to their new homes next week with Mary Ann and family in Saint John.

We have Emmy still yet to kid, she's due on Monday. She's grown quite a bit the last few months and her udder is coming in very nice. She's lost much of her gangly-ness and more and more I am liking the yearling she's turning into being. She's an awful lot like her dam...lots of power, she should have beautiful udder and lots of milk. I'm ready to see these babies already!

Do you see what I see?

2011-05-16T17:16:00.000-05:00

What makes goats happy!

Bucks used for the 2011 kidding year

2011-05-03T20:05:00.001-05:00

Blackhoof Blue Moon
Sired: 5 buck kids & 4 doe kids

Marmalade Mr. Sandman
Sired: 2 buck kids & 1 doe kid (with one doe left to kid)

Tecosa Prince Charming
Sired: 3 buck kids & 2 doe kids with improvement in overall mammary attachment (both fore and rear) and much improvement in medial in his (now) yearling doe from 2010 that was retained in the herd.

Extremely happy with the choices that I made in bucks that were retained and hauled from California. And with a Junior herd sire to add to the line up from a herd I greatly admire for the 2011-2012 kidding season, I already can't wait for 2012!

I do hope that Emmy (my final doe to kid toward the end of the month) will produce a doe kid (or 2 would be nice!) so that come next season I can see what kind of udder Andy may throw. Though, as I've said before, Emmy's dam's udder is very nice in shape, fore& rear attachment and medial, so I don't expect anything less...just hoping for more height in her legs (Emmy's kinda cobby though she seems to be growing into her own more as an early yearling) and I do hope for longer ears! The power is definitely there! May be looking at keeping Emmy and selling Ariel...decisions decisions...with a new buck coming in, keeping Emmy isn't out of the question now.

Copper deficiency

2011-05-03T20:03:00.000-05:00

Dealing with copper deficiency still despite the higher copper level in the minerals (2500 PPM) so the spring bolus' have been doled out.

See how Moon' coat is "rusting" on the back of his thighs and behind his front legs? This is a classic sign of copper deficiency. Darker coated animals show it better and while rusting isn't always a sign of copper deficiency, it's certainly a possibility. Dark/black goats usually need more copper just as darker complexioned people do.

Many issues can arise from copper deficiency to include: higher worm load, decrease in milk production, poor health, poor coat condition, infertility and the list goes on. For more information on goats and copper, I urge you to read all of the articles you can get your hands on on and make an informed decision. Copper is not something to dole out willy nilly, it can be toxic. Best to consult your veterinarian when it comes to administering copper to your goats (if they require it).

Kid Photos

2011-04-23T05:56:00.000-05:00

I'm real happy with this year's kid crop. I got more power this year and less dairy-ness than last. I can't help it, I like the dairy look but that can go a bit too far for sure. Got lots of nice rumps and top lines and wide escutcheons, some great leg sets and heads too!

Breeding Granite to Price (by her choice, she wouldn't let the other two near her) made for some HUGE kids...big bones and wide! Man, they are just tanks. I was really happy with her breeding last year (that gave me Mea and Andy.) Mea's more refined, smoother blended than Granite, not as nice of a top line but nicer overall I think. I wanted to breed her to Moon who was of the same lines as the Mea and Andy breeding but she wouldn't have it. Getting buck kids from the Granite x Prince breeding was great. I wouldn't be too impressed if does came out like they did- too masculine-but who's to say they would? I'm just as happy they're bucks...nice buck they are too!

Lovely head, wide muzzle and nice roman nose. He has a nice top line too when he's standing up straight.

I will definitely be repeating the breeding on this one! (Toddy x Moon)

Look at how wide I am and look at my lovely ears! (Toddy buck kid "Agouti")

I've got a fabulous top line, rump and rear leg set too! (Toddy buck kid "Agouti")

We've got more dairiness than some of the others and look at our lovely ears! (Ariel's doe kid "Pie" and Fleur's doe kid "Dawn")

I'm one of Amanda's favorites. My Name is Ruby Thewes. I have a great top lone and nice rear leg set. I'm not as dairy as my sister both we both have nice rumps! (Mea's doe kid)

Because I'm so petite, I'm Rachel and Drew's favorite! I'm Miss Ada Monroe. I'm more dairy than my sis, but even with our differences, we're both outstanding I think! (Mea's 2nd doe kid).

I'm Dawn, one of Fleur's doe kids. I think I will be long and dairy like my dam but maybe I got a bit more power from my sire. Time will tell I guess. We'll see about my roman nose though, it doesn't look so Nubian right now huh? My sire doesn't have the most roman nose but sometime it can take a while. I have a lovely long neck though!

Choices and decisions and ramblings

2011-04-22T03:55:00.000-05:00

I've been working on the line up for the shows this year as to who will be taken where to what. I'm still unsure on whether I'll keep Ariel or not. I Prince certainly made huge improvements in her udder over her dam. Her medial and fore-udder attachments are so much better, no pocket up front and she still maintained the nice rear attachment. If I had the time/space/money to hold her, I would like to see how she matures. Leasing her out isn't an option at this point as I am just not comfortable in regard to bio-security concerns and the folks around here (mainly because I don't know many and I certainly don't know their farm practices). If Ann Darrow ends up coming to the herd, I will have to cut back once again an Ariel is on my "iffy" list.

I have been thinking a lot on Bonnie. As for herd improvement, she doesn't bring much to the table in the udder dept. She has lovely breed character and produces some darn nice kids otherwise. Breeding to a buck who will bring udder improvement is essential for any doe kids to even be considered for show.

What's my goal though? It started out to offer home milkers with qualities that I like which had a lot to do with a what I would call a perfect home milker-even temperament, will to milk and was overall pleasing to look at. Bonnie is all of those things. She does not have great fore-udder attachment and lacks in medial but all the other categories fit. I almost feel like I would be betraying her by selling her because she is less than show quality when it comes to her udder, but it always goes back to my original goal in regard to self sustainability. So, for the sake of my true original goal-to produce great home milkers with qualities that I like in a doe-she'll stay. And I am sure when the appraiser comes each year (and this year I will put Bonnie at the end of the line up though last year I tried but with so many helping hands, she was pushed to the front and I think it set the stage, so to speak), I will just explain that her place in this herd is sentimental because surely the appraiser is going to think, 'seriously'? I would if I saw most of the rest of the herd and then her in regard to her mammary. There's nothing wrong with sentimental though right?

FD, as a 3 year old 2nd fresh, has matured over the past year. I expect to see higher marks on her appraisal and I will be taking her to show, put her as part of "dairy herd" and maybe "dam and daughter"...her medial looks better this year with another freshening under her belt.

Granite is milking like a cow! As a second fresh she's giving me well over a gallon a day! It's no surprise given her genetics but she has a very nice udder too and I think her and Mea (her daughter) may make up my "Dam and daughter" duo. As for "Get of Sire", I'm out there, don't have anything...will next year as many of them are Moons. All my first fresheners will be bred to Andy more than likely...spots sell, what can I say? It's a good way, other than breeding to a boer buck strictly for market kids, to easily sell kids. Andy as a yearling looks a bit narrow but I think with age he'll widen and if nothing else should throw some outstanding milkers. If his dam and grand-dam's udder are any indication of what he'll throw, he's not a bad buck AT ALL but if he maintains that narrowness, any breed matches will have to be on the less dairy side. Shouldn't be too much of a problem with next year's yearlings though as they all seem, so far, to be broader than kids in the past. I lost some power because I just love the dairy look! Glad I kept him though, though he didn't get used a lot this year (2 does) and won't see any udders from him more than likely next year though I don't worry about that a bit. The genetics are there.

If things even remotely settle down over the next year, we'll be on milk test next year...see if we can't get some stars for some of these girls.

I never did get PJ bred last fall. I'm pretty sure she'll need an intrauterine flush. So, first thing in August, or whenever she comes into heat, I will be doing that. If I can get her bred I am pretty sure she'll be for sale...well, either way she'll be for sale. For one, I am not wasting time this year in trying to get her bred wanting to hold out for kidding in good weather. I don't have time for that again. She's not the direction I want to go. She's powerful no doubt, a darn fine milker, great udder but just not what I'm wanting.. If I can't get her bred, a pet home will be in her future, either that or freezer camp but I just don't think I could do that to her personally and as a 4 year old goat, I just don't know how she'd taste. Facts of life.

I'm anxious to see Emmy's kids. Keeping any does would ensure I could see what udders will look like from Andy (Bonnie just had those two surviving buck kids) in 2012 but it would also mean someone else has to go and with the buck year we've had and one doe kid already reserved, I won't hold my breath...will have to see once they're on the ground and it would mean bottling as Emmy won't be staying. I almost hate to sell her...I did not keep her sire (which was also Loli's sire) and seeing what he threw to Loli, depending on what one is looking for, he's one that is gonna put some milk in the pail for sure! But I still have Granite, his half sister (same sire which is where the milk lines come from), and I think she has better breed character than he did anyway...plus too, he was just wild! No way to tame that one and I was darned sure I was not going to take him half way across the country!

I have plenty of options for my junior does this year. I could use Chee-doe and FD as Dam and daughter but usually two does in milk do better than dam and doeling...but with Granite's scurs though, I just don't know. I am self conscious about her scurs, how sad! It wasn't even my fault she had them and if she wasn't too old when I bought her to reburn her, I certainly would have! And while dam and daughter (not in milk) doesn't always rank lower in the line up, in my experience, 2 does in milk usually place higher. Rachel wants Chee-doe but I think she'll be mine. I won't have a full "Get of Sire" out of Prince next year again but Moon's doe kids will do just fine minus the fact they'll all be first fresheners. Not that that can be helped, he is just a yearling after all! I'll need to hold three of them at least. Rachel can show Dawn and perhaps one of Mea's kids as well although Drew has taken a fond liking of Ada and I am fine with letting him have one if he wants to show. She's petite and dairy, more so than her sister her sister looks like she'll have more power in the front end. So, maybe the kids will each just get one. Any more and we'll be looking at having half a bazillion goats and that's no good! Which is the reason I am really looking at who stays and who goes. I had a great crop of kids this year! Moved away from the dairiness a bit that's no biggy, the herd needed it.

I am iffy on keeping Prince. 4 bucks (when I pick up this kid in Ca.)??? I just don't know. Although he's proven he'll correct an udder, that's for sure! And he'll be a 3 year old next year...I just don't keep enough does to warrant 4 bucks in the grand scheme of things but 4 great bucks isn't a bad thing! Hoping his LA score is higher this year with another year on him. I'm sure they will be. He's definitely got more body capacity...better rump.

Well anyway, there the most recent ramblings. Almost time to start another day. I think this Easter weekend, providing the weather cooperates some, will find us working on some cross fencing me thinks. This fencing is taking a lot longer than expected! I am ready for it all to be over!

My bottle feeding schedule

2011-04-19T13:57:00.000-05:00

This year has been different in that I am bottle feeding kids right from birth. I feed my goat kids much like I would a newborn and that is pretty much on demand for the first 3-5 days. They've all been somewhat different. The first two nights of keeping Bonnie's boys in the house because of the bitter cold was torturous because I was already exhausted and one of them was wanting fed every 2-3 hours but like life with a newborn, you cope. Most of my kids by day 3 are sleeping 6-8 hours at night and feeding becomes much easier.

The first few days they will get as much as they will take as often as they want it (every 3-4 hours during day light hours and approx. 3-5 ounces at a time after the first 12 hours of life). Day 3 they get 4-5 bottles a day and approx. 4-8 ounces each bottle. They'd probably take more but unlike dam raised kids, most don't know better and will eat themselves sick. My philosophy to healthy kids is smaller meals more frequently just like a dam raised baby. I realize this is not always plausable for some, but this is the way I do it.

By 3 weeks old they are living with the herd and while not completely eating hay like "normal" enough to make any sort of difference in their hungry feeling usualy, it does help just a little. My feeding times are usually 8 AM, noon, 4 and then 8-9 at night. The noon and 4 feedings are approx. 8 ounces each and the AM and PM bottles are 12 ounces. Then they go approx. 11-12 hours before being fed again in the morning. By 4-6 weeks they are put on 3 bottles and they will continue until I feel they are ready to drop down to 2. My feeding times past 4-6 weeks is 8 AM, 2 and 8 PM consisting of about 14-15 ounces each. They would gladly take more, but limiting their intake can avoid scouring.

Once they are on 2 bottles a day their intake is approx. 32 ounces total. They have been eating hay well since about 3 weeks on. I continue to bottle until at least 12 weeks though often times as long as 16.

As a side note, I am often asked how I get dam rasied kids who are weeks old to take a bottle.It's actually pretty easy. I don't know if the bottle feeding of colostrum helps at all. I would suspect not because there are a few who I didn't. I wait until about 2 weeks of age when I start separating them from their dam's overnight. Obviously by morning they are good and hungry. In the morning I stick 'em between my legs, front facing my front, lift up their head, stick my thumb in the corner of their mouth and work the nipple in. I then use the hand that was opening the mouth to gently clamp down on their nose and their chin and usually they pick the bottle right up. It's a great way to get the not so friendly ones friendly..even if you give them a bottle for just a few days in a row once a day they usually come around. If they aren't hungry though, you'll probably have a heck of a time.

Now, as far as a lambar, I really though I'd put them all on it but if I did that, my dam raised kids would take more than their fare share (as they don't get a "full" bottle in the AM like my bottle kids do) and more than likely the bottle kids and smaller kids of the group would be left out with the more voracious eaters of the bunch. So, while it does take extra time to individually feed each one, I can be sure each one is getting their share and preventatives, etc.

So far I've been really happy with the results this year of both dam and bottle kids. My bottle kids are growing just as well as my dam raised, eating hay t the same time, learning how to be a goat and the dam raised kids are super friendly which allows me to spend a bit less time with them.

Spring Changes

2011-04-19T06:42:00.000-05:00

There's been some changes over the last week. Marmalade Beneath the "Willow" went on to her new home. Thanks Lexi and I hope she makes a great 4H project for you! This little girl, who's almost 7, showed a Jersey calf all by herself at last year's fair! Great job!

"Johnny B5" went to his new home last Wednesday. He joins the ranks of all the other pets-goats, pot belly pig, llamas and all the rest.

Fleur joined "Gravel Ends" this past Saturday and Loli and her two buck kids went home with Misty and her family.

Loli, let me tell you, has the nicest first freshening teats I have ever seen and milks out very easily! If any of you know what first fresheners teats can be like (I tell my husband it's like milking a kitten), she is so far from that in comparison. I really did contemplate keeping her and by the looks of her 12 hour full udder, she's just going to be a fantastic milker as she ages.Her rear udder attachment is extremely nice too.

However, I ~~have~~ had 5 first freshening yearlings this year and 2 dry and I just cannot keep them all. I'm still iffy about Ariel and I am fairly sure Emmy will not stay either. I have high hopes for Mea and her girls and Rachel may get Toddy in her name. She's a real sweet doe, I just don't know that Rachel can handle her yet at her age. We may wait a year for her to sho any that are in milk who weren't bottled.

I have been offered a sweet deal from a friend of mine back in Ca. on a doe and her buck kid from a California line I love (Lakeshore- Walnut Farms Ann Darrow x *B Lakeshore Farm DL Perfect Storm). Hay is being rationed and the price of it is so high she just can't keep everyone. The only problem is, well there are a few actually...how do I get said doe and buck back home? I mean, I know how, I just don't know how. While we are making the trip back to Ca. in June, I just don't know that I want to haul a milker back with me. Last year all my does had kids on them and so milking wasn't a problem. Though, her buck kid will be on her so a few days of not being milked out probably isn't such an issue (and she'll probably drop anyway from the stress of the move) although she is feeding quads presently. I do plan to take the buck kid...still unsure on the doe. It's a golden opportunity though!

The herd dynamics have changed since Fleur has left. She was quite the dominant doe here and I think all the other does were getting a bit edgy these last few weeks. PJ stepped down as herd queen not too long after Fleur got here and without her kidding this year, I wonder if she'll take up that position again or if someone else will fill the ~~shoes~~ hooves. The herd is not lost for a leader, that's for sure, but it'll be interesting to see who steps up.

I am back and forth on how many doe kids to keep. I have been informed that someone would like Toddy's buck kid "Agouti". That's dandy with me. I love him! I will show him in June at the Hillsboro fair before handing him over in July when he's weaned and will repeat that breeding next year (Toddy x Moon) and hope for some doe kids of the same caliber. Man he'd make a pretty girl...excellent rump and top line and nice breed of character too, strong muzzle. Phew and the ears??? If they were only judged on ears alone :o).

Anyhoos, off for now. Wind if blowin' like a hurricane today and I hope to get some rain out of it. We sure need it bad!

Fencing

2011-04-08T04:57:00.000-05:00

I've been very pleased with the performance of the high tensile fencing. Without it being electrified, I seriously doubt it would keep the goats contained even with more wires closer together as one of the high tensile brochures advertises. It's springy and stretchy and given half a chance, they'd be in it through a heart beat without getting shocked by it.

We did teach them individually that it will deliver a wallop if they touched it. To do this we lured them one by one to the fence with grain, dumped some on the other side and it took them but one zap to decide that the fence is not something they want to tangle with.

Now if we could just get some real rain to green the grasses up in the pastures I'll be happy!

Growin' up!

2011-04-08T04:52:00.000-05:00

Man alive Granite' buck kids are stout! They were brutes at birth but they're huge compared to the other kids born only a few days later! I was commenting to someone the other day that their spotty faces are very peculiar. I've yet to see a spotted goat who didn't have some symmetrical linear markings on his/her face. On both of them, their facial stripes are dissected by spots. Apparently their spots on their face and ears are somewhat rare. How odd to get two in the same batch, or perhaps not.

Herbs and Antibiotics

2011-04-08T04:01:00.000-05:00

I belong to several goat forums. Over the years I have gotten so fed up with a lot of the people on them.

I'll start off by saying, I am not at all against herbal remedies for worming or natural healing...at all. But can I tell you how much it pisses me off when people are so against antibiotic and chemical wormers they will damn near let their goat die from worm overload or infection before they finally "give in" and follow sane advice?

Antibiotics aren't the devil people, for God's sake! Neither are chemical wormers! Unless you are a trained herbalist or know someone who is or can get a hold of someone who is easily and frequently or know enough to keep your goat healthy, quite honestly, I think you're playing with fire and you're going to get burned. That's my personal opinion though. Herbs alone are not the end all answer all the time, especially when you don't know enough to keep your goat healthy when things go downhill.

I can't tell you how many people want to take the "herbal way" in worming and end up with a goat with so many worms, they're on the brink of death. Then and only then will the owner, if they have half a brain, will listen to reason and do what they should have done from the start and that is to worm chemically. Oh, I know. You herbal followers out there will tell me that goats have been living naturally without wormers for thousands of years. Yes, I've heard that. I also know that goats living naturally are not penned up, fed alfalfa and grass hays, drink water from a trough, breed when you want them bred and and eat grain on a stand. Which isn't to say that herbal wormers or natural remedies are bad, by any means, but don't knock "modern medicine" when the going gets tough.Which isn't to say goat keeping without antibiotic and on herbal wormers isn't possible but quite honestly, it's my firm belief that it cannot be done without a constant vigilant eye and knowing your stock down to a "T" is of utmost importance. Knowing herbs and knowing what you're doing is essential as well. Throwing them some pre-mixed generalized wormer usually gets you nothing but a high worm load and an anemic goat ESPECIALLY when you don't follow the directions. Grasping at straws on wisdom from a generalized herbal book probably won't get you too far either.

Honestly, I am so sick of people saying they want to avoid antibiotics and chemical wormers at all costs.

I think I am done with goat forums. They do nothing but raise my blood pressure.

Whirlwind week and lotsa babies

2011-04-08T03:26:00.000-05:00

Ariel kidded late Thursday night with a very tiny buck and a doe kid. Very easy delivery for her which is always a relief for any doe but mostly for those first fresheners. I am waiting a couple weeks until I can separate kids for 8-10 hours from their dams to get a better idea of what their udders are going to look like as some of these first fresheners may be for sale.

Loli kidded with 2 very good size buck kids on Friday, April 1. She had a pretty easy time as well but those first freshener don't stretch as well as "multips". I had to help pull the first. They're the black kids with frosted ears and white crowns in the photo. Toddy's buck kid is along the straw bale on the left, Ariel's buck kid is against Toddy' and squeezed in there is Ariel's little girl.

Toddy was 2 days past due on Saturday and when we got back from town she already had 2 legs out. She had a single buck kid with a little assistance and what a good looking kid he is! WOW! He's small but just gorgeous and I may even consider registering him. He's got a lovely rump, great proud Nubian head, ears to die for and his mama's udder is quite good, naturally. He's got Toddy's grey roan coloring and is just cute cute cute!

Finally last but not least, Monday Mea finally delivered twin does and I am thrilled. I'm a little surprised they didn't have spots but I'm thrilled nonetheless!

My worming schedule

2011-04-02T04:34:00.000-06:00

It's not so much of a schedule as a religious act really. Before coming to Kansas, my goats have NEVER had tapeworms. For tapes, I treat herbally and chemically if I see "active" problems (i.e. tapes in their fecal matter and/or anemia problems). Herbally they get cayenne pepper in drench (which is the only way they'll take it. For that I "dissolve" abut a tsp. of cayenne pepper in warm water and suck it up into a syringe. I give this orally for 3-4 days.) Chemically I use safeguard for goats which is cheaper than buying it for horses though I have used that too. For that, I use 3 times the label dosage as it says for equines. The goat oral Safeguard I follow package directions. I use it three days in a row followed by another dose in 10 days and a follow up dose 10 days after that. Recently I've read about another equine wormer that is supposed to work better, I've yet to fully read up on it though.

I also use herbal wormer but I do not rely on this solely. There are people who do who say they are successful. Quite honestly, I've seen too many things go wrong and year after year people say that they are worming herbally but yet their goats are still showing classic worm symptoms or worse yet, are dying! I don't discredit herbs for worming at all. However, I personally believe that one must know an awful lot about herbs in order to do it full and completely and these general mixes aren't specific enough when certain things like cocciodisis arises. And what do I mean when I say they must know an awful lot about herbs? There are so many herbs available and they don't always work the way one might want or in which it's generally known to help. In certain cases, combination are better suited or different herbs altogether. This, of course, is coming from someone who knows very little about herbs but I can say from personal experience, and the experience of someone who is a lot more knowledgeable about herbs than I am, that it can often take a lot of time to come up with a combination or single herbs that eventually do the trick and sometimes there just isn't the time for that like the in the case of my herd last year when cocciodisis swept through the herd like wildfire and I had waited for the time it would have taken to come up with that combination, at least 2 of my does would not have made it. If I get time, I'll post my recipe for my herbal mix.

Adult animals can get cocciosidis? You betcha! It's rare, but in situations of high stress (like a move across country), temperature change (hot and dry to hot and humid) it can happen and it takes its toll quick! Best to act fast.

As for other parasites, I really recommend you do your own research and see what kind of parasites you may deal with in your area. Not all wormers are created equal (meaning, not all wormers will kill each and every type of worm). A good "broad spectrum" wormer is Ivermec (and all the generic/off shoot versions of it) however, when it comes to tapes, liver flukes and a few others, regular Ivermec will not treat them.

I've somewhat recently come to use Ivermec Plus and what a difference it has made. Some people will say that if you live in Ca. you do not need to worry about liver flukes because it's such a dry climate. This is so far from the truth! I know for a fact we do/did because a neighbor's cow was butchered and she had signed of liver flukes and the guy who processed her said it's pretty common (especially for people who don't worm!). At any rate, if you think you may have flukes, I really recommend Ivermec Plus!

As for schedule, there is no set schedule. Some of my goats are more "hardy" than others and require worming less often. Some aren't as hardy and need it more often. I worm a few days after kidding on a 10, 10 , 10 cycle meaning day 1, day 10 and day 20. Why? To get the adults on day 1, to get the adults that have hatched from the eggs on day 10 and as a "clean up" on day 20. Wormers will not kill the eggs. Wormers only kill the adults so if you worm just once, you're leaving the eggs behind to hatch.And why after kidding specifically? Birth is stressful. It lowers the immune system and since most goats are kidding in the spring (prime time for parasite problems), the high stress allows parasites to take over easily. Leaving parasites unchecked can drastically drop weight on does who are already spending a lot of energy to keep up with their bodies (and babies) demand for milk production.

Time of year really plays a huge roll in when to worm. Spring is usually a very bad time for parasites. goats are on new spring (sometimes short) grass full of new larvae, it's usually damp, changes of temperature add some stress, etc. So, for that reason, I worm all that show signs of needing it. In the summer if they are looking like they need it, or fecals show higher worm counts than I'd like, I worm on the same 10,10, 10 schedule. In the fall again before breeding and usually winter has seen everything through okay with few problems. Some goats only need worming twice a year (always on the 10, 10, 10 schedule) and some more.

I normally do not worm on a regular set schedule. I try to let the goat tell me when they need it. I don't like to over-worm but I also pay close attention to each individual too! Coat condition is a HUGE indication. If the minerals in their diet are correct and they are looking scruffy and their coat is looking dull, it's probably time to worm. If their eyelids are looking pale, probably time to look to something of a blood robbing nature. Not sure what you're dealing with? Best to take a fecal sample to the vet (or do you own) to give you a better idea of what kind of parasite you're dealing with. As I said before, not all wormers will kill all parasites. Don't have the money for a vet to run a fecal? Do you really have the money to spend on an expensive wormer that isn't going to work?

Parasite loads can do a whole host of bad things. For one, it robs your goats of nutrients. For two, it can damage organs, lower milk yield, pass to other animals (and in some cases humans) and overall it's financially irresponsible not to stay on top of things. Low parasite loads is the way to go!

My Grain Ration

2011-04-02T03:55:00.000-06:00

6 parts whole oats
1 part BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds)
1 part whole barley
2 parts cracked corn

I mix this by hand every few days in a large bucket.

The dry doe (yearling or other)-All dry (of good weight) adult does during spring & summer get no grain. For those needing a little extra weight they get 1 cup a day.

The milking doe-All does in milk get approx. 2 lbs. regardless of milk output. Post freshening, for more weight gain, they get extra cracked corn.

The bucks-All bucks (of good weight) get 1 cup of grain in fall and winter tapering off as spring approaches providing they have gained weight back from rut and winter.

The Kids-Kids get a small bit of grain daily. It's basically free choice access of which they just nibble at mostly.

The bred dry doe-Bred does get a handful of grain daily on the stand everyday unless they are in milk then the "milking doe" ration is followed.

For the Love of High Tensile!

2011-03-30T21:04:00.002-06:00

**UPDATE** Please read an updated post here: (http://herdmarmalade.blogspot.com/2011/12/high-tensile-for-goats-revisited.html) to find out what we think of this fence 8 months later!

Jeremiah and the kids were on spring break last week. We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather (in the 70s!!!). No goats kidding, we were free and clear to work. And work we did.

We ended up buying all of the high tensile wire we needed (6 rolls @ 4,000' each), the 8 foot corner t-posts we'd need for a few places that we'd be doing cross fencing on and the beginning of the fence where the new orchard will be. Wooden posts seemed daunting. We don't have a tractor (yet) a 2 man auger was an expensive buy for something I don't hope to have to use too much and to be quite honest, after all is said and done, the t posts work swell and while the t post/Wedge Loc system we used is more expensive than wooden posts, the cost of labor and time was priceless! Putting in a corner really does take 15 minutes or less! So, to all the nay sayers to the Wedge Loc system (of which there were some and of those, most of them had never even used it), they really are a class act! Course, we've yet to see how they'll do long term but they're aluminum, not like they're gonna rust.

One problem I did have when it came to the Wedge Loc system was that their brochure is pretty awful when it came to detailed photos and there isn't too much out there as far as photos go. So, after a bit of beating one of the pieces on to the t post -only to find out no beating was required, Jeremiah was trying to put it on wrong!- I've got some good photos to show of how it SHOULD be done.

We spent a whole day just taking down approximately 3200' of the smooth twisted wire that was up before (4 strands high). I never would have imagined taking it down would be so time consuming or how much I'd love a good fence pliers!!! I really had it in my head that with a little help from a couple students (who ended up not being able to make it) that we could get the entire perimeter done. HA! Can you say biting off more than you can chew??? Jeremiah thought it best to remove the east property line fencing and get up the east pasture(s) to get a better idea of how this would all go before we start ripping it all out. 2 of our neighbors to the west have horses and if it comes up, it must go back up within a short amount of time.

As it stands, we learned a lot. The first string was the toughy with all the sleeve insulators we had to put on. By strand 2 we made just a mistake or two and by 3, 4 and 5 we were right on task like we knew what we were doing. The one section of cross fencing we put up (had enough wire left on the spool for just 4 strands so will have to go back) but wow, it took no time at all!

Now we need to get juice flowing and I can let the does out.

First, our homemade spinning jenny. She needs some more tweaking but overall did the job well. Following the advice of others, we didn't attempt the job without one! How did hubby make it? You'd have to ask him! The sloppy nontechnical version? He took some sheet metal, a plasma cutter, some bolts, a few pieces of flat stock, used the press brake (A.K.A. the metal bender thing), did some welding, some hole making, some cutting, some bending and made our Jenny and for a lot less than the $170 for the heavy duty one!

Our fence layout was a 3 sided square (the 4th is currently in field fencing and is a common fence with the actual goat pen. It'll later be cattle panel fencing but anyway...) The total length we ran of high tensile was approx. 800 feet (times 5 wires). In hindsight, I wish we would have just used sleeve insulators when we wrapped the corner posts and when we started it at the brace post instead of the donut ceramic insulators. Live and learn, we'll do it different on down the line and can always come back and change them out later on. . It just looks so much nicer and this wire is 200,000 KPSI made by Bakeart (in the USA) so it's a real ::bleep:: to work with! It doesn't bend real easily that's for sure and as for making hand knots, forgetaboutit! Crimp sleeves are the way to go!

So, as for the Wedge Loc, it's as simple as can be...

Stringing the first line! As I said, we did not end our line(s) in the corner, we continued them (hence the ceramic donut insulators).

Fortunately for us many of the bigger posts are still rock solid. We installed cross fencing using this post to start our line on using the Wedlge Loc and t post as a brace which is mostly for looks but if there is any pulling on the line, it doe serve as a brace as well. We used the sleeve insulators here to wrap around the post and it looks so much cleaner, was less work and while it may not be cheaper, it's a time saver!

Oh, and by the way, our 5 strand spacing is 6", 6", 8", 10" & 12" (6" off the ground, 6" from that, 8" from that and so on.) I did a lot of research on how many wires and spacing for goats specifically since their "needs" are totally different than other animals. In the end, we were comfortable with 5 strand and as I said, it will be electrified so more than likely, the psychological aspect of it should be enough to keep them away from it.

And, there it is!

If you're not familiar with high tensile smooth wire, I believe I've discussed the technical aspects of it in prior posts. If you're wondering why our line posts are so spread out, the reason for it is, less is more when it comes to high tensile. High tensile is springy. The more you "hold down" your wire (with posts), the less spring it's going to be. Keep it simple. Our terrain is hilly (as you can see), we used as few as possible to keep the spacing right (and off the ground or from being way up in the air.)

The rest of the fencing will come in time. For now I've got 2 nice usable pastures and I'm super happy with the results!

Ug. More Boys!

2011-03-30T13:21:00.000-06:00

Granite kidded at 7:20 this morning after laboring all night long with 2 spotty buck kids! The up side is that her 2nd freshening udder is fantastic! The downside is, not a single doe! Though, the other upside is that I don't have many options as to who to keep :o).

And thankfully it wasn't nearly as cold as what Bonnie kidded in in negative 4!! I was cozy enough sleeping in the straw in the barn.

Buck #2 says please excuse the fact that I looked smooshed up. It will take a few days to unsmoosh myself.

Bottle Babies

2011-03-30T11:14:00.000-06:00

If I ever have another for as long as I live...it'll be too soon!

I really loathe everything about this act I cannot even tell you.

Probably the worst part about bottle kids, in my opinion, is how incredibly irritating an naughty they are!!! I spend more time teaching them not to nip and jump than I do actually loving on them. Loving on them is what I want to do. They don't love me for me like my dam raised kids, they love the bottles I bring.

I've never had a bottle raised kid from beginning to end. I've bottle raised them until their dam could take over (for numerous reasons), I've bought older bottle babies (who are annoying too!) but never raised 'em start to finish and God help me if-during a fit of insanity- I choose to do it again.

My bottle fed yearlings are in my face annoying. My dam raised does are just as wonderful and quiet on the milk stand as any bottle baby and aren't at all pushy or irritating. Why? Because of how and how much time I spend when them. So, there's my 2 cents about bottle raising.

King Size...

2011-03-30T11:06:00.000-06:00

...nuzzles...

...jungle gym...

...kissses...

Love and Hate

2011-03-17T05:23:00.000-06:00

I can understand why people bottle feed. But then again, I'm putting it out there, it's crazy! I know, from limited experience, how much I love to hate this task! Full time from newborns this is the first year I'll be bottling kids straight through to weaning and oh my gosh...for a few days there I thought I'd go mad and that was just with 4!

However, I'm happy to report I've moved the little darlings out to the barn and my oh my, what a difference in my sanity that made! I love them, I do. If I could get paid to play with baby goats all day, well sure as shootin' I'd be earning my pay, every penny! Anyway, the bottle babies...

When FD kidded with triplets I debated on whether or not to pull the doe. I decided I would for a couple of reasons. For one, with 2 buck kids and her already being the "runt" and a doe at that, I wanted to be sure she'd get enough. Secondly, I do plan to sell 2 of 3 of Fleur's kids and that leaves with one bottle baby? Not that they don't all commingle, but shoot, if you have one you may as well have two. So, that's how she came to be.

They are all doing well but it's like having 4 newborns...except these newborns can run after you when they feel that haven't gotten enough to eat. And skitter around your feet in the way and are getting into trouble at less than a week old! I have been able to keep them contained in one of the kidding pens but they are quickly learning they are still small enough to fit through the openings and so I am attacked at feeding time when I put them in there to keep from being attacked. The best laid plans....

I locked Bonnie's 2 buck kids up 2 nights ago so I could milk her yesterday morning to help feed the 4 bottle babies. Her kids are now 5 weeks old and they are lucky as I usually start separating at night around 2 -3 weeks depending on how soon and well they are eating "real" food on their own. Of course they were whining at me yesterday morning when I went out to feed and milk to be let out but before I let them go to Bonnie (who I didn't milk out all the way) I offered them a bottle and danged if they didn't take it, much to my delight!

There was a discussion on one of the goat forums I belong to about part time bottling. I thought surely that couldn't work but thought it would be awesome if it did! If you'll remember, I did bottle these kids for the first few days because it was just so darn cold out! Sure enough, they took the bottle yesterday like a champ and that thrills me! I know you can get them onto a bottle even if dam raised most of the time. I mean, if they are hungry enough they'll figure it out but anyway, this part time bottle feeding WILL work! I plan to bottle all newborns now so they are learning early. Obviously you put them back with the dam young enough and they will learn to nurse from her but a friend of mine said it's important to get them on the bottle the first couple days of life and they should transition to a bottle easier later on even after being on the dam. Well, I'm a believer now! So, off to order lambar nipples!

I'm a firm dam raising believer, trust me. I haven't forsaken my roots. However, sometimes there is no choice (like with Fluer who is a good mama otherwise but would kill a kid out of irritation before she let one latch onto her teat. Trust me, I tried! Well, supervised so my babies wouldn't be killed anyway.) And anyway, there are certain things I love about bottle babies, don't get me wrong! There are certain things I hate but above all, there is no mistaking that those who cannot spend a lot of time with their babies will find them much easier to handle most of the time if they are bottled. I have dam raised does who I could milk without a stanchion and for dam raised kids, they are few and far between let me tell you and it's because of all the ongoing massive amounts of time I spend with them since birth and training them. Most bottle babies though don't require all that time to be as friendly as m dam raised kids. So, there are always positives an negatives.

At any rate, these 4 new ones are just about ready to put on the lambar and that will make life easier. I don't have an ounce of extra milk but will be putting a few kids up for sale in a couple weeks as soon as everyone else kids and I know exactly what I'm working with.

Heard back about the Hillsboro show on the 3rd and 4th and am happy to report that Rachel, at 7, can show in the youth classes. I didn't know if she could or not being 7. I'm excited for her, though I do have to call ADGA and find out exactly what needs to happen to get my individual membership changed to my family's name. I am not about to have 2 separate herds for showing purposes, that's silly! It makes sense that I will and will not be able to do this. "Will" because they must understand that youth and adults show the same goats and why isn't that fair because surely to have to herds would cost an arm and a leg although I'm sure it makes no difference to them, "Won't" because it's not fair...so we'll see. Anyone have an answer to that? If so, let me know.

FD's 2011kids

2011-03-16T11:33:00.000-06:00

FD kidded 2 days early with another set of triplets, Blue Moon's first! And boy are they nice lookin' kids! Wow, the escutcheons on these kids, and they are wide. I am in love and I bred 4 other does to him. I cannot wait to see them!

Buck kids B7 &B8 (the one in the foreground is for sale as unregistered buck or a whether)

B7's for sale

And little "Chee Doe". SO SO SO CUTE!!!- She'll remain in the herd until the rest of the does have kidded but probably will stay for good.

Fleur's Kids

2011-03-12T09:47:00.000-06:00

Fleur kidded easily and quickly at 9:30 AM on Thursday March 10, 2011. Two doe kids and 1 buck kid, all very healthy, vigorous and good size!

These kids are being bottle fed and looked after by our LDG King. He takes his job seriously!

Please keep in mind, these photos were taken when the kids were about 30 hours old. They haven't stretched out completely yet and don't quite have their "sea legs" either :).

The buck kid is for sale with papers. Doe kids will be evaluated and is probable one will be for sale. Buck kid should make a good herdsire. Has good milk and show quality behind him. Out of my 2 year old buck "Prince Charming", LA Score 83 +++ with Very good shoulder assembly, rear and front legs and feet as a yearling.Looking forward to his appraisal as a 2 year old, he's really filling out very nicely.

Buck kid

Fleur an hour before freshening.

Marmalade Beneath the Willow ("Willow")

Looks as though she will be a long bodied doe and quite dairy.

Marmalade Prairie Dawn ("Dawn)

Dainty and dairy little thing with a super sweet quiet attitude so far and ears to die for!

Lessons Learned

2011-03-07T10:53:00.000-06:00

On a short list that made this weekend drag on: CAE. Let me clarify, this has NOTHING to do with my herd. I have changed the names of parties involved so as not to indict anyone. I am only involved as a friend and someone who is trying to help figure it all out. I think it's worth mentioning.

I'm going to write a legend to help you follow this next bit. There are a few parties involved and a few goats so here's reference.
Characters:
Jane= my friend
Jen= Jane's friend
Breeder Rose= Kansas goat breeder
Hope= doe bred and born to Breeder Rose, sold to Jen pregnant and bought by my friend Jane a few months post freshening late summer 2010
Hope's 2 daughters = 2010 born doe kids born to Jen but bred by Breeder Rose and later sold to my friend Jane
2 yearlings= 2010 doe kids bred and born to Breeder Rose, sold to Jen and later bought by my friend Jane summer of 2010 along with Hope and her 2 daughters.

The scene and story:

The fam. and I had plans to go see an LGD (livestock guardian dog) further up north and since it was pretty close to Jane, we were going to drop in to help with some chores. She called me Friday night to say the plans for Saturday had changed and she would need help drawing blood from 7 of her goats instead of doing other farm chores as intended. The whole story is a mess in and of itself but the long story I tried (but fail/ed to make) short is this: My friend "Jane" has a friend "Jen" who bought a bred doe that we'll call Hope from breeder "Rose" early in 2010. Friend Jen asked Jane what she should look for when buying as this, I believe, was their first doe. A multitude of things came up but ultimately CAE was discussed and Jen asked Breeder Rose if her herd was CAE free. Breeder Rose produced some test paperwork to show Jen and said she'd "always run a clean herd" and so that was that- no testing on Jen's part as, "they only wanted the doe for milk anyway." Mistake #1 when you're concerned about CAE.

My friend Jane ended up buying a doe kid out of Hope last spring (after Hope kidded obviously). Then the she bought Hope herself and the other doe she had had that same freshening (sister to the first doe Jane bought) and, I believe, 2 other (now) yearlings in late summer of 2010 (so 5 does total-Hope, her two daughters and 2 unrelated does that ALL came originally from Breeder Rose via Jen). One of these daughter's of Hope had a scur that broke off and she bled into the community water that approx. 12 does drink from at Jane's place.

Jane, with approx. 6 does due dates quickly approaching, thought it would be a good idea to probably get broken scur doe, or her sister or Hope herself tested just to be sure she/they was/were/are CAE free before other goats started to kid. Mistake #2-not testing said does as soon as they came to the property and waiting this long.

The results came back on Friday on broken scur doe's sister (the original doe kid Jane bought last spring and the reason why she was tested instead of broken scur doe was because she was smaller and easier to take to the vet for the draw) and that's when I got the call from Jane. Broken scur doe's sister (the original purchase early last year) came back positive for CAE. OH NO! Now the calm freaking out happens. This means that broken scur doe more than likely has it as does Hope!

Jane talked very in depth with tester from the testing facility and her mind is set at ease that the chances of her already tested negative does (not from Breeder Rose) are VERY unlikely to get CAE even if they drank the water- which is probably highly unlikely anyway-but CAE is a very fragile virus and blood is NOT a major transmitter. Some people will swear up and down that any bodily fluid is a huge transmitter but when it all comes right down to it, the chances are apparently quite slim that unless milk from a positive doe is fed/drunk to/by another without it being properly heat treated, the chances of it transferring by blood, saliva, in utero, seminal fluids, etc. are very unlikely. I am not saying it can't happen (because I have been told it can because it did...to someone). I am saying it's unlikely. These are the words of the expert, not my own. Still, it's reason to calmly panic and pull blood from everyone now.

Now, we know for nearly 100% certain the transmitter is more than likely Hope. And we can be pretty certain that broken scur doe also has it since her sister's Elisa #'s were sky high on the test which were run twice by the way. Hope's two daughters were not bred this year. However, Hope is bred and is due in about 4 weeks.

So, here's the deal. While it wouldn't be kosher to assume that Breeder Rose probably does have active CAE within her herd (and quite possibly knows about it and quite possibly lied about it), Jane will be contacting Rose to let her know. However, Jane will wait until the tests come back at the end of the week on one of the yearlings that came from the same breeder (that my friend Jane bought last summer).

The thing is...Hope was supposed to have been bottle fed. According to the expert-whom I trust- it's possible (though apparently EXTREMELY unlikely) that transmission happens with anything other than milk. In Jane's and my opinion, the chances that Hope contracted this from a show and not at/under the care of Breeder Rose is unlikely. It's possible as apparently the milking habits/hygiene/precautions at some of these shows are very poor and there is always a chance, even if bottle fed, Hope could have snagged a swig off a lambar, or bottle or heck, even a doe that was positive for CAE and become infected herself when she was shown (and won) at a show. WHO KNOWS. However, if this yearling we pulled blood from that was bred and born to Breeder Rose (that my friend Jane bought off her friend Jen last summer) comes back positive on Friday, there is good reason to believe that Breeder Rose has active CAE within her herd and is either not properly heat treating colostrum and/or milk or not doing it at all and is selling CAE positive does and quite obviously passing them off as CAE free. The 2 yearlings Jane bought from Jen who bought from Breeder Rose though are not Hope's kids and were dam raised on Breeder Rose's place by her does. So, what does that tell you? It tells me that she has at least 1 doe who is CAE positive though quite possibly more.

Even if she she thinks she's not got it and/or is preventing it and really does not know she has it, she either needs to be made aware OR be brought to justice, however small a way that may be. I realize that calling her out and expect to make some sort of difference may be far fetched, but at least some people can be made aware so that it doesn't happen to someone else in the future as this woman is a pretty big breeder here in Ks. apparently. Maybe I am giving her too much credit. I don't know her, don't know of her, but know I will steer clear of her and her goats and probably not send anyone her way if she's doing this knowingly.She does not breed Nubians from what I understand and by steering clear of her I mean, her does, at shows.

Now again, there could be many explanations and until we know about this yearling, it's hard to say what happened. Breeder Rose can always say Hope contracted it from somewhere once she left the property and there's no way to prove that she did or didn't but the chances of that, in reality, are really QUITE slim. It's possible yes, but it's more of a possibility that Rose lied or something is going on that she needs to be made aware of if she doesn't already know. And again, time will tell with this yearling we're having tested. I don't think she was shown at all before she was bought by Jen as a baby and so, for two does to pick it up, coming off of Jen's place who hadn't had goats at all before Hope is, well, against all odds. Not saying it can't happen...but come on, let's be realistic okay?

Yes, there were mistakes made on all parties account, no doubt! No one is blameless here. But ultimately the repercussions are/could have been catastrophic! This now means that Jane's once negative does are now in limbo and despite a negative test result at the end of this week, it still means for utmost safety, that all doe kids will be bottle fed and all bucks will/should go to slaughter. It's a real shame in some ways. For some who bottle raises, I know it does not seem like that big an an issue (not that I bottle raise, I am saying for those who do). For someone who dam raises, the extra work now involved is immense and leaving the bucks on the does just lessens the burden and it's just easier to send them off from the get go basically. The expert said it would be safest to pull blood again in 8 weeks and retest then to get a better idea (and again at about 6 months) but 3 weeks post incident (blood in the drinking water) isn't fruitless. So, that's where we stand there. Jane's does are set to start kidding in about a week and Jane doesn't feel 100% safe, even with negative results, to dam raise as usual. I don't blame her.

In hindsight, Jane wishes, of course, she would have tested as soon as she got the doe(s). But, hindsight is 20/20. When your friend tells you she was shown paperwork as proof, you tend to want to believe that. Once bitten twice shy though, that's for sure! Live and learn.

So anyway, if Breeder Rose is purposefully being untruthful, it's a real shame. I know it happens. I am not so naive to think that people are good and honest and aren't out to deceive others but look at what happens, it's such a HUGE domino effect. Is it really worth it? It could be an isolated incident and Breeder Rose really does have a clean herd. Who knows, BUT I've known this to happen twice to two different friends in two different states and I hear about it fairly often on goat groups so it's not isolated and mainly I am writing this for those who don't know better. If nothing else, people need to be aware if Rose is doing this knowingly. Ultimately, there is no 100% proof that Breeder Rose is selling CAE positive animals as it can always be said that once the doe(s) left the property they must have contracted it then. So, unless you can get Breeder Rose to test each and every animal, there isn't anything to be done but educate where applicable in a way that is honest and ethical.

What precautions can you take? Buy from a reputable honest breeder that comes recommended by someone you trust and knows what they are talking about. While this isn't always a sure fire bet, people who truly care about keeping a clean herd will seek out others who also feel strongly about those specific things. Ask that the doe (or buck) be tested by the seller before finalizations exchange hands. This, of course, isn't exactly fool proof either as they could fudge results, draw from a clean animal, or sometimes the animal could have been infected months or years earlier and the tests are showing a false negative. Test the animal when you get it to your property straight from the breeders if they won't test or you don't trust the test they have done. Get it in writing before you buy the animal that if it comes back positive for anything you don't want, that they will take the animal back for a full refund. Isolate the animal from your animals so transmission cannot be made while the tests are going on which could involve months of isolation until you are comfortable integrating them. Above all, research and do what's best for you.

I have no feelings one way or the other on CAE in regards to whether or not people keep positive or negative animals. I choose to keep a negative herd, buy negative animals and test. Some will say that unless I bottle feed with heat treated milk/colostrum, I am part of the problem. HOWEVER, chances of my does contracting the disease are quite slim and my personal opinion is that dam raising my kids on repeatedly tested negative does with extremely slim chances of contacting it are good enough odds for me to feel safe. In the end, it's all a personal choice an NO ONE should be made to feel bad about their decisions. I do however believe that if you are showing or putting your animals out there in ways that may infect others, it would be decent of you to test, keep negative animals etc. I suppose the same can be said for those who keep negative animals in that they should stay home or shut up. Either way, you take your precautions if you want and do what you need to do. To each his own, so to speak.

Those who choose to breed and dam raise and don't test, that's fine. It's personal preference. I am not one of these people who bash others and say any positive animal should be put down. Er, at least I don't think I have. Maybe I have but as for today, I have no feelings one way or the other about what others choose to do. BUT, to knowingly sell positive animals and pass them off as negative, THAT'S WRONG. And again, I am not saying Rose did, but time will give us a better indication and she NEEDS to be made aware. What she does with the info is up to her. Selling (likely) positive animals to unsuspecting or uneducated people and passing them off as negative is dishonest and unlawful.

Anyway, I won't go into much more depth about it. Quite frankly, there is so much information written about CAE, it's enough to boggle the mind. In the end, I have to wonder if people really actually know what they are talking about or if much of what they say is hearsay and speculation. For now, Jane's going with the expert, taking precautions and calling it a day. What more can she do besides shoot them all and be done with it? Since that's a pretty drastic option, Jane will do what she can and take it as it comes.

As for me, kidding at Marmalade Hollow resumes at the end of the week, or sooner, depending. We're expecting rain at the beginning of the week so I am hoping my first due holds out until a day after her due date as it's supposed to be almost 70 on Friday and it would be nice if the other doe due a few days later than her kidded early :o). I have said it before and I'll say it again, I am SO ready for warm weather. Winter has drug on entirely too long!

Ranting about hay

2011-03-07T04:15:00.000-06:00

First, a rant about hay. We've had our fair share of crappy hay here in Ks. It started with some alfalfa small bales that were probably bottom bales. Not exactly moldy, but nothing I would feed my goats...sold that to someone with cattle, no biggy minus the work to load them, haul then and unload them. Second, some crappy large round bales of straw that was at least 50% waste because it was left in the field and not stacked before the rains hit it for months. I was desperate for bedding, he was close, lesson learned, but it's so hard to tell what the middle of a 1 ton bale will look like especially when everything that is stored outside is going to have a whole outer shell of yucky looking.

The final straw (no pun intended) was with this 1 ton bale of brome we bought 2 weeks ago. Believe it or not, the outside looked good! It was barn stored and while it was a bit thicker stemmed in some places, today I was peeling off some to feed, noticed some mold and that lead Jeremiah and I to cutting the whole entire bale apart with a chainsaw and ending up with about 75% of moldy waste sitting in a pen we had to close off! To say I am pissed is pretty much putting it nicely. I don't have the growers #, I have his address of all things. So, I'll have to write up a nice letter letting him know I'll be seeking a refund and will totally not turn down anything else he'd like to throw in too including, but not limited to, a mold free bale DELIVERED and removal of the moldy hay. No, I totally would not feel bad taking him up on that offer if it were to come up! Yes, I'm sure it's a lot to assume that will not happen but no I do not think it's a lot to ask being as how I am still in the market for a consistent hay provider come cutting time on grass and alfalfa. Word of mouth is convincing advertising (both positive and negative.) I'll be looking at buying a few ton of brome and close to 12 tons of alfalfa in the late summer. I now it's not a lot compared to what he sends to Texas, but let's not look a gift horse in the mouth either! It's not a messily 1 ton. That first ton didn't exactly win me over and that was the sample! Don't screw up the sample for heaven's sake!

He's a HUGE grower about half an hour away. Most of what he grows goes to Texas. Could you imagine sending moldy bales out like that? How much could that potentially cost??? The thing is, it's not from sitting on the ground or sitting out for any length of time. The inside was moldy, laced throughout. It wasn't cured right in the first place. Maybe I am anal but I don't/won't feed moldy hay or hay that looks even slightly off knowingly.

To say, thus far, I've had some rotten luck with hay is an understatement and I'm feeling pretty upset about it. Is it too much to ask for good quality hay? I think not! Today I'm pretty sick of the hay we've gotten here in Ks. To blame everyone would be wrong. I've gotten good hay and occasional problems happen, I know this. But I'm still upset. I have no idea what I am going to do with approx. 1000+ lbs of moldy hay! We had some of it loaded on the trailer to take out to the "burn pile"-that I don't actually intend to burn-but come the end of the month or so, the goats will have access to that. I put an ad up that it can be had free of charge, no bites so far and it's supposed to rain for the next 2 days. Right now, I just don't even want to think about it! I just want it to go away.

Updated boy photos

2011-02-28T14:32:00.000-06:00

The boys are SOLD!Will hold until June when I wean them but boy I am I happy, after all the work to save them, they won't be on my dinner plate ;o).

Man, I just love baby goats! Trying to get them to hold still long enough for a photo was difficult to say the least. They are full of so much life!

Farm update

2011-02-26T22:34:00.000-06:00

We've still got another couple of weeks before the rest of the does kid. It was planned for PJ and Bonnie to kid around the same time but obviously that's not gonna happen so Bonnie gets to enjoy her "baby moon" alone. The boys are well. Perhaps a little too well! I have never seen buck kids as young as them acting bucky. Poor Bonnie, I think if she had half a mind, she'd kick them! They are horribly relentless at times trying to mount her. I KNOW! They are like 2 1/2 weeks old and were doing this, honestly, since day 2! Nasty little buggers.

They forever ride each other around and I think if they knew how to use their penis for the common good, they'd have the breeding thing down pat! As it is, they do the whole grunting, leg brushing thing and all, it's really quite grotesque. I don't tell them that of course, but good grief there are times I have to hold them and keep them busy just so Bonnie can get a second to eat in peace without them trying to jump on her or nurse. Honestly!

We have a cat that's been visiting the pasture and pen and is getting up the courage to come and visit me for some lovin' and the babies are so enthralled with her. She belongs to a neighbor, or I assume she does. She's too darn nice to be feral.

I've been meaning to get some new photos of the boys and all their baby goat antics. If they aren't playing "let's pretend to breed", they are giving poor Bonnie a heart attack as she has to chase them all over and keep them out of mischief. They like to run behind me up to the pen gate as I leave while Bonnie is eating. She panics when she looks back and they are not where she last saw them. She starts screaming for them and I swear you can hear them giggle knowing full well what they are doing. Horrible kids!

The weather was great last weekend and we were busy chopping wood, ALL WEEKEND, not much time for the adults to play with baby goaties. A storm moved in later in the week and we got a nice coating of ice 2 nights ago and last night. It really does look pretty on the trees. Today "warmed" up to above freezing. There's still cloud cover but the ice on the trees is melting so most of everything is damp and feels springy. THANK GOODNESS, I was beginning to think winter would never end.

We're gearing up to put in high tensile on spring break at the end of March. I am finalizing all the layout, have a few phone calls to make to find out f t posts are going to work for line posts. We have one pretty steep hill and that may require wooden posts be sunk but if we can get away with mostly t posts, I'd be a really happy camper. I don't think we'd have to buy a single one with all the ones that are out there holding up the deteriorating twisted wire fence that's currently "up". The rest of the terrain is hilly and flat so we'll see how it all goes. I am pretty sure our corner posts are all usable still. They are rock solid. I have some clearing to do of some saplings and such but if we could get a nice day, I'll go along the fence line with a loppers and take care of anything that needs taken care of.

We've yet to inform one of our neighbor that will be affected by the new fence-or lack there of while it's being constructed. We did notify one of our neighbors with a horse that he'll need to do something with it while the fence is down. Neither neighbor, I would assume, is going to be willing to help us with costs. The neighbor we've already spoken with sounded like he was trying to guilt trip us into letting his horse pasture here (this is the same horse that lived here for a month after we moved in when the neighbor knew darn well the previous owners had moved and the neighbors were fully aware that the horse needed to be moved out before we took ownership). See, he's only got 3 acres and it's heavily wooded. He's a vet for cryin' out loud, you'd think he could afford a $28 round bale of prairie hay once every 6 weeks or so to feed the horse. As it is she comes down at feeding twice a day to the corner of the property and whinnies at me! What other choice do I have but to feed her? I know she's not starving, they feed her, but how the heck do you look a "hungry" horse in the face while you're clearly feeding your own animals and tell her no??? She and her two western neighbor horse friends have taken a sever tole on the fence line. This electified high tensile wire though should make dandy work of putting a stop to that though...bwahahahah!

At any rate, tax return is in and I am free to order fencing whenever I see fit. I could just go ahead and buy it all fro, Tractor Supply or Orscheln's farm store but I want to make sure it's quality and not something made in China. I'm not on a boycott China rampage, I just want American made fencing thankyouverymuch. I may also talk to the co op as they apparently stock from a company based in Kansas City.

Along the same lines as fencing, I took my kids to the Hutch. library a couple days ago and checked out a homesteading book and a few magazines. A while back I was watching The Victory Garden on PBS and a gal in Ca. had a fence within a fence fencing in her garden and said she had never had a problem with deer. I told my husband about this idea and he didn't seem to convinced. In one of these magazines I was reading, Cappers I believe, there was an article talking about the same thing! I am convinced now that a fence 3 feet within a fence will be our deer deterrent. Apparently it has to do with their spacial perception and they just won't jump it. Course, I'm sure it helps too that the lines are electrified.

We hadn't planned to fence in the garden and new orchard area with high tensile but it's certainly looking like a viable option now. I don't think we'll go as far as putting in 2 lines of high tensile, but I think putting in a line of "temporary" electric lines within the high tensile perimeter fence line is an easy option and if it works, we could run more high tensile at a later time. The aluminum and twisted plastic or PVC wires (whatever they are) don't hold up but a few years and I'd rather have something that's going to last if we find out the set up works.

As far as the perimeter high tensile electrified fence and predators/pests go, I have read a lot on this issue and apparently, if done right, it's supposed to be a very good deterrent. I've yet to find a good LGD (livestock guardian dog). I really don't want a pup and adults are few and far between. I also don't want to jump at one when one pops up and have it be something that won't fit here. For now, locking the kids up in the barn isn't an issue for me at night but come time when everyone is out in the pasture beyond where I can see them during the day, I would like at least some assurance knowing that the high tensile electric fence is going to be a pretty formidable obstacle.

So anyway. On the mineral issue, really, seriously, everyone is looking so so so good! They are going through it like mad, bucks included! Boy am I glad thus far I made the switch. Prince (A.K.A. PITA) Charming is probably the blackest animal I have ever seen and I was noticing a bit of rusting on his ears but nowhere else really. For a while I thought perhaps this urine soaked face was being bleached in parts and that very well could be as the back of his legs and muzzle get that way during rutt but those areas have since turned back to black now that everything is calming down in the hormone dept. but I am pretty sure he was lacking in copper. It's so hard to tell sometimes but since the new minerals, he's turning black once again. I find it wondrous really, that for years I've used goat specific minerals and thought they looked pretty decent, I switch to something higher in most minerals and better quality and CHEAPER then the stuff "formulated" specifically for goats and they look better than I've ever seen, at the end of winter no less!

Fleur and FD are nearly ticking time bombs. They are both ginormous!

My daily morning routine is to get all 12 girls up into the stand. Nix that, all 11 girls. May, I think, is afraid of heights and prefers to eat her grain while standing on the ground. I don't bother to press the issue since she's not bred and obviously won't be milked this year. This is how I get those dam raised yearlings to be good milkers. Yes it takes time to individually get each one into the stand for grain but it's worth it to me and quite honestly, I enjoy the time with the goats. Most of them couldn't care less what and where I touch and perhaps it's only coincidental that their dams are the least skiddish, most even tempered does I own. I really only have a bit of a problem with one of them (Mea, Granite's girl) but we're slowly working the whole kicking issue out. I get them used to it before so I am not paying the price later with feet in my milk bucket.

Granite has always been skiddish. She was dam raised and I can only assume very little time was spent with her as a baby. She's calmed down quite a lot but she still usually won't let you walk right up to her and I don't think that will ever change. She's not hell bent to kill you or herself to get away from you but she won't walk up and ask for pets either. However, and this is where my "not all dam raised kids are crazy lunatics" theory holds true, her daughter and son both were dam raised and human imprinted and they are both as friendly as can be! The kicking thing with Mea while I go over her udder isn't unusual. I can't say I've had a bottle raised doe put up a fuss about milking from the get go at all, and while I have had some wild dam raised milkers, those that I dam raise and human imprint, are more likely not to care about who touches what and where. So, there's my plug for dam raising the "right" way.

I am making a list of those who will be sold after freshening. I am still "on the fence" about a couple of them but I will need to get my #'s down and will want to keep a few kids this year. I really wish I could have bred Fleur differently and for the sake of having it my way, I may "need" to hold onto her another year so that Moon is big enough for her to give him a second look. I wasn't real happy with her being bred to Prince Charming but it was either that or nothing at all, she was the boss on this one. Eventually I will sell Granite but I would also like to get a Moon breeding out of her too. She was another, like Fleur, who refused anyone but the big strapping coming 2 year old Prince. So be it. I was really happy with her breeding last year which was a total fluke! I mean, I bred her purposefully to Oreo (buck out of PJ and Blackhoof 1 Strategy) but it was a draw out of the hat quite literally and wow was I happy with the results! I would like to see what a direct breeding to Moon would look like (as he is half brother on his dam's side to Strategy). Mea has all the dairy character that Granite does but more body capacity and I seriously doubt she would have lost anything in the udder dept! If anything, she would have gained.

A friend back in Ca. is dangling a Lakeshore buck kid in front of my face. We are driving back this summer to Ca. I had hoped to bring a doe back from someone. A buck kid wasn't in the plans but gee wiz, she's making it difficult to pass it up!!! I'd have to sell a buck here. God knows I cannot have 4 bucks! Good golly! Well, I could have 4 bucks but really seriously, I don't need or want to have a buck for every doe. Which is a bit of sarcasm. We'll have to see how much summer pasture takes off the bottom line (A.K.A. the feed bill).The early grass is just ever so slightly starting to poking its green blades up from the soil and I can finally release a sigh of relief knowing it won't be winter forever. We may still have a few more storms but just because the calendar says we're getting close did nothing to convince me. Soon enough I'll be cursing the heat but I know how bad the flip side can be and I do not like it one little bit. It could always be worse but God help me if we move to a place where snow stays on the ground for longer than a week or so at a time. Actually, no, I've decided, this is about as winter as I ever want to experience living in. You can take the city out of this country girl, but you'll find it impossible to take the California out too.

Bonnie's boys

2011-02-15T07:03:00.000-06:00

Bonnie delivered two buck kids and a doe kid in negative four degrees on the 10th. It was a heck of a night, one I won't soon forget. I was running back and forth with kids up to the house to get them warmed and in the amount of time it took to get the two boys up, she had delivered a third (the doe) and despite my attempts at getting her warmed up, she passed.

The buck kids are super flashy! Took the bottle real well and got colostrum into them right away. They'll be in the house for a few days while the temps are below freezing but I'm sure Bonnie will have no problems taking them back in a couple of days.

Operation Kidding Pens

2011-02-06T20:56:00.000-06:00

I have put off making up a kidding pen for entirely too long! I have said I was going to get at least one up for the past few weekends and in the end, in true style, we waited until practically the last minute. Our first doe of the year is due Friday. I have to wonder if she'll hold out until then. She still has her ligaments but her back side's looking pretty swollen and she's stretching an awful lot. Taking it all in stride though. We're in for some nasty weather Tuesday and Wednesday but this weekend looks pretty nice. I hope, for her sake and for the kid's sake, she just waits.

I have probably never mentioned how much I love pipe corral gates. Our first goat shelter was sectioned with gates that hung off the walls for new mamas and eventually they convert over to kid penning areas for overnight separation. I love that they can be swung up against a wall, out of sight out of mind. They make making pens really easy!

I have a lot more room in this barn than I have before and I've asked Jeremiah to weld up some panels for me to be installed at the back of the barn. I need a total of 4 kidding pens. I have 4 does due within days of each other and once the panel is welded up, I'll have 4 separate areas and the front of the barn will then be for the does who are not bred or those who have kids old enough to be separated. In reality I need 5 areas but one of the pens will be big enough for two does and their kids and a kidding pen will then convert to a separation pen.

This particular pen is in the "open" area that the does are not allowed into. The wooden wall is the milk room and behind the pen is where the other kidding pens will go. Right now it's their favorite sleeping area but they'll be pushed forward a bit to make room for the new pens. From the t-post to the opposite wall (left hand side of the photo) there will be a welded panel section with gates and the back of the barn will be split in two with another panel section. The back pens will be about 7 foot deep and just shy of 6 foot wide. The pen made with gates is 6'x6'. It's a bit smaller than I would like but they won't be in them for weeks on end. If the weather is nice enough, they will all be let out for outside time within 24 hours. And for now, that whole back area of the barn can be closed off to the main herd by another swinging gate as shown in the photos below.

The small piece of panel going from the t post to the wooden wall is on a hinge and just closes with a clip (see photo below). The opening is large enough for a non-pregnant doe to move through and she could easily have more room to get out into until the other pens are made up.

The 4th pen will be substantially larger and will sit in the middle of the barn between the long separation gate (seen below and in front of the back kidding pens.) This area would be plenty large enough for 2 or even 3 does and their kids.

We store our hay in the same barn as the one I am taking photos in (see photo below and I apologize, with the storm that went through, things got a little rough in there). The set up makes feeding easy and there are pros and cons to having the feed storage and main living quarters/sleeping quarters separate. We've talked about storing hay elsewhere and I think this may be something we'll do next year so that I can have more "goat" areas. The barn is cut in half front to back-hay storage on the east side, goat area on the west. We did that earlier in the year (the photos for that can be seen on this post). For now, with the number we've got, it will work just fine this year.

So, I hope that was all easy to understand. I really like having my kidding pens in with the herd. My does get stressed out when separated and putting them in confinement away from their mates would cause problems. I can appreciate keeping all together (but separate) too because of the ease of getting everyone fed and watered. Eventually, if I feel they need more "alone time", they could be moved to any of the 3 open pens as each has has its own 3 sided shelter. But I wouldn't move dams with kids in the weather we've been having so I'm happy to have the pens in the main barn. It's just to cold to trust they'd be okay in a 3 sided shelter. More on 3 sided shelters in another post though. I'm off for tonight...completely exhausted after a full 12 hours spent working to get things ready for kidding.

I will add that my adoring husband installed 3 new electrical receptacles in my milk room, one on the outside of the milk room and a new double utility light up in the rafters giving me excellent light into the new kidding pen(s). There were 5 regular household lights in the barn rafters, and they're still there, but now there's enough light that I don't have to worry about working in the dim shadows. What a guy!

Minerals: Cattle vs. Goat

2011-02-06T07:46:00.000-06:00

Recently I've been looking into changing the goat's minerals to a cattle mineral. There are a few reasons I've been wanting to. For one, as I've mentioned before, the minerals we brought from Ca. are dwindling and I cannot get them (easily) here and they were really expensive anyway! For two, they are not thrilled with the goat specific minerals I bought from Orscheln last August and for three, I didn't think either of those minerals had enough of what they needed in them.

So, I looked up a few different brands. One was Ragland minerals at the recommendation of a large breeder here in Ks. While Ks. is not supposed to be a selenium deficient state, with the minerals I have been giving, it just wasn't enough selenium in my opinion (along with the fact that there may have been deficiency carry over from Ca. b) , which is why I supplemented in August before breeding began. However, higher amounts of Vit. E would probably take care of slight deficiencies that may be in (or not in as it were) the feed but the Bar Ale brand (from Ca.), quite honestly, wasn't really high enough in anything! I have to wonder if they catered more towards meat goats than dairy. I don't know what the nutritional requirements are for meat goats but I would venture to say they may be somewhat different than dairy goats. Which isn't to say it's a bad brand, I just think it's not sufficient.

I can only assume that mineral producers have to create minerals based on needs for their areas and, I would assume, take into consideration the levels of minerals in the soil in the given area and base what they put into their minerals by what the feeds are "lacking". Different animals will all have different needs as individuals and companies are regulated by law not to have too much of certain things (like copper and selenium) in mineral products. With that said, I have read a lot on the subject matter of minerals and nutritional requirements, and goat specific minerals are a whole lotta money and not a whole lotta bang for the buck (no pun intended).

I looked into "Right Now Onyx" minerals and while it's difficult to get that in my immediate area, the price isn't any cheaper than buying off brand goat specific minerals (though the Right Now Onyx is better for the price don't get me wrong and the specific type I'd be looking at it actually cattle minerals). And while they are much higher in all the minerals, I did one better.

Here in Ks. (and much of the Mid-West I would presume) we have co-ops. If you're unfamiliar with them (as I was until coming here) it's a feed store of sorts. However, they don't sell feed in entirety (at least not as I know it). Feed stores on the west coast carry hay...and grains, and minerals and medication, etc. A one stop shop as it were. Feedstores/Co-ops here do not carry hay, you go straight to the grower or auction for that. I've probably already mentioned that numerous times. But anyway, one of our local (local being about 20 some minutes away) co-ops carries a cattle mineral that is fitting the bill above and beyond either the top two of my choices (Ragland and Right Now Onyx) and it's at least $7 cheaper for the 50# bag!!!

In comparison, while the phosphorous is lower than the high phos. Ragland's brand I was comparing it to, I am okay with that. My goats get alfalfa mostly but are supplemented with some grass hay and some grain, enough so that I am not worried about the ratio. If the alfalfa consumption was more than what it is, I would consider using a higher phos. mineral. If you want to read more about the calcium/phos. ratio specifically for dairy goats please check out this great article written by Sue Reith (http://goats.wetpaint.com/page/Hypocalcemia+-+Feed+for+Prevention).

The Right Now Onxy was fairly close in value for many of the minerals but when it came to Vitamin's A, D& E, neither topped the co-op mix! The stuff I bought, which isn't brand specific it's just the co-op's brand and is milled right there, is higher in salt than the other two, and I am not thrilled about that but in comparison, it's better than the goat specific minerals I have been giving and you gotta fight your battles. It haven't done the math yet and with the higher salt ratio, it may technically lower the other mineral quantity ratios but when I heard that a AD&E vitamin premix was being added onto the Ragland brand to make up for the lack, I was really happy to see that the co-op mix was high.

Most importantly I am looking at copper values, zinc, iodine, and selenium (with Vit.s A, D & E and cobalt as well). I could have them custom mix minerals (so I could get less salt), but the amount required to do that (1,000 lbs. I believe) would probably go bad before I could go through them all. I just don't have that big a herd.

Here is the PDF for Ragland's brand guaranteed analysis (http://www.raglandmills.com/pdfs/mineralchart.pdf). I'd be looking at the 12% phos. (without added selenium)

Calcium -------- Min. 12.5 Max. 15
Phosphorus ---- Min. 13.0
Salt ----------- Min 10.5 Max 12.6
Sodium -------- Min 4.8 Max 5.8
Magnesium ---- Min. 1.5
Potassium ----- Min. .5
Copper -------- Min. 100 PPM
Iodine --------- Min. 300 PPM
Selenium ------ No value given
Zinc ---------- Min. 900 PPM
Vitamin A ----- 40,000 IU/LB
Vitamin D ----- 20,000 IU/LB
Vitamin E ----- No value given

Here is the Right Now Onyx guaranteed analysis as I know it.

Calcium -------- Min. 11.5 Max. 13.5
Phosphorus ---- Min. 10.0
Salt ----------- Min 14.0 Max 16.2
Sodium -------- Min 4.8 Max 5.8
Magnesium ---- Min. 3.0
Potassium ----- Min. 1.5
Copper -------- Min. 2,500 PPM
Iodine --------- Min. 200 PPM
Selenium ------ Min 26 PPM
Zinc ---------- Min. 5,000 PPM
Vitamin A ----- 100,000 IU/LB
Vitamin D ----- 10,000 IU/LB
Vitamin E ----- Min 100 IU/LB

And here is the guaranteed analysis of the minerals I am now feeding (and they LOVE it, I mean really really love it). This is considered an early pasture mineral with higher manganese to prevent grass tetany from rich spring grass. Just an FYI: Too much calcium can interfere with manganese absorption and deficiencies can lead to anorexia, abortion and weak or deformed legs. Since I do feed quite a bit of alfalfa and this mineral is higher in calcium than any of the other minerals I looked at, a higher manganese level is not a bad thing in my opinion.

Calcium -------- Min. 16 Max. 19
Phosphorus ---- Min. 6.3
Salt ----------- Min 18 Max21
Magnesium ---- Min. 3.2
Copper -------- Min. 2,000 PPM
Iodine --------- Min. 200 PPM
Manganese--------Min. 2,000 PPM
Selenium ------ Min 29.85 PPM
Zinc ---------- Min. 45,000 PPM
Vitamin A ----- 180,000 IU/LB
Vitamin D ----- 15,000 IU/LB
Vitamin E ----- Min 200 IU/LB

Bucketing water

2011-02-05T05:15:00.000-06:00

When temperatures dip below freezing during the day, you'll find me bucketing hot water out to my goats. I've said before that I could use a deicer or heater, I choose not to so I bucket water.

This past storm we had really threw quite a monkey wrench in that plan. To date, we've had 3 real snows. And by real snow, I mean, it sticks and stays and is a real pain in the you know what to trudge through...especially bundled up in full cold weather gear so as not to get immediately frostbitten in the negative 24 degree windchill with 2 full 5 gallon buckets full of hot water that you'd just assume drink than spill!

At any rate, self-siphoning spigots (which are actually called anti-siphoning*) here are as common as cows. They're special pipes with a valve that connects to your water line (hopefully below the freeze line in the ground) that siphons the water back into the underground pipe as not to leave any in the spigot above ground to freeze. While I do bucket water to the goats on really cold days, sometimes it's a bit too hot for some of them so having the spigot to top off is quite nice. However, when one doesn't run it long enough to heat up the pipe in negative 24 windchill degrees, it tends to freeze solid before it had a chance to siphon back to the "safe zone". So, from Tuesday until Friday I was bucketing water, sometimes 5 times a day, to the goats. At that point, a deicer or heater wouldn't have been helpful since the water source was frozen anyway!

It's a heck of a learning curve, but, it could be worse :o).

* Why they are called anti-siphon spigots is beyond me. They are supposed to siphon the water back down, that's the whole point so there isn't standing water sitting above the freeze line. And, on top of that, if anti-siphon is what they're going with, I've a great mind to tell them they don't work because if you leave the water hose in a bucket full of water and walk away, unless your animals start drinking right away, there won't be any water left in that bucket for them because it siphons the water right back out. At any rate, I haven't the time nor the desire to look into who named them and why.

If that's not what they are called and "anti-siphon" spigot is just what I thought they're called, then I'm sorry for misleading you :o). One of these days when I'm at the farm store, may I'll remember to make my way over to where they are kept and find out what they're really called.

PJ Update: the diagnosis and cure (we hope)

2011-02-05T04:48:00.000-06:00

I finally had a chance to sit down and call the vet yesterday (Friday). Between bucketing water (more on that later) and sick kids and snow and cold, talking to the vet about PJ was not exactly at the forefront of my mind.

She didn't have any of the nasty brown crusty discharge, at least nothing new since I washed her up well over a week and a half ago so I figured that was a good sign. She's still not come back into heat but I think we missed the breeding window anyway. My two other little girls (Apricot and May) haven't either so this breeding season's winding down.

At any rate, the vet was pleased that it was just 2 mild bacteria he found and while both are resistant to Pen. and tetracycline (LA200)- it's no wonder she she still has them- he did give me oral antibiotics he's had great success with (in cows and horses). Now, of course she could have had something else too that perhaps the Pen and LA did clear up, but as of right now, we're looking at 2 bacteria that are still lingering. I didn't make it in time to pick up the lab report yesterday afternoon but the antibiotic we'll be using is Tucoprim which is a broad spectrum antibiotic for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Read more about it here if you wish (http://www.pfizerah.com/product_overview.aspx?drug=TU&country=US&lang=EN&species=eq)

So, the verdict is that she'll get 10 days of this and if she happens to come back into heat again and has any sort of discharge, we'll treat her again. If you'll remember, we had discussed an intra-uterine flush and not that I was against it, but I did have hopes that the Pen. and LA200 would help her. And again, it may have and the two lingering bacteria, being resistant and all, well, linger. After all, the discharge has ceased. That could be for a few reasons though, the cold weather for and her being an-estrus (and her cervix not being open to discharge) but ANYWAY... for right now, it looks like things are looking up and I may not have lost her after all. The vet is hopeful and not that I was writing her off, but one does have to consider that.

I suppose I could have asked for some Lutalyse to induce her to cycle but quite frankly, she's had the roughest year of everyone and with it already being the first of Feb. and if she were bred that would mean a hot July kidding, I think I just assume give her some time off. She definitely could use the rest and in just about 6 weeks or so the pastures should be greening up and a few good months on that should have her fat and sassy again.

I kick myself for not figuring this out sooner but live and learn. I really was just at my wits end with her thinking it surely had to be a mineral deficiency. She is known for copper deficiency. Her coat was looking so rough and between the antibiotics I was giving her and the Ivermec Plus, she's really not looked better coat wise except for the times when we did have the copper deficiency issue under control! As I mentioned, an infection could certainly cause her to look off, but so could a lung worm infestation that has been resistant to every other wormer thrown at her. I do think from now on we will be using Ivermec Plus.

The weight issue is still something we're working on. It's hard to remember she is not bred and so in comparing her to my other butterballs, she is going to be thinner, naturally! She does have some weight to put on though no doubt and a rest will certainly not be a bad thing for her.

Test results: 2011

2011-01-28T20:03:00.000-06:00

Good news: CAE testing came back today from biotracking. All the girls are negative! I didn't pull blood on the boys just because they're still really gross! Moon was bottle fed and I'm not really concerned regardless as his previous herd is clean. Prince was tested last year and was negative and I figured if Granite came back negative (his dam) Andy would also be negative. I'll get them a bit later in the year when they are a bit, less, um, DISGUSTING.

This year seemed to go a lot smoother. I'm not sure why. We just had a couple little problems with FD who didn't want a thing in the world to do with us. I was going to pull blood from a few of them myself but in the end it was better I was holding their heads so they could see me as they are more comfortable with me. Jeremiah does the majority of the drawing as I'm known to get antsy if I don't get on the first stick. I usually run right along side of it and I hate digging around. Plus too, like I said, they know me best and seem to feel a lot more comfortable if I am right by their heads. I pulled blood on 3 or so I guess, Jeremiah did the rest.

May, wow! This jugular vein of hers has got to be the biggest I have ever seen! She gave us a bit of a problem too, the little stinker. I easily got her quickly and was filling the syringe when she decided she had enough and the needle came out while she struggled. I blew that area so Jeremiah went again on the other side and got another couple cc's for me.

We pulled blood on Saturday. It sat in the fridge until Monday when I put it all in a small flat rate postal box and sent it off to Idaho. I feel so much better now about the impending birth of our first babies. And speaking of which, this weekend's chore is to build a kidding pen...just need to cut up a panel and put it in place...not difficult but needs to be done.

A diagnosis: Metritis

2011-01-26T05:27:00.000-06:00

We finally have a diagnosis. I would have known ages ago if I had dealt with this type of thing before. But I have not. What I thought was urine scald down PJ's back side to her udder was actually vaginal discharge. I could come up with a bunch of different reasons as to why she's have urine scald (bladder infection, weak muscles causing her to dribble, being cold in the morning and urinating while laying down just like she defecates, and the list goes on.) However, the vet was pretty sure it was vaginal discharge from infection.

I had suspected possible metritis (uterine infection) either in late November or early December. I guess it would have to be December. I had just re-bred her again and contacted a mentor of mine back in Ca. with the symptoms of her infertility and her not settling and she advised it could be infection. I wrote about that in a previous post and put her on the 2 week antibiotic regiment after I was sure she wasn't bred. After she came back into heat and wanted a buck in a seriously bad way, I knew she hadn't settled yet again and giving her the antibiotics would be safe. So, we did that along with worming with Ivermectin Plus and let me tell you, what a difference the wormer has made in her coat condition so I'm doubtful it's a lack of copper as she looks so much better. At least, I think it was the wormer. I cannot tell how you much I've changed for all the goats and her specifically here somewhat recently. I am pretty sure it's not just a self fulfilled prophecy either. She really does look better- coat is shinier, hair is laying down when the temps are nice, etc. But that could have to do with the fact that the antibiotics DID help her as with a uterine infection, immunity goes down and goat's don't always look their best! Oh I swear, their needs can drive a person insane sometimes!

At any rate, up until yesterday I thought the crust that was streaked down her back side and onto her udder was scabs and healing skin so I had not wanted to touch it, shave it, etc. other than to spray some scarlet oil on it to aid in healing and prevention of infection. Knowing I had an appointment with the vet, I took out some warm soapy water finally and low and behold, it was just nasty nasty crust. I ended up shaving her up really well, washing it very very well and applying some A&D skin salve. We actually call it "butt cream" around here because it's what I always used for the kids when they were in diapers and had any spots of redness from diaper rash. On a side note, that stuff works for everything-dry and chapped skin (oh my how it will get rid of chapped lips in no time), burns, and just owwies in general. Ever seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding? "Gus" uses Windex to cute skin ailments. Me? I use "butt cream".

Anyway, so, the vet was certain it was vaginal discharge from my description of it and I could kick myself for not cleaning her sooner because I have no idea if she's had any since I finished up with the antibiotics. At least if I had, I would have known if she's had any since.The vet wishes I would have left it for a culture. In hindsight...

The vet took a culture and examined her internally. He said he didn't see anything abnormal and there was little discharge...he wasn't convinced there was enough for a good culture which makes me think it's probably a good thing but could still be indifferent.

So, for now we wait until the culture comes back to see what, if any, action to take. He was not convinced that the antibiotics I had given her would help clear the infection. Understandably so. The uterus is a formidable wall of protection and to try to get through it with conventional antibiotics is difficult, if not impossible. And I know/knew that. I had read a few articles, (again another one by Sue Reith-"Why That Doe Won't "Settle") in regards to uterine infection and infertility causes and her symptoms partially fit. But then, they fit with every other single thing too in some way...little of this, little of that. But that was before I knew about the discharge and crusties. It seems blatantly obvious now! Don't you hate that!?

I personally am hopeful the antibiotics worked. I have reason to hope. My mentor said she was able to settle a few does this way. If not, well, then I need to decide what course of action to take. Obviously I do not want to leave her with an infection, she's be "useless" as a breeding doe. I have to look at this logically and be financially responsible about this. The vet did say that sometimes there are unknown causes that result in them being very difficult to settle, an "endometriotic" state per say.

If the culture comes back next week as still positive for infection, both in the article I mentioned above and per the vet, a intra-uterine flush would be in order. The article states that it can be done with A.I. (artificial insemination) equipment. I don't have that but certainly could. I look at this one of two ways. For one, there's the part in me who would hate to ruin her by being inexperienced, then there's the part in me who says, I have been inside more does than I can count on a hand pulling kids and while this doesn't qualify me as experienced, I pull my own blood, give my own vaccinations, have a desire to do A.I. and there is an article written on exactly what to do (which again, doesn't make me experienced). That's the part of me who say, surely I can do this. Just like *"If Bob can do this, so can I." I am sure the vet may disagree with my desire to do this "in house" but for what I'd probably pay him to come out and do it, I could buy my A.I. kit!! It's worth a shot anyway. But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself at this point in the game.

I do hope the culture comes back negative for infection. It will have meant I was probably able to get it here. If so, I just wait for her to come back into seasons and rebreed her and wait. But then, that's a bit of a problem in and of itself. She's overdue. I know she's not pregnant for sure. Ultrasound proved she was "empty" and she's not been with a buck since December and had her last cycle in early Jan . when I started her on those antibiotics and did not allow her in with the buck at all. She's yet to go this many days between cycles but there could be a host of reasons for that too which kind of gets back to the discharge and not cleaning her until yesterday so therefore not knowing if she's had it since the end of the antibiotics. Which wouldn't be a 100% safe assumption that her infection has cleared up, but certainly would give me a better idea that she did still have one if it was still freely flowing.

She could very well be done with cycling for the season and it's not unusual for them to have longer cycles later in the year as the days lengthen. So, there's potentially a lot at play here making the job more difficult! But anyway, if it's still positive for infection and an intrauterine flush is necessary and I decide to have the vet out to do it, it will be done whenever she's back in heat. I would just call him. If she does not come back into heat, well then, that's another story and one he wants to deal with at a later time. As in, after the culture comes back-perfectly understandable. I'm just afraid that as far as cycles, "this" may be it for the season and she may be done. Obviously I doubt he'd want to wait until next year when she's back in heat again and her cervix is wide open to then infuse her.

If the tests were to come back positive and she'd done cycling for the season- which may be a tough call to make-then obviously we'd have to induce heat at that point. I may have failed to mention earlier that the reason why waiting until heat is necessary is because at the peak of estrus is when the cervix is wide open- usually to receive semen. If the cervix is closed, it's near impossible and could potentially be damaging to manually open the cervix and without the cervix being open it's near impossible to get anything into the uterus. Make sense? Putting any kind of antibiotics into the vaginal canal without the cervix being open is nearly pointless.

The thing is-and I see his point as he doesn't know how much I really know or the desire I have to learn-I am sure he would be totally against me doing this alone. Not that he has an option, she's my goat after all. Honestly, when it comes to dairy goats specifically, I could teach him a thing or two. Which sounds pretty self righteous given the fact that I totally missed the boat on the discharge thing but hey, I am not stupid!

Well, at least I can rest easier now that I have a preliminary diagnosis. Where this infection came from is anyone's guess. It may have been residual from last year. Most cases of uterine infection discuss the doe needing to have kids pulled the previous year. I did not have to "go in" for her. The year prior to that she had some real nasty discharge and a big dead kid that had to be pulled but her breeder dealt with that and last (breeding) year, in 2009, she bred without any complications on the first go around. So, I don't know. It's likely it is just one of those things. I partially worry that if it was residual from last year and my prior assumption of all her antibiotic from this summer trying to pull her though coccidiosis didn't get any infection she may have had, this last round would be useless too. But, I'll have my answer in about a week so there's no reason for grief.

I don't want to think about the wost case scenario -either yearly infertility and being hard to breed, or total infertility- that would be jumping the gun. I also have a few herbal things I could give her as well but I don't even think they'd be here before the lab results were back and I don't have them on hand- namely echinacea, goldenseal for one. I do have neem leaves but no rose hips for Vit C. If I were still living in Ca. I'd pilfer them off the neighbor's bushes. I have Vit. C tablets though so may see if she'll ingest some of those. As I said, I won't jump the gun here. A "clean" lab result could still potentially spell problems. The vet mentioned endometritis in which there may be no little to no cure for...so, just wait and see.

I have some more reading I need to do. Namely in regards to intrauterine flushing and the possible affects of that. Here's a good link on that: http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/111002.htm.

Anyhoos, on a lighter note. We have about 15 days until our first doe Bonnie is due but you'd think by the way poor Fleur is walking and carrying on grunting like she was due 3 weeks ago. She still has another 50 or so days to go the poor dear. She's HUGE too. Oh my, she looks like she swallowed a water heater and it's sitting in there sideways! Bonnie ain't no small thing either...both of these does carry their kids right in the middle elliptically...my other does tend to carry spherically.

I can only hope for as beautiful weather for our does to kid in as we had yesterday and expect for much of the week. It made it up to 50 yesterday and was bright and sunny. I drunk it all in! In fact, I told Bonnie it would have been a lovely day to have babies. But she's still got a little ways to go and she needed to hold onto them. The grass may be brown but it would have been a perfect day to kid in the pen's pasture!!! Oh, how excited I am to see whether or not Andy will throw spots. Bonnie threw spots her first kidding, she's got a few moon spots herself so it would not surprise me at all given the genetics.

On that note, I'll leave you with some photos...

(This was taken several days ago when there was still snow on the ground.. It's gone except in certain shady spots.

(This is PJ at the feeder that has not been welded up yet-sides are still open in the foreground and the "fingers" are "free" in the background. I like that it's long but I will be cutting it in two. It's cumbersome to carry around and on nice days I like to stick it outside which forces everyone out.)

This, that and the other

2011-01-19T19:22:00.000-06:00

I wish I had some photos to show you. I keep telling myself, once I am already out at the barn, that I should remember to bring my camera. Like yesterday on my way out to feed in the afternoon, what a sight to behold. I was about ready to kill me about 12 goats!!!

We had purchased 2 huge round bales of straw. One of them I opened the last storm we had to bed everyone down real well. I should have put them into one of the open pens and closed it off. Instead I trusted my dear darlings to leave it alone. Yeah, I hoped for too much. I covered it well with a good tarp and ended up putting foot gates around it to keep them away from it. That worked for the week we had snow because the little darlings wouldn't come out of the barn to go and mess with it. As of yesterday, about 900 pounds of straw that had been in a nice neat bale was smashed and strewn about. I wanted to kill me some goats!

They had knocked the gate panels down, removed the tarp and made a huge mess!!! They were certainly comfortable in their 900 lb. straw beds yesterday, that's for sure. I didn't have the strength to pitchfork it all up into a hay stack so I covered it the best I could, laid the gate panels back over the top of the tarp so it wouldn't fly away and called it a day. Course, the heap is certainly a lot easier to pull straw off of now that it's been all torn apart but I'm still ticked about it.

I also wish I would have taken a photo of PJ the day I gave her her first round of Ivermec Plus and a follow up on her second round. I may get a photo of her of her last and final dose next week but without anything to compare it to, it's a bit pointless.

I was reading an article written by Sue Reith on liver flukes.

All my girls, since this past summer when I had a hell hard time trying to bring them back into condition after moving, have looked well in regards to parasites (nice coats, no anemia, no coughing, proper weight gain, etc.) I've been talking about PJ again and again and I wondered if her poor coat condition, despite no signs of anemia and proper copper supplementation, may have had something to do with liver flukes/worm load. Copper is a separate issue. I don't push copper for parasite control and although I really feel she needs more than my other gals, I am not opposed to other possibilities.

I asked Jeremiah to pick up Ivermec Plus on his way home from work one day, administered 1 cc per 33 lbs. of body weight orally (though it seems every single site had different information as to dosage. I read anywhere from 1 cc per 30 lbs. to 1 cc for every 110 which is a cattle dosage). It says give SQ but poor thing, I cannot tell you how many times she had been poked over her 2 week course of treatment with the antibiotics and orally is okay too so I am sure she was appreciative to take it by mouth.

I hope I am not just seeing things but she really does look much better. Her coat is laying down, shining up and she's putting on weight really well. I cannot say for sure it was the wormer. So much has been going on as far as differences in her care. For one, the antibiotics which is for a possible uterine infection (and hopefully an end to the means as to why she's not settling) and a new grain ration which I talked about previously. They like it just fine and it's a lot better than the processed stuff which is all we seem to be able to get here. I mix up about 2 days worth. Everyone is getting about a cup a day and I give PJ a bit more corn to help up her weight. I also drizzle everyone's individual ration with just a bit of corn oil and throw in some minerals and toss it all up so the minerals stick.

They were going through minerals like gang busters there for a while and it came to a halt here recently. I don't feel they are getting what they should so I have been top dressing their grain for them. I have been looking into cattle minerals recently as I've been following a few threads on the goat group about people who have been using cattle minerals specifically for many years with much better success than actual goat minerals. The goat minerals I was buying in Ca. could break the bank! The goat minerals here in Ks. are about half as much but if the cattle minerals are the same price or even a bit more and do a better job I'd gladly pay it. They don't like the minerals I got here in Ks. so I as mixing them with the sweeter smelling minerals I got in Ca. but soon enough the "Ca." minerals will be gone and then what?

ANYWAY...Emmy is on day 24 post breeding tomorrow and I sure hope she's settled this time. Twenty four days has been the magic number for her. I haven't done anything differently for her the past 24 days other than to give her a dose of Selenium at breeding. If by some miracle it worked and she settled, it won't be back to the drawing board. If she comes back into heat though, I'll be back to square one for her. As for PJ, I expect her to cycle again any day now and she'll be back in with the buck and then another 3 weeks or so later I will know if it was successful. If it isn't, I don't know what to say. But, I won't worry about that now. It's become late in the season to breed. I hadn't wanted kids in June but I don't really want PJ dry either so late kidding it is. Apricot is really growing well and at the right size for breeding but I still think I'll hold her over. If everything works out I'll have 2 really nice dry yearlings to show at this years state fair.

Snow

2011-01-13T07:59:00.000-06:00

(Standing in the does large pen looking south towards the house.)

We received approx. 8 inches of snow between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning out here at Marmalade Hollow.

Sunday was fun. The newness brought lots of outdoor time. The goats literally stood at the opening of the barn yelling at me. If goats knew how to curse (and perhaps they do), their words would be freely flowing. Monday morning brought misery. My human kids were overjoyed of course. Who wouldn't be as this is the first time in their young lives they've had any real snow outside their front door? I trucked hot water out to the goats at least 4 times between morning and evening feeding. I do chores after my daughter goes off to school. I get my 4 year old situated and suit up myself.

I could install a deicer for both does and bucks but I choose to truck hot water. For one, I get to see them throughout the day and I enjoy seeing them. For two, they really appreciate the warm water! I have two 5 gallon hardware store buckets I fill up in the tub and head on out. I break all the ice out of the water troughs which takes little more than turning them over after pouring a bit of hot water on them except in the morning when it's been in the single digits or negatives then it takes some breaking. Then I fill them with hot water, add a bucket of well water (at about 55 degrees) and it's perfect drinking temperature. I have been doing this several times a day. The rest of the week should bring us above freezing temps though so hot water hauling should only be required in the AM though I'll do it in the PM too just as a treat. They really like it.

Monday was pure hell trudging through the fluff. I fell at least once and slipped countless times. Tuesday and today (Wednesday) would seem as though life was rougher with the temps hovering around zero. My car says it's 3 degrees. There's no wind so I cannot imagine there's a wind chill temp but one internet site is reading negative 3. Folks, I'm a California girl born and raised! I am not used to this cold weather. Granted, the last 4 years we spent in Northern California prepared me a little. But towards the end of this month in Northern Cal. things would start greening up there and it looked and almost felt like spring. My goaties are not used to this cold weather! I have been preparing myself, it's not as if I am cold. I have good clothes and good boots but gee wiz. All the animals are well bedded down with straw. Which, by the way, we went and picked up 2 round bales last weekend.

The past 2 days have kept all the goats inside. They won't venture into the snow. They look at it, they look at me and show me their back sides. They just aren't having it. This morning poor PJ was so cold she didn't want to get up, even to eat! That's very unlike her. I made a goat blanket several years ago and this morning she was the lucky gal who got to wear it. I am sure she's thankful. All of them for the past month or so now spend a lot of time at the front of the barn that faces south and bask in the sun when it's out.

I know the barn will be a huge mess by the time this is all over. I have been doing a little clean up here and there of the front portion where they eat and hang out. Trudging through the snow with the wheelbarrow wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Saturday, if the temp holds above 40, I will muck everything out, let it sit for the day with the east door open to air and dry a little and reapply new straw.

Yesterday I took my portable feeders and hung them on the gate of the barn just so I could coax them out a little to show them the snow wasn't going to kill them.

Today I did get the littler girls to venture a bit farther out but they're still not sure about all of it.

We've got about 4 weeks left until our first babies are due. So very thankful I didn't breed to kid in January! It's not the set up, it's the snow! I wouldn't mind putting dams and kids in the attached garage but that bring its own miseries. My herd does not like to be separated.

Lotsa deer tracks in the back yard and across the pastures which is to be expected. I see signs of deer in the pasture all the time. But across the back yard is amusing to me. Every morning they are in new places. Sometimes their tracks from the day before are covered by blowing wind.

(On the East side of our house-this is the trail that leads to our neighbors place.)

PJ finishes up her 14 day round of antibiotics today. Poor girl, I'm tired of poking her and she's tired of being poked I'm sure. She'll be back in heat in about 7 more days, 3-4 weeks after that I'll know if the antibiotics has worked. If so, great! It means she had some kind of infection preventing her from settling. If not, well, then it's blood draw time to figure out if what's going on mineral wise in her and we'll wait until the late summer to get her to where she needs to be. She's looking good though. She's been getting special treatment these past few days.

I will be mixing my own grain ration here shortly. I cannot get what I was getting in Ca. and that is a sweet COB (Corn Oats and Barley with some molasses to bind). All I can get here is a processed feed and I don't like it very much at all. I made my first trip to the grain co op earlier this week. They gave me whole corn instead of cracked. I need cracked corn. We'll keep the whole for the birds or deer as it's not that expensive ($7 something for a 50# bag). But I did get a 25 lb. bag of BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) and already had a bag of whole oats. Hubby is going to pick up a bag of cracked corn and barley today hopefully and I can get the show on the road with my ration. It'll be something to the tune of:

5 part oats
2 parts cracked corn (more specifically for Prince and PJ as I feel they could use the extra weight)
2 parts Barley
1 part BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds)
Mixed with about 1/4 cup unsulfured molasses.

Since I'll be doing this pretty often (every other day or so), I can add here and there for specific individuals and even add minerals for those who I do not feel are getting their share. It will make it easier to administer herbs as well. Most of my girls will not freely eat them. They have to be bound to the grains and drenching is not as easy and binding them.

Woman who stares at goats

2011-01-03T19:06:00.000-06:00

I wish I had the time to sit and around and watch my goats 24/7. I wish there was such a job as goat psychologist or if there was, I wish I could get paid to do it!

I often do not understand my goats. I often wish I knew what they were thinking. We cracked open the bale of crabgrass hay in the barn on Friday. It was new and exciting and they were all but killing each other to get their share, and the share of the "other guys" too. Today, eh, not so much.

I stress about these types of things. Stress that they will not like it, that something is wrong with it because surely they know more about what's good to put in their mouth and what's not and asking myself if I just wasted however much on hay they will not eat! In Ca. they ate manly alfalfa with occasional snacks of orchard or grain hays and forage in the pasture when it was available. They were on alfalfa when we got them to Kansas but round about Sept. I got a load of brome in and they turned their nose up at that too for a couple of weeks until they finally gave in. I tried hard to keep this in mind when it came to the crabgrass.

Last night I was fed up at the fact they weren't touching much of the crabgrass hay and I would not budge and give in and let them have brome. They'd just assume starve. So okay fine, last night I decided to let them do just that. I put out their alfalfa like usual, which they inhaled, like usual. I filled the "snack" feeder with crabgrass. Actually, I just replenished it lightly since that's all it needed.

This evening, I just got wise after watching them pretty much ignore it all day and complain to me that they were starving (yeah, with a overflowing feeder full of good hay!). I unrolled a bit of crabgrass from the round bale...took half a flake of brome and sprinkled it on the crabgrass and mixed it all nicely so that they'd have to fish out the brome bales.

My ingenious trick worked...for one, they were hungry enough to be intrigued by the crabgrass lightly "salted" with brome...when they smelled and saw brome...they tried like heck to weave around the crabgrass but to no avail and by the time I was done staring at goats 20 minutes later, they were eating the crabgrass just fine and liking it. Relief. It would be one thing if I was trying to pull something over on them because I was being cheap. But I'm not being cheap...I really think that the crabgrass is better for them it just so happens it's cheaper too.

So, I'll continue to "salt" the crabgrass with brome for a week or so so they continue to eat it.

PJ Update

2011-01-01T12:13:00.000-06:00

As of two days ago, PJ is back in heat, 22-23 days post breeding. Yesterday we went to town and picked up Pen. G. She's weighing in at 155 lbs. so she received 10.5 cc's (1 cc's per 15 lbs.) and will get that everyday for the next 7 days and then will immediately get another 7 days of LA200. I will not allow her in with a buck this cycle. I do not have a 10 cc + syringe so poor thing will get poked twice at least with the Pen. I haven't looked at the dosage for the LA200 recently but if that requires more than 6 cc's (which I don't think it will), I'll be going to town before the week is up and will pick up a larger syringe. I didn't think to pick up larger syringes while at TSC yesterday. I also wormed her again today with Safeguard and will start her on some probios with all this antibiotics she's getting. She's had another round of selenium recently. There isn't much else I can do for her and I am hoping that my goat mentor's suggestion of the heavy duty antibiotics does the trick! If it does and she settles this next breeding, it won't come a moment too soon.

As for her daughter Emmy, I've noticed some light rusting of her coat so copper may be an issue. I may bolus her earlier than the others. I'm not so concerned about having her dry this year. She'll be a huge dry yearling though if she doesn't settle, that's for sure! But, I do want to figure out what's going on with them otherwise I'll be fighting the same battle next year!

**UPDATE** I looked up the dosage for the LA 200 and it's 4.5 ml's for every 100 lbs. every 36-48 hours. I'm going to go with a smaller dose though at 3 ml's for every 100 lbs. as I intend to give it to her every 24 hours. Word of note: do not use Pen. and a tetracycline together as the tetracycline makes the pen. ineffective. Won't need to get a larger syringe, the 6 cc's I have will work just fine. PJ doesn't seem bothered by the Pen. injections at all really...she's too busy stuffing her face with grain. I offered her some blueberry yogurt this evening on her grain and she wasn't happy about it. I ended up sucking it into a large syringe and drenching her with it.

Crabgrass Hay

2011-01-01T12:02:00.001-06:00

*Update 3/2011. The crabgrass hay did not work out, at all, which has more to do with its quality than anything else. Generally, it seems, this stuff in particular anyway, is cut way too old and left to sit to be baled until the farmer gets around to it. I have found out it's mostly a poor 'filler' type of hay. Live and learn right? After all my research though, providing you can find good quality green crabgrass hay cut at peak season, it would be very good fodder. Mine was not and after just several hundred pounds, I stopped feeding it completely and it's going for bedding material.**

I discussed going to get some crabgrass hay in an earlier post. We accomplished that task on Thursday in lovely 66 degree weather...in Kansas...on December 29th! We picked a lousy day to unload it though. That lovely 66 degree turned frigid Thursday night with an ice storm that rolled in leaving us with icicles hanging from the car and the trailer, slick surfaces and getting 1,000 lb. bales into the barns while it snowed! Lucky us right?

We had planned to use the trailer ramps to roll the bales down on into the barn, but realized after backing it up into the barn, they were on the side closest to the wall. OOPS! After backing up on the ice and slip sliding around, we decided it wasn't worth it to pull forward to get the ramps so we improvised with a heavy duty pallet, pushed them off and rolled 'em right in.

So far, the girls seem to like it as much as the brome but I am hoping it is more nutritious for them. It's cheaper by abut $11 a ton too and that equates to more money in my pocket at the end of the day. That's never a bad thing! I won't feed it exclusively as I believe they need more calcium than what the crabgrass will provide. I'll stick to the alfalfa light feedings both AM and PM and load the "snack" feeders up with the crabgrass for them to munch on throughout the day and after their late afternoon meal. I was doing this with the brome and it was usually all gone by the time the next feeding came around.

Researching crabgrass as a forage took some doing. I'll list the websites that I used. There aren't a whole lot but from what I did read, this is going to be a better option than the alfalfa/brome regiment. There were a couple of forums I visited where goat people were asking for advice on crabgrass hay but no one actually had first hand information on how their goats did one it.

One grower I spoke with who had cattle said they were getting so fat on it, he had to put them on regular old prairie grass. While I am not so interested in the weight they may gain, although that's not usually a negative factor :o), it does really seem to be highly nutritious. So, we'll see.

Research links:
http://hayandforage.com/hay/grasses/0501-flexible-annual-forage/
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ag195
http://www.aces.edu/dept/forages/crabgrass.html
http://www.noble.org/ag/forage/horseforage/page3.html
http://www.noble.org/ag/Forage/Crabgrass4Forage/volunteer_stands.html

Breeding woes continued...

2010-12-28T08:06:00.000-06:00

I've done more reading and the more I read, the more and more I come to the conclusion that PJ (and Emmy) are perhaps selenium deficient despite supplementation. As far as Emmy, if her not settling despite 2 failed breeding attempts has anything to do with PJ not settling, Selenium is the conclusion I come to. It's the only thing that matches!

We're not in a selenium deficient area. However, the more goat people I talk to, the more I realize that here too, like in California, people supplement with selenium (and copper). The goats have only been here 6 months and this may not be enough time for the them to adjust to new levels if in fact there are adequate levels here. If they were low before we left, well, that's just another whole issue. However, if indeed the levels are insufficient in this area, they will still need supplementation.

It would seem very bizarre, and quite coincidental, that both mother and daughter are having somewhat of the same long cycles and not settling for it not to be related. From the massive amount of information I've read (see http://wvc.omnibooksonline.com/data/papers/2009_V549.pdf specifically), the long cycles (i.e. 26-28 days so far) relates to embryonic death due to failure to implant and not failure to fertilize or failure to ovulate at all. That would make perfect sense since 26-28 days between cycles falls right within that 3-4 week window. Because both of them at least seem to have the same problem with the long cycles. Hopefully the problems are related and I am not on a wild goose chase here.

Just because PJ has received her selenium, there could be higher levels of something somewhere binding with the selenium causing the deficiency kind of like iron bind with copper possibly causing deficiency in some cases (and it could be any number of things in regards to selenium!). I hope I have leveled things out with the steps I've taken. I more than likely will get a blood panel done pretty soon here as I will be sending off blood for CAE testing in the next few weeks and see what I'm working with here especially if one or both don't settle. I am really hoping though that I've been able to get things straight. Before the spring grass comes in, we can get a soil sample analyzed and a new water test done as well. I know our water is fairly hard (meaning it has quite a bit of calcium), and that could be the binder, it could be the copper, it could be any number of things!

So anyway...I hope they settle this season. If not, Emmy will have another year to grow and PJ will just have a year off. Not much harm in either I don't suppose. Emmy will just be a REALLY big dry yearling when she is bred.

On a different note, about 6 weeks ago I saw an ad for crabgrass hay locally. I've always fed mostly straight alfalfa because that was what was readily available in Ca. and it was the cheapest hay I could get when it came to quality. Here in Kansas there are so many more types of hays to choose from! Not enough people test their prairie grass around here and from the information I've read in general, it's not really good enough nutritionwise as the only source of food. I've been cutting their alfalfa with some brome hay but we're going to pick up some crabgrass hay today. I'm pretty excited about it!

From all the information I've read, if cut early in the season at the right time (before it goes to seed) it can have as high as 16% protein. While the calcium is only about half as much as alfalfa in general, I think it will actually be better for the goats than the brome I've been feeding AND it's cheaper! For the first time since we've arrived we'll be going with round bales. This route is so much cheaper than the small square bales we've been getting.

I've also read that crabgrass is highly digestible...because goat's metabolize their food very quickly, this should work very very well with them. I've yet to come across anyone who actually feeds crabgrass to goats. I've read a lot of horse people asking about it and from what I gather that it can be a good source of nutrition for those that are hard to keep.

I've not read about calcium requirements of goats for a long long time and I'll have to go over that again as I want to be sure they are getting adequate intake which will be supplied by the alfalfa. The grass hays they get is, more than anything, a snack but if I could further cut down on the alfalfa, I'd be happy!

I have finally found a few alfalfa suppliers and if these big round bales work out for us the cost savings will be significant. It's been an expensive 6 months with the goats since moving here.

Adding insult to injury...

2010-12-26T09:50:00.000-06:00

You don't know what easy street is until you aren't on it.

Emmy (PJ's daughter) came back into heat after 27 days post breeding. ARRRRRRRRRG! WHAT IS GOING ON? Is it related to PJ, is it completely not related? I am getting no closer to a conclusion, in fact, I am completely unequivocally confused.

I was leaning towards a uterine infection for PJ...I considered copper, I considered selenium, I considered it all. Was going to wait until she cycled again to start antibiotics to be sure she wasn't bred and I will still do that but now her daughter isn't settling. I KNOW it's not as issue of an infertile buck or not breeding at all. I confirm the breeding and insemination. It's not that.

I put Emmy in with Andy for the whole entire day on Friday. I gave Emmy, Andy, and PJ another round of Selenium. I may have missed Emmy last round since she can be a pain to catch at times. I didn't write it down, of course! I did write it down this time, not that it helps but what on earth could be going on? Is it one thing or is it everything? Is the fact that PJ was still nursing Emmy taking away from her selenium, giving it to Emmy but not in a high enough dose? Is this crazy? Am I crazy, are the goats crazy?

I hadn't noticed the girls weren't eating their minerals. I mean, I had but they don't always just drain the mineral feeder. Certain times of the year they'll really go after it, other times they won't touch. I figured it had been a while since I had refilled it and we've gone to a new mix since coming to Kansas since my minerals from Ca. were packed and I can't get it here so as kinda hoarding it. I decided a couple weeks ago to break out the old minerals and see if they'd want any....within a day they were all gone! I hadn't put out much, maybe 2 cups to share between 12 does. I ended up taking about a cup of the "old" and a cup of the new and mixing them, maybe they didn't like the new. They gobbled that up too. Gosh darnit! But seriously, I mean, everyone else has settled just fine but these two so what is it?

With the breeding season "winding down", is it creating the long cycles? I doubt it, everyone else is cycling normally.

I didn't want either of these does to be open this year. I wouldn't feel right selling PJ because I don't know what the breeding issue is. Ug...back to the drawing board.

Toil and Touble, Rants and Ravs and Thinking...lotsa thinking...and rambling.

2010-12-16T06:48:00.000-06:00

Since September I've been wracking my brain as could be the cause for PJ not settling...I mentioned in my last post she's cycling but not settling. Now, being the thinker that I am I started wracking my brain as to why and my conclusion is, well, I am not closer to a conclusion!

Mineral deficiency is definitely an option. She's had her selenium recently (as in the beginning of breeding season) so I don't think it's that. I have seriously considered copper deficiency as that is something I battle off and on with her. I just recently got her to wean her doe kid and that was by force! She's completely dry now so hopefully that will improve her overall body condition.

So, here were my thoughts after some research. Actually, let me start with the scenario. We had a cool spring and summer before we left California. Literally my girls have been cycling since May! They may have slacked off when first coming to Kansas but they were cycling in August when we brought them to the new place. In September when I bred my first doe, PJ cycled so I bred her too...5 days later another cycle, I bred her again...and it continued with a 5 day cycle for about 3-4 weeks. Stupid me, I did think something of it but things were still super busy around here. But then, all the sudden the 5 day cycling stopped and I thought okay, she settled. No such luck, 21 days later, she cycled again. DARNIT. At this point I really thought it was my new buck and I was kind of nervous!

I wrote about how my milkers wouldn't let him breed. I was beginning to think something was wrong with him!
Alas, nothing was wrong as he bred FD and she settled fine but for a while there I was thinking, maybe these goats know something I don't. They didn't (I don't think anyway), a few of the milkers just really thought that Prince was more of a catch! Okay fine.

So, back to PJ. Just before she cycled again here recently after 28 days post breeding, I sat down and did some research on reasons why she would be cycling so oddly. Honestly, I came up with nothing concrete because nothing that I read matched exactly what was going on. I didn't know if she wasn't settling or was aborting or what! I did read about metritis (uterine infection) and most of the pieces fit but not entirely. One site I read on that said without a uterine flush with a "watered" down antibiotic during the height of their cycle when the cervix is most open is usually fruitless and you've lost a good doe. "GREAT!", I thought. Another site though said a good round of antibiotics via injection would do just fine. Most of what I read said that infections are often times residual from last kidding and I'm thinking, after her cocci issue this summer, I blasted her with enough antibiotics to nearly kill a hippo so I can't imagine an infection would be lingering...but then, I don't suppose it has to linger. It could be a fairly recent infection.

Anyway, for a while I did put the metritis thought to the back burner and decided to look towards copper once again and hoped that weaning her kid recently may just magically allow her to get bred. I also had another thought as well. Last year my breeding pens were set up differently. I also wasn't as busy last year so I would leave the doe with the buck all day, or as long as she seemed un-annoyed by him which could be several hours and I would take her out several times a day several days in a row during her cycle. This year, things are a bit different and I normally lock all but the one being bred up in the barn for several hours, let the buck out to do his business and I watch to make sure the breeding was successful and put everyone back in their perspective spots. The little girls I left in the pen with the buck for most of the day but everyone has been kinda of driveway style.

At any rate, I was thinking perhaps I wasn't catching PJ cycle just right and she was just a doe who needed the timing down. So, this cycling I went ahead and put her with Andy. It wasn't my first choice but when you keep doing the same thing over and over and get the same results, stop being insane and try something different! Or, at least that's my motto most of the time.

I wrote my goat mentor the other night and happened to mention the problem and she said give her a round of Pen for 7 days then a round of LA200 for 7 days. DANGIT, I wish I would have contacted her sooner! I just rebred PJ last week and with the way she's been cycling at 28 days, I would need to wait nearly another month to find out if she settled or not to start treatment. Good grief! I could start treatment now but if in the off chance she did settle, antibiotics like that (the LA200) could really cause some problems.

Waiting is both good and bad...more good than bad I guess. Bad in the fact that if she does have an infection and I can get it cleared up and can get her bred this year she's going to be a huge straggler behind the rest...as in, I will probably have like 8 weeks down time between all of them and her. It's not terrible, life goes on obviously and will be like the last hurrah for the year! One good thing is that if she doesn't settle by Andy I can re-breed her back to Moon. Course, I am not forgetting the fact that of course that I want her healthy!

That somewhat brings me to my next thoughts...I really think come Spring (or whenever she kids IF she does) I will be selling PJ. I am off and on about that...I can't ever make up my mind on anyone...except, when I do :). I'd like to see what she freshens with of course. My hope is for a longer bodied doe with more dairy character and longer legs. So far she's thrown some pretty cobby kids*. Her first freshening she was bred to Blackhoof 1 Strategy. A buck that threw some very interesting (in a good way) udders according to the appraiser this past June and comes from really nice genetics.

I bred Granite to her buck kid from that freshening and sold him off. I was extremely happy with the results from that breeding and kept both her doe and buck kid (Mea and Andy). Andy was mostly kept because, well he has spots. Not that he's got bad genetics either (if there are such a thing). It's just that his spots, I figured, are a good selling point when it comes to his kids...spots are HOT! I'm sorry if that sounds badly, but it is what it is you know? It would be one thing if he just has spots and had a dam with a crappy udder or what have you. But I believe he's got great genetics behind him. Now, Moon is Blackhoof 1 Strategy's half brother (different sire) and of course I could be totally wrong as genetics is just a luck of the draw, but breeding Moon to PJ will probably result in something similar to PJ's first daughter and that is not what I am looking for so maybe breeding her to Andy, despite the inbreeding factor of 14 point whatever %, would give me more of what I am looking for.

Udder genetics are not the issue. Without being snooty, I am not trying to improve the udder. Not that udder improvement would be unappreciated or unneeded (as no goat has a perfect udder); but the udder department, if there ever were such a thing, they don't need the most help in. In breeding her to Andy, my hope would be that Granite's long legs and body, and great feet would come through but I'd maintain PJ's body capacity and head with blending the dairy character from both (meaning, she's not too dairy (narrow) like I think Granite is but also not as wide (un-dairy) as PJ is...if we could only design goats with words :o).

Up until now, I figured Moon was my best buck of the 3 and I was playing the game of best buck will mean better kids. Not always, best buck means pairing with a doe that will make for improved kids or compliment each others genetics, etc. and ultimately make for better kids depending on what you want. I sometimes forget that. But if that's the philosophy I am following, perhaps Prince may be the better match! Oh, I really just don't know. I seriously hate options! They make me go mad! But as of today, and mind you this could change as soon as I hit "publish", I am thinking the "Andy card" may be a better option.

I guess I've gone on long enough. Sometimes I just have to throw up my hands because obviously I cannot control the world. Not that I try to control the WHOLE world. But occasionally I try to control my own. And even then, that's just not possible. So, I throw my hands up on this one.

I will wait to see if she settled. If she did, great. If not, she gets a couple rounds of antibiotics that I am sure she will just love me for! If I can get her bred this year, more's the merrier. If I can't, well, she'll grow fat and happy in next spring's pasture and we'll see about breeding her next fall. If that doesn't work...well, she may be freezer meat. I don't know what else to say. I'll leave you now with that lovely thought as I really have nothing else to add :o).

* I always feel kinda badly about talking "poorly" of goats as some breeders take it personally. Lest me remind you that breeding plans and outcomes are, as I said, luck of the draw. They aren't exactly always luck of the draw. I mean, you breed a doe with a cruddy udder to a buck who has the same genetics, you can't expect to get a great udder out of that. It's not like I hold breeders personally responsible if a breeding "goes bad". It's just not something that should be taken personal so therefore I don't entirely feel badly about talking about how I would like to improve a doe. I know breeding has a lot to do with personal preference and my personal preference is going to be different than someone elses. I breed for what I like to see, what I like to milk, etc. Someone once told me, breed for what you like to see in your barn and not what an appraiser likes to see or what will in the show ring UNLESS that's what you like to see. No point in having a herd full of animals you don't like to look at or milk or commune with. And she' right!

PJ has a great udder, and I like to look at it but I hate to milk her! Her orifices are so small and I could milk 4 regular orifice-d (noun turned verb :o) goats in the amount of time it takes to milk her and I hate that! She's got a sweet personality but her feet and back could be better. She could also use some height and the fact that I am always dealing with copper deficiency in her is really bringing me to my wits end! I will try bolusing her again in the early Spring and see how that goes. But ultimately, I'd like a more carefree animal as well! In talking about breeding up, you cannot excuse the fact that breeding for being hardy is not important...at least not here anyway. I lover her but love only goes so far with some of them.

Totally off on another tangent though which is somewhat unrelated...that brings me to Fluer, the doe I bought this past September. She's lovely in all respects but she's a boss! I asked about this as I always ask previous owners about temperament and was told she was kind of bottom of the pack. While I have no doubts she was there, my easy going group has allowed her to take over as herd queen and she sure takes it to extreme and I am not sure I want that kinda of temperament in my herd. I realize every herd will have a queen but not every herd needs a queen who would be happy if they were dead :o).

Change of plans: Fencing

2010-12-11T12:15:00.000-06:00

I was at Tractor Supply the other day Christmas shopping. I found some brochures for high tensile fencing and "Wedge Lock" t post bracing supplies and techniques.

It wasn't until fairly recently that I even considered high tensile. Knowing how goats can scoot under even the lowest of fence rungs, I am/was scared to use it! I probably wouldn't be so concerned if we didn't live off a road where cars are moving anywhere from 40 to 70 miles per hour. It's not heavily traveled but it is traveled and that how our poor dog met his fate a month ago. There are pros and cons and when buying this property the more important pro was the road frontage we have for advertisement and the fact it's paved, unlike a lot of the roads in Kansas. I've lived 1/2 a mile down a dirt road that was lane livers responsibility to upkeep and while they did try to do that...winter rains made it such a mess. Not as bad as some I've seen mind you, but anyway, we wanted frontage and we have it. Kansas dirt roads, for the most part, are kept up well but still...our frontage is ideal.

The goats would have to walk a pretty good way to even reach the road. They are on the back portion of the property after all. And they are not like dogs in that they will go running out into the road but electric fencing still scared me. That is, until I actually found out exactly what high tensile is! I am in love, let me tell you.

If price wasn't attractive enough, the amount of installation work (or lack there of in comparison) and maintenance work and cost it takes certainly is! So, with that said, I've made a believer out of Jeremiah. And of course I've never used it to know if I'll be happy with it, I can't imagine I wouldn't be. If it keeps the goats in and lives up to its hype among those who have installed and used it, I'll consider myself happy.

Anyhoos, my plan to make a few pastures for next Spring has now shifted to fencing the entire property. If you'll remember, the perimeter fence is just 3 strand twisted wire. We have horses on 2 sides of the property and the twisted wire is taking a whooping from them. We first considered field fencing with an electric strand on top, then decided cattle panels may be better given the fact that we're treed on a good majority of the fence line and with the ice storms we get, the maintenance if a tree or limb were to fall on field fencing would be tremendous. While cattle panels are expensive, if something were to fall and crush it, we just go out and replace it, easy and simple, few tools required.

One pro to high tensile is that the space in between posts is anywhere from 30' to 100'! Because we're hilly, it's going to require more vertical posts than it would for a flat terrain, but one fact remains and that is that high tensile is designed to be stretched out over broad expanses (the farther the better, because if something were to hit it/run into it, with more length in the wire, there's more wire to absorb the shock of the impact.). This means that you do not want to tie it off in your corners like barbed wire or any stretched fencing. High tensile is designed to be stretched, it's springy and if it begins to sag anywhere, all that's required is a simple tightening of the in line strainer installed in each wire.

I've been walking the property line in an effort to learn more about it for one, and for two to get more exercise and I really think that high tensile will be well suited for our application. Providing we string the wires at the appropriate heights, it will solve a number of problems. For one, it will keep the goats in, first and foremost that's the most important. For two, it will keep the neighbor's horses off (since we will also be electrifying this fence) and for three, apparently if we string it high enough, it will keep the deer out. I know for sure our eastern portion of the property is a deer highway. I don't mind so much except for the fact that deer can carry meningeal worm and quite frankly, I don't exactly want to be dealing with that and my goats. Additionally, we hope to have a big garden next year as well and while that may require another few wires on top, it's really quite attractive all the way around.

I expect, electric fencer not included, that to fence the whole property to include six 4,000 spools of 12.5 gauge class III wire, the few posts we may need, and all the tools (in line strainer, ratcheting tool, etc.) to cost about $1,000. There should be enough wire left over to be able to cross fence for 4-6 pastures. But that can come later on if need be. The corner posts are all still very good. I was researching corner insulators last night
. I assume most people installing high tensile wrap the post with the the wire (that has tube insulating encasing where touches the posts to keep it from grounding out), but I would like to do more reading up on ceramic insulators which would allow us to utilize the corner posts that are already installed. I have no idea how long they've been there but I would guess the better portion of 20 years! It would be grand if they lasted another 20+ but by using a corner insulator instead of wrapping the wire around corners, we could unhook the fence fairly easily and replace the post and re-tighten instead of having to cut the wire and splice then re-tighten.

At any rate, I'm really excited to pull this together come spring.

Breeding woes

2010-11-16T12:21:00.000-06:00

It's been over a month since I've written...keeping up with 3 blogs is not all that easy at times. Not all people want to read about my day to day goings on HERE and not everyone wants to read about cloth diaper cottage industry HERE. So, each blog gets a bit of my time and readers will just have to live with the fact that there are times, a lot of times in fact, there is nothing to say. So sorry. But I am sure you're okay with it since herd life isn't all that interesting this time of year.

This years breeding is not going as well as last. Last year I bred....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 does I think...maybe 5. I can't remember! Anyway, it was easy, the boys were way out back, the does weren't scoping them out all day because they couldn't see them. The buck I chose for a particular doe is the one she got. This year, boy have I been thrown for a loop. I have does who adamantly refused to let a buck breed unless it was one of her choosing. Flat out refused.

What's a gal to do? Give her wish!

Two of the does I most wanted bred to a particular buck got their wish for my oldest, Prince Charming, and I'm not thrilled but it is what it is. I look forward to the outcome.

Four of my new doe kids from this year were put in with Moon a few weeks ago. I still have a few days to go before I'll know if they settled or not.

Two of my bottle babies (Apricot and May) that I purchased this past Spring I am seriously contemplating just keeping dry for 2011 as they are a bit smaller than I would like and I would like to have a dry yearling come show time...these two would be perfect and I think would greatly benefit from being held over. Waiting to freshen them though will be like waiting for Christmas! They are both quite lovely, very dairy, my preference.

FD I was a bit worried about. I was actually more concerned with Moon as he had been in with both FD and Granite (my spotted doe) for a good length of time and neither settled. Well, come to find out, Granite wanted nothing to do with him and wouldn't let him breed and FD is just FD, a bit shy, standoffish, herd oriented. So, to complicate my life, I locked all the does except FD up in the barn and let Moon out. FD could stay close to her girls and was more than happy to let Moon breed hidden away from the commotion of the other two bucks fighting on the other side of the fence from the breeding pen. After going over the calendar, I will safely say she's bred and I no longer worry about Moon's fertility.

PJ is another story! I swear this doe has been nothing but a copper deficient nightmare for me since I got her and is thus short cycling this year (cyling on average about every 4 days). Don't get me wrong, she's a nice doe, lovely udder, blah blah blah, but her copper requirements drive me nuts! The rest of the herd is just fine. There are a few who I watch and supplement if needed but dangit, her? I'm always on my tippy toes trying to keep up with her needs.

She just now weaned her doe kid. Her doe kid is quite plump as you can well imagine and it's not helped PJ's condition any! I am down to using a diluted copper solution everyday following the advice I have long read about and we'll see how that goes. And I have tried it all with her: bolusing, straight supplementing, drinking water supplementation, etc. She's just needy in regards to copper and how it's administered and it's always something I am trying to keep up with no matter what.

Anyway, so, in all her short cycling she's been more than happy to let any old buck have her way with her. She's one of my shorter bodied does and despite my choice for bucks last year, she didn't seem to throw any longer kids. Emmy Lou (her daughter) is pretty short and squaty, short front legs too) and because she's somewhat closely related to Prince Charming and is Granddam to Andy my spotted buck, Moon was her only option. So hopefully he'll be able to add some length and stature to her kids...if not...well, she may be on the block for sale come spring.

At any rate, breeding plants definitely changed a lot from the original line up. I look forward to a few girls in particular and hope I have bred late enough they're not kidding in the middle of an ice storm. Breeding any time for late February kids on where we were in Northern Ca. was almost a sure bet for good weather. I don't think even April is a sure bet here but there's only so long I want to wait!

We're heading 90 miles North on Sat. for another load of hay. I am hoping to get some large round bales in before mid-Dec. and all of this should easily hold us until Spring. Approximately 3 months to go before our first babies are set to arrive!

2011 Spring Goat Area Plans

2010-10-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

Our goat area is usable as it is currently for the goats I currently have and what we're currently doing (100% supplemental feeding), but come next spring with the new pasture grass, I'd like to have rotational pastures for a few reasons. For one, pasture management in terms of having a healthy pasture, for two, pasture management in terms of parasite control of healthy goats and for three, spring and summer pasture grazing will significantly cut down on the cost of keeping/raising.

My original ideal plan (before buying this property and assuming we'd have to build a barn and put up fencing) was to have a centralized barn and pasture pen for the girls to come up to for feeding/milking/kidding/night time. The pastures would shoot off from that main pasture pen with gates that opened/ closed depending on which pasture they would be allowed in for the day.

It just so happens that the current existing structures and fencing will allow us to make this happen. I am attaching the proposed plan for next spring.

Please note that this drawing is not to scale. The arrows represent the property line going further to the north and south but isn't livestock area (house/pond/yard) or isn't what will be worked on come spring.

The bucks pen and shelters are currently almost smack dab in the middle of the page north of the barn. I'm not opposed to them being right here, but I would like to move them to the proposed "?" area with a new shelter so the does cannot be right up against the fence. For one, this would give them a lot more space. Moving them would allow us to open up a much larger area for them to graze and make it so the does cannot be right up against their fences. It would also allow me to then use the existing pens for breeding purposes. All three bucks are sharing the pens now and it could be less stressful if they didn't have does right up against, especially when they are in heat. As I've stated before, they go mad with a when the does are in heat. I am not comfortable using electric fencing for their proposed new area so it will probably be cattle panels.

I am also not comfortable using electric fence for the property perimeter. For us to fence the entire 10+ acres that's proposed for the goats, it would just be easier to do it bit by bit over a few years. In order for us to get up a few working pastures and be able to afford it (all at the same time), what the drawing shows should allow us to do it.

Eventually we'd also like to see about getting back half of the property baled. Right now it's mostly brome grass and Jeremiah just cut it down about 4 weeks ago. I picked up with I could for feed but certainly 1-2 cuttings would be enough for us to feed the entire herd over the winter and any more cuttings could be sold (the number of cuttings average about 4-6 depending on rainfall). It's also somewhat common to share the cut with the person cutting and baling it as payment. Eventually we'd like to have the equipment to do it ourselves because surely I don't have time to get out there with a scythe to do it myself.

I have no idea where the herd will go or how many I'll keep but I'm pretty sure that the proposed pastures will be plenty for my current # for next spring and summer.

(Hopefully) Another Two Down

2010-10-11T14:39:00.001-05:00

Fluer and PJ are both in raging heat today. As expected, Fleur didn't take too kindly to Moon which is fine so I just allowed her to be bred by Prince Charming. He really is such a good looking bloke. I feel somewhat badly that he's not being used much but I really that I just like my other two better. But maybe it's not so much that, it's just that my other two, to me, seem to be better matches for the girls I have. I am hoping PC doesn't take too much, if anything, away from Fleur's lovely rump. I was just afraid if I used Moon or Andy, with her being as dairy as she already is, that it would really not give her kids the capacity I'd like from her.

PJ, astonishingly, wasn't at all upset being bred by Moon. She seem to take to him better at lunch time. I did put her in with him this morning at feeding time but breeding was smoother at noon. I'll put both of the girls in with their prospective matches at evening feeding as well. So far no one has wanted to stay in except Fleur but the little boys were fighting so bad with Prince Charming away and Fleur in the breeding pen, I felt it best to get her out and allow Prince Charming back in.

So, two down today and that makes their due dates March 10th or so. So far Bonnie nor FD have come back into heat so it's safe to say their breeding took. I'm still waiting on Granite as she has another couple of weeks to cycle again. If not, she took too and so that would make 2 does at that point who have settled with the Moon breeding. Andy has settled one and Prince Charming is proven.

I had debated on whether to breed Fleur this "early". I was told by her previous owner she has not once raised a kid of her own. She births them and walks away and I didn't want to be hand raising kids when it was cold. As it is though, I'd like to get my milkers bred so I can focus on the little girls now and they will begin being bred in about 3-4 weeks starting with Mea and Loli who are ready and cycling now but I'm holding them just a bit longer.

Everybody hates me, nobody likes me.

2010-10-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

I have attempted to breed 3 does thus far. At least one of them has taken so far, 1 of them I am waiting a few more days to see if she cycles but am pretty sure she took and this last one, well, either she is waiting for standing heat, this buck I have is jumping the gun or she's not liking him, quite possibly all three.

Bonnie was my first doe bred this year and she really wasn't too happy with the buck I chose (Andy). Quite frankly, none of them have been so far. All three does are quite smitten with Prince Charming and I have not chosen him for these first three. I don't know that I will use him much this year again. Why do I keep him? Because he's a nice buck. I do have a few does lined up for him but not as much as my two new bucks.

My only guess is that because he is bigger the other does prefer him. Poor Granite is just being chased all over the pen by Moon who is nowhere near as suave as Prince Charming. I'll try her again later today and then again tomorrow if she's still hanging around but if she won't have him, then I'll have to do something about separating better so the does cannot see her other possible suitors.

The bucks are pretty calm any time a doe isn't in heat but when one is, they are dangerous! I won't even go in with them and feed them from a separate pen altogether where I can get the hay into their feeder. That separate pen is also the breeding pen. The breeding buck is allowed through via a gate. To date Moon has tried to mount me twice in a hormone induced tizzy and I gave him a what for. Nothing like a couple hooves scrambling up your back to make you turn around real quick and place a well deserved blow with your foot against someone.

Our set up right now is NOT ideal at all. It will suffice for this year but I really don't like that my does have access to the pen's fences. It just makes the bucks that much more crazy and I don't like crazy because it equals dangerous.

Our set up in Ca. with the pens farther out was great. Course it meant the does were wailing non-stop while they were in heat but it let me know at least when to take them out.

Moon is still young and so far I've not had an older doe teach him a lesson. I did put PJ in yesterday and she seemed real interested but wasn't truly after all. If anyone, she's hand it to him and she did. But again, with 2 other bucks in the pen right beside, it just makes tensions high.

More to talk about in regards to spring sales and pasture fencing.

New Buck

2010-09-30T15:02:00.001-05:00

I forgot to mention before we left Ca. that we added a last minute buck to the line up. A big thanks to Katie Haven of herd Blackhoof for breeding such a nice buck. Black Hoof Blue Moon ("Moon") is out of (Wingwood Farm Tim Galapagos) and (Blackhoof 1 Clementine).

Can't wait to see what this guy will bring to the herd.

2010 breeding for 2011 kids has begun!

2010-09-30T13:53:00.001-05:00

Fall breeding has begun with Bonnie (Tecosa's Cr Classic Clyde Elle) to Andy (Marmalade's Mr. Sandman) and FD (Tecosa PJ Pejamy) to Moon (Blackhoof Blue Moon). Kidding begins in February. I can't wait for this new crop of kids!

The breeding calender is available on the herd website which can be accessed to the right.

Hay Feeders

2010-09-27T19:41:00.001-05:00

(Free for all)

We've used a few different kinds over the years and thus far my favorite has been one made with cattle panels...

The first 2 feeders we ever made were fairly simple wood construction, box style with vertical slats where the hay was dropped into the center and goats ate from all sides. They beat the heck out of it and wasted so much hay by pulling it through the slats; not to mention the fact the kids would get up there and sleep and one year I had some kids with diarrhea so you can well imagine what a lovely mess that was to clean up!

The third wooden feeder that has stood up the best by far has been this...

We loaded this into our custom built livestock trailer and hauled it all the way from California. It's an okay feeder but still quite heavy and needs to be kept under cover. I mean, I don't suppose it HAS to be, but it sure will last a lot longer.

I don't like it for a few reasons. For one, weight. For two, while the trough seems like it would be useful (yes there is a trough at the bottom but they pull so much hay out you can't even tell), I feed mostly alfalfa and it drops down, the leaves and dust collects and I end up raking it out. They don't pick it up out of the trough. Rarely have I had a goat eat the "trough droppings". Or maybe it's just that I feed too much. If small kids get up into it, they urinate on the hay in the trough making clean up a chore.

These cattle panel feeders are really quite ideal, cheap, portable, and light weight. Yes, hay does fall out the bottom but it's usually picked up pretty quickly by lazy goats, as you can see... And quite honestly, there's no more waste with them as opposed to the reach up and take hay out style feeders like the wooden one at the beginning of this post.

The cattle panel feeders allow the goats to stick their heads in, or not. I do have some that'll shove but providing the goat doesn't have its head in a cloud of hay, they'll see an oncoming lunge. Hang them low enough and the bigger goats can eat out of the top and the smaller ones can eat from the sides or bottoms...
I take a 16' cattle panel and cut it in 3-6 pieces. I use a bolt cutters to remove the vertical stays on each side leaving me with fingers. My husband then welds (carefully because it's galvanized and the vapors are poisonous) the fingers together and I hang them with clips, in this case mountaineering clips. For a $20 panel I get quite a few portable feeders.

With this type of panel I used for this feeder (graduated rungs on the bottom like the panel the feeder is hung on), I leave the smaller spaces to the back. This would be the bottom of the cattle panel if it were still intact. The panels I get from Lowes are 2" x 6" for the first two rungs where as some of the others I've seen are 1" x 6" for the first rung and then 2 " x 6" followed by the usual 6"x6" squares. I can't get 6"x6" all over (also called utility panels) and it doesn't quite matter as the tops of the panels I get are 6"x6" which leaves plenty of space for goaties without horns to get their heads through
And then there's the bucket that I use when I am out of town for the weekend clipped to the cattle panel for an extra feeder for more hay just in case.

If you're wanting to know what that white PVC thing is attached to the wooden feeder, it's my mineral feeder made from a piece of 4" PVC (about 2 foot in length), a cap, a 45 degree section, a male adapter and a female screw. You could just glue a cap on the bottom of the 45 degree section, but the male and female part allows me to clean it out if I ever needed to. I love this mineral feeder.

Long time no Talk Blog

2010-09-25T06:53:00.000-05:00

It's been a while. Things have been crazy here trying to get settled in and all. After about a 6 week stay with a friend of mine in Northern Kansas the girls (and boys) were brought down to their new home! It's been over a month now and things are going swell.

We got a lovely load of alfalfa in to fill the barn for the winter. Buying hay is a lot different here than in California. The feedstores in California sell hay. I haven't bought from a feestore in quite a while as their prices, especially in the winter, are marked up so bad. I found a great grower out there I'd buy it direct from, saved a ton!

Buying hay here requires first you find a grower (check) and make sure you either have a place to store a winter's worth and part of a spring's worth until the growers start cutting again (check) or make sure they'll have enough into spring (no check) or check out the auction (no check). I do mean to make it to the auction, but from what I understand, as the season drags on, the price will just go up and up. It'll take some time getting used to the differences here.

Breeding has already started with 2 does who, if settled, will be due in February. I've got a couple kids who just won't measure up this year I don't think so I'll hold them over to next. These little gals (May and Apricot) are going to be worth the wait I think. I can't wait to see them freshen!

That said, I especially can't wait to see the outcome of a few of my breedings this year. One in particular is Mea and Moon. Mea is the product of a few different well known herds to include Wingwood Farms, Branicur Farms, Six M Galaxy. She's really just a real nice doe kid and easily my favorite this year.

I've got a couple does in mind that I may be selling next spring after freshening. I'm kinda taking the herd in two different directions. One is the milking herd. These does aren't show quality but I just like(d) them too much to sell them before we left California. Next spring with the abundance of milk I hope to go farther into the milk soaps and such. I'm no stranger to internet sales and I think goat's milk soap would lend well to what I've been doing with cloth diapers for the past 6 years.

Then there's the show herd side. So far I've yet to see a kid from PJ that I actually REALLY like. She's got a beautiful udder though so I am hoping that with a different direction in breeding for her it'll change some of what's she's thrown so far.

At any rate, we're gearing up for what could be a huge change (for us) in seasons. Where we were in Northern California, I expect, will be quite a change from Kansas. We'll see how it all goes.

Meet Fluer

2010-09-25T06:43:00.001-05:00

Thanks so much to Jackie Eastwood and her family from Fiddler's Ridge Dairy for allowing us to add Fleur to our herd.

Fleur is SG Six M Galaxy Hermione's Fleur.

There was a stinkin' fly buggin her and she did not want to stand nicely for this photo (not to mention it didn't help we were in a shadow and my husband has dark clothes on...) But, there it is anyway.

Moving Goats

2010-07-14T21:26:00.000-05:00

My Grandma asked me this evening if I missed my goats. "Terribly!", I said. She said she read an article a few days ago in Countryside magazine that made her glad she read it AFTER we made the trip. Reason being, she said, is that the article lead one to believe that hauling goats was hard. I laughed, "the goats were the easy part", I said!

Really truly it was, for all intents and purposes, an "easy" haul. Factors having nothing to do directly with hauling the goats made it difficult and those had more to do with emotional factors than worrying about the actual hauling aspect and all it entailed.

We ended up hauling this rig with our V8 Ford Explorer and while it did the job fabulously well, you could tell there was some weight behind you. Obviously, because there was! With a larger motor I think we would have done much better on the fuel economy, the speed in which we could travel, etc. But nevertheless, we were impressed with it.

That aside though, here are a few tips on what we did to prepare for this long drive:

First off, plan for weather! Being as how it is our life long ~~curse~~ reality to move in the dead of summer, more specifically near or on July 4th, plan for the worst! I had Jeremiah install an inverter so that I could run box fans for the animals. This was a cheaper way of going than going with a regular fan designed for a trailer and since we were installing a marine battery anyway, it wasn't an issue to also install an inverter. It also allows the electricity to be multifunctional too since we can run other implements off this inverter. Make sure though, if you do this, that you know how many watts your implements will pull (box fans pull about 200 a piece) and get an inverter that will handle your load (our inverter was $60 I think from Walmart, it's a Black and Decker) and will handle 700 running watts (implements usually take more start up watts than actual running watts). You can buy larger ones and smaller ones but they are a great thing to have!

The box fans were to be used only if at a stand still for overnight or while getting fuel, that sort of thing. It ended up I only needed them, well, I don't even think we really needed them once but it was still nice to have. The inverter was installed on the OUTSIDE of the trailer in a fuse box to keep it dry so all I had to do with flip the switch on it from the outside and the fans turned on inside. Jeremiah installed a regular house hold receptacle inside, ran wire to the inverter outside and the fans plugged right in were left in the "on" position. As soon as juice flowed to them, they started. Having the inverter on the outside meant I didn't have to get in and out of the trailer to get the fans agoin'.

Driving through Nevada and Utah was really hot. There was proper ventilation in the trailer from both the front, side and rear vents. Parking for fuel wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be because under those big covered areas the breeze whips right though. The only time we really used the fans (though probably didn't need them) was when we stopped for lunch in Wyoming. We parked along a curb directly in the sun but it wasn't hot enough to really need them though I am sure they appreciated them.

There were a couple of things that helped in regards to the heat situation. For one, the trailer is white. White reflects the sun's rays thus reflecting heat. Secondly, our trailer is wood. I had wanted metal (aluminum) and in the end, if we decide to keep this rig, we'll skin it out. Time and money just wouldn't allow for that now though and stability wouldn't have changed with the aluminum added, it would have just made it look more like a "real" trailer. Metal tends to absorb heat, even aluminum, but aluminum doesn't tend to hold it as much as other metals, and it's light weight. Even on the hottest June day at 100 degrees or better it was still bearable in the trailer WITHOUT any disturbances in the air. However, getting more than one hairy body in there is certainly cause to think that it may be hotter.

We had to plan for rain too and a regular old stock trailer may have gotten them there- I will admit, they were spoiled with this rig- but this rig relieved stress on them and me!

Shaving most of the goats prior to traveling was probably a good idea. I didn't get to them all but even my hairy beast of a pure TAR black buck made it just fine with all his hair. I ran out of time to do them all.

Be prepared! I hope that goes without saying. Packing enough food and water for the trip is essential. Packing antibiotics and syringes and needles and all that jazz is super important! Water is a big issue for some. We ended up using four 5 gallon paint buckets from Lowes and bought lids to go with. The day we left we filled each bucket to the brim with water and stuck them in the back of the car.

We filled these buckets again in Wyoming. In less than a day we went through more than 15 gallons of water! Granted, some of it had to be thrown out (normally because someone pooped in it). I hadn't planned to leave smaller water buckets inside the trailer mostly because I didn't want them spilled and saturating the hay but I concluded that wouldn't be an issue as they were clipped to the wall, everyone was laying down when we were moving and the movement wasn't enough to slosh the water anyway.

In regards to needing more water en route, make sure you're asking if the water is potable! Of all the gas stations we stopped at, only ONE had a potable water spigot in a dog area. I would imagine most rest stops would have good water as they generally have a "pet area" but if it doesn't say "potable" or "not potable", I would ask. And if no one can tell you, I personally wouldn't use it. If it's not good enough for me, it's not good enough for them. If nothing else, shell out the cash for gallon bottles of bottled water. I bought a couple bags of ice along the way, but this was mainly just to allow them cool water if the need arose but in all honesty, the ice melted well before they needed it so it was just another source of water. You don't want to give them access to ice/cold water, it can shock the system. Cool is okay, cold is not. Plan for the water issue. On the last day of travel, we asked if we could get our buckets filled up at a fast food restaurant because neither the gallon jugs of water we'd bought nor the 5 gallon buckets would fit under the sink faucet in the bathroom. The Arby's employee in Kansas was nice enough to fill it up in the back at the "mopping" station. After all was said and done, we went through more than 40 gallons of water most of which was drunk!

On the water note, some of them were comfortable drinking from the water buckets left inside the trailer. The others were happier to drink directly from the 5 gallon buckets. At every stop we made I made sure to offer the big buckets. Day 1, a couple of them appeared they hadn't had a sip to drink since we left about 8 hours earlier. They drank and drank and drank from the big bucket.

In regards to driving...Driving at night is definitely a plus in regards to heat and traffic albeit, but if you're a single driver this isn't such a great plan. You want to remain moving during the hottest parts of the day, have the moving air work for you. If you're driving with someone else who can sleep during the day and actually be rested, driving both day and night is a viable option. I do not do night driving well, nor do I do rejuvenating sleep in a moving car well, nor do I do hauling well period really and I had to ask Jeremiah if I was really the person he wanted for this trip. His response that I was the only person he'd take was really quite sweet but in reality, I don't know if I was the best helper as far as a driver went. As far as company, and making sure the driver had everything that he needed and for the goats, I couldn't be beat. We had a good system worked out and had the goats needed anything at all, or something (God forbid) went wrong with them, I would have been the ONLY one who could have done anything about it. I knew them better than anyone. I think just my familiar face and voice kept them better free of stress.

Prepare to have the haul take much longer than you initially expect unless you've hauled many times and/or know the route well. Some people thought we were crazy for doing what we did. If this is considered crazy, you just need to meet us! We take calculated risks but not before planning planning planning. Nothing we do is definable as crazy in our opinion. Our max average speed the whole trip was about 60 MPH. The Sierra's and Rockie's are no joke. We knew that. What we didn't expect was the up and down from the time we left to, essentially, the time we arrived. I joke that if Kansas isn't the same elevation as the highest elevation of the Rockies I have some serious questions because it seems like we NEVER went down hill. And the old adage of walking up hill both ways to school is probably true for the trip back from Kansas to Ca. It would probably be up hill both ways!

I had my doe kids in the weaning pasture since May/June. I did this mainly because Linear Appraisal was coming up and I wanted the kids weaned so I could adjust for udder fullness. We did end up putting a temporary gate into the trailer for Linear Appraisal to keep the kids separate from the does to avoid nursing but a week before we were to leave for Ks, I reintroduced all the doe kids back into the doe pasture so they could all reacquaint. Three of them were dam-less and one of the dam-less doe kids the adult does had never met and I wanted to be sure they were meeting in a large area before they were all pent up in a small trailer for a couple days.

I had the buck kids in with my big buck for quite a while, since weaning, which was in May/June. My buck is a pretty gentle beast. They had quite a big pen/pasture. Without the room, I wouldn't recommend putting smaller bucklings in with larger bucks or a buck who is aggressive. Having them in with my buck really prepared them by allowing them to get to know each other.

My Mom had worried about ammonia build up but I will say this wasn't an issue AT all. I put down rubber matting mainly so we wouldn't loose all of our straw through the spaces between the boards but again, ammonia from urine wasn't an issue.

I tried drying off my does before this move. In the end they all ended up staying in milk and that was fine with me. It may work out to my advantage because I may have milkers when we move into our new place in August. Production though dropped which was my main goal more so than having them completely dry.

I did procrastinate a bit in that I didn't order my B12 or antibiotics in time and all of that came the day we left unfortunately! However, I was able to get what I needed from the vet who came out to do the health inspection. There's the first thing of order you need to plan for. Now, we never ended up needing it but that doesn't mean you won't. Check with the ag. entity for the state you are going to and states you are passing through for their requirements. There are different requirements for different states and technically yes, as far as I know, EVERY time you cross state lines with any animal you need a health certificate from a veterinarian and possibly even testing done on livestock to include, but not limited to, Brucellosis, TB, Johnes, etc., which can take some time so make sure you plan well in advance to have these things complete. I realize animals cross state lines often without these things, but I am just giving you a heads up you may need them.

We went as far as stopping at the Wyoming "port of call" to show them paperwork but one of the gals working there pretty much looked at me like I was crazy and said unless I am carrying a commercial load, I didn't need to show them anything. I could have just kept on driving. All the other ports of call were closed when we passed. Look up the rules and regulations for bringing animals into the state you're moving to and make sure you call your vet up well in advance to schedule your appointment. BUT, don't schedule it more than 30 days away from your move date. If you can take your animal(s) to the vet, there is a cost savings there. For all 14 goats and for the vet to come out (which was just easier on me) the total was $130. All animals went on one health certificate. They either need to be tattooed, scrapie tagged or branded. Each individual needs a unique identification. Mine were all tattooed.

One last thing I will say about prepping for any move with your goats is to get them used to the trailer. We didn't have as much time as I would have liked to do this but they did get one good haul from Linear Appraisal and back.

Now that that the week or longer stuff is out of the way we can get down to the nitty gritty. The night before we were to leave, I wormed all the goats with Ivermectin chemical wormer. I do worm herbally as often as possible but as stressful as this move was going to be, I would NEVER screw around with herbs, I go straight to the big guns. Secondly (the night before), I gave them all a good dose of a long lasting antibiotic (by injection). In this case, Noromycin, given to me by the vet. It's a 3 day antibiotic meaning it would last them at least until we got there reducing any chances of shipping fever, etc. I had ordered LA200 online but it hadn't arrived. Third, I gave them all a good dose of B-12 (by injection). A friend recommend this and I must say, I think it made a HUGE difference.

I will admit that thinking about this trip was hugely stressful for me. In reality, the goats couldn't have been easier to haul and travel with. We planned for absolutely everything including adding brackets for gate panels in the event we needed to get the goats out. I figured we would have to somewhere at least once. Traveling with horses posses a bit of a challenge in that they should be allowed to get out. If you're not familiar with equine travel, most fairgrounds will allow you to stop and there are places called "mare motels" that have facilities set up for overnight use, like a people hotel, only for horses. The fair grounds may have been a viable option if you have your own pens for your goats, but in reality, taking them out would have been more stressful on everyone on this haul than just allowing them to stay inside. If you're short on space for your goats, stopping to get them out may be necessary.

We debated on installing individual pens for them, especially for the big buck. But in the end, I think, having a communal space for all of them (bucks separate from the does) was helpful. If you're hauling animals that don't get along or animals who do not belong to you, then I'd say yes, individual pens are a necessity.

Frequent stops were more of a necessity for us as we were sucking fuel like there was no tomorrow. The goats had this traveling thing down to an art! When we'd stop, they be up eating. I can safely say that the B12 injection I had given them the night before was probably a HUGE help in increasing their appetite. They would all be stuffing their faces as soon as I had the door open to water them. Taking 2 different types of hay was also something that I felt would help. They normally get orchard grass as just a snack but for this trip. I brought our old stand by- alfalfa- and a bale of orchard grass as well. I brought orchard grass for a couple of reasons. For one, since they don't get it often, it's a new an exciting thing when they do. I figured if nothing else, when they get a chance to pig out on something new, they do! That would probably entice them to eat when they may not feel like it. Secondly, it's not as "hot" as alfalfa. Meaning, it should be easier for them to digest, easier on their system, etc. Kind of like chicken noodle soup is on an upset tummy than a big greasy hamburger.

If you have the room to haul as much food (hay mainly) as possible, I urge you to do so. Different places have different feeds even if it's the same type and goats especially need gradual change of feed. Changing feed abruptly can lead to scouring and that is never a good thing! We had room for just 2 bales and between 14 goats, they went though about 1/2 of each bale. Upon arrival, they went straight from that to the pasture grass and brome of their new field in Kansas. Fortunately for us, no one seemed ill affected by this. I can only attribute that to the fact they had gradually been built up on green luscious pasture grass almost daily since Spring time but it's something to take into consideration when moving-where will they be moved to on what kind of feed?

It's safe to say that we could have stopped for a night in a hotel while the goats remained in the trailer. As it turned out, the first night we didn't know that and I wasn't comfortable leaving them and the second night when we were comfortable leaving them alone in the trailer, the town we stopped in that had 20+ hotels were all COMPLETELY booked and we were much too tired to drive another 1.5 hours to the next town with 1 hotel (that may or may not have been booked). So, we "stayed" with them the whole time.

I had worried that long extended stops (3+) hours would cause them to get restless but that wasn't the case. They were all pretty mellow. There was some head butting here and there but that goes on anyway at the feeder between the does and the kids.

All in all it was an experience that was educational, stressful, fun, exciting and something I would do again. It took us 46 hours all tole (with 2 "major" stops for sleep lasting about 4-5 hours) and semi frequent stops for fuel every 2-3 hours. Anything longer than 48 hours and I would recommend finding some place to get them all out just for a change of scenery, to really walk around and stretch, etc. Some of them would go from a bit stressed to being just fine and so having someone there who can read those signs and/or know the goat is quite important. At one point Tuesday night after traveling about 12 hours while Jeremiah was tying to sleep in the car, I was restless. The wind was rocking the trailer and it was hot in the car (didn't want to roll our windows down much) so I had a seat inside the trailer and just sat with them for quite a long time. The wind blew through the vents and it was quite pleasant in the trailer.

I hope some of these recommendations are helpful for you. I really had nothing to go by as far as helpful advice from anyone. I did a few searches on traveling with livestock but most everything is geared for commercial travel for cattle or swine or non-commercial travel with horses. I'd say goats and their needs are pretty specific.

It was an easy trip by all intents and purposes. They were excellent travelers and it really wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be.

Life continued in Kansas...

2010-07-06T09:09:00.001-05:00

Right now we're kind of in between life in Ca. and life in Ks. The goats are back safe and sound staying with a dear friend while we move the household stuff and wait for escrow to close.

As it stands we're in escrow on a home on 15 acres. There's a bit of cleaning up to do that will be needed before we can move the goats down from Northern Ks. but now that we've found a house my thoughts can move forward to breeding season and kidding season.

With so many other things going on in our personal lives-like being settled enough now to plan for another baby, traveling, school year ending, and holidays, not to mention a pretty severe difference in weather between Ks. and Ca.- knowing when to start the breeding season is something I've been thinking long and hard on.

With yet another kidding season under our belts, there were pros and cons to the way I did it this year. Definitely dam raising is the way to go for us. I do absolutely see the benefits of bottle raising, but overall, for now, dam raising is probably the way we'll continue. Knowing a few of my does and their attachment to kids, it would be hard to even take them away for required reasons, let alone personal ones.

I am hoping to plan kidding in such a way so that we are here for all the kiddings, the weather is such that newborns won't need a tremendous amount of special care for warmth, kids are still on their dams when school lets out so that we can travel, and kidding happens in such a way that isn't so spread out so as we're waiting weeks or months in between births. This year was fun to have so many new babies for almost 4 months, but really it was quite time consuming.

With the Ks. state fair not happening until Sept. and with my new direction for the herd, a later kidding time (March onward) really seems to be the best way to go.

I plan to keep all or almost all doe kids each year and breed them in the late fall. Kidding early enough to be ready for the following late fall/winter breeding for all new young stock will need to be taken into consideration.

Because linear appraisal doesn't give me an accurate idea on young stock, I would hope by the following year after a freshening "under their belt", I can better assess who I will be keeping. On that same note, I will go ahead and tattoo all stock but as far as registering, waiting until each freshens to appraise will allow me to sell those suitable as family milkers as such and those suitable for registering as such.

With almost 15 acres of mostly pasture, spring and summer feeding on mostly pasture should be the norm. In Ca., pasture feeding was a supplement.

There is plenty of forage and fodder for a conservative herd of 30 which may be what we're up to come next Spring.

We plan to get a hog or two to raise. I hear nothing but good stuff about milk fed pork. A big garden next spring is in the plan and if we configure everything right, we'll be able to get it all done. As far as extra milk, Kansas state laws allows me to sell it raw right off the farm but I hope to expand into cheese and soap for sale. Cheese for our own personal use, soap for additional income and expansion of the cloth diaper side of home business.

Goat Hauler

2010-07-06T08:40:00.000-05:00

Jeremiah did a fabulous job on the goat trailer and I was thrilled with it! It more than suited our needs and we were able to haul our herd from Ca. to Ks in 46 hours with everyone aboard safe and sound!

Jeremiah built it from the deck up. It started life as a flatbed trailer and has been transformed into what you see...

All the angle iron seams were welded by Jeremiah, and approx. 500 bolts were used. He made the ramps both back and side (side door ramps fits nicely at the front of the trailer), made the locking mechanisms on both doors which includes two pipes top and bottom that side into pre-drilled holes making it extremely secure.

All 14 goats rode safe and sound. The three bucks (1 adult buck and two 5 month old buck kids rode up front in their own compartment separate from the does. The 4 adult adult does and 7 kids rode in the back. Even with the feeder there was plenty of room for all.

The ramp on the back swings up and is secured by pins to the back of the trailer.

The inverter and standard household 200 watt box fans were my idea though the weather wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected and we may have used the fans twice. While driving there was more than adequate ventilation provided from front vent and side and the only time we really stopped for more than a half an hour was at night with one three hour stop and one four and it was cool enough and/or breezy enough to keep it very comfortable in the trailer.

I would have liked to have had more storage but mainly because I wanted to take absolutely everything goat related I had but overall, everything that I absolutely needed plus a couple extras were easily packed into the trailer including extra hay (so we didn't have to put it up top), meds, milk stand, back up milking machine and extra grain just because there was an extra bag.

( buck area up front and shelf unit.)

Above all we wanted a trailer that would be suitable to take to shows as well. And while later on I may like to have another deck added for any kids we may take freeing up space down below for does, this is a very well designed trailer that suited our needs for this trip and will suit our needs in the future. The front area designed for bucks will also double as a milking area, storage area or whatever for shows. The inverter will run a vacuum pump so that hand milking will not be necessary. Box fans will keep animals cool if in the event we're ever on another long trip or animals need to be confined to the trailer instead of a pen (i.e. for a show). Gate panel storage on the side of the trailer allows for the option of making pens if needed.

The feeder in the corner of the trailer Jeremiah made using the one in the bucks area as a template. I bought the bucks feeder off Craigslist used. One of the tabs used to secure it to a wall by a screw had broken off and I got it for a steal of a deal! Jeremiah welded a new tab on and made another just like it for less than $10. They worked really well!

Wordless Wednesday: Loving Lushious

2010-05-09T17:06:00.000-05:00

Herd Marmalade Welcomes...

2010-05-09T16:57:00.000-05:00

Tecosa Hot Toddy!

2010 kids: New photos

2010-04-20T19:42:00.001-05:00

Tahoe Joe (Isabella & John Henry's whethered kid-sold)

Clementine (Isabella & John Henry's doe kid- retained until linear appraisal)

Isabella Too (Isabella and John Henry's doe kid -retained until after linear appraisal)

Andy (Granite and Oreo's buck kid- retained)

Mea (Granite and Oreo's doe kid-retained)

Emmy Lou (PJ and John Henry's doe kid- retained until Linear Appraisal)

Harris- on the right (PJ and John Henry's buck kid- sold)

Ariel (Bonnie and Prince Charming's doe kid- retained)

Ima (Bonnie and Prince Charming's buck kid- retained)

Loli (FD and John Henry's doe kid- retained)

Fawn (Molly and Prince Charming's doe kid- Available)

Wordless Wednesday: What's that you say?

2010-04-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Isabella's kids

2010-03-31T07:00:00.000-06:00

Enjoying a sun shiny day at 3 days old

Marmalade Isabella Too

She looks SO much like Emmy Lou, see?

Marmalade Clementine

And Tahoe- He's not really the cutest baby ever. In fact, I'd go as far to say he's probably one of the ugliest! His front feet almost looked like they were clubbed for the first few days after life. With a little selenium and some stretching he's nearly 100%. I'd say a few more days and he'll be just fine, he was getting around fine after birth and was able to nurse. Unfortunately however his lower jaw is not square with his upper jaw. He will be wethered and will be either for a pet if I can find a suitable home or he'll go for meat. He's just the sweetest little boy though which makes up for his unattractiveness.

And we're done!

2010-03-30T10:25:00.000-06:00

Isabella kidded on her due date and what a bang our year went out with!

Isabella had looked like she was laboring Sunday evening (and all monday) and into Monday night but no discharge, no pushing, just the beginning signs of being off on her own, showing little interest in food, no dilation and now that I know what was going on inside, she never would have gotten those babies out alone, the buck kid was pretty much blocking the entire birth canal and he was the biggest of the buck kids yet! Which is frightening to say because they just kept getting bigger and bigger with each successive doe.

2 BIG girls and a BIG boy, 2.5 hours of laying in the soaked straw later with Jeremiah helping to hold and console I was able to turn every single kid. Every single one of them needed assistance into the birth canal which was no easy feat, I assure you! Trying to figure out legs from heads and bodies on 3 kids is difficult, le'me tell ya! The buck kid finally delivered breach, there was no way to turn him and no reason to once I got his back legs up into position. It was almost like he was standing up inside of there. Boy was I happy when that was all over!

Marmalade Isabella Too

"Tahoe"

No Photo of the third girl. Her birthday photo was her laying in the corner sprawled out exhausted and she looked dead...not pretty :o). But she is a live and well. More photos to come!

Do your ears hang low?

2010-03-23T11:13:00.000-06:00

Bonnie's Kids

2010-03-21T15:31:00.000-06:00

Bonnie freshened on Thursday, March 18 with a HUGE buck kid and a doe kid, both of which I had to pull. I am IN love. Absolutely, unequivocally, in love with their ears.

Marmalade Ima Girl Watcher- "Ima"

Marmalade Day For A Daydream-"Dreamy"

What A Day For A Daydream Delivery

2010-03-21T15:22:00.000-06:00

The sun is shinning, the grass is green, the temperature is warm and I am HUGE! This is a perfect day to have babies!

Thursday, March 18!