Buck Bath

Well it's almost fall and Mr. Wonderful has turned into Mr. Stinky.  That's right, as every buck owner in the world knows, those bucks get really gross when breeding season rolls around.  It's not just the hormonal stink but mix that with a generous helping of buck peeing on his own beard.  I heard that people wash their bucks but I had never done it before so I was a little worried.  He is 200 lbs on the weigh tape and he's quite strong.  I thought if it panicked him we'd be holding on to wet soapy goat for dear life and we'd never get him rinsed off.  It would be a goat rodeo.

The good news is that he loved it!  He's been so stinky that I avoid touching him and the only contact he gets is when I put the leaf rake over the rail to scratch his back...he hasn't had a good back rub in months.  He wasn't crazy about the straight from the well cold water but he loved the lathering up bit.  He wasn't even as bad as our dog but stood patiently while we lathered and rinsed.  He lounged around like a king afterwards.

So, if you haven't washed your buck get to it while the weather is still warm.  You (and he) will be glad you did.

Miniature Cow??

Saturdays Caledonian record features a picture of this animal, above, with the caption calling her a cow.  I've had people ask if they were dogs before but I've never had anyone mistake my goats for cows!  And in print...in the Newspaper.

Stars and Stripes

We took Sally and Pim's daughter Belle to the park for the Star's and Stripes annual political milking contest where politicians are given 30 seconds to see who can get the most milk.  I was so proud of how Sally behaved!  She stood still and let around 14 complete strangers attempt to milk her.  The Ham's also brought their goat "Lily" to the competition and she was lovely to everyone as well.  They both represented goats to the public in a way we would all be happy to see.

Of course, Dick Lawrence, remained the reigning champion in the contest.  The goats had plenty of milk though.  It was something I was worried about. 

Stars and Stripes

Mustang Sally will be hob-nobbing with politicians on July 21st in Lyndonville.  Every year politicians are invited out to Bandstand Park to milk a cow to see who has the most "pull" in the Kingdom. This year they are going the way of the goat and Mustang Sally will be in the park (hopefully behaving herself) while two politicians see who can get the most milk into the pail in 30 seconds.  I'm a little worried about this...I can practically milk her out in that amount of time.

So get out to goat and come by Bandstand Park at 11:30 to say hi and meet miss Sally.  I may even have some cheese for you to try!

Presenting : Queso Blanco

The babies are weaned and now comes the fun part....what to do with just under 12 lbs a day worth of goat's milk.  Of course it's time to make cheese!  I will be marketing the cheese through the St. J Coop (I will add other places you can get it as they are added to my list). 

Right now you can get a sampler pack...three cheeses in two ounce tubs.  They are:

Queso Blanco with Basil and Garlic : this is a lovely cheese with even buttery undertones that carry the pesto taste uniformly throughout the cheese.  Great on crackers or I love to throw it into my eggs (Yum!).

Queso Blanco : This is a very mild versatile cheese which can be grated and used any place that calls for a mild cheese such as on pizza or salads. 

Yogurt Spread : This is a tangy cheese like Cream cheese...great on bagels or crackers.  It also is great as a dip for veggies (it's a little thick for chips)

Yogurt Spread with Dill and Garlic : One of my favorite combinations...goes great on crackers or bagels.  I like it on sandwiches as an alternative to mayo.

All cheeses are made by hand one at a time and without rennet!

 

Blessed are the Cheesemakers!

As everyone knows who keeps goats, spring is the busiest time with milking, feeding babies and making goat's milk products!  Here is our newest herd member and the first to bear our name : Spring Mtn Farm Belle.  We are also keeping an unregistered doe named Julianna out of Stone Pillars x Cossayuna bloodlines but sadly the dam is unregistered.

Julianna is going to be a big girl and her mother was giving 12 lbs at peak so we are thrilled to see what she will do.

Off to new homes are Darwin (Rocky X Sally) and Licorice (Cossayuna x Stone Pillars again).

They make a nice little pair!  I'm just about ready to wean everyone. We are coming up on 12 weeks and then, all the milk is going into my Queso Blanco with basil and garlic and my yogurt cheese with garlic and dill.  Look for it at the St. J Coop and the Freighthouse in Lyndonville, or contact me here to try some.

Vetericyn

After a lifetime of working with animals and keeping livestock I have tried many, many different products for all the various ailments that crop up. Most work pretty poorly. It is rare that I will find something to rave about--something that lives up to it's claims. My normal course of action when I find an injury and fear infection is to start an aggressive triple antibiotic application and strive to make and keep the injury free of dirt. It is really the only thing that I have had work for me and what my vet normally recommends anyway.

My horse, Scooby, is prone to these kinds of scrapes and scratches. The other day I went out and found him with a long slash on his rear. It was long and deep enough that I thought about calling the vet for stitches but it was in a place that I knew was likely to rip out and clean enough that I thought it would mend without stitches. I treated it with triple antibiotic ointment for several days and it looked great. On day four he rolled and inflamed the area, filling it with dirt. I washed the wound and dressed it but I was very worried by how swollen the entire area was and the nasty red tissue that was showing in the now widening slit. Proud flesh is a huge problem with horses. Granular tissue grows around an inflamed area and won't go away.

I went on line and found a post about a new product called vetericyn. It sounded too good to be true...it treats wounds, burns, eye infections, fungal infections and it's safe to use all over the animal without fear of irritation. I was willing to try anything at this point. It is expensive, $30 for a 20 oz bottle. I was really hoping that I wasn't being an idiot by buying it. The company claims that the spray works by penetrating and oxidizing the wound, helping the animal's own natural defenses activate which, frankly, sounded like a lot of hoopla to me.

The instructions say to saturate the wound 3 or 4 times a day...which isn't possible for me. I could do it twice a day. When you apply vetericyn it goes on like water and runs off. I gave the wound a thorough dousing...about ten shots with the sprayer it comes in. I was very dubious. It looked like it was all just running down the horses flanks like water. I wondered if any penetrated the wound at all and even thought about trying to scrub the wound open (bad idea). The next day the swelling was gone. After two days the wound had shrunk to half it's size and in three days I cut the second spraying. I am no longer using so much--just a few squirts and I am completely and utterly in awe of how quickly and completely this stuff works. I'm in love...where have you been all my life, vetericyn?

The Goat Stork Cometh!

After weeks of false starts, Pims finally came through with twins...a buck and a doe. That's the buck, above. I went out to do chores yesterday before 5 and he was laying in the shavings at his mother's feet. He hadn't stood yet but she had cleaned him off and did just fine without help.

She had the doe kid twenty minutes later. It is so much fun having kids again and nice to be milking too. Pims is producing just about what you would expect for colostrum as a first freshening yearling...about 40 oz in 24 hours. I brought the kids inside right off and they are getting their legs under themselves today.

I used nutri-drench on the kids and their mom as soon as they were born followed by a bucket of water with molasses in it. They loved that! Sally had to join Pims to have a sweet drink but they are so sweet to each other that she never had to be moved into a separate stall. Sally stayed well away from Pims while she was birthing. And how considerate of Pims to kid on a sunny day just before chores...she didn't even miss a meal!

I am always filled with awe (and aaaaaaaaawh) when baby goats are born, healthy and vigorous and ready to jump right up and play hours after they are born. It's one of those common place miracles that make life so wonderful.

Burning Horn Buds

Well my kids are not here yet but I did some breeding in Peacham with the Davies family's beautiful Nubians and their kids were born two weeks ago. They have very high quality Nubian does but they aren't registered. The farm they came from is out of business but luckily their breeding is still in the Nubian herd book and looked like a good out-cross for my goats. I decided to ad two of these kids to my herd and register them as "Native on Appearance" in the ADGA registry.

They are lovely, as I knew they would be, and a nice addition. We went to see them and burn their horn buds the other night. I chose two because with my goats still waiting to kid, I have no idea what I will get. If I get two large single bucks I won't be keeping them and a lone little Davies doe wouldn't be big enough to go in with the big girls for a while after all the little guys would be gone. Goats do not like to be kept alone. This way my Davies does will have each other as they grow big enough to stay with my other goats.

We have had some terrible car trouble which prevented me from going out when the kids were born. Kate told me she thought they were about a week early but it didn't register with me that it meant I could safely delay horn bud burning. Two weeks went by without being able to get out to take care of those horn buds and I was in a bit of a panic. If you burn too late it's a mess and not really all that reliable. You want to burn buds in the first week, usually. At around fourteen days when we finally went out, I was relieved to find healthy babies with tiny, brand new horn buds. Really, if I had gone out before they wouldn't be developed enough to burn. So, all my worry was for nothing.

We picked our two beautiful babies...Julianna (she looks like Julius) and Fiona. It was dark so I didn't get pictures yet but those will be coming soon. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to ad stone pillars farm bloodlines to mine and see what they produce. I am also adding Jesta Farm Arabella from Michelle Pike in Cabot so we will have enough milk. Arabella is probably going to be one of my favourite goats of all times--she is beautiful, productive AND sweet. Michelle does a great job making her animals a pleasure to handle.

I used a non-electric horn bud burner to do the job this time...actually my husband did the burning because I need reading glasses to do it now (I hate getting old). I held the kids swaddled in a towel. I must admit that I was nervous using the non electric burner for the first time but was very pleased with the results! We got a solid copper ring right away without worrying about brain damage because the burner is cooling the entire time you are using it. It gets very hot. It only took 5 or 6 seconds per horn though it did need to be re-heated for each bud. I brought clippers and shaved their heads so we could be sure to burn in the right place. I don't know how anyone does that job without clipping to expose the buds. This is always traumatic for everyone involved but once it's over the little guys get right up and frolic around like nothing ever happened. I really think I prefer this burner to my old rhinehart. The only down side is the need for a torch in the barn...which made me nervous.

And I get fooled...

So Pims is not ready to have her kids yet! She was showing every sign...pawing, loose ligaments between her hip bones and her pin bones, hollowed out sides, mucous discharge, the rounded rump that means the kids are pushing up into the birth canal...not to mention pacing, groaning, laying down and getting up. I felt sure about ten times that "this was it". Then she would get up, stretch, walk over to the hay feeder and go back to life as usual...as if nothing happened. I realised that she is just very uncomfortable. She's ready to go. She would love to have these kids but the message to go into labor is given by the kids brains, not the dams. I can actually relate! I have seven children of my own and I can totally relate to being ready to have my pregnancy be over. She will have them when they are ready. Not a minute sooner. Poor little Pims keeps going into false labor and is just plain uncomfortable. In the mean time, I will keep checking on her through the night because the one thing I did learn from my many births...they will come. Ready or not!

Waiting for kids

I've been watching my two does carefully. I've been surprised by the goat stork before and don't want to be caught unawares this time! I take the babies away at birth. I've tried it both ways and found that this is what works best for me for a number of reasons.

1)Mom get's very attached to her baby and when it comes time to milk she will generally pitch a fit while if you take the babies away they just think my milking is the way it's supposed to be and they get right into the schedule without any fuss or upset. I think this is actually kinder to the goats.
2)You see production right off and know what the babies are getting...this allows you to see if there is a problem quickly (is that baby tired or sick? If they aren't eating they are sick!)
3)You keep the udder nice and even this way. Babies will favor one side over another often times ruining the udder's symmetry hurting the value of the goat later.
4)You know if mom has mastitis and can help prevent mastitis from the beginning with a teat dip. The orifice opens to let the milk out and doesn't close right up after which can lead to bacteria in the udder.
5)Optimum milk production is created by demand. Babies don't demand milk on a optimum milking schedule and just sip whenever they want which doesn't empty the udder (telling the udder to produce more milk).

Anyhoo, I thought the goats were bred later even though I saw early breeding behavior. I thought it didn't take when I saw them doing it again later in November. By the looks of things Pims did take! Her tendons that run from her hips to her pin bones is loose, she had bloody mucous on her tail yesterday and her vulva is pink and puckered...all signs of imminent kidding! Now I will watch for the other signs: restlessness & loss of appetite. Look for kid pics soon!

Goat Milk?

I have been doing some research always having been fascinated by dairy statistics. Did you know, for instance, that a cow is bred at 18 months old for an 11 month gestation? Dairy goats are bred at around seven months old and have a five month gestation which is almost a year sooner to start producing milk. From there, the math continues to be surprisingly easy. A cow weighs 10 times more than a goat (135 for a goat, 1300 for a cow) and produces 10x as much milk (2000 lbs for a goat and 20,000 for a cow). Cow's are listed as costing the farmer less (per gallon of milk) than goats at $7 per day for a cow to $1 per goat. So milk, just the caring for the animals basic needs...not paying for electricity or equipment or any of the things farmers must have to do the work of a dairy...costs .96 cents to produce per gallon (and that's not paying the farmer a cent yet) and goats milk costs $1.46 per gallon to produce. Since I'm not running a milking machine or bulk tank that keeps my costs way down. It's a very efficient way to get the highest quality milk, cheese and yogurt money can buy!

Why Goats?

It's funny, but from the very beginning of my journey into dairy goat keeping that is the one question that comes up again and again.

It all started that fateful day when I pulled into my neighbor's yard in Iowa. I was from Houston, a city girl all my life, well known animal-lover from childhood. There in the yard, were the cutest creatures I had ever laid eyes on. I didn't even know what they were. With their floppy ears I thought "sheep"? but they totally lacked anything like wool. These were day old Nubian goats.

I asked my neighbor what they were and she smiled and said "goats". I was instantly in love with their clumsy antics and their little faces with those long ears which they tossed around like sassy pig-tailed girls. So I started to make a case with my husband for why we must have goats at our own house. We had five kids so we went through a lot of milk, I was sure we would save money there. I could make cheese. I could make soap...more savings. It was an idea I didn't really believe at the time but it was my story and I stuck with it.

We tried the milk and found it to be excellent. So, I bought my first doe, a pregnant first freshener named Twinkle. When I milked her for the first time I was brutally disappointed. She produced barely more than what her kid needed to survive. I was assured that this was normal for yearling first fresheners so I persevered. We didn't get much milk the first season so I bought Twinkles mother, Doree. Doree produced a gallon of milk per day, twinkle also produced a gallon per day her second season and soon we were not having to buy milk and even had enough to make yogurt and cheese.

I kept meticulous records to prove or disprove that the goats were economical for us to keep. What I found was pretty surprising. I couldn't sell any milk from the goats in Iowa (strictly against the law) so I calculated what I didn't have to buy according to what I was used to paying. I didn't have to buy any milk at $3.00 per gallon. That was the price for cow's milk at the grocery store. That was not the price for organic cow's milk even though I know my standards for handling and the freshness of my milk was much higher than the milk we had been buying. Even calculating at the lowest price, the milk my two little does produced paid for their feed and paid me back for their purchase prices (both $150) in one year. In fact the $1,095.00 savings in milk paid for every cost the goats incurred with a surplus of $200. Hay, minerals, shots, collars...the goats paid for all that with just their milk. Then, the next year I was selling babies for $100 for does and $50 for bucks. Five babies gave me an extra $300. So I bought a doe with papers.

Then my husband got a new job and we moved and all the goats had to be sold or given away suddenly. It was hard and sad to let them all go and I was determined to find a place in the country and get more goats as soon as we could. And the bottom line is the bottom line in this story. What other animals give you so much joy and fun and affection while also more than paying their way. Here in Vermont I can sell a certain amount of milk and goat cheese without a grade A certificate. I expect it will be even more profitable than it was in Iowa. Still my husband goes on about the price we paid for a ADGA registered Nubians and I just can't understand this attitude towards an animal that is so profitable and so productive and so unassuming and easy to keep.

Why goats? Let me count the why's :

*Fun
*Sweet
*Cute
*Profitable--meat, milk, cheese and kids
*Milk of a quality we could never afford to buy
*ditto the cheese
*don't forget yogurt
*soap that washes odors away
*Pride to have such beautiful animals
*It's good for kids to see how food is produced
*Meat from the bucks
*Lessons from the barn
*Being up at 3 am waiting for kids and seeing Hale-Bop in the sky
*The many priceless moments we've experienced goat-keeping

Udders Appear

I was away in Germany when the does were bred--but I only had my kids word for it.  We never saw any more breeding activity after that.  So, I've been hopeful that we have kids due in late April or early May.  I check the girls every day for signs and today I got my confirmation...udders have appeared!  You can kind of get a feel for how the full udder is going to look by what is showing right now.  Looks like Pims will have a very pronounced medial ligament and well defined teats and Sally will have a smoother udder and will carry everything higher.  Sally is a long, deep-bodied goat so she doesn't "show" at all so this little udder development is my confirmation.  Now, I'm getting excited!  Kidding is my favorite time of year.  It's just like Christmas in spring.

If you don't know how to tell when your goats are about to kid, here are the signs:

Bagging up -- You've got days and maybe weeks...start watching closely
A Goat that was huge suddenly isn't quite so big...the kids have turned and are getting ready to be born
Ligaments across the pin bones on the goat's hips goes mushy...better start checking every two hours
Sudden loss of appetite...check for other signs like pink swollen vulva and mucous-ey discharge
She will be restless, maybe pawing or pacing or just the opposite--standing still with her feet close together...go get a clean dry towel and get ready to wait and watch for contractions.

I like to give molasses water, separate the goat from the herd and make sure she has choice hay and oatmeal, uncooked, to nibble on.  The molasses has sugars and minerals to help give her energy for the big job ahead and to help prevent ketosis.  I like to have the water hot during cold weather because it entices them to drink more.  If you see any problems you want to have electrolytes ready to go too to support the doe after she kids.

I take the kids away directly and milk right away.  Milking will stimulate contractions to expel the after-birth.  You want to examine the after-birth (many goats will eat it and that doesn't seem to bother them).  Look to see that it is smooth and that there are no chunks missing.  Retaining part of the after birth can make a doe very sick.  If you are suspicious watch the doe closely and check for fever (over 103 degrees).

 Bloody discharge is good, removing anything that has been retained during the birth.  Handling the kids right after they are born makes for very friendly goats later in life, so even if you plan to let mama nurse, handle those babies right off.  Warm them in your coat and let them get used to you from the first moments as someone who will care for them.  I put a warmer light and a crate in the babies pen and I check them often.  I feed two 20 oz bottles per day.  They may only eat 5 oz right off so I go back in an hour later and give them more and again if needed.  I feed them at least three times a day until they are able to clean off that first bottle.

They have hay available right from the start too.  After they can drain a bottle I go to two feedings a day, hay and feed available all the time.  The feed needs to be replaced even if they don't eat it.  Think of leaving a bowl of cereal out for your kids and thinking "I won't give them more until they eat that".  They'll only eat it if it's fresh.  This schedule encourages kids to eat hay and develop their rumen which will help them grow when they get older and no longer get milk.  I have a horse that clearly shows the damage of not developing the stomach for hay.  She nursed for three years and the people who owned her just let her nurse.  She can't keep weight on and her development is stunted and all the research indicates that she didn't get the right nutrients because her calories came from milk.

This regimen has worked well for me so far.  Anyway, happy kidding everyone.  Stay tuned for April/May kids!

Winter on the Farm

Winter is a slow time for me this year.  We've had some antics from the goats getting out and getting into the chicken shed to eat the chicken feed but mostly they just want to stay where it's warm near the hay feeder.

Breeding was done in late November which gives me kidding in late April--probably the last week of April.  There really is no way to tell what we will get this season or whether or not we will need a new buck to breed any retained does with.   I am thrilled to know Pike Family Farm which has great and entirely different bloodlines from me.  Michelle Pike was our goat judge for the fair this year and has her farm in Cabot--also great for me since she's so close.  Her goats come out of the Jesta herd long known for very high quality Nubian goats. Michelle brought her buck out, Jesta Farm Blue Back in Style, who has a very impressive presence, lovely conformation and a great pedigree.

The down time is great for planning and thinking with no milking or kids to care for.  Now, if I can just keep the goats out of the chicken house...