Spring Mtn Nubians

Two years after starting Spring Mtn Nubians here in East Burke, it's time to see where we are...literally.  Here is our herd in pictures:

First, our herd sire, Rocky Top Romeo.  He's out of *B Capri-Dot's Cherished Infinity and he's quite a boy with a lovely personality and  he's never missed...if you know what I mean.  He gets the job done, as you can see.  His babies are pretty consistent: deep bodied, wide with nice high escutcheons.

Next we have Sally...my personal favourite of all times.  She is a sweetie and sooo productive.  I am excited to have a doe out of her that we are keeping.

 

Sally has what I like in a milker.  She maintains her body condition while producing 10 lbs at 2 years old.  She has a quiet, sweet disposition that is just the icing on the cake.  Her daughter looks to be a chip off the old block and her son "Roger Houston" will, hopefully pass those great features on to his young.

Last, but not least, Pims.  Pims has produced twins as a yearling and again this season...twin does this time.  The loud markings on Mocha are exactly like Pims litter mate brother (so we know who is producing the color).

 

Pims kidded in February, surprising me with twin does!

Soon to come...our new herd sire:  Trevins Glory Rusty.

Cheese Making : 30 Minutes Mozarella

Sally and Pims are in full swing production now that there is plenty of green grass in their diets.  With 2 gallons plus of milk per day my fridge runneth over!  I've been experimenting with Cheese making to help use up the milk.  I bought a cheese making kit from New England Cheese Making Supplies

(http://www.cheesemaking.com/)

I could not be happier with the kit.  It includes a recipe book, but I also have the book written by New England Cheese Making Supply Companies founder, Rikki Carroll, "Home cheese Making".  So far I have a farm house cheddar, a gouda and a parmesan aging and I've made Chevre (culture not included in the kit I bought), queso blanco (made with simple ingredients you probably already have) and the 30 minute mozarella from the book. 

I was very sceptical about the 30 minute mozarella.  I thought it would be something that wouldn't be like a "real" mozarella but it's better than real!  It melts to a lovely, stringy pizza topping that my kids gobbled up.  It shreds beautifully into clean, thin, shreds that don't stick together, making topping a pizza very easy.  The flavor is mild and lovely and the goats milk works perfectly for this cheese.  If you have milk, you must try the 30 minute mozzarella recipe..but beware, it may ruin you for store bought forever!

Mustang Sally makes herself over

Mustang Sally is my favorite goat of all times.  She is so good and sweet and never gives me any trouble.  On top of her wonderful personality, she produces lots of milk and has great conformation...she's the whole package. So, I was very disappointed when she aborted in December.  I didn't think she could be bred back before she stopped cycling for the season.  Evidently she had other thoughts.  By March it was obvious that she was, indeed, bred again but I had no clue when to expect babies. 

On May 18 at 8 am when we went out to the barn there was a buck and a doe lying in the straw.  They were still quite goopy and the little doe looked to be minutes old (covered in goop and not yet sitting up).  We took care of business as usual...dipping cords, getting some colostrum and giving mom her bucket of warm molasses water. 

The babies are called Roger Houston and Sharona.  Sharona is the spitting image of her mom so I am thrilled and Houston is the spitting image of his dad with just a little lighter coat.  They are both gorgeous babies and mom is producing like a champ.  After having so many problems with Pims, it is a joy to have Sally make life easy for us.

Lessons in Coccidiosis

My sick doe has recovered and been sick again.  We have decided that she has had two bouts with Coccidia.  Coccidia are a protozoa that can live in the soil and inside your goat's digestive tract.  They are most commonly a problem in baby goats but my farm had no coccidia on it, so my adult goats had never been exposed -- kind of like an adult who gets chicken pox because they never had it as a kid.  The stress of kidding and the increase in feed brought on the first episode and when I moved her to her summer quarters it brought on her second episode.

How did we get it into our herd?  I sent a doe off to be bred and she came back with it.  How do I know this?  Because my doe kidded on the day the bred doe came home and it takes about ten days for the disease to develop.  The bad news is that, now that we have coccidia on our property it will always be here.  The good news is that my doe has made a complete recovery.  Sometimes they don't and can never put on weight or produce well.  She is currently increasing in production and putting on weight!

The treatment I used: sulmet, two tsp in water as a drench for each goat with signs of scours.  Then I used 5 tablespoons to 10 gallons of Sulmet in their drinking water for five days.  My vet says it's important to do the drench right off in case they are so sick that they don't drink the water and to do the five days to catch the protazoa in it's active state...in it's cyst state it is impervious to treatment. Sulmet is very inexpensive and works wonders so I'm keeping it on hand from now on.

Given the prevalence of coccidia...it is everywhere...I am probably lucky to have it on my property because my babies will be exposed to it and won't get sick when they go to their new home...which is likely to have coccidia in the soil.  Who carries the organism?  Dogs, cats, chicken, sheep and even people.  Luckily it only makes animals sick when they are stressed so you know when to look for it.  And have no fear, you can't catch it from your goat because it is species specific which means the kind of coccidia you can get will only be carried by other people.

Sick Doe and Low Milk Production

It's been a very rough month!  My Doe, Pims, who kidded with beautiful twin does on February 2nd got sick!  Here's what happened.  She was producing very well...about 2.5 lbs per milking of colostrum. She was beginning to produce more at around 6 lbs per day, when she had a sudden drop in production. It was super cold so I didn't think much of it.  The next day I realized that she was scouring badly and had no appetite. 

I went into high gear.  I had two hungry kids and not enough milk and a doe that could die!  I started with Corrid, doused down her throat with a turkey baster.  I used 2 tsp in water enough to fill the baster and put it down her throat, behind her tongue (this is a 2 person job).  You have to run it down slowly so she doesn't choke. I also treated the water with Corrid.  It tastes bad enough that they wouldn't drink the water and I saw no change by evening so I switched to Sulmet.  Again, a dose down the throat with a turkey baster and sulmet in the water with some goat electrolytes to help mask the smell and to give her back some of what the diarrhoea was taking.

I followed the following regimen for a week.  Sulmet in the morning and in the water with electrolyte, almost no feed (1/2 of a 16 oz can of rolled oats and cheerios twice daily--she only picked at it anyway) at milking time.  Her udder went through changes and her milk production dropped to 1.7 lbs per milking.  The udder became leathery like when a doe is being dried up. At night she got pro-biotics and no sulmet in the water.

By the third day of this, her stools were firm.  By the weeks end, her udder was pink again, as if she had just kidded and she was producing 2.25 lbs of milk twice a day...almost enough for the kids but not nearly what you would expect of a two year old doe.  For the kids I started adding milk re-placer to their bottles on top of the milk to get them used to it.  You don't want to switch to milk re-placer all at once because they will get sick (as my husband found out when he got up and thought he was doing a good thing by making a straight milk re-placer bottle.  The baby scoured but recovered quickly when she got her mother's milk and probiotics).  I used the "Save a Kid" brand milk re-placer and it worked very well.

Pims is now a month out from her first episode with scours.  She has gone through mini-episodes since then of not eating and having loose stools but she continues to get better.  She is eating two 16 oz cans of goat grain (Blue Seal Caprine Challenger) twice a day and is producing 5 lbs per day of milk, which is pretty poor.  She may never recover from the damage that was done to her gut and it may always affect her production but I am waiting to see what spring and fresh grass and warm temperatures do for her before I make any judgement.

It's been a tough road but on the positive side, at eight weeks this Saturday, both kids are doing great.  They have exceeded their weaning weight already even though I am still feeding bottles--20 oz, twice daily of their mother's milk and 20 oz of water with molasses twice daily.  They are eating kid grain (it's hard to tell how much because they spill quite a lot) and hay.  They are both well over 30 lbs and growing fast.  Pims has contributed three does to the herd in her two years and more than earned her way.  I hope she will recover but if she doesn't, only a wonderful pet home will do for her...or she stays with us.  She won't be culled.

Seeing Spots

Pims was acting strangely last night when I did my last check before bed...of course she was in labor!  So I went back inside and got my Triadine (for cord dipping), a clean towel and got my milking pail ready as well as a bottle for the kids.  I knew it would probably be at least two hours...there was no show yet but I was seeing contractions every ten minutes. So I put on my snow suit and wool coat. Temps were in the teens so it would be a cold wait. This was at 7:30.

At 10:00 we saw fore-waters  crowning (finally!) and at 10:15 I was seeing spots!  I was rewarded for my wait with the loudest doe I've ever seen...her name is Mocha Madness.  15 minutes later came Chai who is mostly brown but a lovely doe as well.  These two will stay with us for at least the next two years and we couldn't be more thrilled with how Pims is producing.  What a great doe.

For her trouble, she got a warm pail of molasses water.  They need the energy even though the kidding was perfect and she didn't skip a meal she worked very hard!  It's her second freshening and her second set of twins so milking is not strange but a welcome relief to her poor distended udder!