December Babies!! Yikes!

Back in July two of my does got in with the buck.  The buck was kept in a horse stall, 10 x 10 with a latch that I locked by putting fencing wire through the  clasp and twisting it tightly closed.  It would take me about a minute to untwist the wire to go in with the buck.  Anyway it was July for goodness sake!

I went out one morning to find a yearling, Sharona in the stall and the wire gone.  Ok, I got a little more serious and put a Carabiner on the latch.  That should fix it.  Three days later one of my milkers was found in the stall with the buck in the morning!  Still, it's not fall and these are Nubian goats...not known for breeding out of season.

Anyway, my milker, a yearling who had produced two doe kids in March, started bagging up.  I started watching her and checking her ligaments.  I knew kids were coming early from her.  But the other goat wasn't showing.  Nothing at all...no udder to speak of, no big belly, nothing.  But when I was out checking ligaments I checked her too and thought "that's weird, her ligaments are GONE".  I looked her over, decided I was wrong and went to bed.  No way this goat was having kids early.

Well weren't we surprised to find a doe kid, dry and standing in the stall the next day.  Just goes to show...if a goat breaks into the buck stall...she's bred.  Don't believe anything else.  She's bred!

The other went three days later.  Now I have two gorgeous does and a lovely buck out of my two yearlings.  For Mocha it's the fourth kids and second lactation for 2014!  That little darling spinner in the picture is one of her babies named for my favorite drink from the Grindstone Cafe in Lyndonville...Kashmiri Spice.  Her brother is called Machiatto.  And the surprise baby?  Holly of course!

What a nice Christmas surprise!

Ah, Fall!

Heading into fall...the buck is in rut.  The girls want nothing to do with him and I play match-maker.  We have a fabulous buck this year...The Springbrook Smash.  He looks like the bucks from the A.I. pages and he's only one this year but much bigger than my three year old doe.  Kidding season will be very exciting!

I did a presentation at the school with my goats and the research that it required was fun and informative.  I did a comparison of cows vs. goats.  It is astonishing how quickly goats add up!  If you bought a calf it would cost about $1,000.   You could buy two really nice does for that.  According to the ADGA, the average doe gives about 2400 lbs of milk per year and she will start at around one year of age.  I talked to a farmer who breeds at 3 years with his cows and another who breeds at 2.  The average cow gives an astonishing 17,000 lbs per year...but you don't see a drop until the third year when she calves.

By this time your two does will have given 4800 lbs the first year and, considering you should have one more doe to add to your little herd, 7200 lbs the second year.  The third year, when you have five does milking you will have 12,000 lbs...plus what you got the first couple of years or 24,000 lbs.  The other astonishing thing was that cows cost a whole lot more to feed--about $8 per day compared to $1 per day per goat.  Since it takes 7 goats to make as much milk as a cow you still save a dollar in cost.  AND goats browse so they'll be able to eat many more varieties of plants than a cow--which needs pasture.

We did the comparison for Heifer International...when you look at milk production for cows in other parts of the world it gets really interesting.  Cows in the UK produce an average of 14,000 lbs while goats produce the same as in the US.  In countries struggling with poverty an animal that can eat brush would be very valuable because it would cut feeding cost.

Lone Buck

I always hear about how you have to have a friend for your buck to hang out with.  They get lonely, right?  I have set my bucks up, one by one with their friend--usually a wether and have had to remove the wether every time.  I don't know if it's just Nubian bucks...I did have an Alpine buck visit my girls and he never had to be removed.  He was a perfect gentleman whenever I was looking but he did get the job done.

Nubian bucks, at least the ones I've owned are not this way.  They urinate lavishly on their own faces and anyone else whenever posssible, challenge anyone who comes near the girls and try to breed or fight with any other goat in the area.  I always feel sorry for the wether and worry about the buck's condition because he loses weight when he's always actively trying to breed or fight (which they seem to want to do with the wether pretty much all day).

This last buck I have is case in point.  He started out as a lovely boy...a yearling and sweet and friendly.  Then, one of my does went into heat in the middle of the summer and BAM! Monster buck!  He was so bad that my kids were afraid of him and I wanted to send him to slaughter. I blamed him.  He's such a great looking buck, though and my thought was to do it after breeding.

It got so bad that I moved him into a vacant horse stall by himself.  Almost instantly he turned back into the sweet, calm buck that we had brought home.  I am figuring that the responsibility he felt to breed and protect the girls was lifted when he was moved into his own space.  He's fallen out of rut and is a joy to handle and be around now. This is the third time I've seen this happen with bucks I've owned so it's not just the one buck.

If you have a problem buck and you don't know what to do--try giving him his own space and see what happens. 

Easy Chevre

Ah, Summer!  The garden is resplendent in every shade of green, purple and red. The fresh produce spills from the basket onto counter tops and table as it all gets cleaned and put away.  Babies are weaned and it's time to put that milk to good use.  Chevre is the easiest and most fool proof cheese to make.  Here's my recipe  You will need

• 1 Gallon of Goat's Milk
• Chevre Starter
• Rennet
• Cheese Salt
• Herbs

Equipment:

• An accurate thermometer that reads up to 145 degrees Fahrenheit
• A Large Steel Pot 
• Another Steel Pot  with a lid that holds one gallon and fits inside the larger pot
• Cheese Cloth
• Colander or cheese mold

Pasteurize the milk: Put the big pot filled with enough water to float the milk pot slightly on the stove on high.  Bring the milk to 145 degrees and turn off the heat.  Leave for 30 minutes.  If you home is a comfortable temperature the milk will hold 145 degrees in the water bath for the entire 30 minutes.  Cool the milk quickly by moving the pot with the milk in it from the hot water and into an ice water bath in the sink.  Stir the milk gently to release the heat.

Bring the milk down to 80 degrees.  Sprinkle one packet of Chevre starter on top of the milk.  Let stand for 3 minutes and gently stir the starter into the milk.  Let rest for 45 minutes.  Take 1/4 of a rennet tablet and dissolve in 1/4 cup of un-chlorinated water.  If you don't have a well at your house you will need to use bottled water.  When the 45 minutes is up, add 1 teaspoon of the dissolved rennet to your milk and gently stir until well blended.  

Put the lid on your milk pot and place in a warm-ish (75 degrees or so) place to mature for 12 hours. On top of my freezer works in my house--it produces heat and keeps the milk the right temperature.  I have used a fish tank heater in a water bath on particularly cold days.  Wrap the pot in a towel to help keep it insulated.

The curds will be soft but will have a clean break from the edges of the pot.  You should see a definite layer of whey ready to drain from the curds, which will form a mass with a custard-like consistency.  Ladel the curds into a colander or cheese mold lined with cheese-cloth. I add my salt now--to taste.  For me that's about 1 teaspoon. Take up the cheese cloth edges and tie together to make a bag.  Hang the bag over a sink or pot to drain for 12 hours.  The resulting chevre is ready for seasoning any way you like it.  In the picture: The finished cheese was rolled in Italian herbs and garlic salt and sprinkled with a touch of fresh lemon juice and garnished with fennel greens.

Six Weeks of Growth

It's really interesting how kids grow...none are the same, it seems.  These kids are growing faster than I've ever seen and they are changing a lot as well.  Hazel, the brown kid, is staying pretty much as she was at birth...very deep in the body, a little less coarse in the neck and the legs are sorting themselves out as well.  I never judge kids legs until they are a lot older.  Cino on the other hand was born almost like she had been starving...she was very thin...Practically skin and bones.  She's added weight and has deepened in the body...steadily improving over the six weeks since she was born.

We finally have green grass for their mother, Mocha and she's stepping up production accordingly.  One of life's simple pleasures...goats out on green grass!

We are adding a new buck to our herd...presenting The Spring Brook Smash.  He's a yearling right now and since we only got one doe bred last season he should be rarin to go in the fall and tall enough to get the job done.  Foggy produced two lovely does so I can't complain.

What I like about Smash, I haven't seen him in person yet but his body capacity is huge, he has a great chest a nice neck and good legs...all that and a pretty level top-line.  We'll have to see what he produces and that will take time.  His babies will hit the ground next year and mature two years later...it's quite a wait.  Rocky's babies are all improved in the legs and the one we have fresh is hugely improved over her mother's udder and in production.  She also had a very tough kidding which she went through with ease...producing two gorgeous little does.  As they say, the buck is the most important investment you make as all your babies will be under his influence.  This is an American buck so all his babies will be American but I like his looks very much.  If he can throw that body depth and bone into his kids it will be a great investment.

Here are the new babies out of Foggy...Hazel on top and Ccino on the bottom. 

New Babies and new lessons

I noted that Mocha was bred on October 17 in my barn records so I started watching closely around March 12--checking daily, watching as the ligaments loosened on her pin bones, watching for her appetite to go, watching and waiting.  On March 14th,  I stepped it up and started checking her at night, every four hours.  But, there was no progress after the first little bloody show on the 14th.  No further signs that she intended to have what I assumed was a single large kid.  She was born in February last season and isn't a big goat and to add to my thinking she never really looked big or uncomfortable.  So, I assumed I missed the date she was really bred.  I even had a friend come over and look at her.  He said she looked like she had another week to go, at least.

On March 22nd--155 days, she stopped eating and drinking around midnight.  She got that tell-tale look in her eye (like she was listening to something only she could hear).  Her little udder bagged up and she started acting uncomfortable.  I checked her every four hours.  At around 8 am she started labor in earnest.  Visible contractions every five minutes or so, circling, laying down and getting up and grunting.  You can see contractions:  The tail goes up like she's about to go to the bathroom, nothing comes out and the tail curves over like a shepherds crook.  Contractions last about 30 seconds to a minute or so. 

My daughter got up to be there for the birth (Mocha is her goat).  Pretty soon we saw the fore waters, a sack of water that protruded.  I noticed that the water wasn't clear...it was more opaque than I had seen before.  We could see a nose and one hoof.  She pushed and pushed but the baby would peek out and go back in so I decided to grab the hoof the next time it appeared.  This broke the bag of water and the little nose and hoof stayed out.  I knew she had a leg back at this point...not a great position for a first freshener!  This was going to be hard on Mocha and the baby.  I've seen it before in a much older goat and the pressure of the birth injured the baby.  She recovered after a few days.

I helped as much as I could, pulling gently on the leg.  I was about to go in and look for the other foot when Mocha gave a mighty push and most of the little kid came out.  She stood up for the next contraction and out came a beautiful little doe (5.91 lbs).  She was very vigorous and was breathing right away and bleating her indignation.  My husband was watching Mocha, and said "there's another baby coming"!  I handed the little doe to him and turned back to Mocha.  My daughter was there to catch this one.  I thought it would go much easier but this one presented head first...no hooves, just one huge head!  Mocha was determined though...she pushed hard and the baby came right out. 

Quickly it became obvious that the kid couldn't breathe.  I read an article about swinging the kid from it's hind legs to pull the muck out of it's airways.  As I picked her up I could feel the rattle in her chest as she struggled to breath.  This is the most beautiful kid I've ever seen.  Milk chocolate brown with white spots.  I grab her and begin swinging.  Then we wipe her mouth and swing again.  Pretty soon she's coughing and clearing out and breathing! 

Mocha is producing lots of colostrum and the two kids are doing wonderfully!

Bucks, what's the difference?

I got asked today if a buck was suspicious as to breed because he was so much different from the does the owner had.  The short answer is "no".  Nubian bucks are so different from their female counterparts...larger, coarser, thicker, stinkier and hairier.  They are Nubian goats on steroids...literally. 

The little guy is a six month old and you can see as he stands next to a two year old doe, that he is much hairier...the second picture is Rocky and again even though the grass is still green, he's much hairier with almost a mane of hair towards his withers.

Goat Coats

I went out to my barn yesterday morning and found very un-happy goats lying in a knot.  They weren't eating from the feeder and they didn't get up to greet me.  It was -18 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is a sign that they've gotten too cold and the next step is hypo-thermia and after that, death.

I leave my goats to the cold as much as I can because it stimulates hair growth and makes them hardier.  If you coat them too early or keep them in a heated place there's no way to make them warmer when the real cold hits. It's a progression of measures to deal with the cold.

First we begin giving hot water in the morning and evening.  Next we moved them to a smaller, more air tight barn (the kidding barn), next we put in a heat lamp near the hay feeder but even with all these measures they are critically cold.  It's time for more.

I brought them inside the house so they could get warm and stop shivering.  My rhododendron has put an ad in craigslist that reads "Free to GOOD GOAT FREE home, Beautiful house plant"  While the goats explored, I pulled out the goat coat from last year-- a red coat that had become too grungy to wear with the arms cut off.  I went in search of suitable other garments and found an old hoodie and a sweater.  They all were warmed on the stove and the two new goat coats had their arms cut off.  Over the head and onto the goats they all went.  They may not be fancy, but they do the trick.  I added another heat lamp to the barn for good measure.

This morning, after hitting -20, the goats are all up and eating.  My littlest one has put her back feet through the arm holes and is wearing her sweater on her butt...it's an easy fix.  They aren't happy with the cold but I'm not afraid for their lives!  If it gets any colder I will hit the Goodwill in search of down or thinsulate vests which work even better.  Come on Spring!

Here are the new goat coats.  I figured winter is not done with us yet and went to the thrift store to get wonderful vests for the goats:

Since  vests are out of style you

can find them at any thrift store.

These cost me a whopping $5 each

For warm goat's it's a steal

2014 Breeding

We brought in a new buck this year.  Woodland Gardens Foghorn pictured here with Mirabelle.  He has some of what we are missing in our goats--big bones, level top-line.  On the down-side I think only one of my does settled.  We will see what he added to our bloodlines in early February.