My first kidding season is fast approaching. I am anticipating 5. I have been gathering necessities here and there as we need them, however my Hoegers list is still a mile long. Even though I know a lot of what is on it will not be recurring costs my current running total is near $1000. As you all may know from my other posts, he is a serious penny pincher... We have been going back and forth on the issue and he says we need to cut that in half and make another purchase later for the rest. I need help...What are the bare minimum must have items for kidding and milking. Include any medications we should have on hand.
Thank you for your help!
Replies
No, once they show signs of a miscarriage, that's the end for the whole pregnancy. It is possible for one kid to die, but then it would stay inside for the rest of the pregnancy and be born with the rest of the kids as what people call a mummified fetus. So, it's a package deal. They're all born at once, because they're all attached to the same placenta.
Adrienne said:
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
That's right! I had forgotten about Sam and Stan.
Adrienne said:
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
I'm glad you explained that. I was picturing you lathering up the udder with a bar of soap.
Dianea Fay said:
When I first read this, I thought you were talking about using Dial antibacterial soap on the udders, and I was thinking that that would be really harsh on their skin. I can't even use that soap on my hands, or they dry out. Then when I read it again, I'm thinking you mean that you washed your milking equipment with antibacterial soap, which made more sense.
I've only wiped off udders with a wet washcloth for nine years and never had a problem, although at the very end of milking this year, I had a goat with elevated SCC count, so we'll see if she freshens with mastitis. If so, I think it's because we just started using a milking machine this past year, and we're probably not cleaning the inflations as well as we should. I've been scratching my head and thinking that they should probably be scrubbed for a full 20 seconds each, like they say you should do for hand washing to get all the germs off. Even if that doe freshens okay, the elevated SCC bothers me, and I think it has something to do with the milking machine, since that is the only thing that changed last year.
Dianea Fay said:
I personally think you should watch someone disbud kids the first time, so consider the vet fee as an education expense. I wouldn't have said this a few years ago, but then I had a customer really have problems with disbudding. They were using the directions from Fiasco Farm, and although they seem clear to someone who knows how to disbud, I can see where someone new would have trouble figuring it out if they had never seen it done in real life. Those poor kids wound up having their heads burned three different times -- third time by us -- because the owners were just not doing it long enough, and they had trouble with their disbudding iron not being hot enough. Even if you don't want to take your kids to your mentor, ask her if you can come over and watch her disbud her own kids. That way, you just have to haul yourself over there.
Adrienne said:
Dianea Fay said:
Thank you Dianaea,
We got the milk stand thing taken care of. You're right, I'm pretty close to freaking out right now. with some great suggestions here, and from my mentor I have been able to narrow the list down quite a bit...even less than half of what it was. I think I will still need the tattoo kit and the disbudding iron though. The vet charges $25 each and my mentor lives a few hours away. @ that rate I would be paying for the tool with this kidding alone.
I don't understand what's in the milk kit, but to cool milk down quickly, strain it into a quart canning jar and put the jar in a bucket of ice water. A milk bucket and strainer are $20-30 total, and canning jars are cheap.
You don't need a dairy scale unless you are on DHIR.If you just want to weigh your milk, use a digital kitchen scale, which can also be used for canning, cheesemaking, cooking, etc. The dairy scale stays in the barn.
I've never used a hobble to milk a goat. None of mine like to have their teats touched when they are not in milk.
Clippers -- I only use them when disbudding, but they're not totally essential. Just do it outside so the smell of burning hair can escape. You could also trim the longest hair with scissors.
The regular tip for the dehorner is fine.
Make sure you get the tattoo kit with the auto release, so you don't have to peel their ears off the needles. You can just get one to start. We only had one for seven years. If you do all the herd tattoos at once, you're not saving yourself that much time by having two sets, because you have to change the individual ID tattoo for every goat anyway.
I've never used Neomycin or Bloat Release. Oddly enough, my goats never get injured. If other animals get injured, I just squirt hydrogen peroxide on them to clean it and then iodine. I've never had a goat get bloat (knock on wood).
Yes, you can wash the towels and re-use them.
Adrienne said:
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next