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Hi All!

After this group kept coming up in searches I finally joined and I'm excited to be a part of it! I currently have 2 ND does (1 senior and 1 FF), 1 ND wether and 3 ND kids (3 doelings and a buckling). All of them are from Castle Rock stock.

I also have a couple of grade pygmies and 3 pygmy/ND cross kids (2 doelings and 1 buckling) with more kids on the way any minute now. They were my first goats before I really knew anything about goats. We milk them as well as the NDs.

Just wanted to give a quick hello and introduce myself. Thanks!

Pickles and Oreo have this cough like they have something in their throat. It isn't all the time but a lot. Patches doesn't have it and I was just wondering if that is normal or not.

Kathy

I am looking for transport of an adult NDG buck from Utah to Texas. Is anyone going that way with room?

Thanks,

Michael

Just thought i would share, my goat has been eating some cherries (and spitting out the pits). One time she didn't spit out the pit (keep in mind the pits were a little dirty when they spit them out) and about 24 hours later when she was chewing her cud a super clean pit fell out of her mouth, i thought it was hilarious and so did my parents. Just thought i would share that. :)

My little babies all have big round pupils instead of the little narrow oblong ones, should I bee worried. My husband and son think I'm being silly but I don't want them sick. Has anyone seen that before?

This morning I went out to the goat barn to let them out, and I found Hazel standing on a knocked over hay feeder, Mable where she usually is, but Zaffy was nowhere to be seen! After scanning the inside of the barn, though, I noticed a small muzzle poking out of the keyhole opening of the feeder.  Don't know how Zaffy got in the box, it being locked and all, but she did.  Probably slipped through the hole, but it would have been a tight squeeze, and since the box was on its side then she couldn't get back out.  She was fine after I let her out.

We are so excited that we opened a new store featuring hand made gifts from the farm. It is still a work in progress as we are adding new items to the list all the time. If you would like to check it out its www.etsy.com/shop/riverdancefarm There is also a link on our website for the shop the gift store.

It was over 110 here so I carried my goats in the pool and they didn't like it very much but I could tell they loved it afterwords when they were out and running around, but then they sat in the sun so they dried very quickly. 

Melissa,  thank you so much for your reply and recommendations.  We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel concerning the sore mouth saga.  What a learning experience. 

I'm a newbie - we have had our first goats for one month: 3 kids who are now 3 months and 1 kid who is 7 months.  We have two GPyrs that we are training.  The young GPyr is a male 8months who spent the whole day with the goats yesterday, for the first time, and actually slept under the platforms that the goats play on-- he has been spending briefer time with them before that.  

But during the day, he developed worsening diarrhea, and last night vomited up what looks like the goats alfalfa pellets.  

We have been feeding the goats alfalfa pellets, timothy hay, and Purina Noble goat feed (and baking soda and mineral powder) -- I know this puppy eats anything he can get to -- so I'm worried.  He looks fine, is playing,  wagging his tail, but I'm worried. 

Also I have questions about his escape-artistry, but will leave that to the next post. 

His name is Lobo and he is beautiful, but challenging. 

We have had our ND does since Sept., but only now have finally resolved issues with the past owner and are getting the registration papers for our girls!  So, is there any reason why we shouldn't start looking to breed them?  It would mean having the kids around Sept-Oct., which seems like a good time for New England--not too hot, not yet freezing cold.  What do you think?  Would it be harder to sell kids just before Winter?  Should we wait, or go for it?

Shaky Tail Farm is offering this little doeling for sale. She is a beauty with her soft coloring and exceptional bloodlines. 

Kids Corral Pat's Tenor 
Awards: 1st x 6; RGCH Jr Buck x 1, GCH Jr Buck x 3 Won All American in 2005 and End-O-Way Eleanor L 
$250.00 or trade

Its the first day of spring and I have finished the milking. Misty has been blatting since I went into the goat area. When she jumps off the milk stand and I put her in her pen she rushes outside and wades through belly deep snow towards the buck's winter pen.  The bucks begin their vocalizing and I realize...no, I don't want a "through the fence" breeding. I catch her and lock the doors so she cannot get out. Poor girl she was really wanting a conjugal visit.

This was my first time ever milking.  After watching many videos and reading about milking, I knew that it was not going to be easy.  For the first try we were able to get 1/2 cup of milk.... not successful at all.  Maybe next time we will get more?

I have a doe on her first pregnancy.  Thought the rest of you would get a kick out of her little story.

Bought her in early Dec. and she was supposed to be bred.  She didn't come into heat, but then in mid Jan. she was acting like she was in heat.  Brought her back to breeder, and the bucks were interested, so we got the choosen boy back out, and he was willing but she wasn't.  It was done anyway.

Now, I've been looking at her.  This little goat, who would have been due in April, but I thought based on Jan. breeding would be due in June, is looking far to preganent for June delivery.  You know how it is, one day you look down and your like Hmm....  She's definately got wideness going on.  Took her to the stand to trim the hooves and get a closer look.  Udders are definately starting to develope.  No bag, but clearly swelling, hanging down just a bit. 

Looks to me like the false heat in January.  I can feel at least one baby moving in there.  She's getting slow, rests a lot, and against Ava, the milking (not bred) girl, you can definately see she's sticking out a good 3 or 4 inches further on either side, kinda low and back. 

She's gonna be my first ND kidder, but I've never had this in the larger goats.  Anyone had a false heat during pregnancy before?  There is no way a goat only 2 monthes bred could be this big allready.

Tater a 3 year old buck has suddenly gone off of his feed.  He acts like he's feeling well and doesn't appear to be loosing weight.  However, for the last couple of days he just noses around his hay pellets and hasn't cleaned them up.  We've never used him to cover a doe.  He's been vaccinated and is in a pen by himself, but next to the herdsires. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 I thought I'd share a little about how we've set up our barn for the goats for the winter. We have a 17m X 24m (~56' X 80') pole shelter. From what we can tell it was originally just a roof with no walls, possibly intended for hay storage, but at some point it was enclosed with plywood. Over time this plywood has deteriorated leaving gaps. We live on the Canadian Prairies and temperatures get pretty cold. The goats do just fine in our big breezy set-up. 

Some photos:

The door that you see there is always open. It's south-facing and the wind rarely blows from that direction. Most of the light is coming in through open holes. 

This is the north-facing wall. You can see that snow has blown in through it. 

You can see that we've stacked straw bales against portions of the walls to try to cut down the drafts right at goat level. The goats have knocked some of them down. We also left some lying around randomly for the goats to lie beside as insulation.

The temperature recently was down to -35C (-31F), with a -45C (-49F) windchill (the windchill not being as big a factor in the barn). The goats were fine. They didn't do much except eat hay and drink a bit of water, but they didn't seem to suffer adversely. They're very tough little creatures. Obviously mine are acclimatized, and a goat that was suddenly transplanted from the Southern US to here at this time of year would likely not fair well, but overall they do pretty well in the cold.

We haven't been giving the does any grain. The bucks sometimes get a very small amount. They don't seem to have time to build their energy reserves back up after breeding season before it gets cold and they can get rather skinny. I balance out the concern about urinary stones with the concern about calorie requirements.

We also found out that our chickens do just fine in very low temperatures with no extra heating. Their coop is less drafty than the goat barn, but still ventilated. In previous years we've set-up a heat lamp for them but we decided to skip that this year. 

When I went out for chores this morning and to check on the week old triplets it was 10 below zero with a wind chill of -33. Those little ones were jumping around like it was summer!  In the other pen there was a single doeling freshly arrived , full belly, dried off with her mom.  I have the heat lamp on for her and she seems to be doing all right. I did give her a sweater as well.