Many people think that I am a newbie seeing I just built a barn and moved my animals home. I am far from it. I have owned Nigerian Dwarf Goats for 6 years and have worked around them for 8 years, And around livestok for almost 9 years.

I boarded my animals for 5 years before moving them home. the main reason behind this is because of local town by laws. I had to go through a 6 month process and a very expensive process to move them home. lets just say I could have bought a very nice goat or a few cheaper goats for the same price of the permit. I love how the town wonders why we have had such a loss in farmland.

I have 6 females currentlyrangeing from 6 years old to a year old. these girls Ihave had since I moved the animals home last fall. This year I have had 3 does kids with 6 kids 4 does and 2 bucklings. I am keeping two doelings currently.   I still have one more doe to kid at the end of the  month.

The window for cutting hay a week and a half ago closed quickly with several days of rain. However on Sunday our hay guy was able to get on the field and start mowing. Last night he baled up the first 12 or so bales just to make sure the baler was working right. (of course it needed adjustment!)

This morning we are looking at a full day of picking up and putting in the barn. He has about 1/3 of the field left to mow but wanted to get this stuff under cover before the next rain.  Each season is different. As farmers we have finally accepted the fact that half of farming is fixing machinery and the other half is delighting in what the season brings!

Whatever happens we will be thankful.

Karen Stanger from End-O-Way Farm  gave us hand milking lessons and then we were on our own...This is the result!  Not bad for first time hand milking maidens!  Poor Ellie, she did not eat on the stand, she kept bleating, and looking back at us.  On Karen's farm, all her goats stood on the stand and ate, no bleating!   I know we were not doing everything right on our own, but we did have fun doing it!

I cannot continue to put six quarts of milk in my fridge everyday.

 My three goats have put me over the top. Unlike Deborah I haven't learned to make all kinds of cheese and with just two of us we really don't need it. I have made ice cream, yogurt, cajeta, soft cheese and frozen a lot. I have given some away and traded for eggs weekly.  Still too much! My last freshened one is still nursing as well.

However...I am going to once a day milking with my two that freshened in early March. I am thinking one is bred for late November.  The other will go in with the buck next month.  I have got to get these kiddings staggered so I don't have so much milk. 

I have threatened to take a milk bath to move some of it along!

We were thrilled to find this site after losing the link for so long. I even did a search for it on Google and couldn't find it. We have made some herd additions this year. We were blessed to be able to acquire Pecan Hollow C Clabber, a 2nd freshener out of a San Francisco Bay buck and Rosaharn's Tom's Bit-A-Willy doe. We lost the kids, due to either stress of the trip from Nemo or from a bump from a bad doe the second she got into the pen. Her production was a little low, due to the premature kids, I guess.

We bought a RA Kingwood grandaughter from Lost Valley, and can't wait to get her bred this fall for kids in time for the Houston Livestock Show, hopefully. I think we will also get Clabber bred this summer so that we  may still have her in milk for the same show.

In the buckpen, we were blessed to have the opportunity to own 3 Pine Shadows bucks, of good Hill Country and Lost Valley lines. Some of our favorite lines from Twin Creeks are also present in the pedigrees. Rachel, age 10, who owns our herd, has been able to partially realize her dream of owning a Promised Land doe or buck by owning a grandson of one. I probably should have not prayed so hard to solve our buck situation, as we also ended up with 2 Pecan Hollow bucks. I will describe them in a separate post, hopefully with some cute pics of the bucklings. One is sired by Pecan Hollow Z Quizno,  who is out of MCH/CH Pecan Hollow Twisted Sister by Santa Fe. I like the dam on the sire's side, Dill Pickle Constantine. Rachel likes the Twisted Sister in the pedigree the most.  The bloodlines on the dam's side are neat too. She has finished champion does in 2 registries on each side. The other is sired by Pecan Hollow Poppycock, and the dams from both sides are finished champions. We like the strong Twin Creeks breeding on the dam's side. These are the wild boys right now, and they are barely catchable. They don't really appreciate being handled yet at 3 months of age or so, but in a pen with a 4H show wether and a petting-zoo tame buckling and wether,  they have been getting lots of attention. We can trick them into coming up close when the others clamor for attention. The tiny wether midget, Lord Voldemort, was looking  a little too basketballish getting fed with kids, so we had to move him back with the older bucks.

This all leaves us with slightly more bucks than does, and does not include our petting zoo-tame buck and buckling that I am trying to decide what to do with. They are fun to keep around, and have good bloodlines, but I am not sure if they are show quality.  They come from concentrated old bloodlines that produce a lot of throwbacks, and seem to offer improved kids over sire and dam. Maybe I will post photos and ask advice here. I can't really see using them for the next few years or so (except by accident).

I bought a doe in milk and have been milking at least twice a day. Every milking I have gotten no more than 1/2 cup. I am certain I empty her out. She was dry on one side when I got her.  Anyways I'm selling her as a pet to a petting zoo. They don't want to milk her. I wanted to know if it would be ok just to stop milking her alltogether?  And also when I stop milking does she need grain? And do I change her feed from alfalfa?  I looking forward to making a better purchase soon. You learn big lessons when your a rookie.

Thanks,

Trisha

After a 360 mile round trip we are home with my new kids. Two bucklings and a doeling.Yuki above, Finnegan,next, and Guiseppe at the bottom.

I am still waiting for my Westie to kid. She is very uncomfortable.

So Glenda asked how it was going... It's been slow going... but at about 3 weeks in Things suddenly got better. She still takes her time walking to the stand, but there is no dragging or fighting. She hops on the stand and eats while being milked... for several weeks she'd eat just a mouthful or two and then stand stiff and angry, eating when the milking was done and hoping off the stand as soon as you opened her stand.

She loves attention, but likes it on her terms. She doesn't come when called, but does talk back to me whenever I call her. She loves to have her sides scratched and I have to keep a close eye on her if she gets out of her pen she heads straight to the chicken's scratch. Which had us worried when she bloated up after a late afternoon snack. Some olive oil and baking soda worked well for it, but I have taken more care to lock up the chicken's pen when they are released in the afternoon so if she does get out, she can't get in.

So It's Wednesday... and my first milk goat came on Saturday... In ways the week has gotten both harder and easier. Some disappointments and some triumps...

I have been wanting dairy goats for some time, much to my husband's dismay! "You need another animal because???" Well, because I want it... and I want to make cheese and have milk and know what I am consuming... I haven't ever been a fan of store bought milk not since having my first fresh milk at my grandparents dairy farm. I don't have a use for that much cow milk, but a pint a day, now I could make use of that! The more I learn the more concerned I am about the hormones and chemicals that find their ways into our food supply. 

I have my own flock of chickens, I get both meat and eggs and the quality far surpasses storebought. I have some beef heifers growing up on the property so they can someday produce calves for market to feed myself, family and friends... so one little dairy goat... what's the harm?

So she's been home 4 days... She only has milk on one side due to having a single doeling and an owner who didn't milk both sides to keep her even... Sigh... had I known I might have looked for another doe... but Oh well... She is a lovely little thing and when she is fully in production I'm pretty sure I can get 4 cups a day :)

Milking hasn't been easy though... she'd never been milked and she doesn't like it one bit! She wasn't fed on the stanchion and thus sees it as a torture device!

The first two days she actually went up there easy enough, screamed and did her best to escape once the stanchion closed... I felt so bad. day 4 and she stands or sometimes sits, resigned but not happy... she kicks less , I have resorted to tying down her foot. Someone suggested barn twine... I did that... at first, but afterward she was sore and limped, I realized that it was torture and she'd never learn to accept it or even like it if it hurt, so I switched to a strip of cotton from a t-shirt... it does stretch a little, but it's much kinder IMO...

As of yesterday she was less panicked but still really not liking the whole milking idea. I feel awful though as now her new trick to to lay down or crawl when I try to lead her to the stand... I committed to getting her trained and accepting what I need to do. I hope she'll come around sooner rather than later.

Sweet Ellie gave birth to twins today at   Gillis Hill Farm!   It was so exciting, especially to one little girl named Caroline!   Everyday since Ellie'e due date she has come by the barn to see if Ellie had given birth and I had to tell her, "no" not today,  but this  day  promised to be  different! I had  errands to run and was not  there when Caroline came by the barn, so she peaked in the stall, and there, laying in the straw, was a little baby goat. Caroline was beside herself with joy!  She ran to the farm house to tell everyone that Ellie had given birth!   That is  when I got the phone call that I  was a goat mama!  I could hardly get  to the barn  fast enough!  I arrived  just after the birth of the second baby goat, a doe!  I am happy that Caroline was the one to find Ellie, in labor, and yet to give birth to a little doe that we named after her!  I know one little girl that has baby goats dancing in her dreams tonight, her heart yearning to visit her little namesake again...Until Tomorrow, Cindy

Misty's daughter Hannah delivered this beautiful doeling at noon. She had her outside next to the fence in the wind and the cold. I brought her in and waited to see if there were any more. Apparently not. I named her Serafina.

Tune to Madagascar 2: Big And Chunky

I dam raise our babies and love it.  But I came across this site and noticed what these people had to say about bottle raising.  The last part is what really opened my eyes.  Does anyone see any truth in this, I  love to hear what others think about this.

 When dams are allowed to raise their kids, the       kids must be weaned at some point. This is very stressful to both mom and       baby. Our goats are monitored, via barn cameras, 24 hours a day. Due dates       are always known. When a doe is in labor, at least one member of the       family is always present with others standing by. As the kids are born, I       catch them, clear their noses and mouths so they can take their first       breaths, then they are wrapped in a towel and handed off to the family       member responsible for the babies) while I stay in the       stall with mom waiting for more kids or just letting her bond to me as she       would bond to her kid soon after birth. The doe never sees her kid, she       only sees me. They bond quite strongly to just about anything that they       are around right after labor. Our does never go through the stress of losing       their kids at weaning time either, as they are bonded to us instead of       their kids. This makes milking time, even for first time moms, much       smoother, since they see me as their baby.

     The kids,       subsequently, bond to my daughter and people in general. We never have to       stress our kids by having to remove them from their dams because they       never knew their dams as their dams. They are bonded to people. This       method also makes the kids very easy to handle/train since they are very       friendly and people oriented. This also makes their eventual transition       into the milking herd much smoother.

     Another reason for       this method of raising our kids is that baby goats do not have clean       mouths. They put everything in their mouth, just as human children do.       That is one of the many reasons they are called "kids." They chew on       everything from walls and floors to dirt, and yes, even POOP. Then they go       back to mom’s udder multiple times during the day and night. I cannot risk       this type of contamination.  The cleanliness and       wholesomeness of my milk is paramount. This requires clean, disease free       udders on my milking does. From the possible bacterial contamination, to       the bruising caused by kids as they grow and get more rough with their       dams, quality control dictates that they remain separated

Well she did it again!  Delivered on her own and did a great job. She had 3 girls and a boy.  I am one happy goat mama!

Misty is fat and uncomfortable. She had triplets last year and is a  wonderful, easy milker. She and one of her daughters are due to kid in the next 12 days. I am , once again, very excited. 

I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I have a goat that has both knee's all banged up. The fur is gone and he's constantly reopening the scabs. Is their something I can use to wrap his knee with or some other type of remedy ? I keep washing it with warm water and then he's fine for a little while, then he hit's it on something and does it all over again.. Help