Some Goats Have a Mind of Their Own

Even though it is more work and planning, we have been wanting to get into the routine of breeding at least one goat in July for December babies. This would provide us with fresh milk year round instead of having to buy milk when all of the does dry up for the last two months of gestation. Our plan this year was to breed One Stripe in July and the rest in November. This would bring us one set of babies in December and the rest in April. Good plan, right?

One Stripe's name comes from that little white stripe on her side.

Well, it appears either One Stripe or Bill, our buck, had other plans. Frank's back surgery was the beginning of July, so our breeding plans were postponed for a few weeks. But any time I put the two of them together, Bill just cried and acted clueless. He has been slower to mature than the other young bucks we have bought in the past, but this last week he finally figured things out. This means we will not have milk during the last two months of One Stripe's and Copper's

Copper is in the back looking over everyone.

gestation. They were both in heat, so we bred them both. We can expect kids from these two does around February 10th, which is 150 days from breeding, or the average gestation for a goat. This is not our optimal time since it is the coldest part of the year. It is normally not a problem, but it can be. It is a problem for cold fingers. We thought back in July that One Stripe might be pregnant....but she wasn't.
 

Bill

Our young does are growing nicely. Bill will be turned in with them on November 1st. The girls will be eight months old and ready to breed. Cricket is friendly and the biggest of the three. Penny is just as friendly as her mother, Copper. Lady Bug is a pretty girl, but is still pretty stand-offish. If she doesn't come around and get easier to handle, she will be sold after she has her babies. Training her to milk may gentle her down some, we will see.

Cricket

Penny

Lady Bug

One Stripe with the two wethers on either side

Our two young wethers that were born in March are still alive. For a while we thought we would lose them. After Frank's surgery, a neighbor came over and helped us ban and worm the boys. After a while, they weren't doing well and had some raw skin around the site of the ban. We have used this technique for many years on goats and sheep. Once we took some goats to the vet and had them castrated. Once was enough. We found it to be very gruesome, and returned to banning again. Everyone has their stories and their preferences, and that is great. This is ours. 

An example of the small sheds

Anyway, back to the story. These two wethers were not doing very well and Frank could not help me with them. I managed to catch them while they were eating, and use a double ended brass clip to attach their collars to the fence. That way I wouldn't have to hold them while I tried to work them over. The first time I put some drawing salve around the ban in hopes they would go ahead and heal up. The scrotum sack was just about to fall off at this point. A few days later, one of the boys started staying in their small shed instead of grazing with the herd. I figured at that point I would loose them both. But, that just wouldn't do. I had to try something else. On my own. You see, Frank has always been the needle man. Anytime we have to give shots, he gets to do it. Not that I can't, I just don't want to. I don't like it. But, as I found out, I can do it, and it's no big deal. So, I gave them both a shot of LA200 and applied more salve to the raw area. I figured the one in the shed would still die, but he didn't.

About a week later while I was in the barn milking, Frank called me on the radio. Yes, we use hand held radios every single day around the farm. Anytime I am in the barn and he is not, well anytime we are outside, whether we are together or not, we always take a radio. It has saved many a step when we need to communicate something. So, Frank called me on the radio and said, "You saved those two boys lives." That makes it all worth while. And it makes for more meat on the hoof.

We hope to butcher our three older wethers soon. They are way past the age we would normally do it, but it just hasn't gotten done yet. We are out of red meat in the freezer and it will be nice to have some of our own again. We chose goats because of the smaller carcass size. We don't need as much milk as a cow would provide. The meat you get from butchering a goat will be easier to process and preserve when we no longer have access to refrigeration or freezers.

There are always hooves to be trimmed and chores to do when it comes to having goats. Sometimes when they won't cooperate or bellow all the time, they are a real pain and we don't appreciate them as much. That's a nice way to say they drive us crazy. It's interesting to watch animal behavior. If one runs, they all run, if one starts screaming, another one may join in, kind of like people. And I bet if we gave one of them a TV, they would all want a TV, or a free phone. I don't see the government out here handing out free goat feed. How come some people get things that are 'free', and others have to pay for those things that are 'free' that they don't get? So much for my mini rant.

Sometimes plans with the goats just don't work out the way we would like, but, in the long run, they provide milk, butter, cheese, meat and dog food for our little homestead, and that is part of our long term plan. And it is a good plan. A plan to survive.

Until next time - Fern