Tag: small farm

Keeping Busy

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

We have been keeping busy here at our house. Summer is here, but it’s been more rainy and stormy than anything. Which means the garden has taken off, both weeds and plants. I was out weeding yesterday and almost put my hand right where a giant Wolf Spider was hanging out. I HATE spiders. The worst part is that I walked away for a minute, and when I came back, the spider had disappeared. So, now I have a ton more weeding to get done and I know there is a giant spider out there somewhere, but no idea where.

So, needless to say, I really don’t want to go out and get the weeding done. I also desperately need to trim my tomato plants. They have gone completely wild, and I can’t see where anything is. I did get four of them trimmed up the other day, but it took an hour and a half. So, tons more work to do in the garden.

Livestock

This year, our goal was to put a little bit more home-raised meat in the freezer. We hatched out our own chicks for the first time, so we could process a few of the extras and the roosters. I call them our teenage chickens, and unfortunately, we have lost a few. The teenagers are small enough to get out of the chicken pen (I am working on fixing this), and they hang out in the goat pen with the boys instead. Which I didn’t think was a big deal. They are still behind fencing, they sleep in an extra dog igloo, and I thought everything was fine. Until one day, I counted up the teenage chickens, and we were down a few. A week later, we are down a few more. We have been here for a little over a year and have never had a predator problem. However, there is apparently a fox in the area, down further away from us, but I wonder if it hasn’t made its way up to our property. I still don’t see how, again, they are in fencing and with male goats, I wouldn’t think that would be something they were interested in messing with, but goats aren’t known for their protection abilities. There have been absolutely no signs of anything, no struggle, no feathers, just missing chickens. We do have large birds in the area, so it could maybe be that, but I don’t know. So, the chickens will be locked in the chicken pen as soon as I find where they get out, and hopefully, we don’t lose any more. We have a few extra roosters, so we will at least be able to put a few birds in the freezer.

Last year, we raised two broad-breasted turkeys, one for Thanksgiving, and one we made into ground turkey meat. This year, we wanted to have a bit more turkey meat and brought home five white broad-breasted turkeys. They were the absolute cutest things ever as chicks, but now I am ready for processing day. The adult turkeys STINK. Like all meat turkeys, they eat a ton of food, act like they are always starving, but I don’t remember last year’s smelling this bad. It makes sense, I guess, they eat to grow, so they poop a lot, like a giant chicken, and it’s just gross. Wherever the roost is completely covered and I am ready for them to go bye-bye. Next year, if we raise turkeys again, they will need to be off in their own spot, completely away from everything else. Our plan for the meat, if anyone is curious, is to keep one for Thanksgiving, halve two of them so we can roast a half a turkey instead of a whole chicken, and then grind the other ones into ground meat. I also have a wild turkey in the freezer that we will add in there somewhere.

Our goats have been a bit of a disaster this year. We had our first kidding season and ended up with three beautiful little does. However, we did lose one mama to complications. This made my milk plans sort of go out the door. Our one Nigerian Dwarf that survived only had one kid, and therefore didn’t produce as much milk. It was her first time, and when I put her on the milking stand, she hated it. No matter what I tried, she never really got any better, so I just let her raise her baby and didn’t bother milking her anymore. That left us with our Alpine as the only milker. She is the best goat. She gives us tons of milk, she is easy on the stand, and we love her dearly. However, her milk, no matter what I do, is always goaty. It’s ok if you drink it fresh that day, but if it sits at all it gets a goat flavor to it. So, as much as we love her, having her in milk isn’t all that helpful. I am currently in the process of drying her off and hoping our next round of kidding goes better for milk production.

We did end up putting a little goat meat in the freezer for the first time. We had a wether that ended up being a bit of a nuisance. I have written about him before, he wasn’t fully castrated and still had one testicle. This complicated all of our breeding because I couldn’t put the does in with the buck without having to move them all around to avoid possible breeding by the wrong boy. He was also very loud. Just outside bleating all day for no reason. We are a small property, only three acres, with neighbors on similar three acres, and so we try and be courteous to them with the noise. We processed and put him in the freezer. We have only tried goat meat once, we roasted a leg, and I have to admit it was pretty tasty.

Whats Next?

For the rest of the summer, I will be tackling weeds. They are terrible out here. We are a very windy area, and the weed seeds blow around and take root on any exposed ground. It’s quite frustrating. However, the garden is producing, and soon I will have garden produce to process and put away. I love the feeling of stocking the house with things I grew and preserved.

In about a month, the turkeys will be processed, possibly a duck or two along with them, and we will have home-grown meat in the freezer again. My husband is going on an elk hunt this fall, if he is successful, we will have a ton of meat to put away from that. I also drew a doe tag this year and will hopefully be able to use that to bring even more meat home. I am toying around with the idea of bringing a few sheep onto the farm. I will need to downsize the goat herd first, just for more manageability, but we have a large pasture area that the goats aren’t using well, and I think sheep might be a better option for us as far as being able to raise them on grass and process. We will keep a few goats for milk, but I don’t need as many as I have. Lastly, we are getting ready to start our next homeschool year. My son will be starting his first year of high school, which has me a little stressed out. I struggled a little bit planning the year, because you kind of have to plan it all at the same time to make sure everything is covered. I think I have got it all mostly figured out, but now we have to follow through and track it all. I am excited about it, but also just really careful to make sure everything is covered and done correctly.

I can’t believe summer is sort of ending. Once the school year starts, summer goes by so quickly. Getting things up and running on the farm this year was a challenge, but I think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. When the garden is harvested and put to bed, the meat is in the freezer, I truly think this year will be called a success. It just takes a while for everything to come together. Not too shabby for the second summer on the farm.

Lessons from Goat Kidding: Triumphs and Tragedies

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment
Glimmer

I am going to be honest with you, I tend to run a little on the pessimistic side. With our first kidding season on the farm coming up I just figured something would go wrong. I did not think it would go this wrong.

Back in late October and early November, we bred three of our goats. Two of our Nigerian Dwarfs and our one Alpine. The Alpine has kidded before, but it was a first for both the Nigerians. They were however almost two years old, so being too young was not a factor in this incident. I watched every video, talked to my vet friend, and did all the research. I felt like I was as prepared as you can be for your first kidding.

The First One

Our first goat to go into labor was Val. I had been watching her for days and the morning of her delivery she was very typical of a goat in labor. She was super loud, followed me everywhere, and you could just tell she was uncomfortable. It was a terribly windy day so I went ahead and put her in the kidding stall early and I sat with her all day. It was a very long day. Around 8pm she finally went into active labor. Again, typical of all the things I had read. She was up and down, pawing the ground, and started a few small pushes. Everything I read says once they are pushing it should not take more than 30 minutes before you go in and help. She took an hour. However, it was not super consistent in the beginning and she didn’t look in distress so I let her go. Once she started pushing hard, the baby was out in no time. For her delivery, she pushed and a water sack presented and then popped. She pushed some more and another water sack presented but this one had the baby in it. As soon as she had kidded another sack presented which ended up being the placenta. All very textbook and easy. I did feel her stomach after since she only had one baby and we were expecting more (she was huge), I thought I felt something but she passed the placenta, and all the research I had done said that was the end of labor, there were no more kids. In this case, they were right. She was done and her baby was HUGE! She safely delivered one good-sized doeling and has raised her for the last few weeks very successfully. She is a great mom!

Astrid

Tragedy, The Second Birth

Two weeks after Val delivered, our second Nigerian (Glimmer) went into labor. This labor however was anything but typical. To start with she delivered on a Sunday, but the Thursday before I could have sworn she was in labor. She looked so uncomfortable all day, pawed the ground, and was restless and a little loud. I put her in the kidding stall but she never really made any progress. She never pushed, she never had any discharge, and the next morning she went about her business as usual. She was fine all day Saturday as well. She ate, drank, hung out with the other goats, and had no labor signs whatsoever. Sunday she went into labor for real. When it came time for active labor this is when things got a little weird. She pushed and one water sack presented and popped. Then she pushed and another water sack presented and popped. Finally, a third water sack presented and a baby was delivered. She was TINY. Like Val, shortly after the placenta came. However, it didn’t look like Val’s. It was small and it never fully delivered. Glimmer however seemed fine. She got up, nursed her baby, drank her molasses water, and ate some food. It was late at night and everything said the placenta could take up to 18 hours to deliver so I went to bed and checked on her in the morning. The placenta was still hanging and she looked a little down. She was laying down and not really wanting to get up, she ate but not much, and she wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the baby. I could still get her up and the placenta was fully out but was still attached by a tiny bit. She was doing ok, but over the next few hours I noticed her straining and pushing. So, I reached out to my friend, a vet, and she and her husband came over.

I will backtrack and say I sent her a video of the goat and she thought either retained placenta or more babies.

When she got to our house and examined Glimmer she found that she did indeed have more babies. Two that had passed already were stuck inside. My friend did everything she could to get the babies out but Glimmer was apparently narrow in the pelvic canal and the baby in the canal was breech. She couldn’t free her and on top of that she found a uterine tear. We decided at this point that she was suffering, there was no recovery, and she was put down.

Glimmer and Baby

Dealing with Death

I was ready for complications but this one shook me. I thought the worst I would have to deal with was maybe having to reposition a baby. Now, I feel so much guilt and I wonder what else I could have done. My vet friend said there was nothing I could have done to save her. The breech baby was stuck and even she couldn’t free it. I still wonder if I had done something Thursday if things would have been different. However, there were really no signs that she was in active labor or distress. If she was I don’t know how we got one live baby in the end. Or how we got one baby and a placenta past the other two. So, in the end, we lost our doe and gained her doeling. Her little one was named Ember, as in her mom’s last little ember, and she is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. She is taking the bottle and doing just fine. I am still struggling with Glimmer’s death and how it happened. Everything I have ever read says if you have livestock you will have deadstock, but even so, it’s hard. It feels like I failed. I was supposed to keep her safe and I didn’t. That’s a tough pill to swallow

Baby Ember

The Last Delivery

I mentioned earlier we bred three goats. Our Alpine is the last to go, and for awhile I thought she wasn’t pregnant. The Nigerians developed their udders a while ago. It was obvious they were pregnant, but the Alpine still doesn’t have one. For about the last month, I have made peace with the fact that her breeding didn’t take. She is the one goat I was really looking forward to, as she was bred to a Nigerian Buck and will have a mini Alpine baby, but I thought it wasn’t meant to be this go round. A few days after Glimmer passed, I was in the pasture and noticed Lee (Alpine) had a few pregnancy signs after all. She is a skinny goat so it was hard to tell. Now, it feels a little bit like a second chance. A light after the dark. She is definitely pregnant and due in about a week. I’m nervous, but she has kidded before and should be fine. I can’t wait to see what she has and I pray that it goes smoothly. This will be the end of our kidding season and I would really like for it to end in celebration. If she gives us a doeling I will be over the moon.

Lee

Baby Goats

Little Ember is doing great. I however am a bit sleep-deprived. She is so tiny, so I make sure to get up every night at 2am and give her a bottle. She spends most of her day in the pasture with the big goats and sleeps with our other baby (Astrid) at night in the shed. They both love to run around the pasture and do the biggest little jumps you have ever seen. If nothing else, baby goats are super entertaining. It is a joy to watch them play together. It doesn’t fix everything but having them makes it a little better.

Ember

Final Thoughts

I keep replaying this in my mind and trying to learn from what went wrong. I asked online, Goat Forum, about the water sacks and everyone seemed to think it was normal, but i thought it was strange. As it turned out, it was multiple kids. I trusted a little too much in research and online help than what my gut told me. I still don’t think though even if I had gone in, the results would have been any different. If a vet can’t reposition the baby I doubt I could have. I also doubted myself when I thought I felt more babies since the placenta was passed. I think the take away is that I know my goats. I am with them every day and I should have trusted myself a little bit more. The end result would have still probably been the same, but I would have at least felt a little better about my part. I do still think I did what I could for the most part. I got a vet involved as soon as I thought it was needed and unfortunately it wasn’t enough. So, if you have goats and plan to breed them just be prepared. It can be one of the most amazing things you’ve ever done, watching a brand new baby be born is awesome, but it can also go wrong. As a livestock owner I try and do everything I can to take care of the animals I own, but things still go wrong. I will learn from this and use this knowledge from here on out. Let’s pray none of us ever face this again.

Two weeks apart. Look at the size difference

If you have any advice to share or kidding stories feel free to leave them in the comments. Maybe we can all learn and grow in knowledge together.

Sell the Farm, I Quit!

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

I don’t really quit but today has been a bit of a rough morning. We live in the prairies of South Dakota and the wind is brutal out here. This morning is no exception to that. It’s 29 degrees outside, which isn’t bad, but it’s 35mph winds. Add that to the fact that it rained just enough last night to make the ground icy and you have the recipe for an interesting morning.

First, I stepped outside not knowing the backyard was a skating rink and almost bit the dust. Next, I had to chase down the duck’s pond since it had been blown down the yard, fight the wind to get it back, and get it filled up with water only to look out the window an hour later and see that it was yet again halfway down the yard. I guess I am going to have to summon the courage to go back outside and put a rock in there to hold it down this time.

Then came the chickens. A few weeks ago, the chicken coop door froze and I couldn’t open it. The door slides in place and the wind had frozen it where it wouldn’t budge. Luckily, the coop has big side doors that open so I could let the chickens out, otherwise they would have been stuck inside. Today it was the bottom door. The chicken coop has what I like to call “the basement”. Basically what would be the underneath of the chicken coop has been closed off and the chickens can hang out underneath to get out of the weather. There is a door at the end that lifts up to open and you let it down the close it off. It doesn’t close all the way but enough to keep the chickens warm and out of the elements. This morning that door was frozen in place.

Lastly, were the lovely goats. I am still milking one doe, who I brought to the shed only to have her decide she didn’t want to go into the shed. She tried to run away, I grabbed her, she pulled and my feet flew out from underneath and I busted my butt. The goat feed I had in my scoop went flying, I said a few choice words, got up, and finished the job. However, while I was milking her I had a guest join us in the milking shed. One of the bucks is small enough to squeeze through the gate crack and came into the shed looking for food. He of course proceeded to jump onto the milk stand, while I was milking, and I had to stop milking and drag him off. So, now I need to finish milking but I smell like a stinky buck. Eventually, I got everything done but the chores that usually take about 20-30mins took an hour.

So, although I will not be selling the farm, mornings like this one make me question why we live where we do. The wind just sort of grates at your nerves over time, and although you get used to it a little I don’t know that you can ever simply get used to wind this strong all the time. I am really dreading February when it gets into the negatives here and the wind-chill is unbearable. I think I may dry off the last goat before that happens. We have babies due in March, so it will be a nice break for everyone. I don’t want to complain too much, I am so thankful that we were able to get this property and I have all the things I’ve been praying for for years, but this morning was a little but not so fun. Is it springtime yet?

Happy New Year

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

Happy New Year! Our family had quite an interesting holiday break, we were all sick. There are four of us in this family and someone was sick the entire time we were off for holiday break. Between stomach bugs and chest colds, I am completely wiped out.

On a happier note, everyone on the farm is doing fine. We have had some cold weather and recently had a bit of a snow storm and so far everyone is doing fine. I was a bit surprised with how our muscovy ducks handled the crazy weather. I had a shelter all ready to go for them and they proceeded to completely ignore it and simply sit out in the snowstorm like it was a sunny day. Apparently, snow and wind have no effect on muscovy ducks.

Goat Plans

About a week ago I made some changes to how we are keeping our goats. I have five does and two bucks, and until the switch the boys lived in the “buck pen” and the girls all stayed in the large pasture with a shelter. Three of my does had a baby in April and were the goats we milked all through the spring to fall. One of them is our Alpine and because she is a larger breed goat, she will not go into heat all year round like the Nigerian Dwarf girls will. So, I only have the fall to get her bred or she won’t deliver this year. So, our breeding plans for the year were to breed our two Nigerian Dwarf girls who have never had a kid, and our Alpine.

I am fairly certain the two Nigerian Dwarf girls are bred. I have not seen them come back into heat and they are getting quite fluffy. However, I am not certain. I bred our Alpine twice the last time she came into heat, I haven’t seen her come back into heat, however, I have no idea if she is pregnant. She doesn’t look to be getting any bigger but Alpines typically have one baby, so I don’t know if you could even tell by looking at her or not.

So, to make fully sure they are all bred I went ahead and put the bucks in the pen with the ladies I want to kid. I took the two does I do not want bred and put them in the buck pen. I am hoping that I can watch over the next month and see if anyone comes back into heat. If no one does, then in theory all the does will be confirmed pregnant.

If they does took on the first breeding we should have kids at the end of March. This will be our first kidding on the farm, and for two of the does their first kidding as well. I am a little nervous about our first deliveries, but I have faith we will get it done.

Now we just have to make it through the winter!

Meet Bonnie: Our Adorable English Springer Spaniel Puppy

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

Our new baby girl, Bonnie, is an English Springer Spaniel and the cutest/softest thing I’ve ever seen.

And already retrieving a goose wing! Dad was a hunter, she may take after him.

I am of course head over heels for her. It’s easy to fall in love with a puppy. Now we just have to get the hard work going and turn her into a well-behaved bird dog. I hope we are both up to the challenge.

Hard Choices and New Additions

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

Hard Choice

This weekend on our farm we said goodbye to one of our animals and hello to a new one. Let’s start with the goodbye. Back at the beginning of the summer, we got a gosling to help protect our flock. I had done quite a bit of research on how to protect a flock and since we aren’t really large enough for a Livestock Guardian dog a goose was recommended. Everyone recommended one goose since it would bond with other birds better that way, and that is what we did. So, for six months now we’ve had this goose, and she’s been pretty great for the most part. However, recently she took quite a turn in personality. Her normal goose honking, which we were totally fine with, changed pitch and became almost like an alarm sound. It was super high-pitched and screechy. Now, instead of honking here and there, if anyone was outside she screamed the entire time. When I get up at 7:30 to do chores she screams the entire time it takes me to get done. Evening chores, which sometimes get done at 9pm, she screams the entire time. One of our neighbors has a person living in an RV on their property and I assume he can hear this goose through the RV walls. Her cry is so loud it echoes through the entire neighborhood. We live on a three-acre plot and so do all of our neighbors. So, although we are in the “country” we do have quite close neighbors and I have felt horrible about this goose and her squawking. As if that weren’t bad enough she has recently taken to biting people. One thing I will absolutely not put up with in my home or on my farm is an animal that bites. Over the past few months, this goose has basically made it not enjoyable to be outside. Either she’s loud the entire time anyone is outside, or now if she gets near you she bites. So, we had a decision to make. Could we put up with the bad behavior, or did she need to go?

When we bought this property I made it clear that the animals brought onto our farm had to have a purpose. I have said from the beginning if they cannot fulfill that purpose they are gone. We loved our goose, she was like the farm mascot, but she got to a point where she was more of a problem than a benefit. I cannot afford to feed a problem animal, nor do I want to keep a problem animal. I want my family to be able to go outside and enjoy our farm and what we have on it. So, we made the tough decision and I went ahead and harvested the goose. She did not go to waste, we processed her and she went to freezer camp. I know it may seem harsh but I want people to feel free to make the tough decisions. Having a farm, or a homestead, or whatever you have has to work. The animals you raise have a purpose and when they can no longer fulfill that purpose you shouldn’t have guilt removing that animal. We have to have the mindset that farm animals are different from our pets. Getting rid of our goose made the most sense. Now, I don’t worry that neighbors are going to be mad at the noise, I don’t worry that my kids are going to be attacked, and being outside doing chores or simply hanging out on the property has become a lot more enjoyable. It was a hard decision and it was hard to follow through when that decision was made, but I am glad it’s done. I do believe that at the end of the day it was the right decision for us.

New Addition

On Friday our family welcomed a new member. I brought home an 8-week old English Springer Spaniel and we have named her Bonnie. I have big plans for little Bonnie. First and foremost she is going to be a bird-dog. I want to be able to take her hunting. Springer Spaniels are what are known as flushers. Her job is to find the bird and get it in the air so the hunter can shoot it. She will then retrieve the bird, so also a retriever. On top of this, I want to make a deer tracking dog. Many dogs can be trained to find deer, in fact I am on a Facebook page and I saw a post where a guy had his mini daschund out there tracking deer. My husband and I usually get an archery tag every year and I like the idea of having a dog that can help find the deer if we ever get one. It is also something that quite a few people turn into a business. I guess plenty of deer go missing every year, and they bring a dog in to find them.

We’ve had Bonnie for two days now and she is already retrieving fairly well, and yesterday after we processed the goose, we used the wing to train Bonnie and she did amazing with it. When I say retrieve, I mean, right now, she is basically playing fetch. It will get more complicated as time goes on but for now she has to get the object thrown and bring it back to me. Yesterday with the goose wing, she was a champ. I was worried she wouldn’t turn out to be a good bird dog since dad hunts, but mom doesn’t, but it seems like she may do ok after all. The desire is there at least. Now, I have to do my part and not screw it up. I am very hopeful that she will turn into a great dog, for now she is simply the cutest thing ever!!!!

Final Thoughts

I think the thing I have thought most about this week is that we have one life to live and we need to live it well. I am not a big fan of the saying “You have to make yourself happy”, because I think it leads to bad decisions sometimes, but sometimes you have to do what makes you happy. I struggled with the decision to get a new puppy. I definitely didn’t need a puppy right now. In fact, having a puppy is always a bit of a headache, but it’s what I wanted. Have I trained a bird dog before? No, but I wanted to try. As, I get older I am learning to trust my instincts more and worry about other peoples opinions less. I owe it to myself to be honest about who I am and what I want from my life. I am not saying push something when it’s the wrong time, but if you have the means and the desire, why not take a chance? You never know if it may be the best decision ever.

We raised and harvested our own Turkeys. Was it worth it?

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know. That’s the honest answer

Yesterday we processed our first real meat harvest of the homestead. A few months ago we bought three Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys with the intent of using them as meat birds for our family. Two of them (both males) made it to harvest day. One of the males was massive! Twice the size of the other one and I have no idea why. They were the same age, same breed, same feed, but very different in size. After processing, the larger one ended up being a 26lb bird. We didn’t weigh the smaller one but I would guess about half that size so around 13lbs.

We are lucky enough to live close to my husband’s family and have Thanksgiving together every year. This year our smaller turkey will be gracing the table of the family dinner. With our big one, we went ahead and broke him down and turned the meat into ground turkey. From the 26lb carcass, we ended up with 13 lbs of ground turkey meat. I am currently in the process of making stock from the bones and will probably end up with around 3 gallons of broth total. The broth I am thrilled with, the meat however doesn’t seem like all that much when you think about how much time and feed cost went into that turkey.

Now, I really don’t want to sound like I’m complaining. I am very thankful to have homegrown meat in the freezer, however those turkeys ate a ton of food. I didn’t keep track of the numbers but it was a bit. I also know that homesteading isn’t usually a cheaper option. Most people homestead and raise their own meat for other benefits. We want to know how our animal was raised, exactly what it ate, and ultimately to give it a good life until the end. All of that was accomplished. Those turkeys had a grand time until they didn’t and it was quick and as painless as possible. It is also a skill I am thankful to have. I hope none of us ever truly need those skills, but I like knowing that we can. All in all, I still am unsure if the whole process is worth it.

Thanksgiving update……the Turkey was delicious. I am still on the fence though if this is something we will do again.

2024 Fall Breeding Plans

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

It’s that time of year. Breeding season is upon us. In our goat herd, we have four Nigerian Dwarf does and one Alpine doe. Two of the Nigerian Dwarfs and the Alpine are currently in milk and not on the docket for breeding this fall. That leaves my two other Nigerian Dwarf girls to be bred for the first time.

Since we live in a colder climate I decided to wait until October to breed the girls. February can be quite brutal here and I did not want to try and keep kids alive in the extreme cold. Goat pregnancies are around 150 days, which should put us delivering in March if they conceive in October.

We have actually, already attempted breeding with our fall girls as of this post. In fact, yesterday we were able to breed the goat who I thought would never come into heat. She showed tons of signs but wasn’t interested. She still ran around a bit yesterday but I do believe our buck was able to get his job done. Both of these does have never been bred before, and our buck is about six months old and a new breeder as well, so I will not be shocked if this first time doesn’t take.

Now, we simply watch and wait. If they go back into heat we will know they weren’t successfully bred and will try again. In the meantime, I am drying off the other two Nigerian Dwarfs and will be keeping the Alpine in milk. As mentioned earlier we live in a very cold climate, and on the prairie, so it gets pretty miserable out here. I decided to dry off the other two does since they give less milk and I would have to keep two of them in milk to produce what the Alpine does alone. We will keep the Alpine in milk throughout the winter since she produces enough for our family and is really quick to milk. When temps are in the negative and the wind is blowing I want to be outside for as little time as possible.

Those are our fall breeding plans. I am not sure yet what we will do for the rest of the upcoming year. If the two bred now kid in March then they should be able to stay in milk until we hit winter next year. I am not sure how long our Alpine will stay in milk, I have read they can stay in milk for years sometimes. However, I think I may breed her sometime in the spring and have her kid next fall so we can milk her through the winter again. As long as that provides our family with enough milk then that might end up being our breeding schedule from here on out. That would actually give each goat a pretty good chunk of time off between kiddings.

I think our biggest challenge is going to be not keeping every baby born here on the farm. My kids get attached to everything!

Mastitis or Drama Queen? Dairy Goat Adventures

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

We have five dairy goats here on our farm, and my favorite is a little brown Nigerian Dwarf named Artemis. I have loved her from the moment I met her when she licked my face through the fence. She has always been the sweetest and most calm goat……until recently.

A week or so ago I noticed that she wasn’t eating her food as quickly as usual while on the milking stand. She didn’t seem uncomfortable or anything just wasn’t gobbling down her grain. A few days of this and she started not standing as well as she usually does. She kind of scooted off to this side and I would have to move her back and then she stomped her foot here and there. This clued me into the fact that something could be wrong, but at that moment I didn’t see any other signs of anything serious. She ended up acting like she had mastitis or, at least that was my best guess. The last day that I really noticed something I went out into the pasture to check on her and she didn’t want me touching her udder at all. She moaned and groaned and stomped all over the place, basically telling me to leave her alone. So, I got a hot rag and massaged her udder, gave her some Vitamin C, and made sure to gently milk her out. I was going to call the vet the next day but ended up not needing to. I will also say that a tender udder was her only symptom. Her milk was fine, no blood, no lumps, no nothing except a tender udder.

Now, let’s backtrack for one moment. When I got them from the breeder she recommended a product called Sweet Feed from the Homestead brand. That is the grain they all get while on the milking stand. Everyone loved it and gobbled it down as quickly as possible. At some point, we ran out, on the weekend of course when our local Ag store was closed, so I bought regular goat feed from Tractor Supply. No one cared for it much and was happy to have the sweet feed back when I was able to get more. However, we have had to switch back and forth a few times because Tractor Supply is much easier for me to get to and pick feed up. So, at the time of the mastitis scare, I had actually gotten the sweet feed again thinking this was the preferred food. I once again ran out of sweet feed on the weekend and grabbed the Tractor Supply feed for the time being. This time however I started to notice a change in Artemis.

Now, I will never know for sure that this is the case, but I swear that goat threw a hissy fit and basically just refused to be milked because of the food change. She acted like she was in so much pain and almost as soon as the feed changed she was fine again. She has had her preferred food for 4 days now and she’s back to waiting at the fence for her turn, she runs full speed to the barn to get on the stand and chows down while standing perfectly still to be milked. I cannot believe it. So, either this goat had the tiniest case of mastitis ever, a bruised udder somehow, or she’s the biggest drama queen I have ever met. She did end up getting her way though.

The lesson learned. Apparently, we will be using the Tractor Supply food from now on. ( In case you’re curious it’s the Nutrena Brand goat feed in the orange bag)

What to Do When Your Wether Acts Like a Buck

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

My mom came for a week-long visit this past week and it turned into a very interesting experience with the goats. One of the first days she got here we had a conversation about our two male goats. One of them is the goat who is meant to be our breeder, and one is our wether or castrated goat. However, the wether has been losing his mind over the ladies. He is at the fence every day trying to smell everyone and making all the weird goat noises, and ultimately acting more like a buck than our buck. Talking to my mom, I said “I don’t understand why he is acting this way”. So, she walks over takes a look at him, and asks “Are you sure he doesn’t have anything hanging there?” Yes, Mom, I’m sure. He was banded and things fell off and I’m positive he was wethered. So, we walked over, I picked him up, she felt his belly, and sure enough, he had one testicle left up in his belly. Nothing is hanging but he does have something up in the belly. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

So, now we technically have two bucks. I am not really sure whether he can breed or not, but it is a possibility. Some research said that the testicle being up close to the body could make it too warm to have live sperm, but it isn’t totally out of the question. The bigger issue is the fact that he is acting absolutely insane. He has gotten stuck in the fencing at least six times. He puts his head through the fence squares and when he tries to pull out, his little horn scur gets caught.

I got these goats from a breeder who does show goats. Her mom has been in the goat industry for something like 30 years, and they all do shows. Thinking that this would give me a better quality goat and fewer issues over the long run. So far, they are overall good goats, but almost all of them have horn scurs and our wether has a testicle. All of these are somewhat common issues, but still a little frustrating. Horn scurs are where their horn bud is burned so a horn doesn’t grow, but some cells survive and a tiny piece of horn grows. These can be an issue because they aren’t as sturdy as a normal horn and they can rip them off and bleed. Which is exactly what this wether did. He keeps sticking his head in the fence and getting stuck due to his scur. We had to keep going out there and picking him up and trying to get him unstuck, which was quite a challenge. Eventually, somehow the scur fell off. So now, he does still get himself stuck but it’s much easier to pull his head out.

Future plans involve getting some smaller fencing and doubling up so he can’t fit his head through anymore. However, he should at some point be too big to put his head in the square. We also have to make a decision on what to do with him. His entire purpose on this farm was supposed to be keeping the buck company. Goats don’t like to be alone so we purchased him to keep the buck company. He was never supposed to be a breeder, I’m not sure that he can, but I don’t really want to take the chance. It wouldn’t be the end of the world. He did come from two nice parents, both registered, but our buck was chosen over him so I would like to use the buck we actually picked. Our options seem to be, to keep him and do nothing, get him surgery to remove the testicle, sell him, or process him. If we keep him and do nothing we have to keep dealing with him trying to get to the girls and acting insane. Our actual buck doesn’t act nearly as crazy as this one does, plus we don’t want him accidentally breeding anyone. If we get him surgery that is obviously going to be a bit of an expensive option. The cheaper option would be to get rid of him somehow and get a new wether for company. I assume surgery will be at least a couple of hundred dollars, and I can find a wether for under $50. Cost wise this would make sense. My concern with that option is that no one is going to buy a half-wethered buck. Boy goats are difficult to find homes for in general. Which, leaves us with our last option, to go ahead and process him. Before anyone gets too upset, this is a working farm. Every animal that we bring onto the property has a purpose. If they can’t fulfill that purpose they have to go. Sometimes, hard decisions have to be made. With all that said we have not made our decision yet. It will probably need to be made here soon, as winter is coming in and I would like to have it all settled before then.

In conclusion, if you ever have a goat or other animal that you need to band for castration, make sure you double-check that both testicles are in there. I did read that sometimes one can slip back up into place, so double-check. If you buy a wether from someone, double-check. You never know the shenanigans that might await you.