Wow - I just came in from milking my two girls (Ori & Pepper). They blow me away on how much milk they give. Both ladies are feeding triplets yet they still gave me 60.4 ounces of milk this morning. Pepper gave me a full quart and Ori was at 27. I only milk once a day at the moment. The girls go back into their pen after milking and spend the rest of the day with their babies.
Speaking of the babies - they are so much fun to watch play. It's going to be a gorgeous day outside today so they should be running, jumping and doing the baby dance outside most of it. When you walk in the pen they are all over you. We have a few little toddler chairs in there and if you set down in one Dora is the first on your lap - then Snazzy, then whoever else can make it up there. It's kinda fun watching seven babies try to get up on your lap. They all crave attention - reminds me of puppy dogs.
I haven't written much on the farm lately (but I'll get back to it). We're getting ready for our First Annual Wether Auction tomorrow. If all goes well we're hoping to make this an annual event. It's mainly a sale for 4-H kids to get their show animals. We don't have a lot of Nigerian Dwarfs in the county fairs around here but we're hoping to change that. We have five breeders coming and bringing wethers all under one year old - should be lots of fun. Once we get this first sale under our belt then I'll post a webpage about it and start making plans for next year.
My kids always went every year to buy their 4-H hog at auction, so I thought why not do a goat auction. The only problem was I didn't come up with this idea until February and wasn't thinking about how young some of these boys would be. Oh well, we've come up with about 26 so now we only have to hope people will come to the sale. Next year we can schedule breeding so that babies will be ready for the sale.
Well - gotta go get busy - lots to do today to finish getting ready.
Hope you are having great weather wherever you are. If you are a follower of this blog - drop me an email and introduce yourself.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Wow - have we been busy lately.
Spring has sprung and baseball season has started. Quaid is playing on the school team and then will also be playing in the summer league at Warren.
We bought a new buck (like we need another one) from Margot in Muncie. His name is Dawnland Tabby's Maritimer E and he'll be five years old in June. He throws some amazingly colorful babies. Our wethers Zeek and Kai are babies of his. We were looking to breed with him again and Margot decided she had too much of his blood line on her farm so she sold him to us. We are looking forward to breeding him with our ladies and seeing what we get.
We sold three goats (Velvet, Zody and Repo) to a couple from Poneto for their kids for 4-H. I'm sure they will do great for them. They are mother (Repo) and kids. These two were the first born on our farm and although they are extremely special to us we think they will do great for their new family.
Disbudded Pepper's babies today. I hate disbudding day but feel it is a necessary evil. The subject of disbudding brings lots of opinions for and against. We disbud for the goats safety and for ours. Besides that, the kids are in 4-H and goats must be dehorned to show. It wouldn't be fair to disbud some and not all as that would leave the disbudded ones at a distinct disadvantage when it came to head-butting. Head-butting is a fact of life and I would just rather be safe than sorry. Also, goats are known for sticking their heads through the fence to get to the better grass (it's the same stuff) on the other side - don't want them getting their heads caught because of horns. It's bad enough when they stick their head through someplace that is just too small and then can't get it out - can you imagine if they had horns.
Next weekend we are having our First Annual (we hope) Nigerian Dwarf Wether Auction here on the farm. 4-H kids will have a chance to come view, play and choose the wether they want to buy and raise for 4-H. We have four, possibly five, breeders who will have kids here for sale. It should be a really interesting day. Some of the babies being sold this year are a little young but if this year's sale goes well, we'll breed for a little older babies for next year's sale.
Also, next week I need to start getting goats clipped, hooves trimmed and getting ready to go to our first show of the season. We will be headed to the Hancock County Fairgrounds in Greenfield Indiana on the 25th. I can't wait. I love going to the shows. Don't necessarily care if I win (although that's a major plus), but I love the camaraderie, the learning and everything else that goes along with it.
We went to our first show in 2007, didn't take any goats - just went to watch and see what it was all about. We had a really great time and the kids both got to show other people's goats. We met a lot of really great people. The next show we took our goats and felt like we were right at home.
Well - gotta go feed - more later! C Ya
Spring has sprung and baseball season has started. Quaid is playing on the school team and then will also be playing in the summer league at Warren.
We bought a new buck (like we need another one) from Margot in Muncie. His name is Dawnland Tabby's Maritimer E and he'll be five years old in June. He throws some amazingly colorful babies. Our wethers Zeek and Kai are babies of his. We were looking to breed with him again and Margot decided she had too much of his blood line on her farm so she sold him to us. We are looking forward to breeding him with our ladies and seeing what we get.
We sold three goats (Velvet, Zody and Repo) to a couple from Poneto for their kids for 4-H. I'm sure they will do great for them. They are mother (Repo) and kids. These two were the first born on our farm and although they are extremely special to us we think they will do great for their new family.
Disbudded Pepper's babies today. I hate disbudding day but feel it is a necessary evil. The subject of disbudding brings lots of opinions for and against. We disbud for the goats safety and for ours. Besides that, the kids are in 4-H and goats must be dehorned to show. It wouldn't be fair to disbud some and not all as that would leave the disbudded ones at a distinct disadvantage when it came to head-butting. Head-butting is a fact of life and I would just rather be safe than sorry. Also, goats are known for sticking their heads through the fence to get to the better grass (it's the same stuff) on the other side - don't want them getting their heads caught because of horns. It's bad enough when they stick their head through someplace that is just too small and then can't get it out - can you imagine if they had horns.
Next weekend we are having our First Annual (we hope) Nigerian Dwarf Wether Auction here on the farm. 4-H kids will have a chance to come view, play and choose the wether they want to buy and raise for 4-H. We have four, possibly five, breeders who will have kids here for sale. It should be a really interesting day. Some of the babies being sold this year are a little young but if this year's sale goes well, we'll breed for a little older babies for next year's sale.
Also, next week I need to start getting goats clipped, hooves trimmed and getting ready to go to our first show of the season. We will be headed to the Hancock County Fairgrounds in Greenfield Indiana on the 25th. I can't wait. I love going to the shows. Don't necessarily care if I win (although that's a major plus), but I love the camaraderie, the learning and everything else that goes along with it.
We went to our first show in 2007, didn't take any goats - just went to watch and see what it was all about. We had a really great time and the kids both got to show other people's goats. We met a lot of really great people. The next show we took our goats and felt like we were right at home.
Well - gotta go feed - more later! C Ya
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)