THE Goat Thread (merged)

[The_Virginian]

keeping them seperate until the make has "enough meat on his bones" is one option.
The other is selling the kid right away.

I should mention my reasons are religious, as we don't even castrate stallions (to make geldings) or bulls (steers).

My stallion was a PITA whenever he was by a female...at least he made good breeding stock...

If I get another horse, it will definitely be FEMALE.

[ncgoatgirl]

Actually, the last two years we've been going the get rid of them early route. I run an ad in the local trading-post-type paper and give them away at a week old---after they've had plenty of colostrum. folks bottle-feed them and eat them or breed them or keep them as pets or brush goats. And I don't have to deal with them at all. I find that the dairy breeds just take so long to put on enough meat to be worthwhile, and wethers are a huge pain to have around.

Now lambs, on the other hand....

[The_Virginian]

oh wow "the trading post" I remember that from VA.

here in mn I'm stuck with craigs list...not the same.

Good for you...I'm sure those goats find a good home or dinner plate.

[CarlinsDarlin]

Well the lady who was supposed to buy Big Dan and Little Anne had to back out on me at the last minute, so they're still here. Dan is not going to be kept for breeding, since he's a LaMancha/Nubian mix, and I'm concentrating on Nubians, but he is a big boy. I was hoping to sell him as an intact buck, but as I said, the lady backed out on me and I don't have another customer lined up. Dan may be the first buck kid we put in the freezer. If he weren't a bottle baby, I wouldn't have such a problem with the idea, but he is, and it bugs me. I'd much rather sell him.

If we do put him in the freezer, the deed will have to be done away from me. I don't mind the idea of eating him, but I just don't want to have to see him killed. I'm such a softy.

We'll have to see. Right now, he's just eating and getting bigger. More than 50 pounds right now. We're quickly approaching the time when a decision has to be made....
K

[CarlinsDarlin]

Congratulations Shanny! They're adorable, even if they're both boys
Kathy

[wisconsin_cur]

Congratulations!!!

I wouldn't mind having all boys this year... more for the freezer!

[CarlinsDarlin]

Shanny,
I did get the milker to finally work, but I haven't used it recently. I was a little uncomfortable with it, simply because I didn't want to *over* milk the girls. When I'm milking by hand, I can feel when I've taken enough out. With the milker I had no way to gauge that, and I was kinda worried about putting too much stress on them. Besides that, Cinnamon's nursing triplets, so I don't take much from her anyway, and Spice only has one side of her udder, so the baby gets most of it. I'm drying Sugar off right now, so I havent milked her consistently for the last two weeks, and not at all for the last four or five days. I'll be putting her back in with Ringo about the middle to the end of the month, though, for some late February babies. With the other two milking, we're still getting about a half gallon or so a day for use in the house, even milking once a day, so it's all good.

A quart IS a lot for a Nigi. I'm glad the milker is working so well for you. I didn't have any trouble with it clogging. Did you buy the inline filter? I did, simply because I wanted to avoid that problem. It worked, I guess, because it never clogged.
K

[CarlinsDarlin]

Shanny,
Great setup you have there.

There are two rows of holes so we can adjust the width to accommodate any size goat. The bottom bar can be dropped if needed

Now that's a feature I *wish* we'd put in place when we built ours. That's the only gripe I have about my milking stand. The little ones are too short to put on it, and it makes trimming feet a chore. When I ever get around to re-doing it, I'll make the bottom bar adjustable.
K

[IslandCrow]

LA city officals hire goats to clear the land - a short video

The goats have been brought in to 'eat' the site clean and are a cheaper and greener alternative to human workers.

And probably use less oil products to get the job done <- there it is now a PO relevant news item!

[kpeavey]

During WWII, sheep were kept on the White House Lawn. They freed up men to go to war, kept the place tidy, used no fuel, even fertilized the place.

[Cog]

I recently finished working on a survey job on a landfill. They keep about 60 goats there to eat vegetation that is sitting on slopes too steep to mow.

As an aside to this, the EPA tried this for a couple of years and the goats were eaten by coyotes and feral dogs resulting in the loss of the complete herd. After the addition of a pair of Grand Pyreness dogs they haven't lost a single one.

[Ludi]

San Antonio just instituted a program to maintain parks with goats.

Go goats!

[joeltrout]

People have been using goats here (Southwestern Los Angeles) for years to clear hillsides that are too steep for tractors and areas are too large to hire a couple guys.

It is quite funny to see lost goats signs on telephone poles rather than lost dog photos in LA.

joeltrout

[TheDude]

My first thought was why isn't this in PFTF?

This should be familiar to anyone who's read Eric Sloane's books:



"Dog powered Butter maker."

Early Farm Power

[CarlinsDarlin]

Shanny,
Congrats on the new baby! I'll look forward to the pictures. I walked in on Cinnamon while she was eating the afterbirth from her triplets this year (that's a LOT of afterbirth!). Yep it was pretty gross. Don't be surprised if Reina doesn't want to eat much for the next couple days. That afterbirth takes up a LOT of room in the rumen. Cinnamon didn't eat more than a bite or two of grain for about three days after she ate hers. It worried me to death - I kept thinking she might be getting milk fever or something - but then I realized how much she'd eaten
Kathy

[CarlinsDarlin]

Shanny,
I don't know how I missed that picture you posted of your baby in September. Gorgeous!

As for milking in the morning, you will get more milk. that's the reason I chose to do it that way as well. Since the babies don't nurse at night, even when they're with the does, you'll get more. And separating them at night, you get everything.

Your does will adjust their milking - probably start making a bit more. They'll hold back some for the babies even in the morning, but they'll produce all day long as the babies need it - especially if they know the babies will be separated at night. Those babies will start taking a good long drink in the afternoon and early evening, knowing they'll be separated.

Glad to hear your girls are doing well. I've started using my Maggidan's milker on Cinnamon regularly now. Still occasionally we get a clog, but it has saved my wrists so much that I LOVE it now.
K

[RedStateGreen]

Shanny wanted me to say something about cooking goat meat ... we were concerned about the goat she just slaughtered because it had been running around and acting stressed, but the meat tasted just fine to us. (lol but then I have no idea what it's supposed to taste like!)

I made a leg roast. I marinated it overnight in lemon juice, wine, garlic and onion (from a recipe I found online), and roasted it in a low oven (275F) for a couple hours after broiling it for five minutes on each side. I got it to a medium well, which was good. I wouldn't have wanted to cook it any more, the shank was more done and it was a bit chewy.

It was difficult to taste the meat over the marinade (too lemony), and I think I'm going to try cooking the other leg like I cook lamb (rub with garlic, pepper and thyme then sear and roast at a low temp. But there are TONS of goat recipes online. I'm going to make a meat pie tomorrow with the leftover meat.

[rattleshirt]

My folks are looking to get a livestockguard dog. Some people here mentioned having Meramma(sic) and Anatolian dogs. Could whoever that was contact me?

[Ludi]

Congrats on your successes and sympathy for your losses, Shanny.

[wisconsin_cur]

Two kids born last night:



This makes four healthy kids, if I count the kids born three days after I sold the nanny to a neighbor. Only one doe is left and she is the one who had problems last year.

Tomorrow I get to start teaching mama how to stand in a stanchion (just to get fed for starters).