We're on our first official baby watch tonight. I was out feeding when Vic got home. He came into the shed and immediately spotted Pim's udder. VERY disconcerting. I called Marie for some advice. Once the udder starts to fill, we could have babies anytime. Could be tonight, could be in a couple of days, we'll have to watch and see. No power out there, so we ran three extension cords out. Had to shave Pim's udder, lol!
The vet is scheduled to be here tomorrow around noon. As much as I hope to have babies tonight, it would be nice to have her give them a once over and get their shots on board. More later!
Goat number one
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It's Exclaim!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Colostrum Express
I took a ride over to Buxton on Sunday to pick up some frozen colostrum ice cubes from Cheryle. You didn't know there was such a thing, did you? Apparently, we are going to have babies sooner than we anticipated. We were thinking February, but I guess I didn't read the notes. Pim was pastured with Jethro for a week in July. Count out 150 days and -assuming it took- we are going to be in business pretty darn soon. Basically, from here on out through January, we could have babies dropping out all over the place. Hence the colostrum. We need to bottle feed it to all the kids to make sure they each get some. Then we freeze any extra from mom to have on hand for the next batch. So...off I went, and got more clipping and milking lessons to boot.
Check these out:
I love this picture. Look at her face, you just know she's saying 'What are you Doing???'
Check these out:
I love this picture. Look at her face, you just know she's saying 'What are you Doing???'
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Dis-Budding 101
This morning I drove over to Creeping Thyme Farm in Buxton for a lesson in dis-budding. With very few exceptions, all goats, including does, grow horns. Not a very good idea with dairy goats. They can get caught in fencing, and are pretty formidable weapons as well. So as a matter of course, all babies have their horn buds cauterized in their first week or so.
Marie and Tim were still finishing up their morning chores, which gave Missy and me time to play with the babies. It was a warm, sunny morning and I could have stood there all day just watching them bebop and bounce around like little jumping beans. When they were ready, we brought two twins, a doeling and buckling into the milkroom. These guys were just over a week old. Marie pointed out that it's very important to take ALL the babies away at the same time, even if you're only doing something to one of them. This way their mother won't reject them when they return. We sat them on our laps and Marie gave them both a buzz cut to clear the spot where the horns were just starting to press against the skin. A butane dis-budder is used, which heats up super hot. The end is placed over the horn buds and burns/cauterizes the spot. A disk of skin is removed and you actually see the bone. Any protrusions are carefully scraped away, then the area treated with Blu-kote. They also had a silver colored spray that they used on the lighter colored babies to try to camouflage the area. This is another way to trick mom into accepting her babies back. Who knew goat could be so fickle?
Keeping the babies still is a challenge for sure. We swaddled them in a towel and held them in our laps while Tim did the dirty work. The smell is...nauseating. The babies scream during the procedure. It is not for the faint hearted. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it myself, but honest to God, as SOON as it is done, they are up and about like nothing happened. We also did two doelings that were born just a couple of days ago. That seems like the way to go. They didn't have nearly the time that the older kids had. What a difference a week makes!
I was also given a hands on lesson in hoof trimming. I finally feel confident in what I need to do and how to do it. It's similar to cleaning a horses foot or trimming a dogs nails, just a lot more squirming involved. I cannot imagine doing it on a bigger goat, I helped with two today and it's a very physical process.
Lots of good lessons under my belt now. Of course, I haven't used the castrater yet...I think that will be my job... :-)
Marie and Tim were still finishing up their morning chores, which gave Missy and me time to play with the babies. It was a warm, sunny morning and I could have stood there all day just watching them bebop and bounce around like little jumping beans. When they were ready, we brought two twins, a doeling and buckling into the milkroom. These guys were just over a week old. Marie pointed out that it's very important to take ALL the babies away at the same time, even if you're only doing something to one of them. This way their mother won't reject them when they return. We sat them on our laps and Marie gave them both a buzz cut to clear the spot where the horns were just starting to press against the skin. A butane dis-budder is used, which heats up super hot. The end is placed over the horn buds and burns/cauterizes the spot. A disk of skin is removed and you actually see the bone. Any protrusions are carefully scraped away, then the area treated with Blu-kote. They also had a silver colored spray that they used on the lighter colored babies to try to camouflage the area. This is another way to trick mom into accepting her babies back. Who knew goat could be so fickle?
Keeping the babies still is a challenge for sure. We swaddled them in a towel and held them in our laps while Tim did the dirty work. The smell is...nauseating. The babies scream during the procedure. It is not for the faint hearted. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it myself, but honest to God, as SOON as it is done, they are up and about like nothing happened. We also did two doelings that were born just a couple of days ago. That seems like the way to go. They didn't have nearly the time that the older kids had. What a difference a week makes!
I was also given a hands on lesson in hoof trimming. I finally feel confident in what I need to do and how to do it. It's similar to cleaning a horses foot or trimming a dogs nails, just a lot more squirming involved. I cannot imagine doing it on a bigger goat, I helped with two today and it's a very physical process.
Lots of good lessons under my belt now. Of course, I haven't used the castrater yet...I think that will be my job... :-)
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
My First Milking Lesson
This morning I drove down to Cape Neddick to get my first milking lesson from Cheryle. What fun! It was a beautiful morning and she is a fabulous teacher. She very patiently took me through the process of shaving the udder, then cleaning and drying it. The girls stood like angels on the stand while she showed me her milking technique. After watching for awhile, I took the seat and gave it a whirl. IT IS NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKS. After milking three or four does, I started to get the hang of it, but not before I covered my coat, my pants, the milking stand and the floor with streams of milk. Mind you, I didn't actually completely milk three or four does, I squished and squirted along until Cheryle suggested I let her finish for me. :-)
There was a doe there that had given birth to two little bucklings last Friday. These little guys, two days old, were about the size of a 20 ounce bottle of soda with legs and a head. It just doesn't get any sweeter than that. I could have stood there and watched them for days.
Next Sunday the adventure continues as I head over to Maries to learn about disbudding. Should be interesting!
There was a doe there that had given birth to two little bucklings last Friday. These little guys, two days old, were about the size of a 20 ounce bottle of soda with legs and a head. It just doesn't get any sweeter than that. I could have stood there and watched them for days.
Next Sunday the adventure continues as I head over to Maries to learn about disbudding. Should be interesting!
SMDGA First Aid Seminar
This weekend has been all about goats. A trend that I see continuing ad infinitum of course. On Saturday I took a trip up to Augusta with Marie and Missy to a goat first aid seminar. There was a group of about twenty five people, with all kinds of goats, and the speaker was a local vet. I am now officially freaked out. I must remember that the purpose of the seminar was to cover things that can go wrong, but it was a little overwhelming to take all that information in. Bottom line of course, we have happy healthy goats and with a little preparation and common sense, problems will be, God willing, minimal. We all introduced ourselves and the whole room got a chuckle (read 'belly laugh') at the fact that we were new goat people and had six pregnant does. I had a couple of people come up and ask me 'Are you the one with the six pregnant does?' When I said I was, they would laugh and comment that we were in for a lot of fun. Oh my God, we are screwed.
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