Hooves, Hooves and more hooves

I trimmed 18 sets of hooves today!Now my back hurts and my fingers are blistering where they held the hoof trimmers for a very long time. And I managed to take a nice chunk out of my thumb with the hoof trimmers(Thanks to the disinfectants and masking tape in the barn I was able to finish the job!)

I trimmed them all last month though so it didn't take forever and I didn't see lots of nasty hoof rot. A much easier job if it doesn't get ahead of me but still a lot of work to keep up with a herd of 25!

Getting ready for the NC State Fair!

            Wow, time sure flies around here. Already we are just a month away from the NC State Fair. Merry Oaks Farm will be showing 13 goats-11 Alpines, 1 Nigerian and 1 Nubian. However, our extra 4 milkers will be coming along so no one has to go home and milk every morning and evening, even though we are fairly close to the fairgrounds. So in all 17 goats. And 7 people will be staying there overnight.

And 7 people + 17 goats= A lot of stuff and a lot of food to get ready. We are very busy in October, leaving me a window of less than a week to get all the does clipped and show ready, and 3 days to pack everything and get it loaded into the trailer. 

So I've started this month making & freezing all of the food necessary to prevent all of our humans from starving. So far, its proved to be more of a difficult job than I had predicted, my siblings require a lot of food!

It appears as though I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen for the rest of September, packing the freezer with food, before starting on the goat side of things in early October.

CHANGE IN BREEDING PLANS.

We have made a few changes to our breeding plans to make room for a 12th milking doe. We will have two early February does and Oreo in late February. Clematis was bred on 9/5 to kid around February 1 or after. I'll be retaining a doeling from Clematis,and the rest of her kids will be for sale. Bucklings $250 and doelings $350. Oreo was in heat 9/6, I hope to breed her on her next heat to kid towards the end of February. For March kidding I'll be breeding a dry yearling, Empress, my 2 year old Busy B&D Doe Della and one of Oreo's doe kids from this year, Swamp Music.

More breeding season craziness!

Adonis got another chance to try and breed Tansy on Thursday and this time he was successful! I suppose he forgot about the other doe that he liked better. And of course Poppy came into heat too. I’m praying we don’t have any difficulty getting her to settle like we did last year. She came into heat a week after being bred and again in another week. She eventually settled, a little later than I would have liked, but at least she freshened. She was dry a whole year in 2010, when she didn’t settle the fall before and was never rebred.  And this year I want a doeling too! She owes me at least one, preferably more. Poppy is due January 31, so she’ll most kid beginning of February.

Since all the does like to come into heat at once, I wasn’t surprised when Clematis headed for the buck pen this morning instead of the barn when I let her out to milk. I considered breeding her but decided to wait until she comes into heat again. Tansy and Emerald were still in heat, so I’ve had a lovely chorus of yelling all day from 4 does! I’m sure the rest of the does will be in heat within a few days, but I’m not breeding any more until later in September. I was trying not to clump them all together!

Tansy is due January 30/31, and Emerald January 30. EMERALD WILL BE FOR SALE IN NOVEMBER!! $300.

Of Breeding Season and Crazy Goats!

It happens every year, I have my breeding plans all written out and know exactly what I want to do. And the goats mess it up.This year I wanted 2 does to kid in January, 2 in February, 3 in March and 3 in November, each set about a month apart. Yeah, doesn't look like that's happening. At least I got Iris and Rebekah bred for mid-January kids! For the past few days Tansy has been showing signs of heat, but not standing for the buck. She stands and wags her tail, and goes over to the buck pen, but freaks out and runs off when the buck tries to mount her. Which is weird because I've never had trouble breeding Tansy! Emerald went into heat today, so she was bred to Adonis. It wasn't until afterwards that I remembered I'd been planning to breed her to Taxman.Whoops. So I decided to breed Tansy to Taxman instead of Emerald. But Tansy has other ideas. She was showing stronger signs of heat this afternoon, so I attempted to breed her to Taxman. Nope. She acted like a crazy maniac when Taxman went near her. So I thought she was not actually in heat. But I let her in with Adonis to make sure. And yes, she is in heat! But apparently Adonis doesn't like Tansy. He wants the younger doe. In about 5 minutes, he had bred Emerald 3 times. And in 5 minutes he hadn't mounted Tansy once. After 20-30 minutes with Tansy he accomplished one possible breeding and a lot of blubbering. So I returned him to the buck pen. Which is pretty much a war zone. It contains Adonis, Taxman, the Nigerian buck, a buckling from this year that never got wethered, and a yearling wether who thinks he's a buck. On one side is Tansy, and on the other side of their pen 8 pretty young does. So all the bucks, and Tansy and the doelings that are in heat all go down to the corner where their pens meet and yell and blubber and fight and try to knock the pens down. Maybe I should make a buck pen far, far away from the rest of civilization....And they're still messing up my breeding plans. Tansy was supposed to be bred 2 weeks ago. but instead she's right in between January and February. Poppy and Clematis are up next, and they'll most likely come into heat in a few days which will put all 5 does due in 3 weeks. Which was not my plan, but what do I care? Breeding season is crazy, but who raises goats and expects life to be normal? I love my crazy goats. And they love to mess up my plans! Life is certainly far from boring on a farm...I ain't complaining!

Merry Oaks Oreo's SwampMusic

I was able to clip the second to last doeling last week, Merry Oaks Oreo's SwampMusic. Twin sister to Merry Oaks Oreo's Tokyo Rose. Swamp isn't as nice as her sister, but she's still turning out to be a nice little doe. I had been planning to sell her, but I think I'll hold onto her for nowJ I would like to see her a little stronger and shorter in the pasterns, I’ll be hoping to improve that on her kids. Look at that depth of barrel!!! She’s going to be a big doe! Her neck is gorgeous, (just like her sister's and dam's) and she has  a beautifully sloped rump and toline.

 If I had room to freshen more yearlings next year, this would be one of my top choices, but we can’t freshen too many young ones(trying to make next kidding season not so stressful!) so she’ll be freshening as a 2 year old instead, and her sister Tokyo will be one of my milking yearlings.