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Post by Freeholdfarm on Mar 20, 2005 18:04:19 GMT -5
The forum has been really slow, and I've been really busy, so I hadn't mentioned that we have new babies! I bought a bred doe on March 3, a four-y-o Boer/Oberhasli cross. The lady we got her from thought she was due more towards the end of the month, but on March 10 she gave us two beautiful doe kids! The kids are 3/4 Boer, so I'm not going to keep them, but it's fun having tiny babies again! Opal, the mom, is milking well, at over a gallon a day -- the babies are taking most of it right now (I'll wean them onto kid milk replacer soon), but I'm hoping that Grandma will be able to drink her milk. The milk from the Kinders is too rich for her (she drinks 2% from the store!). My six-y-o Kinder doe is due in another month or so, and she's starting to look really wide already. Kinders are known for having litters, but hopefully Mazola won't do that to me! I have one of her kids sold already, if she has a buck.
Spring is springing here -- we saw daffodils in bloom on the way to church this morning, and a flowering plum in town was almost in full bloom.
Kathleen
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Post by naturerules1 on Apr 8, 2005 20:46:48 GMT -5
Hi, Opal is a jem! Sounds like you have a herd!!! I wish I had some goat milk, I have been wanting to make my first batch of goat cheese,butter? I figure we will be in the bush for atleast a year till we can have goats but they are in the plans. Well congrats on the kids! Robbie
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Post by Freeholdfarm on Apr 8, 2005 22:28:37 GMT -5
Hi, Robbie! Yes, I think Opal is a gem, and a totally unexpected one! She's the first goat I've had with any Boer in her, and I'm really surprised by her good udder and milking ability! She's up to ten pounds a day now, or maybe a little more, at only four weeks fresh -- she might go up to twelve pounds a day at her peak. I really like her a lot! I have, in addition to Opal, three Kinder does, a Kinder buck, and a wether to keep the buck company, so that's six adult goats altogether. Well, four are yearlings, so they aren't quite full grown yet. Still waiting for Mazola to kid -- she's due, I think, in about two weeks or so. At about that time I'll put Linnet, one of the twin Kinder yearling does, in with the buck to be bred for a fall kidding, so she should be milking through the winter when Mazola and Opal will be dry again. Lark, the other twin, is smaller than her sister, and I'm going to let her grow until she's two before I breed her. Kinder goats are half Pygmy and half Nubian, and Lark took more after the Pygmy side of the family.
I've made some soft cheeses in the past, when we had other goats, but am trying to get everything rounded up so I can try again to make hard cheeses (the two times I've tried before were flops). Butter is a little harder to make with goat milk, because it's naturally homogenized, and the cream doesn't rise very well. You really need a cream separator, if you want a lot of cream for anything like butter from goat milk. I haven't wanted to mess with a cream separator -- it's on my list for someday when more important things are taken care of. I'll probably have to get a milking machine before I get a separator, though, as I have carpal tunnel and a little arthritis, and milking can cause problems.
I don't know if you've read all the posts on here, but Chuck and Jenny said that they packed stuff in to their cabin site on their goats -- did you know you could do that? Lots of people use their goats for packing. They can't carry as much as a horse, but a big wether in good condition can carry fifty or sixty pounds all day, and doesn't need feed packed along for him, as they can eat brush and stuff from along the trail. (If you are packing with a milker, you would want to carry some grain for her, though.)
Kathleen
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Post by naturerules1 on Apr 9, 2005 7:19:53 GMT -5
Hi Kathleen,
I know little of goats and look forward to reading your posts on your goats. I learned alot already. Keep us informed on how things go.Robbie
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