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Post by Jenny on Apr 24, 2006 1:32:21 GMT -5
Well, we got our goats flown out last month and they're doing great. Our neighbor, Bud is housing them until we get a new house for them this summer. We cleaned out our old one and put in a new floor, then started using it for a storage building. Anyway, One of the does kidded about 2 weeks before flying them out --- she had 2 beautiful bucklings we'll castrate and use for pack goats later. We also bought a great little saanen buckling for our herd sire later. He was only a week old and was on mama until the day he flew out. We've been bottle feeding him, and he's sure growing. One of the does kidded a few weeks ago ---- the most beautiful little alpine buckling I've ever seen. But now we're overrun with bucklings  Oh well. Bud wants to keep him since he's so handsome ;D That suits me. Anyway, each morning, Bud's been milking the one who kidded before flying out. Her milk is WONDERFUL! ! ! She's been getting a little grain and hay that we flew out to help transition them, but her diet has mostly been brush (tree tops) that Chuck's been hauling in for them. The trees are loaded with lichen, which they really love. I know some people say the milk will taste bad, like what you feed them if they eat browse rather than grain. I have not found that to be the case with any of the goats we had before, nor with the one we're milking so far. I did like the boer milk MUCH better ---- it was richer, lots more butterfat. But certainly didn't taste like the trees they ate. Made a little butter one day. Not enough fat separates out to make it worth doing very often, but I just wanted to try it anyway. It was the best tasting butter I've ever put in my mouth! Sure makes me want some ND goats or Kinders. It's good to have goats again. The boys sure like them. Jenny |
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Post by alwayshome on Apr 26, 2006 0:44:27 GMT -5
Jenny Aren't goats great!!!I have been keeping goats for about 14 years now and they are the animal I love the best. Name one other animal that can make that amount of milk from trees. I was interested in your comment about the boer goats as I was thinking about crossing them with my toggs. I have talked to other local breeders that have done this and they have had no problems. I was concerned because toggs tend to be smaller framed than other dairy breeds. Anyway the milk also sounded promising and we could use them as meat. We have eaten our wethers in the past and the meat was really good. Hope that doesn't offend but my animals have to provide for me or they don't get to be here. Not enough resources for freeloaders. We have 3 does and one buckling this years out of 2 does. It has been my experience that some bucks throw a higher precentage of bucks or does depending. I had one for about 3 years that I only got one doe out of. He left. In all my years with goat milk I never made butter, sounds like fun maybe some day soon.
Linda
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Post by Jenny on Apr 26, 2006 1:08:34 GMT -5
I sure do enjoy having goats around. They are really about the only practical animal we've found for out here. We may try chickens again, but to overwinter them, we have to fly food out. Eventually we'd like to get our garden big enough to keep a few broody hens through the winter. Always enough carcasses from Chuck's trapline for them, too.
I certainly agree that there is no room for freeloaders around here, either. Later we'd like to start going on some camping trips with the boys, and I think it would be fun with pack goats. When we moved out here, we brought some pack goats to haul our stuff from the lake back to our property --- about a mile. Was a lot easier than hauling it all on our backs! I'm sure in another year or so, we'll have all the pack goats we'll need, and then start eating the extras. We have one more doe due to kid in mid July. I sure hope she has does!
I would think crossing toggs would be fine. I think Kathleen (Freeholdfarm) here on the forum, said she has an Oberhasli (sp) Boer cross. I don't think I've ever seen a full Togg before, but one of ours is part Togg. I was thinking they were about the same size as Oberhaslis --- maybe not. I don't know. Anyway, if you did cross them, I would think you'd get great milk. Kathleen said her milk tastes as rich as what she gets from her Kinders. She said she gets 2 1/2 - 3 pounds of cheese per gallon of milk. Now that sounds like my kind of goat ! ! ! Of course, with feeding mostly browse, I wouldn't expect near as much milk, and maybe not the butterfat, either. It is tempting to get another boer buck to get crosses with better milk, but the last one we had out here put a bad taste in my mouth for boer bucks. He was 3 years old, had horns, was raised in a decent pen, but pretty much ignored, except for when he was needed for breeding. Well fed, but not very personable, to say the least. He was very aggressive. I know it was just the way he was raised, but when we decide to expand, I think I'd like Kinders if I can find them up here. If not, then ND goats, maybe.
That will be interesting to see what our little bucklings do. (The two that won't be castrated) They're from different lines. If one tends to produce bucks, he won't stick around long, either. Oh, that is the bad part about getting attached to your animals, isn't it?
Jenny
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Post by Freeholdfarm on Jul 9, 2006 20:11:02 GMT -5
Sounds like you have a good start, Jenny! Has your last doe kidded yet?
I think the butterfat on browse might actually be higher -- because they wouldn't be giving as much milk, so it would probably be richer.
You might see if you can get a part-Boer buckling, bottle-raised, to breed to your does eventually. I'd say half Boer or more, since you'd want the percentage of Boer in his doe kids to be at least 1/4. I really like my Kinder goats, but larger body size retains heat better in cold weather, so I think the larger goats will handle the winters up there better. Though Kinders would probably do just fine, too. But it's hard to have too many breeds of goats on one place, and keep bucks for all of them. I'm dubious about breeding Kinder does to a large-breed buck, and definitely wouldn't do it with a Nigerian doe. You can do it the other way around, though.
By leaving jars of milk to sit for a few days, I can get plenty of cream for butter from the Kinder does or the Boer cross doe, and it's very good butter, too. The remaining milk isn't the best for drinking, though -- it would be fine, used up in baked goods. Or fed to chickens.
Speaking of chickens, if you only had a few, you could just feed them some of whatever you were eating (cook as if for another person or two). That should get them through the winter just fine, though with few eggs during the winter (you won't get many eggs in winter, anyway, without light in the chicken house).
Kathleen
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Post by Jenny on Jul 10, 2006 2:08:32 GMT -5
Kathleen, it's great to see you back! You've been busy on here today  One doe had a beautiful buckling a few weeks after their arrival. The other is due in about a week or so. But, I'm not completely sure she's even pregnant. The other doe didn't really look pregnant, either. Wasn't pooched out on the side or anything. She was a yearling and her kid was small, but growing fast. The other one who is due is a really large doe, I think about 6 years old. I think her udders are a bit bigger, but not really sure. Guess we'll find out in a few weeks. Chuck and I have about decided that we won't get any chickens anytime soon. We'd love to, but it will be too hard to feed the through the winter. We've thought about feeding the from the table, but any food that we buy is flown out, so that would be expensive. Lots of people have told me they give their few chickens the leftovers, but I can honestly say that we never have any leftovers. If we have a few tablespoons remaining at the end of a meal, either someone eats it then, it ends up as a snack for somebody later, or it gets tossed in with the next supper. It costs too much to fly things out here, and the things we grow and gather are too much work to be throwing away. We'd like to expand the garden to grow animal food, but right now with our 3 boys growing so fast, we're having to expand the garden every year just to provide more food for ourselves so we don't have to buy so much. We do want chickens again, and I sure do miss those delicious eggs, but by the time we're able to make it worthwhile, they'll probably have to be chipped!  I'd really love to get some Kinders later, but as you said, it would be hard to keep the herds separate --- or at least the bucks. We're just not ready for that. Hard enough to control what we have now. I never even really thought about how they'd do during the winter. The last goat house we had was insulated and they all stayed quite cozy. But, they'd still be out browsing during the day. Maybe the smaller ones wouldn't be so happy with our provisions   Jenny |
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Post by Freeholdfarm on Jul 10, 2006 9:18:59 GMT -5
I wasn't feeling well yesterday, so spent most of the day just sitting here at the computer, getting caught up on things. I'll try to check in here more often now!
I'm worried about the chip thing, too. I'll chip if I have to -- one of the ladies in the local goat club already does chip her goats and other animals, so has the equipment to do it for the rest of us to borrow, which will bring the cost down slightly. I just think it is so WRONG!!
Kathleen
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Post by smwon on Jul 10, 2006 20:25:22 GMT -5
Jenny... I've been gone for awhile but I think I'm here to stay for a bit. It is awesome you got your goats. I'd really love to have ND again. Their milk is the best tasting. My daughter hates goats milk, but the ones from the ND... she loved. It is very good. I would think that browze would be right up a goats alley... they say that the lack of copper is what makes the goat milk taste 'goaty'.
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Post by smwon on Oct 3, 2006 0:31:57 GMT -5
Jenny... how are the goats doing?  We need an update! |
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Terri
Old Timer
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Post by Terri on Oct 4, 2006 10:00:16 GMT -5
YES!
Did the other doe ever kid? HAve you been able to re-breed them?
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Post by Jenny on Oct 6, 2006 22:57:33 GMT -5
One of these days I'll have to post some pictures. The big doe did kid in late July. She was bred to a Saanan and had a doeling and a buckling ------ snow white, of course. Sorry I haven't posted much in quite some time. Been sooooo busy, like everyone else. But, thanks for asking! More later, Jenny |
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Terri
Old Timer
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Post by Terri on Oct 11, 2006 10:17:31 GMT -5
Thanks!
Do you try to milk or make cream??? (I AM just being nosey!). I have often thought that if youngsters were nursing to keep the pressure off of the udder, then a body just has to milk as the household needs it? I wonder!
Unless the animal refuses to let down her milk!
Enjoy them!
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Post by smwon on Oct 11, 2006 10:50:54 GMT -5
What I did the last time I had goats was to let the kids run with mom during the day, then pen them up seperate for the night... then I milked in the morning and afterwards would turn the kids loose... worked really well. I also milked at night, probably more for the purpose of keeping mama used to it... but I did get a little bit of milk then. The kids did great this way... works for me and then I didn't have to bottle feed, and just as in humans, the more stimulation mama gets the more milk she has so there is enough for all of us! ;D
I think next time I will pen the kids up a few hours before milking time, around the time I want to start weaning them...
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Post by Freeholdfarm on Nov 9, 2006 1:09:02 GMT -5
I tried separating kids at night and milking once a day, in the morning, with a couple of my does this year. I'm not entirely happy with the results. I got plenty of milk, and the kids grew well, since they were able to nurse whenever they wanted to. But I need my kids to be friendly and totally bonded to humans, because I use them for packing as well as for milk. The dam-raised kids are not well-bonded to humans, even though they've been handled daily. And two of them, out of a slightly skittish momma, were 'wild children'. I butchered the wether at about three months old because he was so hard to catch and do anything with -- he would totally freak. His sister has calmed down a lot and will stay in the milking herd for now, but she's still quite shy. The other little doe kid did get some bottles to start with and partly bonded to me, but still wasn't as bonded as the totally bottle-raised kids. So I don't think I'll try that experiment again, unless with kids who don't need to be bonded to anyone.
Kathleen
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Post by Jenny on Nov 9, 2006 3:23:24 GMT -5
The kids from the big doe are fairly skittish. We'll see how they turn out. We want to have the buckling (now a wether) for packing, but I have my doubts. They've been with their mama. The little buckling we bought and had flown out when he was less than a week old is really friendly, still. We bottle fed him. I expected him to get that obnoxious buck attitude by now (he's 8 months old), but he's still as friendly as ever. Unfortunately, he smells so bad that nobody wants to be around him. We trim his beard, which does help. We have two other wethers that were completely raised by their mama, but they are extremely friendly. I guess maybe some of it has to do with their personality. Well, I mean WERE friendly. One didn't come home the other evening, and Chuck saw bear tracks nearby.  They all venture out pretty far during the day ---- clear to the lake, which is nearly a mile away. We've never had goats do that. We have so much browse around here that they usually stick pretty close. They'd go out for a couple of hours to eat, then come home for most of the day. Then back out for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. But with this herd, we've seen their track a mile away in any direction. They just like to travel! The other day I was out picking highbush cranberries. From where I was, I saw them coming down the trail going toward the lake. They didn't see me, but I watched them for quite some time. They didn't stop to browse at all. They just kept walking at a steady pace like they were on a mission. Don't know why they like it at the lake. It's always terribly windy, and now pretty cold ---- around 0. Jenny |
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Post by Freeholdfarm on Nov 10, 2006 14:44:54 GMT -5
I don't know if this has anything to do with your goats hiking back down to the lake or not, but the guy that wrote the book I have on goat-packing said he has a hundred acres (in Wyoming, I think) and it isn't fenced. He took his goats out and walked them around the perimeter of the place a few times, and that's their route -- they don't stray much from that. I wonder if, having been brought up to your place from the lake, they think the lake is part of their 'territory'?
Kathleen
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Oh well. Bud wants to keep him since he's so handsome ;D That suits me. 
We need an update! 
They all venture out pretty far during the day ---- clear to the lake, which is nearly a mile away. We've never had goats do that. We have so much browse around here that they usually stick pretty close. They'd go out for a couple of hours to eat, then come home for most of the day. Then back out for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. But with this herd, we've seen their track a mile away in any direction. They just like to travel! The other day I was out picking highbush cranberries. From where I was, I saw them coming down the trail going toward the lake. They didn't see me, but I watched them for quite some time. They didn't stop to browse at all. They just kept walking at a steady pace like they were on a mission. Don't know why they like it at the lake. It's always terribly windy, and now pretty cold ---- around 0.