More goat breeding! Fingers crossed this is the last time...

A month ago, a friend came over to artificially inseminate our mama goat, Aurora.  Wednesday of last week was her expected cycle date, so we were hopeful that the AI had taken, and she was pregnant.  Monday, however, she was in heat worse than we had ever seen her so far.  She was yelling loudly, her tail was messy with mucus, and her tail was wagging (also called "flagging") constantly.

We could have had her artificially inseminated again, but I recently met a woman who is very near my house that just got a lamancha buck.  I connected with her, and she allowed us to bring Aurora over to her farm and see how things went.  With Aurora in standing heat, she was very eager and willing to accommodate her new boyfriend.  He was quite a handsome guy!  Unfortunately this is the best photo I got of the two of them, but he had such beautiful color.

After they accomplished their task a few times, I led Aurora out of the pen.  She was not happy to leave her new friend!  We began walking away to find the kids and next thing we knew the buck was right next to us.  He had jumped the fence and ran over to find Aurora!  I really hated pulling them away from each other, they were so cute.  My husband had the van that day, so I had to hoist her up into our Pilot, which is considerably higher.  I could have sworn I was going to put out my back, but I did not, and we were able to get home without incident (read; she did not pee or poop in the back of the car).  After the breeding, Aurora did continue to yell and search the fence line for a friend, but has now calmed down.  Fingers crossed this is the last time this year I have to transport a goat anywhere!  

Aren't they adorable?  I can't wait to see what the babies look like!!

Homeschool real-life lesson: Experiencing goat kids being born

Birth on a farm is amazing, whether it is a baby chick hatching under its mama, or a goat kid being born in the barn.  On Tuesday, my friend Melody over at Solstice Sun Farm invited the girls and I over to watch her goat have babies, and we were happy to have the opportunity.  

Amber, the mama goat, had been contracting all night the night before, but thankfully held off until about 10:00 a.m. before really progressing.  At 10:14 Melody sent me a message to head out, so we grabbed our things and hopped into the car.  Once we arrived, I could hear Amber vocalizing and knew she had to be close.  I got to the stall just as Melody was giving a little tug on the babies feet.  He had been in the birth canal for nearly 30 minutes at that point, so she felt like the mama could use a little assistance.  The baby slid out and was dried off.  I watched Melody take a little of the afterbirth and feed it to Amber.  She explained that if you do this, you can sometimes get the mama to “adopt” you, which makes her more willing to share her milk with you.  Amber did begin licking Melody, which is a good sign.

A few minutes later, the next baby came.  It happened much quicker this time, and slid out with no assistance.  The baby did need some vigorous rubbing to get her moving around, and some help removing the caul.  One boy and one girl!  Amber was only slightly interested in the babies, but more interested in eating the afterbirth.  Once the babies were cleaned up, we both took a baby and headed to the house to warm them up.  

On Melody’s farm, she likes to bottle feed the babies.  It is said to make friendlier goats, and also helps with stand manners once they have their own babies.  (I can attest to her goats being very people friendly and sweet!)  In order to do this, the babies are removed from the mom so that they form an attachment to the person taking care of them.  Instead of nursing, the caretaker milks the mama goat and feeds it back to the babies via a bottle nipple.  It takes a lot of commitment from the caretaker.  In the beginning, you need to feed the baby every few hours, even at night.  The frequency of feedings decreases, but you still need to bottle feed them for 12 weeks.

We were so excited to be able to witness the birth!  It was the first time any of my girls have gotten to see a mammal give birth (they have only seen baby chicks hatch), so it was extra cool for them to be there.  The whole thing made me even more excited for our own goats to have babies.  Aurora and Millie have both been bred, but we are not sure if either are pregnant yet.  If so, they should be having babies in early and late April.  

Farm update - November 4, 2016 Breeding the goats - Artificial Insemination...

I can certainly say I didn't know what I was getting into when we decided to get goats.  Of course we knew that you had to breed them in order for them to make milk, but we didn't realize how difficult that could be when you do not own your own buck!

Your options, if you do not own a buck, are to either take your doe to a buck, have a buck brought to your doe, or artificially inseminate (AI) your doe.  The first time Aurora went into heat, I talked to my friend and arranged for us to visit her buck, who was in "rut".  Oh my goodness, was that ever hilarious.  After I packed her up into a dog crate in the back of my van, hauled her over there, watched the (fruitless) mating session and, ultimately, her deny him, we were still without a pregnant doe.

Fortunately, my friend also just got a tank (I cannot recall what it is called right now) that holds frozen "straws" from a buck.  So, I looked through the online catalog (this was hard, considering I had no idea what we wanted from a buck, genetically) and finally chose one.  My friend bought the straws - we choose a nice Lamancha buck) and held onto them until Aurora went into heat again.

A doe cycles every 21 days.  I took that little fact to heart and really thought they would be like clockwork.  They are not.  Well, finally on Friday we noticed she was in heat again, and my friend came over to AI her.  I felt awful for my poor girl.  It seemed awful.  5 minutes and we were done, and now we wait!  If she goes into heat again we will know it didn't take.  AI is only about 50% effective, whereas the traditional method is more like 90%, I believe.  If it doesn't take, we can AI her again, or breed her to a buck.  Fingers crossed we have babies in 5 months from her.  We still need to breed Millie, and for her we may do a Nubian buck, I'm still not sure of my plans.  There are extra straws if we decide to AI her with the Lamancha.

This is the only photo I have of her that day.  I was trying to get a "before" picture for size comparison.  

Farm Update, October 28, 2016

This has been such a busy summer!  I can still remember last winter, sitting in our house and looking out at the snow covered field.  Dreaming.  Hoping.  Waiting for Spring.  At that time, we had just 5 chickens, a dog, and 2 cats.  And a large, empty field with nothing but weeds.  How things have changed!

Our field has been harvested twice now.  The first time we got 111 bales, and it was mostly oats.  It was terribly difficult to get rid of (and then after it was nearly gone, everyone wanted it!  Of course.)  The second cutting, we got a surprising 160 bales of beautiful alfalfa, and pasture mix.  Half the field is in alfalfa and the other half is a high quality alfalfa/pasture mix.  We sold 100 bales and kept 60 for ourselves for the winter.

The field today, after 2 cuttings this summer.

Kevin and I built this storage "hut" from cattle panels.  It held 61 bales, which will hopefully be plenty of hay for our 2 goats this winter.  It is a challenge not having a barn, or even a shed, but we are doing our best to make it work!  

Aurora is doing well.  She has improved so much on the stand!  She no longer fights me at all (unless a fly is bothering her.  Thankfully those are gone for the year)

Millie is as big as her momma already.  And still nursing at 7.5 months old.  I thought she would wean on her own, but no such luck.  I am going to have to make a sling to keep her from Aurora's udder during the day.  I still only milk in the morning at this point. 

Isn't Millie pretty?  I just love her spots and band.  That fluffy tail is adorable!  But those horns!  She was disbudded three times, and they still grew.  That is why one points forward, and the other points back.  

Both goats are ready to be bred, and I have even noticed good signs of their fertility.  A friend of mine as "straws" from a lamancha (frozen semen) that we will artificially inseminate Aurora with.  Millie will be bred to one of her nubian bucks the old fashioned way.  I have been tracking their cycles according to their signs, but we keep missing the window!  I am hoping this next cycle they will both be bred.  

The garden is pretty much done.  It did really well, especially the tomatoes and peppers.  There are a few carrots in the ground, and a lot of sweet potatoes that need dug up this weekend.

 We were doing so good keeping up on the weeds, until the last couple months.  There are even a few peppers in there we could still harvest.  

This was our "oh no, a frost is coming" solution.  We had the squash on the porch curing, so we put them in an empty cabinet we had in the garage.  Then we grabbed buckets and picked as many tomatoes and peppers as we could in the dark.  We actually didn't end up with a frost that night.  Our first frost was October 24th.  

The ladies have been enjoying the spent produce.  Tomatoes, watermelon rinds, and squash everywhere! 

Such pretty ladies.  They aren't happy that it is getting cold, though.  The egg production was amazing about 2 weeks ago, but has slowed down dramatically.  We are down to about 3-4 eggs a day right now, and I bet it gets to be even less next week.  We were getting up to 9 a day a couple weeks ago.  

We have them in an electronet fence.  The main coop is to the upper left inside the fence/kennel.  The chicken tractor on the right houses the bad rooster until we can find a home for him.  This weekend we will probably open the fence up to surround the garden so the chickens can get the remaining veggies and bugs. 

I love the fall colors.  You can see how the neighboring farms have been plowed.  That happened just a couple days ago.  It's so weird not to have that "wall" anymore.  

Miss Daisy's tree.  She passed away early this year and we planted a new tree with her.  I am happy to see it is thriving.  She loved Christmas trees, so we thought it was a good choice.

So that is the current farm update!  Lots going on, lots more to do to put the farm to bed for the winter.  Unfortunately, the chores don't stop in winter, and Aurora has already expressed her dislike for cold hands on her udder.  Poor girl!  I'll have to find a way to keep my hands warm on the walk out.  

Goat update

In March, we got our first goats.  2 Lamancha/Nubians, and I was so excited!  Once I started milking, my excitement waned.  It was not good, I posted about our milking woes here, here, and here.  Oh, and here.  And here.  Needless to say, it wasn't easy for me and I had plenty of challenges.

So, how are we doing now that it has been almost 3 months?  I don't want to jinx myself, but it has been better!  Here is Miss Aurora this morning after milking.  She loves her feeding time.  See her standing nicely?  It doesn't always happen this way, but the majority of the time, she is being a good girl.  She still tries to kick her back legs or dance when she is out of feed, or needs to poop...

I give her 1 pound of Dumor pelleted goat feed, and mix in about a half cup of Alfalfa pellets, 1/4 cup whole oats, and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds.  It is making her coat so shiny and she looks great.  I haven't weighed her in a long time, but I need to.  

I swear she looks like she's smiling.  :)  The pic is a little fuzzy because she was moving her head back to her bowl.  

Nom.  

After milking, I release her back to the pasture and let out her baby, Millie.  Millie is huge already!  I need to weigh her as well.  She is still nursing, so I only have to milk in the morning.  They crushed my dog crate that I was using to keep them separated, so I haven't been separating them.  Even so, I've been getting just about a quart a day, sometimes 3/4.  We really can't use more than that at this point.  My friend is going to teach me to make cheese and soap, I can't wait!  She is the goat queen and runs Solstice Sun Farm and keeps all Nubians.  We might be using one of her boys to breed the ladies in the fall, or she may practice with Artificial Insemination.  

Millie is a bit of a stinker.  Her horns, even though they were disbudded 3 times, have come back as scurs.  Thankfully they don't look bad, but she does use them to her advantage.  She also eats holes in the tarp, sticks her head out, tries to headbutt me, and is generally naughty.  I'm hoping this passes when she gets older.  She also loves a good scratch and some occasional bites of grain.  

I won't lie, I tried hard to sell them.  I listed them all over Facebook, because I just couldn't deal with the kicking and small orrifices.  I guess it just wasn't to be, because every interest fell through.  I've accepted that they are staying, and have gotten into a routine.  If she was still kicking as bad as she was, I would reduce the price and try harder to sell, but for now we are doing good.  

Our first goats

In Indiana it is illegal to purchase raw milk for human consumption. You can, however, purchase it for "pet consumption". Standard store bought milk has enough issues that I no longer want to buy it. So what is a girl to do?

Well, I could buy a herd share and get my raw milk that way. But that would be too easy!  

So, we bought some goats. Meet Aurora and Millie. (Millie's tail is green from where her previous owner tattooed her. It is required for registered goats)

Aurora is 50% Nubian and 50% Lamancha with good milking lines. She is 1 year old and Millie is her first baby. 

Millie is almost a month old, and is 75% Nubian 25% Lamancha. And adorable. For a dam raised baby, she acts like a bottle baby. Normally when a goat is dam raised, they aren't real interested in humans and are skittish. We are doing our best to spend a lot of time moving on her so she doesn't get that way. As of now, she is quite interested in humans and will pounce me like she does her mama. It's hard to discipline her because it's kind of adorable. But we have to. *sigh*  I know it won't be so adorable when she is 80+ pounds. 

So far, they are adapting well to their new home. The first couple days, Aurora would bleat a lot - I am assuming she was calling for her friends and her momma, who use had never been away from. Broke my heart. 

Right now, I'm thankful Millie is milking her for me, because that is not going quite as well. More on that in another post!!