Next Year's Kids are Already Started.....

       We put the does with the bucks on the 4th of November.  That means by the time you are reading this blog, the breeding season will be pretty much complete.  In fact, as I sit to write this blog most of the does have been checked off the list as having been bred.  There always seem to be a few that we never see particularly interested in the buck, but still have kids come spring.  It has been our plan the past couple of years to have the does begin to kid as they were going out to the pasture in the spring.  This year, we pushed the season a bit earlier, and will go back to kidding at the barn, so that the kids will be a little bigger when they go out to pasture with their mothers.  We read an article in GOAT RANCHER by Dr. Dave Sparks that showed the results of a 5 year study indicating that kids born earlier in the spring simply grow better and have heavier weaning weights.  We read the article too late to move the kidding back by more than a few weeks this year, but it is a trend in a new direction.  This will be a new experiment for us, and you know that "Experiments Never Fail".

      You also know from reading my previous blog that we will be using the 2 Kiko bucks on the entire herd.  Donkey Odie will have the larger of the 2 groups with almost all of the older mature does.  This group includes most of the older Boer does as well as all the older crossbred dairy does.  We put them in this group to get them bred to a fairly large framed animal who can also provide a lot of parasite resistance for the kids.  Donkey also throws a lot of color which the Farmwife says is an added benefit.  Donkey produced some very nice growthy kids this past year and his doelings will form the core of a new generation when they are bred next year.

      Survivor got a herd of younger does that are Donkey's daughters as well as a few purebred Boers.  Survivor has the potential to add a lot of length to the kids he produces, as well as some very impressive parasite resistance.  Being solid white himself, I don't see a lot of color potential, but for meat animals the color comes off and doesn't add value on the rail.  Size and vigor do.  Survivor has the potential to add that to his kids.  Some of his doelings will be 75% Kiko and as we look down the road for a replacement for Donkey in the future these young does will play a part in that selection process.

        As we move forward with our totally pasture based meat goat operation here at Sunny Acres Farm, we will be seeking out and selecting for those animals who can thrive under conditions of a forage only diet and produce a nicely muscled carcass that will be in demand in the market.  Incredibly, in our first year of our totally pasture based management style we had better success than I had hoped for.  Even with animals not specifically selected for this management style we had some very nice kids produced.  Some, unfortunately, were not as thrifty, but that breeding is no longer an option here.  Hybrid vigor combined with a higher level of parasite resistance for the animals that are raised in a "Management-intensive Grazing", forage based farm operation will be our way forward.  We are choosing to produce a better product by purposeful design.  Our customers deserve nothing but our very best!  

   

Going, Going, Gone.....

      Last Saturday, we put the does with the bucks.  For those of you that are in tune with this simple statement, it means the breeding season has begun here at Sunny Acres Farm.  A whole lot of thought goes into this process because next year's kid crop starts now.  We have been thinking about this day for many months and now is when the plan goes into action.  One buck that won't be getting a harem this year is Jasper.  We are sadly phasing out of the Boers in favor of the Kikos.  While it is true that the Boers often produce a nicer carcass for the butcher, they don't do as well as the Kikos under pasture management conditions.  We are now a totally pasture based commercial meat goat operation.  We need animals that will thrive under these conditions.

      In 2002, we brought the first Boers to this farm.  They had the first kids in the spring of '03.  At that time I could buy bagged goat feed from Blue Seal for about $8 a bag.  (These were 50 lb. bags)  We were more than generous with the grain and the kids thrived and grew very well.  As time went on and our herd increased, the price of grain was creeping up but we just kept feeding it and watched the kids grow very well.  We even set up a creep feeder so they could have all they wanted without the mothers getting too fat.  But, we only had about a dozen does and 25 kids a year and we could afford to buy all the feed we wanted on my salary.  We never even calculated what it cost to produce a kid.  That is not good business practice!

      That was then, but this is now.  I don't have a well paying off-farm job anymore.  I was retired in January of '09 when my company needed to drastically reduce costs.  I have a pension, but it does not cover grain for goats.  We have expanded the doe herd a bit.  Today we will put 32 does with the bucks and we have another 17 doelings that are being raised for the future.  We cannot afford to feed these animals grain.  It just is not in the equation.  They have to manage on the grass that they can eat in the pasture.  We have made an investment in improving that grass and that seems to be a better deal than buying grain.  Today the bag of grain that cost $8 in 2003 costs over $14, and the price goes up at a steady rate.  Economics dictates that we find a different path to produce goat meat that will allow us to earn a profit.  Without a profit, there is really no point to going through the hard work of being a goat farmer.

      This brings us back to the Boer-Kiko discussion.  Without getting into all of the statistics, I can sum up our current year's kid crop, which we had on performance test.  The kids at birth were very uniform with no real significant difference in weights or livability.  At weaning we saw a slight advantage of the Kikos over the Boers and we attributed that to hybrid vigor, but it was most likely better resistance to the parasites that were an epidemic this year.  It was after weaning that the spread really grew.  The Kikos, for the most part gained at a better rate than the Boers.  We were weighing all the kids and doing a Famacha check at least every other week.  The Kikos had better Famacha scores and rates of gain than the Boers every time.  The Boers were wormed much more frequently and were on intensive therapy to keep some of them alive when they were so wormy that they had a Famacha score of 5.  The only kid that died this year was also a Boer that we were not able to save.  Some of the Kikos have not been wormed except at weaning and have scores of 1-2.  The kid herd was managed as a group, so they all got the same feed and opportunity to grow.   The two photos below show the marked contrast between the Boer doeling in the front and the kiko/crossbred doelings behind.  All were born within a couple of weeks of each other.

      The group of doelings that is being kept for breeding next year is all Kikos.  Their rate of gain, Famacha scores, and overall appearance is way better than any of the Boer doelings.  The simple fact is that under our management system the Kikos are doing better.  They will be our way forward.  We are here to produce meat animals for a market that will not pay for inefficiencies in production.  The prices are good for the animals we sell, but they would not support the feeding of grain to the herd to allow the Boers to stay and be a part of the make-up of the herd here at Sunny Acres.  Reality is sometimes a very harsh fact of life.

Leader/Follower Grazing

According to Jim Gerrish in Management-intensive Grazing, the objective of leader/follower grazing is "to increase the biological efficiency of the pasture resource".  In other words to get more out of the resources you have at hand.  A pre-requisite for the program is to have at least 2 different classes of livestock with different needs to satisfy.  The group with the greater needs leads the other, as they rotate across the pasture.

Here at Sunny Acres, we have a group of weaned kids that are in need of highly nutritious forage to maximize their potential for growth.  They are not getting any supplemental grain to support their growth.  They have hay and minerals available in the shed at night and whatever they can eat from the pasture during the day.  The second group is the dry does who need to restore their body condition to prepare for the upcoming breeding season.  They also have free choice hay and minerals in their shed at night, but no grain is available to them either.  The does raised their kids without any grain supplementation and were a bit on the thin side at weaning.

The pasture, as you can see in the photos, has a lot of legumes in it.  We are fortunate to have quite a bit of trefoil along with the red clover.  This pasture was grazed early in the summer and has had a couple of months of rest.  There is lots of feed here, and hopefully not a lot of parasites!

We make the paddocks with a 3 strand polywire fence and step in posts.  The paddocks are 32.5 feet wide and 225 feet long.  That works out to about .17 acres each.  The kids get the lead paddock for 1 day and then move forward.  The does follow the next day on the same paddock as the kids have already eaten from.  This way the kids get to eat the most nutritious parts of the plants and the does come in and finish it off.  When the does leave, the paddock is fairly trampled and ready for another rest.

The kids began feeding in this pasture when they were weaned and the does were at the pond to separate them until the drying off process was complete.  The kids couldn't utilize the forage very effectively though, since they couldn't eat enough in a day.  The outcome was that they would stay in the same paddock for multiple days.  The performance (ADG) suffered as a result.  The pasture was also having animals on it for up to a week at a time.  With leader/follower, the pasture only sees animals for 2 consecutive days and then rests.  This should help stimulate better regrowth of the forage in preparation for one more quick pass at the end of fall.   

Of course, this rotation is very intensive for us to manage.  It requires leapfrogging a fence every day.  We have 3 paddocks set up at any given time.  One for the kids, one for the does and one being moved.  The kids respect the 3 strands for the most part.  Someone sneaks through on occasion to visit mom, but that is rare.  They do have to be moved back and forth from the barns to the pasture separately though.  That keeps the Farmwife and I in shape as we walk the 2 herds up and down the hill each day.  Perhaps in the future they would stay put for the night and not return to the barn, but until we install predator proof fences we will not take the chance and they will sleep at night in the barn.

This weekend we plan to take everyone across the scale to see if this is really paying off.  The does are all gaining in condition, that is very obvious and we should see significant gains from their weaning weights.  Hopefully the kids will be increasing the average daily gain (ADG) over what we saw when they were first on pasture and only rotating every few days.  The pasture looks like it is rebounding.  If you look at the pictures of the pasture you can see the progression of new growth right up the hill.  There is already nice feed available at the top of the of the hill with lots of nice new growth showing.

Experiments Never Fail !!!!!

Those are the immortal words of Max Elmore as he stated them in "THE MAX STRATEGY" by Dale Dauten.  What you may ask, do they have to do with this blog?  In a nutshell, everything.  Let me explain.

Raising goats, and farming for that matter, have always seemed to be a fairly simple proposition.  If you do this you should likely get that result.  Of course the weather and various plagues can interfere with attaining your desired results, but for the most part you reap what you sow.  The challenge here is that for millenia, the precedent to sowing was plowing.  We as farmers became masters of plowing, whether it was behind an ox or horse, or one of the modern versions of the horse and you pulled your 16 bottom plow around with a 450 horsepower Case IH tractor.  The end result was always the same, the soil on the top was buried under the soil that was on the bottom.  It makes perfect sense to do this, doesn't it?  After I sat through a presentation by Ray Archuleta of the NRCS last winter at the Annual Winter Green-Up Conference, I couldn't go out and put a plow to anything.  He likened plowing to a volcanic eruption, tsunami, earthquake and tornado all at once to your soil microbes.  It is your microbes and earthworms that indeed create that most precious of all resources, topsoil.  Plowing literally destroys the topsoil and with it your future ability to grow crops.  What is a caring farmer to do?

The answer to that dilemma is of course No-Till!  Problem is that I don't own a single piece of equipment that was designed to plant anything right into the sod.  And beyond that, how do you grow a crop like corn without eliminating all the competition?  Spraying herbicides to kill everything on the field is NOT an option for me.  This was the what I faced as I went through the summer and needed to improve some pasture that will be needed by the goats as we grow into the future.  Enter Max and his dictum that "Experiments Never Fail".

Now, if you read my previous blog you can see me out on an obviously tilled field planting Triticale and Oats.  That field has a very noxious weed on it named Nutsedge.  Nutsedge is very persistent and difficult to control.  That field was gone over with a set of discs to weaken the plants before planting.  This field is a multi-year project to rejuvenate the plant species growing there.  The field below that one has much less nutsedge, but could use an infusion of better varieties of pasture plants to make it more productive.  The challenge came in that we did not want to destroy what was already there.  The plan to renovate now became an experiment, and as we all know, "Experiments Never Fail"!

The goats even got a chance to help with this plan.  The doe herd was put on this field and grazed across it in strips to eat it down as hard as they could.  They did a great job at doing what they do best, eating.  As soon as they had finished I went to work and "No-Tilled" some Creekside forage mix from King's Agriseeds right onto the existing sod.  The key was the timing.  I planted as soon as they were calling for several days of rain and steady showers.  That should get the seed settled right down to the soil and give it enough moisture to germinate and start growing.  The challenge here was that I have an old MF 33 grain drill that was not designed to plant into sod, but rather into a well prepared seedbed.  The experiment is to see if by using the goats and timing the planting before a rain the new seeds will grow and add to the quality of the pasture.  If that doesn't happen, at least we will know what not to do in the future.  Experimenting with what we have and $300 worth of seed sure beats going out and plunking down $15,000 for a new "No-Till" drill that is specifically designed and built to plant crops right into the heaviest of sods.

So for now, all we have to do is wait and see what happens, and in the meantime spread a little compost on the fields to feed all those microbes and worms we have working for us out there.  I hope they appreciate my willingness to give them a good home in exchange for improving the quality of the topsoil here at Sunny Acres.  After all, it is that thin veil of living soil that feeds the world.  We will do our best to preserve that for the future, even if it means thinking outside of the box on current wisdom and practice to do something different.  At least we know for sure that no matter what, "Experiments Never Fail!".

Summer's end is at hand.....

 

Many months ago when I last sat at this computer and wrote a blog I was finishing my class work for my Business Degree.  I foolishly thought that I would now have lots of time for keeping up with the posting of new items in a timely manner.  Who was I kidding!?!  Myself, it turns out.  The spring moved quickly into summer and with that all of the busyness of trying to get everything done that needed to be accomplished.

Today I can sit here and write because it is raining non-stop outside and I am at a standstill with all my projects until it stops or I can go and get some supplies for inside projects.  Today's rain storm has a name, Lee.  It is not as bad as last weeks storm, Irene that left us with 7 1/2 inches of rain in 24 hours.  We were lucky!  We only had water in the pasture, and even though it was more than anyone had ever seen it was gone in a few days.  I am sure that most everyone has seen the devastation that was wreaked by that storm, so you will agree that indeed we were quite fortunate here at Sunny Acres.  The bit of good fortune we had with the storm was that only the day before I had planted 6 acres of Tritical and Oats for late fall and early spring pasture for the goats.  The wet and warm weather had it up and growing within days.

Working backwards through the summer is sort of like playing one of those Super 8 family movies in reverse.  The most recent stuff is most vivid in the memory and the rest just sort of fades into the cobwebs that seem to be everywhere these days.  We did have a very nice visit recently from Erin, of Heritage Foods, for the "No Goat Left Behind" promotion they are working on.  We had a nice visit on a not so pleasant day (totally socked in with clouds and drizzle) and we got to share a lot of our story with them during the interview.  We are planning to provide some market kids for their promotion this fall and they wanted to see the animals and the farm they are raised on.  We are looking forward to this relationship and hope it leads to more opportunities for the meat goat industry in the Northeast.

Just prior to the visit from Erin, Dr. tatiana Stanton spent part of a day with us to gather the final data for the Cornell Lambing and Kidding Survey.  We were participants for the first time this year and found it to be a great opportunity for learning and a lot of reflection about why we do some of the things we do.  Of course we had a good year with relatively few problems and the ones we encountered seem to be behind us.  We have changed some of our management practices to mitigate as many of these problems as possible and we will see if these changes are long term solutions, or just stop gap measures.  More on these in other blogs as we see the long term results.

Another event of the summer we participated in was the Batavia Kill Stream Festival.  We provided goat meat in several forms for the chefs associated with "Green Peas" TV to prepare and serve to the participants at the festival.  I met one of the chefs, Noah Sheets, who is the executive chef for the Governor's mansion and who was preparing some of the dishes with the goat meat we provided through our friends at Pure Catskills.  From what we heard, the event was a great success and the goat was a big hit.  It is a great opportunity to get people who may have never tasted goat to get to try some in such a fantastic setting as this festival.  Our hats are off to all those who worked so hard to make this event a success.

Of course, a major and necessary project this summer was the harvesting of the hay crop.  Even though we were a little behind getting started because of the weather, we made great progress and put a very nice crop of  hay in the barns.  This is always a family project and my sons, son-in-law, and daughter-in-law were right there to put away each load as it came to the barn.  We got every bale in without any damage from rain, which gave us a nice supply of very green, leafy hay to use and sell.  We made a commitment to test this year's crop for nutrient value and our Extension Agent, Mick Bessire, loaned us a sampling probe and instructed us in the proper methods to get a good, representative sample.  The samples have been sent off and we should be getting the results back soon, to let us know what we need to supplement with for the herd.  Knowing this information will give us an opportunity to more efficiently maintain the animals.

The summer did seem to fly by with all of the day to day busyness of mowing lawns, planting and caring for the garden and even getting in a few days of leisure activity, such as taking the boat out on the river.  It is hard to believe that it is now past and the garden is starting to wind down, the pool needs to be closed and the boat put away for the winter.  But, the grass still grows like crazy, the pastures are still being rotated, seedings still need to be planted (rye as a cover crop for a new sweet corn patch) and goats need to be readied for marketing in the late fall.  The day to day activities are still very much with us, even though the days are growing shorter.  The time for wood cutting is upon us to prepare for winter's cold blasts.  Second cutting hay beckons us from the fields across the tracks.  Planning for next year is already in progress with anticipated seedings for the spring/summer season of 2012 and, most urgently, we need to finalize the breeding plan for the goats.  Who will be with which buck and what will be our plan moving forward?  Of course, these are all topics for blogs in the coming weeks and months ahead.  Hopefully, I will make an effort to sit at the computer in the long evenings to come and share some of the thoughts which wander around in my mind on a daily basis.

Until next time, stay warm and dry.

A happy ending.....

Our daughter, who is our very reliable and dependable "goat herder", lives next door and shares the responsibilities of our goat herd.  She is currently housing two new does and a set of twin doelings in her pasture and checks on them for us daily (knowing her, multiple times each day!)  Below is the story she wrote of yesterday's adventure....always something new in the world of goat!

A Happy Ending

I like happy endings in movies and books.  I really, really like them in real life.  Let me tell you a little story.

This morning, I heard our two does calling for the babies.  They were running between the barn and the gate, calling frantically.  I walked down to the barn to investigate, and found it empty.  Both kids were gone.  Our beautiful, newest doelings, carried off in the night by some unseen predator.  Surely that was the case, because anyone who knows goats knows that baby goats this age don't just walk off and leave their mothers. And mother goats don't scream like that unless their babies are missing.  And Lord knows we have an abundance of coyotes, foxes, and even a few rumors of a bear or bobcat around here.  And there's the fact that we've had goats stolen off our property....  So, with my stomach in knots, I called my father to let him know the kids were gone. 

Dad and I walked the property, lamenting the fact that we lost these precious babies.  What a blow to the morale around here!  We found a spot where a tree fell on the fence and crushed it low, and another spot next to that where the fence had heaved out of the ground a bit, and was sitting high.  But no blood trail. No fur trail.  Just, two kids, vanished in the night. 

As we were walking back toward the shed, something caught my eye.  Can you see it?  Do you see any good news in this picture?

Okay, well, of course one bit of good news is that the pasture is lush and the property is beautiful.... but would you have ever guessed at this?

Here they are!  Two little sweeties tucked away in an old apple tree.  Who would have guessed that we'd have found them, alive and well, sleeping in a tree?!?  We laughed, woke the kids, and called their worried Mama and Grandma over to give them licks and a firm speaking-to.  I imagine Mama goat saying something like, "I was worried sick about you!  Don't you ever go sneaking off on me again!"  Goat mothering and human mothering aren't very different, after all! 

And that, my dear reader, is a very happy ending. 





Storm damage

We experienced quite the violent thunderstorm here Thursday night.  Very strong wind and hail to start off the storm, then pounding rain and a real light show in the sky!  The rain gauge only showed 1/2", fortunately, as we've had all we need for quite some time.  The hail damage was minimal, only lost a few small plants in the garden.  And looking out from inside the house, the downed limbs from the wind seemed pretty minimal, as well.  The biggest limb that came down on the patio narrowly missed the sliding glass door, but a miss in this case is certainly as good as a mile!  So, we thought, we really lucked out this time around.  Then, when it was time for the Goatfarmer to go out and do the chores and check the herd, a closer look around revealed this:

Yes, the large old apple tree that so nicely shaded the pool/deck, was now very much ON the pool/deck.  Fortunately, the winter cover suffered the only damage.  The irony is that this tree seemed so strong, like nothing could shake it, as compared to the one pictured below, which is almost totally rotted through and leaning out over the wagon road, where it has stood like this for many years, through whatever storms have come along. 

Make you think about people....sometimes those that seem so strong and steady crumble under the slightest problem, while others who seem to have more on their shoulders than they an possibly deal with just seem to have the inner strength to handle whatever life throws their way.   The Goatfarmer and I have been so saddened by watching the news of the tornado damage and flooding in so many areas in our country lately.  We often remark that we don't know how those folks deal with it, yet so many of them who have been interviewed tell that they plan to rebuild right where they are.  They show a strength of will that I'm not sure I'd have faced with such a loss.  We are so grateful for how little impact the weather has really had on our farm , and it sure gives perspective....things that maybe at one time would have seemed like a big deal are truly just a little annoyance.

Lush Pasture at Last!

Well, it seems as though the pasture would never come this year.  The Farmwife and I were commenting each time we walked in the fields that it just was so slow to green-up and really get growing.  Then we had a few nice warm days and zoom, off it went.  The goats were smacking their lips when they got to this paddock at the top of the hill.  This spot is our first area to really green up and grow, and grow it is doing.  When you look down into the sward it is amazing how much clover is growing here now, as compared to before we starting using MiG with the goat herd.

 Of course, there is a lot of other plants growing here also, like orchard grass and a bit of bedstraw.  The goats eat it all and are making lots of milk as evidenced by the very full udders on the mothers and the round bellies on the kids.  Speaking of the kids, we finished up the kidding season with 50 real nice kids.  We have 26 bucklings and 24 doelings.  Some really sharp looking and growthy kids are out here running laps around the paddocks.  We are evaluating each and every one of them using the Goat Herd Improvement Program run by Dr. Kenneth Andries from Kentucky.  (There will be more on this at a later date)

This little fellow is a 50% Kiko out of a Boer cross mother.  He looks like a little Holstein calf, but I assure you that he is 100% goat!  This is a really unique color pattern that you don't see very often.  We also have a doeling with the same genetics that came up with a real sharp design.  Her picture is on the last blog that was posted during kidding season.  They are all growing nicely with the help of all this luscious grass that is just waiting in the paddocks for a goat to come along and get a nice big mouthful!

Ellie is not shy when it comes to enjoying her grass.  All you hear when they get to the pasture is the grass being ripped up by the mouthful!  This is the way it was meant to be.  No fillers in this feed, just sunshine transformed into nutritious food.

A good night's sleep....

The Goatfarmer and the Farm Wife enjoyed a good night's sleep last night, much needed after several nights of being up several times each night checking/moving does who were either about to kid or had kidded and needed to be settled into one of the vacant kidding jugs to bond with their newborns.  Last night, our daughter, who lives with her family next door to the main farm, offered to "do" the midnight check.  Since she is both very capable at assisting does if need be, and (perhaps?) a bit obsessed with being in the barn during the kidding season, we gladly accepted her offer and settled down for a longer than usual sleep.  Below is a copy of her blog from the night's events and early this morning.....read and enjoy!  (We enjoyed reading about it after the fact almost as much as we enjoyed our long and refreshing sleep!)

Midnight Check... Or, How I Could Accidentally Stay Up All Night Watching Goats Pee...

I'm thawing and allowing myself to get sleepy a moment by blogging in the warm house.  You see, I just got in from the "midnight" goat check (something I volunteered for, because I truly enjoy it...).  This check should be a quick walk through. A drive-by tail check.  A thorough, but fast glance. Should.  Here's how I nearly was found, frozen and starving, six hours later (nearly, because I eventually snapped out of my stupor and dragged myself back home...)


1. Go to the barn. Cold air is invigorating and wakes me up.
2. Notice, on first sweep, that a doe is "hunching" and shifting frequently... sure signs of labor.  Tail is loose, behavior edgy. Wahoo! Jackpot! I'm going to be here to witness/assist/feel totally useful.
3. While watching edgy-hunchy doe, notice another doe is nested down in the corner. She's due, too.
4. Notice a third doe at the hayrack whose sides are rolling- contractions?
5. Notice a massively-pregnant-size-of-small-planet-doe in a corner alone, resting, but suspiciously nested down.
6. Huh. Hunchy-doe has since wandered to the hayrack and started gorging. Maybe she's getting energy for an imminent delivery...
7. Nesty doe is now in a deep sleep, flat on her side...
8. Hay rack doe is now grunting and complaining, laying in a nest... progress?
9. Small planet (who, ironically, is named "Star..." and is the size of one...) is standing with her feet elevated- a sign.
7. Hunchy doe is hunching again, biting her sides, and pacing... Oh, this is going to be any moment.

Repeat this pattern for an hour. One doe up, one doe down, all of them exhibiting "sure signs," including: hunching, biting at side/udder, pacing, pawing, grunting, moaning, breathing funny, yawning, and squatting. Every time I begin to give up and leave, one of them gives a great, theatrical "sign," and I stay.  A coyote very nearby in the woods gives out a loud howl, giving more motivation to stay put (behind electric fencing and next to a guard llama sounds fine to me, thank you very much.) I begin to contemplate just how comfortable that seat could be for napping (as I'm typing this, I'm wondering if I lowered that back down... maybe I should go back out and check?) ... 

Thoughts start to run through my mind. They go something like this:  "Huh. I've just stood here for an hour, staring at goat parts, watching goats chew cuds, pee, sleep, and scratch themselves... I really need to go to bed now... I probably need help if I can't tear myself away from watching goats pee...."

Eventually, I realize that this is like playing the lottery.  If I only play enough (stay long enough), it is inevitable that I'll be there for the jackpot. Of course, this could mean 5 or 6 or 12 hours of sitting in a dimly moon-lit, increasingly cold barn... reason wins. I stand up to leave.  As I do so, a doe that I hadn't even been watching lays at my feet and begins to breathe in great, labored grunts. I realize this is a conspiracy to make me look like a loon, wish the girls well, and amble back to the house, listening for sounds of labor. 

I'm sure by now, just as I've thawed and gotten sleepy again, that there are at least 4 does in active labor. They planned it that way.  Someone will be out for the next rounds soon, so perhaps we'll beat them at their game yet.  I'll be sleeping, and see those new kids tomorrow... or a barn full of pregnant does, looking for all the world like the just spent the night laughing.

Seven Hours Later...

I would have been pretty cold had I waited around last night for kidding to occur... seven hours later, we finally had twins born. 


Little doe- Oreo?




Proud and protective Mama




"Motherhood is exhausting." OR, "Boy, I wish I had opposable thumbs and some wipes... this is gross."

Kidding season is in full swing!

It has been almost a week since the first kids arrived.  And what a week it has been.  Seventeen does have had their kids so far and I believe there are 29 kids in the barn.  We just came in from settling 3 new ones born late this afternoon and saw another doe getting ready.  What with the pounding rain tonight we moved her into a nice fresh pen just in case.  The kids all look great!  We have some from each of the 3 bucks and the quality of the kids looks outstanding.  We have even had some new colors show up this year.  A few solid red Kikos have been added to the mix.  We also have a nice group of pure white Kikos and the Boers are all very traditional with some very nice looking kids in the group.  We will be posting new pictures on the website as soon as the Farmwife gets a few minutes to spare.

The other activity for the week that added to the mix was the final tests and submission of my paper for my final class towards my degree.  That in itself was a blessed relief to have complete and behind me.  Having completed the classwork will allow me some free time on the computer to keep this website and blog updated.  One thing that will be added to the website is the new vision statement that was created as a part of my Business Strategy class.

So keep checking back here for updates and watch the website for new pictures and the vision statement.  In the meantime it is time to go out and check on Annie and Mae to see if they are adding to the ever growing list of kids.  It is always a real joy to see a new life come into the world.  Truly, it is a miracle!

"Frost" seeding the pastures

The other day they were warning us of a significant winter storm with double digit snowfall!  What great news!  At least it is if you are contemplating some pasture improvements for this year.  I intended to get some clover seed on some of the goat lots this year and this should be a perfect time to get that done, what with a 60 degree afternoon to get the work done and a snow storm to settle the seed and get it off to a great start.  I did manage to rustle up a helper to accompany me on my trips back and forth across some of  the lots.  He does ask a lot of questions and certainly wanted to help.  He even seeded a bit by himself, but let PopPop finish up while he went in for supper. 

Well the seed was broadcast and the snow only amounted to less than an inch, but we are looking at a week of showers and springlike temperatures that should get the new seed up and growing.  We will keep a close watch to see how well this low tech strategy works.  From what I have heard it should do just fine.  Oh, and the clover is just part of the mix.  The blend was actually three kinds of clover, chicory and sericea lespedeza.  Very nutritious, and a mix that is supposed to help us combat the parasites that lurk in the bellies of so many goats.

Blimps on legs.....

As the final weeks come before the arrival of the kids we have to start preparing the does for the new arrivals.  One of the important tasks that needs to be done at this time is the CD/T vaccinations of the does.  The vaccination is done about a month before kidding to allow time for the immune response to be transferred to the kids before birth.  The kids need this immunity to keep them from becoming ill and dying from "overeating" disease.  The process is fairly simple, gather all the does in a pen, move them down the chute and one by one give them a 2cc sub-cutaneous injection of CD/T toxoid.  The ladies didn't think too much of this process.  They would have rather stayed up in the pole barn munching on hay and lazing around in the sunshine.  What, a shot!  No way!  But in the end, everyone received the dreaded shot.    

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Wow!  Another rainy and warm day.  Monday we had almost 3 inches of rain and on Friday 2 3/4 inches more!  Add to that the melting snow and the water was deeper in the swamp and the bottom of the pasture than I have ever seen.  The water in the pasture was probably between 5 and 6 feet deep in the southwest corner where the culvert goes under the railroad tracks.  I could see the top couple of inches of a corner post for the fence and if I remember correctly that post stands about 5 1/2 feet tall.  The water was gushing through that culvert as well as heading north across the hay field and going through the culvert up there.  Incredible.  The swamp looked to have water way out into the hay fields on the west side of the tracks.  I know that in the morning I had to make several detours with my school bus to avoid flooded roads.  This was a little bit of inconvenience on our parts, but it does not begin to even compare with the devastation that they are experiencing other places in the Northeast and certainly nothing of the magnitude of the destruction that Japan has experienced with the earthquake and tsunami.

But on the plus side, most of the snow is disappearing at a rapid rate.  The days are getting longer and the sunshine stronger.  While the Farmwife and I were taking a walk this afternoon with Daphne, I was seeing lots of clover leaves starting to poke up through the dead grass.  Soon the calender and the day length will tell us that Spring has arrived and the grass will really start to wake up and turn green.  I can't wait.

Spring is just around the corner.....

Well here we have another snow day off from school.  The Goatfarmer's school bus will have to stay put today.  Does give me a chance to catch up with some of my other tasks though.  We are on the tail end of quite a storm.  The rain gauge at the garden gate had over 2 1/2 inches of rain before it turned to ice.  That on top of the snow melt was enough to put over 4 feet of water at the bottom of the pasture.  Quite a sight!

Just yesterday, I was noting the daffodils starting to peek through the mulch around the blue spruce in the yard.  I also saw some around the old apple tree and the snow drops are pushing up in the yard by the house.  Definitely signs of spring.  The flocks of red wings and grackles are now regular visitors to the bird feeders and can empty the sunflower seeds out in very short order.

But another sign of spring is the seed orders I placed last week for the pasture revitalization we are planning this spring, when the weather warms up a bit.  The plan is to renovate the field on the south side of the farm with a mix of meadow fescue, rye grass, timothy, Kentucky bluegrass, clover, chicory, and sericea lespedeza.  This is all being seeded into the pasture with a forage oat nurse crop.  Should have the goats smacking their lips when they get into that salad bar.      

Thoughts of spring

The Goatfarmer is out clearing snow from our latest storm, a two-day event this time.  Watching him from our sunroom, my thoughts turn to spring.  It is, after all, Ground Hog's Day and there's no way the little critter is seeing his shadow, so we should only have six more weeks of this weather to contend with!  Meanwhile, I'm enjoying some beautiful amaryllis that we nurtured in the garden last summer.  Just one more reason why we so enjoy our life here on the farm.  Hard work in the summer yields some lovely rewards to be enjoyed on a cold wintry day.  Winter will eventually end, and the long-awaited spring will arrive.  We'll all be more than ready for that here in the Northeast!

Winter is a time for learning.....

The Farmwife and I just spent 2 very intense but pleasurable days at the third annual Winter Green-up, Grass-fed Conference held at the Century House in Latham, NY.  The seminars were very educational and thought provoking.  We especially liked hearing Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm speak about his farming experiences in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and his marketing strategies for the products they produce.  Quite enlightening to hear someone speak of the eggs from the "Eggmobile" being "cream" and earning $375,000 a year with them!  The original purpose of the hens on pasture was to eat fly larvae from the cow patties.  The eggs were just a side benefit.  WOW!  Joel definitely gave us a lot to contemplate for a while.

The other speaker that really got my attention was Ray Archuleta from the North Carolina field office of NRCS.  He spoke at great length about the ways to restore health to our soils, and in so doing bring back the productivity that has been slipping these past many years.  Again, he gives us much to consider and work towards when the snow that is blanketing the fields begins to release it's icy grip.  The good thing is this still allows us some time to make plans for improvements that can be put into place this spring.

The rest of the presenters also gave some really good information and the networking with other farmers from around the area was great.  The meals we were served were outstanding, and were prepared with the produce donated by folks participating in the conference.  Shows the pride in the products we are capable of producing in this area.  Maybe next year we can get some goat on the menu?  We'll see what time brings to us.

In the meantime, we are bracing for another onslaught of winter weather this week and need to be prepared for the potential of power outages from the ice they are predicting.  Stay warm and talk to you soon.

Another snowday!

The school children may all be delighted to have yet another day off due to snow, but for those who have to clean up after it, not so much fun!  The Goatfarmer will be out most of the day clearing the paths to the barns, making sure water tubs are free of ice, and that the goats can all get to their feedbunk.  But aside from all of that, there is still cause for happiness....most of all, as the Goatfarmer's wife, I'm happy we decided to put off our kidding season until April this year!  Next week's forecast is for extremely cold weather, below zero nights, and single-digit days...  I'm especially happy to know we won't be spending those nights in the barn, watching for does to kid and setting up heatlamps to warm newborns!  Yes, sometimes the decisions we make months in advance turn out to be just right!  So for now, I'll enjoy playing with the grandchildren in the new snow by day, and staying in by a warm fire at night!

Something new under the Sun!

Greetings from our new Sunny Acres Farm blog!  We hope to use this blog to keep you updated on the "happenings" at our family farm, as well as to connect with others sharing our interests.  Our main enterprise currently is raising Boer and Kiko goats, and transitioning our herd to a grass-finished operation.  Its an exciting time to be doing this, as more and more people are discovering the benefits of locally grown, fresh, high quality foods.  It is our hope that using this new blog format will help us to reach more people with whom to share ideas.   We also desire to learn from others who are traveling this road with us.  Join us on the journey!