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.