Know your goats before you leap!

Shane, when he was cute.

So I'm ready to pull my hair out. One of my girls flat out won't shut up. Miss Cassie pants is yammering and yelling away for seemingly no reason. Or at least I thought it was for no reason. Turns out I could not possibly be more wrong. Turns out she's an "Equatorial type" goat. Has both Boar and Nubian. Aren't I lucky?? Humph!

My buck and his supposed companion wether (hah! - he's actually a buck) figured this out before I did. Shane got frightened by my husband coming down the hill with a large cleaned rabbit cage that he set on the ground non too carefully. What did Shane do? He lept over his fence and lept right on over the girls fence too. Shane soon figured out, that "HEY!! THERE BE PRETTY LITTLE IN HEAT GIRL GOATS OVER HERE! WOO HOO!!" "The smell is positively divine and I can't stand it anymore, I gotsta, gotsta have that sweet little girl" Oh boy, are we in trouble.

We've been battling this problem now for about a week. Thinking it would blow over. Not knowing that Cassie is actually in heat. And then doing some research and finding out that woah! I have "Equatorial type" goats. This is ridiculous. I would have never known. I guess I should have known if I'd of researched a little harder, a littler further, a little DEEPER! Grrrr. Now that I'm looking, I see all the signs. She is indeed flapping around and fawning her little fanny. *sigh*

So now I have some decisions to make. I'm not so sure my neighbors will be anymore patient than they already are. We live in the country but yes, there are some houses a bit on the close by side of things. I'm sure they hate us. I know I'd be uptight if I had to hear all the silly noises coming from here. And loud. And aggressive. Did you know that buck goats ROAR? Sheesh.

Anyway, here is the research I found and I highly recommend this website. Might do you some good to read the entire website before actually making a decision if you want to buy some goats of your own. Knowledge is power and I'm sort of powerless at the moment. Dang nab it.

From one of the very best goat sites on the net: http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/breeding.htm

When can I expect my doe to come into heat so she can be bred?

As far as breeding goes, there are two "types" of goats:

"Equatorial type" goats that come from climates that are hot all year long.
These goats will breed all year long. Examples of these breeds are most meat breeds like Boers, Spanish & Fainting, and also Pygmies and (sometimes) Nubians.

"Alpine type" goats. These are most of the Dairy breeds. These goats are seasonal breeders,like deer, and have a definite breeding season. This usually is from about Aug. to Dec/Jan.The does will come into heat about every 21 days and the bucks will stay in rut during the entire breeding season. Once the buck go out of rut, they loose most of their interest in sex until the next rut.

UPDATE:

I am purchasing a young buckling who has more "Alpine" blood lines. I hope to get this problem nipped as soon as possible. Just talked to the gal today and will have him on Monday.

FANTASTIC GOATS MILK - DISPELLING THE PREVAILING MYTHS

Shane, Amy, Cassie, Sandy and Lily

I really need to get some pictures up of my girls in milk or a video maybe. Just need to get my family to cooperate with me. More on that later!

My main reason for jumping in and babbling about goats milk is to try my darndest to dispel those silly but persistent rumor myths out there that goats milk tastes yucky. IT DOESN'T!!

There is positively no discernible difference at all between it and cow milk. None! If you take care of the feeding of the animal and don't feed it weird yucky weeds (they stay away from those naturally anyway) and keep the diets consistant...you have fantastic milk. Period.

This is our first time of trying this and we've learned some interesting things along the way. We had our little suburban silly fears of what goats milk is and what it might taste like. Fears about making sure it's pasteurized and not raw because it's just too scary!! Bologna!!

We pasteurized our first three gallons back in late March and never did it again. When we got the milk straight out of the girls, we tried it warm and it was fantastic. First try ever of goats milk too by the way. So we saved up enough to pasturize and that is when it tasted a little "off" Not bad mind you...just a little off. So we thought ok, fear be damned, we'll do it raw (after the correct cooling - 40 degrees with an hour/hour and half.

We have never gone back. It's sweet, it's rich and it's better than anything else I've ever had.

So no matter how hard it can be getting out there twice a day to milk the two girls...the almost two gallons a day I get are well worth it. We are keeping the one little girl born this spring so that next year we will have three milkers. Then I can do all the soap, cheese, yogurt and milk I want. If I'm really crazy I may keep even one more the following year.

By the way...My girls are 1/2 Boar, 1/4 Nubian and 1/4 La Manche. Nice little mix for both meat and for milk. I'm very happy with my girls!!

Except when they get out and get in my garden. Humph! Then I'm none too happy LOL!!

New Babies!

It's been a while since I've posted. What's new right? Well new babies is what's new! We had our first set born on the 16th of March and the second set on the 21st of March.

This first set are a boy and a girl, both of whom we will be keeping. Cassie the little brown one is the girl and the white one, Shane. Shane will be our new buck so we can continue in the milk after having to dispatch our sweet boy Jack. Sad day. But anyway, he was a good boy and gave us four new babies.

Here are the first two and momma Amelia. Our daughter Heather is in little goat heaven! Note Amelia still has the birth goo, the babies are just one hour old here!