Wehner Homestead Kidding Thread 2018

Wehner Homestead said:

The Lamanchas won’t be one until Feb so I’d like to catch their heats in Jan and breed them if big enough.

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I hope they have a heat in Jan for you. Depending on their size (rather than age), you may be able to breed them in December... That will put them at 15 months when they kid... Will be interesting to see when they start and how long they continue to cycle as you're further north and days will get shorter faster and earlier as well as temp drops earlier.

Wehner Homestead said:

(I know color doesn’t milk but if I’m milking them, I may as well like their color!) I also like the kids being able to tell everyone apart.

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I look at all your baby cow/bull pictures that you post and they all look the same to me except the white and black one...

Wehner Homestead said:

I won’t be that person that breeds for color or blue eyes or polled. To me that’s just something that can be an added bonus, milk and conformation are more important.

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Why not breed for ALL of those things? Would take potentially a little longer to breed in all the various variables you're looking for, but you're YOUNG and have time yet to do it. (one of the things I had set out wanting to do but now realize I doubt I'll have the years available to finish).

Southern by choice said:

After Cici and Sparkle freshen the first time and you re breed them for a 2F you should be able to keep them in milk. Definitely wait for the second udder though.
Different line but Trouble will stay in milk pretty much indefinitely. We only bred her this year and dried her off because I may be selling Henry, and I want Henry kids with her.

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Ooohhh! Interesting to know! I might try that. We shall see. Probably depends on if I have what I need as far as bucks and does for the Mini program.

Latestarter said:

I hope they have a heat in Jan for you. Depending on their size (rather than age), you may be able to breed them in December... That will put them at 15 months when they kid... Will be interesting to see when they start and how long they continue to cycle as you're further north and days will get shorter faster and earlier as well as temp drops earlier.

I look at all your baby cow/bull pictures that you post and they all look the same to me except the white and black one...




Why not breed for ALL of those things? Would take potentially a little longer to breed in all the various variables you're looking for, but you're YOUNG and have time yet to do it. (one of the things I had set out wanting to do but now realize I doubt I'll have the years available to finish).

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I’ll be monitoring the size of the LM girls but don’t want to push them too hard. That is interesting points about their cycles being potentially different. We will have to wait and see.

That’s funny! Even the kids can tell most of them apart. I realize that it’s because we are used to them and can differentiate their characteristics. Growing up, I couldn’t figure out how my grandpa told all the black cows apart. He put number tags in them to help everyone else. We do the same.

Some of our cows are hard to tell apart from a distance. Here are some of the characteristics that I use to tell who is who: Georgia has a higher tail head, Melody is leggier and not as thick as some of the others, Dolly has a distinct head shape and so does Maxine (smaller build.) Also, Gatlin had her tail stepped on as a calf so her switch is missing. Sydney had frostbite so she has smaller ears and a shorter tail.

As far as color, I’ll add them as I can afford to. It’s not a priority. (To get a chami ND or chocolate, they have to have a parent that is that color. I don’t have any that would even be hiding that color under white so they will have to be purchased at a later time.)

As far as being young, I don’t know what the long-term future holds. I’ll have goats for milk as long as DD2 is at home. After that, I don’t know what I’ll want to do. For the short term, I wish I could make as much as I do as a nurse from the farm...

I wish I could make as much from my little place as I do being a teacher... Some days I would love to do nothing but farm.

I think I would like to breed for polled...It would be nice not to have to worry about dehorning.

I used to think the same about polled but since I actually got to have someone teach us how and watch/help me do one, then I was nervous on the first on my own but the next three weren’t too bad at all. I’ve got two more to do tomorrow night. It isn’t my favorite thing to do but for someone that thought she wanted to be a vet (God had other plans), I enjoy working on my own animals.

Life would be much less complicated if I could stay home and earn enough income to pay bills off the farm. Instead, I work weekends while DH works M-F. It’s hard to not have time off together but we are trying to make it work and get projects done.

You gotta do what you gotta do now, so that you don't HAVE to do it 30 years from now, when I can vouch for the fact that it's a whole heckuva lot more difficult and disliked.

Disbudded the last two doelings tonight. Went well. I weighed the other four but forgot those two with being focused on their disbudding so I’ll weigh them in the morning and post them all then.

Babies are getting more adventurous outside!

Nellie’s trips: top to bottom: Beauty, Perdy, Ella (Diamond and Caramel are in the edge)
Snowflake’s trips: front to back: Ariel, Theo, Alvin

Herd!

DH and I’ve been trying to make some decisions on our goats. As we discussed who we intended to breed to who, we realized that we don’t intend to use Jackson much (Diamond’s buckling that we planned to retain.) Snowflake’s udder is so much better than Diamond’s and the paternal genetics in Snowflake’s kids are more impressive (udders and production) so we will be castrating both Jackson and Jericho on Friday. Jackson will be kept as our pet wether.

Alvin will be castrated also when he’s a bit older. Theo will be retained as a buck and we intend to use him pretty heavily in our ND and our Mini program.

decisions are always something that has to be done- for us all the bucklings will most likely become wethers.