My husband and I have been raising dorpers for 10 years. We started with half breed ewes and used registered full or pure white rams. Because we are just selling local market lambs I would cross breed for several different traits, including some of the uncovered color/persian markings. This...
Just checking in, Kyla, to see how your doe is doing. You do know that by changing your plans your doe won't kid until after the weekend, right? It's all part of the doe code.
I thought my girl was going to go with her first breed date because she expanded rather dramatically, but now she is...
In about 5 days. ;) I'm kidding just a little bit. But I suspect anytime in the next ten days max given her size and the dates. If you are watching her closely you'll see her get uneasy as early labor starts. Some pace, some paw, some get up, get down, get up, get down, and any combination...
I'm a little late to the conversation but I still want to add my two cents! ;)
First- If your intuition is screaming "NO" Listen to it. It is really hard to replace an animal you are happy with. I'll repeat that because I am still mourning the loss of my favorite ram: it is really hard to...
My nigerian gave birth to a single doeling Saturday morning. I just wanted to share the pics. She is adorable, as they always are, and I feel so bad that she has no one her own size to play with.
Try putting some large rocks in her food bucket so she has to eat around them; it will slow her down a little bit. Sometimes people have just focused on milking and letting the milk spill to the ground while they get their doe used to being handled (so you don't have to worry about a bucket...
weak attachment, narrow escutcheon, lopsided halves and the teats sit back, I think (hard to judge off of one pic). With that weak attachment she could be "double uddered" which means possible supernumary blind teats, and a webby udder more susceptible to mastitis.
IF (and I really mean if) you feel like you want to recompense the people somehow, you can offer to apply part or all of their deposit to an animal next year... You made the choice for nonrefundable for a reason and they agreed. Focus on your family and I'll say a prayer that your hub gets...
there are small cow breeds; my favorite is the dexter. Also you can get a regular size, such as American short horn, or some other cross, and keep the calf on it part time until the next calf comes along and then sell the older one or slaughter it. I say cross because dairy breeds such as...
The question is "is the ram a dorper?" I have dorpers and they really are year round breeders, easily breeding back 3 months after lambing, any time, reagrdless of heat or time of year. They also tend to lamb at about 142 days. Bag development can be a bit variable, as I am sure you've...
Sevin dust works really well repelling flies if you keep it up regularly (weekly) You can also apply it in the bedding and around the ground although area treatment won't work very well on bot flies (I hate them!) sevin dust is great because you can use it on all species, even use it on...
Short answer: yes BUT......Cornstalks are pretty low nutrition, and high lignin makes it a little harder to digest. They may not like eating them but you certainly try. (of course if you didn't want them to eat it they'd love it!) Just remember the rams need to keep their energy up to take...
Loose stools are common after calving. That said, it can be simply part of the process, or parasites taking advantage of the process. Between the fluids on the baby, the hormones, and often, new diet, things can get crazy in their gut and loose stools can be normal. But it is also common to...
They can taste very different... breed, age, gender, previous diet all affect the taste. Your local sheep breeders may have an annual get together where they serve different types of lamb so you can check it out. Or an ag college might have a lamb day where they will serve it too. Ask around...
It's a bad idea to tether goats. Really, the best thing to do is get your structures built first. To feed a dairy animal off of two acres you'll need to plant good forage, otherwise you'll be buying most of its food. Research with your local ag specialist about the best hays/legumes to grow...