Goat Whisperer
Herd Master
Sorry, but I don't think that buck would be alive if he were here 
Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust
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- #32
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
If we have had other problems before these couple recent events im sure he would not be here seeing as this is new behavior we are unsure what we will be doing yet. To be clear he charged me and i grabbed his horns, he walked me back about 8 ft before i got my balance to be able to stop him. He did not actually ram me like they do to each other but still it was unacceptable behavior.
We do not tolerant animals that go after humans/other animals much. Roosters, goats, sheep, etc they all go to freezer camp or homes without other animals and with a companion they get along with. We actually had people visit the farm two weeks ago and they asked us after seeing our 10 roosters if they attacked us and we laughed and said nope they dont even attempt it...we got rid of the ones that even thought about it.
Most animals we have are nice and friendly enough you can pet them even the roosters so Ruger's recent behavior is quite shocking esp since he loves people. He was a bottle kid, raised by other people and they let him rub his head all over them and play the head shove game. Anyone notice any of their bucks acting much more dominant/aggressive around 4yrs old?
We do not tolerant animals that go after humans/other animals much. Roosters, goats, sheep, etc they all go to freezer camp or homes without other animals and with a companion they get along with. We actually had people visit the farm two weeks ago and they asked us after seeing our 10 roosters if they attacked us and we laughed and said nope they dont even attempt it...we got rid of the ones that even thought about it.
Most animals we have are nice and friendly enough you can pet them even the roosters so Ruger's recent behavior is quite shocking esp since he loves people. He was a bottle kid, raised by other people and they let him rub his head all over them and play the head shove game. Anyone notice any of their bucks acting much more dominant/aggressive around 4yrs old?
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- #33
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
Ok so the herd is growing...i need to find time to take pics so you guys can see them. We have so far.
Does
Ella - Alpine
Cassiopia - Alpine(Ellas daughter)
Lyla - Alpine(registered but i dont have the papers)
May -Saanen/Nubian(registered experimental)
Alice - ND
Bella - Mini Alpine
Lucy - Mini La Mancha
Missy - Mini La Mancha
Phoebe - 75% Boer 25% Nubian
Jr Does
Ghost - Saaneen/Togg (looks Saanen with waddles)
Ivy - Togg
Mocha - Togg
Hazel - Togg
Alice's doe kid
Lucy's doe kid
Bucks
Ruger - Alpine
Moon - Mini Nubian
Buck Kids
May's buck kid - 50% Sable 25% Saanen 25% Nubian(Ruger's replacement possibly)
Missy's buck kid
The kids without names are ones we are not likely to keep or we just havnt thought of a name for yet. I would like to sell Lucy with her doe, Missy with her buck, Alice with her doe, Bella, and Moon. Basically all the mini breeds...i love them but i feel they get unfairly picked on and i cant use them for milking. That would bring us down to 11 full size goats and allow us to possibly get a registered alpine buck and/or expand our pasture more.
We would love to get a seperate pasture put up for the sheep, they also get picked on because they wont defend themselves and just get pushed around as well as a separate pasture for the pigs.
Speaking of pigs today DH is going to pick up another Gilt today, that gives us 5 gilts on the farm, 1 boar and 1 barrow. Which should set us up for the first litters this fall in october and have the pigs cycle back in time for 4-h litters in march with a 30 day break to recondition them. Long term we plan on having them breed roughly twice a year with a minimum of a 45 day break between. When i say break i mean not pregnant or nursing.
There is a farmer who lives locally and claims he gives his pigs a 30 day break between breeding but what he means is he lets the piglets nurse for 30 days before breeding mom back and pulling piglets. That never really sounded like much of a break to me and we are not aiming for a high production model just sustainability.
4-h piglets here go for $100-300 each...feeder piglets go for $75-125 each...butcher pigs $2-5/lb usually $2/3 live weight and $4/5 hang weight so if you go with the lower end and figure a 200lb pig at $2/lb live thats $400 each. So there is no reason you cant use a slower production model and sustain the breeding/butcher pigs.
If litters come out on the small side we should have at least 25piglets(likely 40piglets) and if we had to hurry up and get cash to pay feed or whatnot and we sold them at cut rates of $60 each thats $1,500. Given all that info i can not carry on a conversation with the local small pig farmers who tell me you cant make money off pigs without burning them out cause its a lie. I will admit if you are producing 100s of head and shipping them off to the packing plant on trucks then no your not gonna make these kind of numbers but for home grown farm raised pork...you will.
Ok i have rambled enough lol. This is the kind of thing i normally do in my brain.
Does
Ella - Alpine
Cassiopia - Alpine(Ellas daughter)
Lyla - Alpine(registered but i dont have the papers)
May -Saanen/Nubian(registered experimental)
Alice - ND
Bella - Mini Alpine
Lucy - Mini La Mancha
Missy - Mini La Mancha
Phoebe - 75% Boer 25% Nubian
Jr Does
Ghost - Saaneen/Togg (looks Saanen with waddles)
Ivy - Togg
Mocha - Togg
Hazel - Togg
Alice's doe kid
Lucy's doe kid
Bucks
Ruger - Alpine
Moon - Mini Nubian
Buck Kids
May's buck kid - 50% Sable 25% Saanen 25% Nubian(Ruger's replacement possibly)
Missy's buck kid
The kids without names are ones we are not likely to keep or we just havnt thought of a name for yet. I would like to sell Lucy with her doe, Missy with her buck, Alice with her doe, Bella, and Moon. Basically all the mini breeds...i love them but i feel they get unfairly picked on and i cant use them for milking. That would bring us down to 11 full size goats and allow us to possibly get a registered alpine buck and/or expand our pasture more.
We would love to get a seperate pasture put up for the sheep, they also get picked on because they wont defend themselves and just get pushed around as well as a separate pasture for the pigs.
Speaking of pigs today DH is going to pick up another Gilt today, that gives us 5 gilts on the farm, 1 boar and 1 barrow. Which should set us up for the first litters this fall in october and have the pigs cycle back in time for 4-h litters in march with a 30 day break to recondition them. Long term we plan on having them breed roughly twice a year with a minimum of a 45 day break between. When i say break i mean not pregnant or nursing.
There is a farmer who lives locally and claims he gives his pigs a 30 day break between breeding but what he means is he lets the piglets nurse for 30 days before breeding mom back and pulling piglets. That never really sounded like much of a break to me and we are not aiming for a high production model just sustainability.
4-h piglets here go for $100-300 each...feeder piglets go for $75-125 each...butcher pigs $2-5/lb usually $2/3 live weight and $4/5 hang weight so if you go with the lower end and figure a 200lb pig at $2/lb live thats $400 each. So there is no reason you cant use a slower production model and sustain the breeding/butcher pigs.
If litters come out on the small side we should have at least 25piglets(likely 40piglets) and if we had to hurry up and get cash to pay feed or whatnot and we sold them at cut rates of $60 each thats $1,500. Given all that info i can not carry on a conversation with the local small pig farmers who tell me you cant make money off pigs without burning them out cause its a lie. I will admit if you are producing 100s of head and shipping them off to the packing plant on trucks then no your not gonna make these kind of numbers but for home grown farm raised pork...you will.
Ok i have rambled enough lol. This is the kind of thing i normally do in my brain.
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- #34
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
We made the decision to sell the mini goats. I listed them wednesday and so far Alice, Bella, Alice's Daughter, Missy's Buck, Lucy's Daughter, and Moon have all sold and went to their new homes except Moon he is on hold with a deposit until the new owners are ready. We have my two favorite mini's Lucy and Missy Left to sell still. F2 and F3 mini manchas in milk. We started milking them after their kids left at almost 2 months lactation without being milked by us until now this season they are both giving around a quart per milking.
We also moved May's buck boy whom we have named Tyrion into the kid stall so he could wean off as he is past due at almost 3 months old. May has started being milked, at almost 3 months fresh on her FF she is giving us almost 2 quarts i have high hopes for her. Her mother daisy gave a gallon as day.
Tyrion will replace Ruger as our buck. Tyrion is a polled Saaneen/Sable on his Sire's side and Saanen/Nubian on his mother's side. Sadly he can not be registered as his father's papers were never sent in. He however is loaded on polled genetics, he himself is polled, his father, grandfather, and maternal grandmother were all polled. He comes from some good milk lines.
We also renamed Ghost to Casper...Ghost just wasnt fitting her.
We mowed, raked, and baled part of the 8 acre field by our house it made gorgeous hay, we only got 90 square bales though. Tuesday the rest of that field will be cut, along with 10 acres across the road from our house. The field by our house will be plowed, spread with manure and then plowed again, and spreads with alfalfa seed at 5lbs per acre this fall. The field is to acidic and the root mat is to thick so we will be correcting both plowing and applying a base(undecided which base yet) Depending on how second cut looks we may re-seed some other grasses as well, the field has not had anything done to it aside from being cut in atleast 15yrs so it is way past due and is struggling to produce.
The guy we partnered with to do hay this year was amazed at the hay we got off our crappy field. He said "That is some of the most goregous looking hay i've ever seen" we laughed and said yes it is really nice. He stood there looking at the field and scratching his head for a minute before asking " how did you get it like that?" That part is easy cut it when it is ripe not when you can the most tonnage off it. Hay always tells you when it is ready, most farmers just ignore it. Personally i dont want all that over ripe stemmy crap in my hay and i dont know many who would.
We are down to 13 goats from 19, hopefully that means the new pasture they are getting this week will last longer then 9 days, it will also give the one their currently on some time to grow back so we can rotate.
I'm hoping to get the goats shaved this week, it has been in the 80s/90s this week and they are all miserable. They just lay in barn on the concrete, with no one touching anyone else and breath hard. We go in around 11am-noon and spray down the center concrete in front of the doors so it makes a swamp cooler effect for them, it does help lower the temp and make it feel cooler.
We also moved May's buck boy whom we have named Tyrion into the kid stall so he could wean off as he is past due at almost 3 months old. May has started being milked, at almost 3 months fresh on her FF she is giving us almost 2 quarts i have high hopes for her. Her mother daisy gave a gallon as day.
Tyrion will replace Ruger as our buck. Tyrion is a polled Saaneen/Sable on his Sire's side and Saanen/Nubian on his mother's side. Sadly he can not be registered as his father's papers were never sent in. He however is loaded on polled genetics, he himself is polled, his father, grandfather, and maternal grandmother were all polled. He comes from some good milk lines.
We also renamed Ghost to Casper...Ghost just wasnt fitting her.
We mowed, raked, and baled part of the 8 acre field by our house it made gorgeous hay, we only got 90 square bales though. Tuesday the rest of that field will be cut, along with 10 acres across the road from our house. The field by our house will be plowed, spread with manure and then plowed again, and spreads with alfalfa seed at 5lbs per acre this fall. The field is to acidic and the root mat is to thick so we will be correcting both plowing and applying a base(undecided which base yet) Depending on how second cut looks we may re-seed some other grasses as well, the field has not had anything done to it aside from being cut in atleast 15yrs so it is way past due and is struggling to produce.
The guy we partnered with to do hay this year was amazed at the hay we got off our crappy field. He said "That is some of the most goregous looking hay i've ever seen" we laughed and said yes it is really nice. He stood there looking at the field and scratching his head for a minute before asking " how did you get it like that?" That part is easy cut it when it is ripe not when you can the most tonnage off it. Hay always tells you when it is ready, most farmers just ignore it. Personally i dont want all that over ripe stemmy crap in my hay and i dont know many who would.
We are down to 13 goats from 19, hopefully that means the new pasture they are getting this week will last longer then 9 days, it will also give the one their currently on some time to grow back so we can rotate.
I'm hoping to get the goats shaved this week, it has been in the 80s/90s this week and they are all miserable. They just lay in barn on the concrete, with no one touching anyone else and breath hard. We go in around 11am-noon and spray down the center concrete in front of the doors so it makes a swamp cooler effect for them, it does help lower the temp and make it feel cooler.
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- #35
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
Lucy and Missy are still with us and ive decided to dry them off. With White May in milk and producing so much it just isnt worth it to spend the time to milk them. Missy has a very nice udder with nice sized teats...problem is it is very fleshy and only produces maybe 2 cups of milk. Lucy has a very nice udder with nice thinner walls so she produces almost a quart...problem is her teats are tiny like smaller then my pinkie finger. She honestly looks like how an FF before having the kids udder would...and this is her 3rd kidding now. I'm sure if i bred her to a buck whose dam had nice teat size she would make great kids but i dont want to breed mini's. I lowered their price down to $100 each or $150 for both...so $75 for a mini mancha seems reasonable shall see if anyone takes them.
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Ferguson K
Herd Master
You've been busy! Just now getting caught up.
I feel you on the growing herd.
I feel you on the growing herd.
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- #37
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
Hopefully mine will stop growing for a bit im trying to shrink it but DH is resisting it. We have a julianna Boar i tried to sell but he made me say we wanted $375 for him(i would have took $200 easily) so the people said they couldnt afford him atm
I also want to sell Ruger and he is adamant that no it wont happen.I would like to get rid of
Mr Pig(mini boar)
Ruger(Alpine Buck)
Trick(naughty horse)
All Pigeons
Lucy
Missy
He wont budge on those first 4 though
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- #38
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
Well i have some good news and some bad news.... i got 3 goats shaved, but i only got a pic of one lol. My camera was dead and my phone was very nearly dead, fully dead by the time i finished the second goat.
Here is May(Lyla) with her new haircut. Did i do a totally horrid job she is the first goat i ever shaved..definitely got faster on the second and third.
She is a bit bloated lol...ok a lot
i didnt clip anyones head or udder. This is the first time they have ever been clipped i think and i just tested them to the deck stairs railing so i think they did really well tolerating everything but the udder(halter was in the way for the head).
I will say Alpines are harder to do because of the double coat...the mini Mancha was supper easy and quick like 10 minutes lol. May(Lyla), Cassiopia and Lucy all got haircuts. Today hopefully will be Ruger, White May, and Missy...and pictures lol.
Here is May(Lyla) with her new haircut. Did i do a totally horrid job she is the first goat i ever shaved..definitely got faster on the second and third.
She is a bit bloated lol...ok a lot
i didnt clip anyones head or udder. This is the first time they have ever been clipped i think and i just tested them to the deck stairs railing so i think they did really well tolerating everything but the udder(halter was in the way for the head).
I will say Alpines are harder to do because of the double coat...the mini Mancha was supper easy and quick like 10 minutes lol. May(Lyla), Cassiopia and Lucy all got haircuts. Today hopefully will be Ruger, White May, and Missy...and pictures lol.
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- Thread starter
- #39
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
No shaving goats yesterday it was miserably hot and i felt bad for them but i think it would have been to much stress in the heat. Was only 84F here yesterday but 87% humidity 
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- #40
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
No further shaving progress....which i am sure the goats are not happy about as a heat wave has hit and will be here for the next 3 days mid to upper 90s and high humidity.
On a better note only roughly 3 more acres of first cut hay to get put up....and 3 wagons full of hay to go in the loft. DH has been doing 99% of the hay this year which i am thankful for because it kills me, not to say it isnt hard on him too. We went and talked to FSA yesterday about loan options things look good there but we have a lot of paperwork to do and we need to make up a quite detailed farm plan as well as source places to get anything we want included in the loan such as livestock, tractors, buildings, etc..
We want to open a diary but i talked to a lady yesterday who co-op sells goat milk and from the info she gave me we wouldnt really feasibly be able too...so we are still looking but considering other options as well such as wholesaling milk finished pigs to restaurants, and doing value added dairy products also wholesaled to restaurants and stores. So we shall see how that goes, more things added to the already insanely long to do list.
On a better note only roughly 3 more acres of first cut hay to get put up....and 3 wagons full of hay to go in the loft. DH has been doing 99% of the hay this year which i am thankful for because it kills me, not to say it isnt hard on him too. We went and talked to FSA yesterday about loan options things look good there but we have a lot of paperwork to do and we need to make up a quite detailed farm plan as well as source places to get anything we want included in the loan such as livestock, tractors, buildings, etc..
We want to open a diary but i talked to a lady yesterday who co-op sells goat milk and from the info she gave me we wouldnt really feasibly be able too...so we are still looking but considering other options as well such as wholesaling milk finished pigs to restaurants, and doing value added dairy products also wholesaled to restaurants and stores. So we shall see how that goes, more things added to the already insanely long to do list.
