Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[Starlight4Leah]

I believe we have decided to sell all of our non-standard size goats. Of the 3 does who just had kids...all 3 had twins which was really nice and then each of them lost a kid

Lucy the mini La Mancha lost the boy of her boy/girl set
Alice the nigerian dwarf lost a girl of her girl set
and as of yesterday Missy the mini La Mancha lost one of her boys and the other was almost dead.

We dont seem to have as many problems with the larger goats and a lot less losses. So i think we are going to sell them as soon as test results come back which should be anytime now.

We will end up selling Lucy, Alice, Missy, Bella(Nd/Alpine), and Moon(mini nubian buck) along with their kids.

I love the little goats but we really dont have a use for them as we are a diary goat farm and they will not milk, even if they would oh my they have the tiniest teats ever i have tried milking them and i can only use my pointer finger and thumb.

I am so sorry. Its so hard to sell them, because they become so much apart of the family. I am sorry for your losses. If you lived in Texas, I would take them for you, but traveling all the way to Michigan is much too far for goats. I hope things start to go well for you.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I am so sorry. Its so hard to sell them, because they become so much apart of the family. I am sorry for your losses. If you lived in Texas, I would take them for you, but traveling all the way to Michigan is much too far for goats. I hope things start to go well for you.

They really are and am still honestly debating i love the little brats. Also goats are not selling for beans up here atm. I'm not sure what is causing it because last year goats were going like hotcakes and this year cant seem to sell anything much. There is no way i will take them to auction or the Eastern Market, if i had a group of meat goats to go i would consider it but not pet goats.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Everyone seems to be doing good. We got the new experimental Doe and her buck kid. They seem to be nice goats though mom is a little standoff-ish. The lab called and let me know i sent my samples on the wrong day for the CAE/Johnes testing so i have to send in new samples for that part Well truthfully they called me like a week and a half ago but i am really bad at checking my voicemails. Will have to try again, i thought sending them for Saturday delivery would be fine but from the voicemail i gather they are suppose to be sent for Tuesday delivery i think, im going to have to call and verify cause the message was a little confusing. I didnt see any specific days listed for those tests but it seems they are done wednesday and thursday.
I never did get fecals collected yet...i know bad me.

I did go to the dentist and get 7 teeth pulled and DH and i have been very sick all in the past week and a half. So basically nothing is getting done more then feeding chores. I'm pretty sure if the new doe wasnt on his way home from work we wouldnt have even picked her up. Everyone got CDT vacinated the 24th so boosters coming the 22nd.

We picked up some goat feed from the mill to see how it is gonna do, it has no copper listed in the ingredients so the sheep have been getting it as well. I like noble goat but we can get a 100lb of the Goat feed from the mill for $14 so less then half the price. I also noticed the noble goat pellets were giving my does unhealthy looking yellow non-pelleted poop. Not sure that was a good thing.

We have to get the barn cleaned this weekend it is a mess with us both being sick/down. DH cleaned the pigs pen yesterday and our friend came over and cleaned his pigs pen on Sunday. Leaves the lambs stall, the grainery stall to be cleaned and the main floor. The main floor is going to be the wrost because the entire far end is wet so it is gonna be super heavy. We hoped it was going to dry out a bit but the rain we had over the weekend destroyed that hope.

So far we hatched out about half a dozen baby ducks from eggs we had in the bator before the ducks were killed by the fox. Last night a chick hatched from the bator as well, not sure what else DH has in there. THe bigger duckies were moved out into the barn in a pen in the grainery since the over night warmed up to the 30s. They seem to be handling the change well and like the extra space.

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry you guys are under the weather... Really sucks when you're so down it's difficult to get moving to do the basic feeding, let alone all the other stuff that always seems to need doing. Being a loner, I can completely identify! If I don't do it, it doesn't get done. Only aspect that makes me wish I still had some kids at home Nah... not really, I love them all, just no longer their time to be with me. They have their own lives to live now Hope you get feeling better quickly and that the work load doesn't double in the mean time!

 

[misfitmorgan]

Sorry you guys are under the weather... Really sucks when you're so down it's difficult to get moving to do the basic feeding, let alone all the other stuff that always seems to need doing. Being a loner, I can completely identify! If I don't do it, it doesn't get done. Only aspect that makes me wish I still had some kids at home Nah... not really, I love them all, just no longer their time to be with me. They have their own lives to live now Hope you get feeling better quickly and that the work load doesn't double in the mean time!

We often joke about renting my siblings kids to get some work done around the farm lol.

On the plus side DH and two of his friends got the new goat pasture up over the weekend which is awesome. Next is the new sheep pasture, then the pigs pasture. We have been putting those last two off becase we have to building them some loafing sheds and we dont wanna build anything permanent until we buy the place as well as we have no truck and no trailer so gettings wood products to the farm to build anything is hard to do....so far we have been borrwing or renting trailers or borrowing trucks but you can only do that for so long.

 

[Latestarter]

Glad things are coming along and that you folks are feeling better. I completely understand the not wanting to do too many capital improvements to land you don't own. I could suggest making "portable" run in shelters so that they aren't "attached" to the land and therefore would NOT become the owner's property if the purchase falls through and you move.

You are farmers without a truck or trailer(s)?? I can't imagine... I'd have to guess/agree that borrowing or renting all the time wouldn't be the best situation... I've driven sedans with lumber sticking out the passenger window, and with plywood tied to the roof... Not the best way to do things.

 

[Sisters On The Farm]

Sorry about the cold weather. We live in N.Y. Right now it is 79.1 degrees outside. We are south of Amsterdam so hope you have a happy summer. Therese

 

[misfitmorgan]

Glad things are coming along and that you folks are feeling better. I completely understand the not wanting to do too many capital improvements to land you don't own. I could suggest making "portable" run in shelters so that they aren't "attached" to the land and therefore would NOT become the owner's property if the purchase falls through and you move.

You are farmers without a truck or trailer(s)?? I can't imagine... I'd have to guess/agree that borrowing or renting all the time wouldn't be the best situation... I've driven sedans with lumber sticking out the passenger window, and with plywood tied to the roof... Not the best way to do things.

Oh trust me..we are very creative. We have a trailblazer and it has been almost utterly destroyed hauling hay wagons, tractors, implements, live stock...etc. We also haul smaller livestock inside of it...lambs, goats, goat kids, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc. We hauled hay and straw tied to the roof rack definitely exceeding the 200lb weight limit...there is something erie about hearing the roof of up car cracking and popping....if there was a frames up there i would have been very concerned. We haul wood on the roof rack and sticking out the back. We do what we have to but some things you just cant like sheets of OSB doesnt work....we tried until the cop stopped us lol. All the cops know us and let us get away with a lot but the OSB sheets was a bit to ridiculous the cop told us. He escorted us home at a whooping 25mph

Of course he also escorted us when we illegally moved a small addition to the new place...and informed us if he wanted to be a jerk we were looking at $10,000 worth of fines/tickets...luckily he helped us get it home and no tickets. Since those two incidents we try not to push the limits to far.

Sorry about the cold weather. We live in N.Y. Right now it is 79.1 degrees outside. We are south of Amsterdam so hope you have a happy summer. Therese

Oh it finally warmed up..then i complained about that cause over the weekend it was so humid you felt wet just sitting there and doing any work you sweated buckets. Horrible days to clean the barn but when it needs done it needs done.


Also I got the fecal samples sent out...no blood done yet

 

[misfitmorgan]

As i posted in my other thread on Ella, she is recovering nicely. Turned out to be coccidiosis which i treated for, she has brand new baby hair growing in all over the bald spots, now we just need to get the weight back on her. I'm not sure what caused the adult goat to be overloaded with Coccdi but apparently it was an issue. Between the treatment and the copper the herd is looking good.

Unfortunately last night our 4yr old Alpine buck charged me for the first time ever and..figured out he is stronger then me when i am off balance and almost stronger then me when i have good balance. We will be attempting to remove his horns with bands as well as building him how own pasture and seperating him from all other bucks. He killed one of our 1.5yr old mini mancha bucks about a week ago. Then a few days ago i saw him hook and toss one of the F-3 mini mancha does. So he definately needs to be seperate from all other goats atleast until his horns come off. This is the first time we have ever had a problem with a horned goat, the goat buck he killed was also horned but to small to fight back enough i guess.

 

[Latestarter]

That's not good Sorry you lost another younger buck in the process.