new kid on the block

[goatgurl]

Hi everyone, I'm from the Arklahoma area, yes that's a real place, right on the edge of both states. I live on a small farm with 15 La Mancha dairy goats, 7 sheep, 20+ chickens, 9 ducks, two pigs, a maremma LGD, one house dog and a 19 year old cranky cat. I am looking forward to conversing with you all.

 

[SA Farm]

 

[OneFineAcre]

Welcome from North Carolina

 

[Sumi]

Welcome to BYH

 

[kinder]

Nothing like a big happy family.!! Welcome to BYH.

 

[goatboy1973]

Hi everyone, I'm from the Arklahoma area, yes that's a real place, right on the edge of both states. I live on a small farm with 15 La Mancha dairy goats, 7 sheep, 20+ chickens, 9 ducks, two pigs, a maremma LGD, one house dog and a 19 year old cranky cat. I am looking forward to conversing with you all.

I have heard of Texarkana but never Arklahoma. Best of both states huh? Well once again welcome! This is the best goat website ever. What kind of Sheep do you raise? I like the variety of farm critters you have. We should have a discussion for every critter you own. LOL!

 

[goatgurl]

goatboy, arklahoma is a lot like Texarkana but further north. lol. when i was a little girl my dad called me ellie may because i would bring home all kinds of critters and i still do. does that date me or what. anyway, the sheep i have are katahdin and i really like them. its only been a year so i could change my mind but so far they are pretty easy to work with, are very hardy and don't need much. i had raised bottle lambs off and on for years but have never actually owned or cared for ewes and lambs. i find them harder to work with than the dairy goats but about the same as the meat goats. they're so round its hard to keep ahold of them but I'm still learning their ins and outs. this all started because i went to the grocery store to buy a leg of lamb for easter and they wanted almost $70. for it. i said to myself, self, you could buy the whole lamb for that, so i did. then decided keep some mama's and babies. to say that life is never dull around here is an understatement.

 

[goatboy1973]

Goatgirl, katahdin sheep are an excellent choice for their low maintenance and good nature. About the Ellie Mae comment, I must be in the same time frame as you. LOL! I did drag in a bunch of critters as a kid; turtles, frogs, kittens, chicks, ducklings...this was in addition to my dog, my rabbit, and my 4-H beef steer. I went to the Goats, Music, and More Festival a few yrs. ago in Middle Tennessee and had my first taste of BBQ goat. WOW!!! It was amazing! Our grocery stores in E. Tennessee do not have any goat meat and I was raising dairy/ Boer goats at the time so I decided to have 2 of my 50lb. Boer X bucklings processed for meat. I have heard that this stuff goes for around $5+ a pound where it is sold. I'm not driving 4 hrs. To Nashville to pay $5 a pound for goat meat. I wound up selling my Boers because they are maladaptive to our climate in TN, keeping some of my toughest dairy does, and buying a small herd of Spanish goats from Texas, and also getting a few Kiko does to produce crossbred meat kids. Yeah, never dull around here either.

 

[goatgurl]

kind of the way i was with the leg of lamb. not going to buy what i can raise. we had boer and boer crosses for a while and sold them for the same reason. just didn't do as well as i thought they should. I've had a couple of Spanish does that i liked. they were tough cookies and good mama's. i have registered la manchas and breed most of them to a registered buck but i have used genemaster/mytonic or genemaster/savanna bucks on some of the does and they put some meat on a kid. if they aren't a pain to deal with i will usually keep a couple of wethers over the winter and butcher them the next fall as yearlings, they are about the size of a deer and taste mighty good.

 

[Farmin' Girl]

Hello and