Ready or Not....... Shouldvknwnbetter- Fall

[Goat Whisperer]

Stinkin' adorable!

 

[Hens and Roos]

We have some birch tree branches that were cut off and was wondering if the goats could have them?

I looked on several sites and found conflicting statements- one said yes it s good for them and the other said no the main one I look at didn't have it listed in either column.

 

[Latestarter]

Give them credit for knowing by taste what they can and can't eat... Give them a few and see what happens?

 

[Hens and Roos]

I thought about that but the load was taken away so maybe next time

 

[Hens and Roos]

Given that we are still really new to goats and trying to figure everything out, wanted to ask-
How does one determine quality in their animals?

When my kids showed the 2 doeling sister's at the county fair this year one of the other goat people told my kids that the doelings looked really nice and my kids didn't think to ask for an explanation as to why as they were focused on getting ready for showing.

Reading the pedigrees we have on the 3 does- I see varies information such as:
++B AR2008, ST2011, LA2007(this is all on one animal-under it's name) so where can we read about these abbreviations?

I know- LA stands for Linear Appraisal; there is Excellent(E), Very Good(VG), Good Plus(+), Acceptable(A), Fair(F), Poor(P) and each one of these has a number range

and from what I've seen not all websites for goat registration share the same information.

We are part of the ADGA as that is who our does are with- we do have a guide book and other information from them but it's slow going getting through it/figuring it out.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Those are all from performance testing
The ++B is a milk star for Bucks I believe due to performance of daughters, *B is his dam.
The AR is Advanced Registry which is performance on DHIR (Dairy Heard Improvement Registry) in your example earned in 2008.
ST is Star Volume from one day milk testing in 2011.
LA is Linear Appraisal in 2007

Attached are some explanations.

 

[Hens and Roos]

thanks, we will take a look at that information!

 

[Hens and Roos]

as we only have 3 does to milk- I pasteurize the milk in a double boiler set up and then into a cold water bath to drop the temperature. Outside of standing and stirring the milk is there any way to prevent a skin from forming- this causes clumps and my kids don't care to drink clumps(I was told this several times by DS(13).......

 

[OneFineAcre]

How high are you getting the temp?

 

[Hens and Roos]

we heat it to 165* F for 15 seconds and then into the cold/ice bath- the last few times we have stirred it more often and have had no problems.