Farm News & Happenings

~News & Farm Happenings~
Hopefully Updated weekly!

Obi Wan & Anakin... founding wethers!

We've had a lot of requests for updates on news & events and happenings on the farm. I'll try to do a weekly posting on what's new at the ranch, post how our kidding season is progressing and also post show results as we swing into that season. Stay tuned!

Newest news reads first, then keep reading for old news... or if you like to work backwards, scroll down and work up :-)

Nat's Log, umm.. April 8th: Wow, what a long week - one of those where nothing seems to go right at work and you never stop running. Good news is that we have had 2 animals accepted into the Coby Classic goat sale: Vesuvius and Verbena. Check them out here! Nothing too new except Shimmer kidded yesterday with twins - she's an Oberhasli that we bred to our Boer for population control (and we have a good market for the meat kids). Very cute, I'll try to get pictures up.. its fun to see the surprise of what color you'll get instead of model T "bay" lol.. off to finish updating the website before heading to the barn to milk and pasteurize and wait on Kara or any of the other does due to kid.

Nat's Log, April 4th: After a long night and waiting for Wave to finally kid... (lets just say we got very far in our Sudoku Puzzle book) We can finally say that our first AI babies have hit the ground! Very nice kids, 7.5 & 8 lbs one light, one medium/dark but its hard to tell when they are this young. How or why we register a color breed so young puzzles me as they tend to change over time and I doubt many folks are going to spend $3 plus postage for an update.
In any event, we're thrilled with these kids and one looks to be polled, very peculiar markings on the head - poll is almost all black, traditional stripes down the face, but on the top where you usually see the red spot/circle, there is a small red circle amongst almost all black hair.. also 2 small faint red circles around where horn buds would be. I'll try to get a picture, very very pretty doe kids. Of course, we had a buck reservation out of this mating.. never fails.. the one year I'd appreciate having a buck year.. no avail. All healthy, milking and eating well so I'll be happy at that! off to get a quick cat nap in before the 4-H tribe comes over to see our new kiddies and help with chores and off to milk, pasteurize, and heat treat.. ahh. the joys of the Weck... now to try to find a willing volunteer so I can get on milk test this year!

Nat's Log, Week ending April 1st:

Sitting here looking at our kidding list, I'm scratching my head wondering what the heck was I thinking last fall planning breedings, AI's and not looking ahead as I've got our kidding areas filled to capacity with on deck does, crates ready to go for pasteurized kids, bottles ready to go and finally got our Jeffers kidding re-supply order in. Next on deck - we have Gretchenhof Tydal Wave (and boy does wave look double wide) and Udderview HH Sassafras. I'm excited about both maitings as Wave was AI'ed to Irish Rogue and Sassy bred to our new buck Trevor. From the looks of things, Wave will go first. Ah.. another weekend ahead of pen building, and figuring out where in the world to put our booming population! The majority of our does are set to kid in the next week's stretch.. hopefully before I get set to travel to Fort Collins, CO for work training for a week. I'm just glad that weather in New England has decided to turn into spring.. at least for the next 6 hrs.. gotta love New England weather.. I think Mark Twain summed it up about right: "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes."

Our second "group" to kid will be heading inside this weekend. Catching a glimpse of them while feeding - we're very impressed at the way Windrace Farm Nestor Kara is filling out. If she looks this great after freshening, we should finish her on her first trip out. WOW.. I think drying off, and dry treating was just what the doctor ordered. Lets just say wow... I'm excited to see what she throws. Don't you just wish you could hit the fast forward button sometimes? More updates soon! Off to get sleep while I can.

Nat's Log, Week ending March 25th:

Kidding season is now upon us full force. I guess you can say we officially started last month with my fiancee Joe's Boer goats - I jokingly refer to them as the trial run to get us back into kidding season mode. Our first Ober to kid was P'tricia, a purebred and unfortunately we didn't have our pasteurization program set up just quite yet - but mom has tested CAE negative and its a great excuse to keep her in the herd. I'll try to post her pictures soon. We'll have to see how she grows, and how herd mates look this summer as I may have to reconsider traveling to ADGA Nationals! Our first oberhasli kid born last year ended up as the AGS National Champion Jr. Oberhasli... I think we may have another candidate for 2006!!!!

Thyme kidded this weekend - she's looking great and presented us with 2 gorgeous twins, a bright copper red color that is brilliant. What a milker to boot!!! We kept the buck on mom as she's a first freshener and pasteurized the doe kid. Even with that kid on mom we're getting about 1/2 a pail of milk each milking and expect her to rise in production. Mom is one of the goats we sponsor to our local 4-H club for a project animal to any kids interested in a project but may not have the facilities to have animals. The 4-hers come to help with chores weekly during the school year and then in return train, fit and show "their" goat at the local 4-H fair. Hopefully our next does get their rears in gear and produce some company for this little doeling!

2006 has been a tough year for us for a variety of reasons.. I had to put my Springer Spaniel to sleep in early January and went through a bad spell of the flu, followed by sinus infections and the works.. speaking of work - work duties changing (just got hired on permanent w/ USDA Veterinary Services) leading to a few long work nights and lots of training, and then top it off..my dad being very sick - but out of the hospital for now!! Guess when it rains it pours.. I just hope our luck changes.

Its been tough, but the goats are a nice constant and a nice relaxing few hrs to my day - assuming all hell isn't breaking loose. We're still tweaking our feeding ration -back to bagged grain after a trial of bulk feed and with a horrible hay crop, its been difficult supplementing and not breaking the bank. With everything that has been going on, we've really got to sit down this spring and cut back numbers - while I want to keep everyone, realistically having a herd size this large as a "hobby" is tough. Hopefully we'll be able to retire a few does and find a few some quality pet homes and otherwise hope for a buck year (which it hasn't been so far!). Guess that dream we all have of a barn full of just a show string of GCH does :-)

Ok.. off to rest before another busy week!