Granny's Best

The New Kidding Barn

2011-12-28T16:59:00.000-08:00

While we're waiting on the next group of does to start kidding, I thought I'd share the New Kidding Barn with you. You see ... when I moved the goats and dairy to the ranch this summer ... there was no shelter for the goats at all. The photo below shows the "barn" area after the old collapsed barn had been burned.

The photo below shows the structure of the first Tarp Barn going up on the day we moved the goats to the ranch. I'll post more about that incredible day soon.

You see the area to the right of this photo? That's where the Kidding Tarp Barn is planned to be built. You can see that the remains of the old barn was cleared off leaving me with a nice flat surface to build on.

The goats were checking out their new home

You may be wondering why I've built Tarp Barns instead of more permanent structures. The answer is simply time and money. The Kidding Barn is 10 1/2 feet wide, 47 feet long, and about 8 feet tall in the middle of the arch. I have 16 kidding stalls built in it with an ally way wide enough to take my wheel barrow down. I have left two additional stall areas open on the north east side for working and storage space. My total cost in this structure is around $700 dollars. The structure went up in one afternoon - thanks to Tonia and her daughters! And, the kidding stalls have gone together pretty quickly as well.

Here's the underlying structure of the tarp barn. The side walls are 4 foot by 16 foot welded wire cattle panels. These are wired length-ways to t-posts driven into the ground every 8 foot (closer if necessary to keep the sides straight). The side walls are exactly 10 1/2 feet apart from each other and parallel. This is important to keep the arch from having any dips in it when it's finished. If it has dips in it ... rain or snow could accumulate there and weigh it down ... possibly collapsing the structure.

The west side of the Kidding Barn (on the right of the photo below) was installed shortly after the goats came to the ranch as a fence between the buck pen and the main doe pen. Since I had planned this space for the Kidding Barn, I made sure it was nice and straight. But, the bucks had pushed on the fence so much that it required some straightening and more t-posts to get it ready for the new tarp barn.

The top arches of the tarp barn structure is constructed from more of the 4 foot by 16 foot welded wire cattle panels. These are arched and wired to the side panels about 2 squares down from the top of the side panels. They are also wired to each other along their edges to give strength to the structure. We wired 1 inch pvc pipes every 4 feet along the inside of the arches to (hopefully) add more support when it snows or ices. Usually all you have to do to keep ice and snow build up off of the tarp barn is to go inside and "pop" the welded wire arches. The snow slides off the sides of the barn.

Here's the barn with the tarp(s) pulled over it and wired into place along the bottom edge. (I came back later and wired it about every 2 foot along the sides up about 3 foot from the ground.) The tarps are simply recycled billboard tarps. I got them at no cost from one of our local sign companies. The only requirement for re-using them is that the printed side has to be placed to the inside so the advertisement isn't visible to the public. This is the second structure these tarps have been on. They hold up pretty well.

We ran a cord through the edging on the south end to pull it down snug. This will allow for ventilation since I planned to completely enclose the north end.

The ground stayed a little damp even with it being enclosed under the tarp barn. So, I went to one of our local saw mills and got some of their mulch to put in as bedding. This is produced as they chip the bark off of the logs in preparation of sawing them into lumber. They only charged me $10 for each big scoop. I got 3 scoops heaped up on the 16 foot trailer.

I hauled it into the tarp barn a wheelbarrow load at a time. This has really helped keep the kidding pens dry ... even in all the wet weather we've had.

The photo below may look like a pile of junk ... but it is a cherished treasure. A gift from my Dad. He wasn't able to come and install electricity out in the Kidding Barn. So, he did it at home and I picked it up a few days before the goats were due to start kidding. Thanks Dad!

The really heavy wire on the reel is a very very long arc welder extension cord. And, the smaller wire is 10 gauge wiring with outlet boxes installed every 10 feet into it. Dad built two sets of these so I could have outlets down each side of the tarp barn.

He also wired up a 220v switch box with an arc welder plug coming out of it. All I had to do when I got it back home was to hook up the black wires from each of the outlet strings to the "hot" junctions inside the box and hook up the red neutral wires to the single neutral junction inside the box. (Dad will help me wire the yellow ground wires when he comes on his next visit.) This gave me two strands of 110v outlets from the 220v arc welder cord that I plugged into the switch box and into the welder outlet inside the milk barn. Electricity in the Kidding Barn! Now that was really exciting.

Outlets

This made it possible to hang two 4 foot florescent light fixtures in barn. Now I wouldn't have to be out there kidding in the dark!

And, I was able to have heat lamps for the newborn babies on the chilly nights. This made me so happy!

I built the kidding pens/stalls out of more of the welded wire cattle panels. The pens on the west side are 4 foot from the outside toward the inside of the barn and 5 foot long. These are big enough for my bigger does. And, to keep the alley way wide enough to work in, I built the pens on the east side 3 1/2 feet from the outside toward the inside of the barn and 5 feet long. This has worked out great for my smaller does. I anchored each corner of the pens with a t-post. The gates are cut to be 5 1/2 feet long to give a little overlap when hooked onto the neighboring pen. This helps keep the babies from escaping. I also wired 2x4 inch welded wire to the bottom 2 feet all the way around the pens. This is also to keep the babies inside.

I got 5 of the pens built before the first does were due to deliver and continued working on building more of them while I was out in the barn keeping an eye on the does that were in the pens on labor watch. I secured feed and water buckets in each pen and put a shared hay rack between pens. I also put heat lamps shared between pens ... on the opposite end from the hay racks. I didn't want to risk getting hay near the heat lamps!

Just before kidding started, I was able to finish enclosing the north end of the tarp barn and get a door put on. I got this finished on Saturday the 17th .. just the day before Mandy delivered her twins!

On warm sunny days, I have to leave the door open for ventilation and to keep it from getting too hot inside the tarp barn.

Since the Kidding Barn is on one side of the general goat yard, I put a wire gate on the south end and covered the south side pens and gate with pieces of the tarp. This keeps the wind and goats out, but allows for ventilation.

The goat mommas and babies have been very comfortable in the new Kidding Barn and I've found it easy to work in.

The photo below shows the area I left open for my working and storage space.

Here's one of Valerie's kids eating from the hay rack. The kids have enjoyed the kidding pens too.

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I have 62 does that will be kidding this season and I need to clear some of the pens out to get them ready for the next group of does to deliver their kids in.

So ... It's time for these does to get back to work providing milk here on the dairy. I'll be separating these babies into pens and bottle feeding them. They'll still be getting their momma's milk ... and so will I.

Some of the babies will be ready to go to their new homes next week as soon as I get their horns disbudded. And, many of the little does will stay right here on the dairy to increase the goat herd with their sweet dispositions and great milking genetics.

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Kidding Season 2012 (part 3)

2011-12-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

14 does have kidded and we have 27 babies so far.... 14 doelings and 13 bucklings. If you missed my posts on the beginning of kidding season you can read them here in Kidding Season 2012 (part 1) and here in Kidding Season 2012 (part 2)

Saturday the 24th

Christmas Eve was a busy kidding day out in the kidding barn. Three does kidded that day.

Rosie greeted me on my early morning barn check with a new born doeling. Rosie is Liz's 2 year old daughter. This is her second freshening. Her little girl is dark brown with black and tan spots.

She's a good momma

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Ivy had also delivered in the early morning of the 24th. She had a little buckling. She is the 2 year old daughter of Maggie and is also a second freshener.

He's a strong boy and doing well

Splashie delivered twins while I was doing morning chores on Christmas Eve morning. She gave me beautifully spotted babies ... a boy and a girl. Splashie is one of Nellie's 2 year old daughters and is a second freshener this year.

I was there to watch the delivery help dry the babies off. I'm glad I was there because the little doeling had a hard time getting her first breath. I held her upside down and smacked her sides a few times to help clear her lungs. I was so thankful when she took her first breath and started coughing the rest of the birth fluids from her lungs. She's the first baby I've had to help at all this season. Everything else with the delivery went smoothly.

Splashie and her buckling

Splashie and her babies (doeling on the left and buckling on the right)

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The does gave me a kidding break for Christmas. No babies were born that day. From all of the mature Nubian does, only Emily was left to deliver. And, she waited till the day after Christmas.

Monday the 26th

Emily delivered twins on Monday morning the 26th. One doeling and one buckling.

Emily is 10 years old this year. She is the foundation doe of my 2 gallon milking line. This is the first time (in all the years I've had her) that she delivered completely un-assisted. She is much stronger this year than she's ever been in the 5 years I've had her. I'm sure it's due to all the exercise she's been getting while out grazing each day.

Here she is with her twins born on the 26th ....

Doeling in the front

Emily's buckling

She loves her babies

Emily's doeling

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Emily went down with Pregnancy Toxemia and Ketosis a couple of years ago and I was very worried about her recovery. She spent about 8 weeks completely down without being able to stand up.

As a comparison to the ease of kidding this year ... here is a reprint of Emily's assisted kidding from 2 years ago when she was fighting the Pregnancy Toxemia and Ketosis ..........

"Since Emily was in labor, I had been keeping an eye on all the time my Grandsons were out in the barn. I figured that I'd have to help her deliver the babies, since she had lost so much muscle tone with being down so long.

When the boys decided to go into the house, I took the opportunity to assist with delivering Emily's kids. I knew these kinds of deliveries can get really messy and unpleasant at times ... so I was glad they decided to go into the house to play with my Mom and have a little lunch.

I hung towels over the side of Emily's pen to dry the kids with and got my kidding kit where I could reach it. I got as comfortable as I could behind her. I broke the water sack and gently reached inside her to find the babies.

The first one had his front feet right there ready to deliver, but they were upside down ... his stomach was up and his back was down. I couldn't feel his head anywhere and he was twisted in his cord. I was up to my elbow inside her trying to get his head pointing nose forward on his legs so he could be delivered.

Since he was upside down ... every time I could get his head positioned correctly and pulled his legs to get him out ... his head would slip back down into her body. So, I knew I would have to turn him upright to get him delivered. I did this by pushing on her side where he was to push him over and using my hand that was inside her to roll him over. With him finally in an upright position ... his head stayed pointing out when I got it repositioned again ... I got him pulled out.

I cleared the mucus and fluid from his face and hung him upside down for a little bit to clear his airways and he started breathing fine. I laid him up beside Emily's head so she could lick him off while I went back inside to pull the other babies out.

I found two back legs next and pulled the second baby buck out. I cleared his face of mucus and fluids and laid him with his head angled down for Emily to lick. She was doing a fine job of cleaning them up!

I went in again to get the next kid. Once again it was two back feet. I pulled the little doe out and got her face cleared so she could breath.

My Daughter came back out to the barn at about this time to check on me and found me in the middle of this mess! I'm glad the boys had decided to stay in the house a little longer.

After laying the little doe by her momma to lick, I slipped my arm back inside her to be sure there weren't any more babies in there.

Then I checked the other two to be sure they were doing okay. The second buck didn't look like he was breathing yet ... so I hung him upside down again and lots of fluid drained from his mouth and nose. As I held him upside down, we noticed that he sounded like a bag full of water sloshing around inside. I started pressing his stomach and LOTS of fluid came out of his mouth and nose. He was full of fluid in both his stomach and lungs. I was never able to get his airways cleared for him to breath.... we lost that one.

After all the time Emily had been down and sick, I am very thankful for the two live healthy kids we have from her. Here they are with her right after drying them off.

Emily and her kids from 2010

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The LaMancha does will start kidding in a few days and we'll be in the middle of kidding again!

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Kidding Season 2012 (part 2)

2011-12-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

Kidding season is continuing around here. If you missed my post on the beginning of kidding season you can read about it here in Kidding Season 2012 (part 1)

Thursday the 22nd

Nellie - When I went out to check on the does early on the morning of Thursday, the 22nd, I found that Nellie had kidded over night. She gave me another set of triplets ... all three girls! Last season she gave me quads. I've had Nellie for 4 kidding seasons and in these 4 years she has given me 10 doelings and 1 buckling. She has a pretty interesting story ... you can read more about her here -> Nellie

This group of Nellie's daughters are champaign colored with lighter and darker spots.

They're very pretty girls.... and very active.

Till it comes to nap time!

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Maggie also kidded on Thursday the 22nd about mid-day. She gave me twin doelings. I helped her dry them off, but other than that no assistance was needed. I'm sure she could have dried them by herself too, but I wanted to feel useful...so I helped with that part. Finally the buck heavy kidding season looked like it was going to even out with more doelings!

Maggie's girls just born

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Friday the 23rd

Sasha was in labor and pushing on the morning of Friday the 23rd when I stepped into the kidding barn to check on everyone. She delivered a good sized buckling. Since it was pretty chilly that morning, I dried him off good and made sure he nursed before continuing with morning chores.

He is a pretty light red color with really long ears!

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Liz - While I was finishing the morning chores of feeding and bringing fresh water to the does in the kidding pens, I noticed that Liz's udder was really full. Her due date was the 22nd, so I knew she would be kidding soon, but she wasn't showing any signs of labor yet. So, I went inside to get some breakfast and a shower.

Later, I found things to keep me busy in the kidding barn so I could keep an eye on the does that were due. Liz delivered twin girls during the early afternoon on Friday the 23rd The only assistance I gave to her was to help dry the babies off.

I think her little doeling with all the bright spots has the prettiest spots I've ever had on a baby goat born in my herd. She's a deep brown color with black trim and brilliant white spots.

She's beautiful.

The other little doeling has a few spots and is really cute, but .....

.... not as pretty as her sister!

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Since my Mom isn't living with me during this kidding season, I thought it would be a good day to pick her up to come see the babies.

It was a nice sunny warm afternoon and she enjoyed seeing the babies very much. I think she's going to be glad she doesn't have to bottle feed all of them this year! She has been a great help bottle feeding the babies the past 3 kidding seasons. Here's Mom's Perspective on feeding the babies from a couple of years ago.

I'm not looking forward to having to take on her job this year! She's always done a great job of keeping the babies fed when we brought them into the Kid Nursery and started milking their mommas.

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Kidding Season 2012 (part 1)

2011-12-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

Kidding season began here at the goat dairy on the Rockin H Ranch on Sunday, December 18th, 2011.

Since I have both Nubian and LaMancha goats, I wanted to be sure my Nubian does got bred to my Nubian buck, Latte, so they would have Nubian babies. That would be easiest to accomplish by breeding them in July while they were still at the prior farm. You see, the entire herd ... both Nubian and LaMancha ... would be running together once they moved to the ranch. So, Latte went into the Nubian doe pen around the 20th of July.

Latte

I expect all of my mature Nubian does to finish kidding by Christmas. No, I wasn't thinking about how busy Christmas time is anyway without the extra crazyness of kidding 14 does at the same week as Christmas! But, that's how it worked out. So, here we go .........

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The first to deliver this season was Mandy ... the only LaMancha bred on the prior farm. She came into a hot heat during July so I gave in and put her in with my LaMancha buck, Nate, for that day.

Nate (and Latte behind him)

Mandy surprised me by kidding out in the area of the goat yard where I feed their hay. She wasn't due till the 24th, but decided to kid on the 18th. I should have known something was up since she came in early from grazing that day. She had a little boy and a little girl. I'm glad it was a nice warm day.

Mandy and babies just born

I scooped up her babies and took them into a stall in the kidding barn. She followed closely to stay with them.

Boy in front and girl behind

She's a really good momma

At first I thought she had delivered another baby, but one of the half grown kittens had snuggled up with Mandy's babies. He was grooming them!

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Lydia kidded next on Monday morning the 19th. She had 2 beautifully spotted bucklings. She is a 2 year old first freshener and the daughter of Lilah (the herd queen)

Lydia's boys playing

Breakfast!

Isn't he cute?

Nothing like a kid draped across your neck to keep you warm!

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Valery kidded mid-day on Monday the 19th. I was in the kidding barn building more kidding stalls when she started pushing. I sat with her while she delivered to help dry the babies and hand them up to her. She had triplets ... 1 spotted buckling and 2 solid brown doelings with white ears and black trim.

Here she is with the first two. (buck and doe)

Here's all 3 just born

They're enjoying the heat lamp as Valery enjoys her dinner.

They're a very playful bunch of babies!

And then it's nap time!

Here they are playing when they're a couple of days old.

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Naudia delivered two bucklings on Tuesday mid-day the 20th. She's a two year old second freshener. She's Nellie's daughter and has some small percentage of Boer in her background. Her momma gives a gallon and a half of milk a day and as a first freshener Naudia was close to a gallon a day. So, even though the Boer colors come out in some of the babies, the milking genetics is very strong too.

Naudia's boys just born.

They're colored up pretty loud.

One of their favorite places is under the water bucket.

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Daisy also kidded mid-day on Tuesday the 20th. And, she also had two boys. I was starting to get worried that it was looking like a buck heavy kidding season! Daisy is a 2 year old first freshener. She's the daughter of Maggie. I'm already having to milk a quart from her that's extra over what her boys are taking. I'm pretty excited to see how her milking season goes.

Daisy's newborn boys

Two of the kittens snuggling with one of the boys.

This big guy has a unique mink like color

That tangle of nappers in the corner there are Daisy's two boys and either 4 or 5 of the half grown kittens. They've taken up residence with Daisy's baby goats!

This boy not only has black spots and white spots... he has blue eyes! His grandmother,Maggie, has a little blue in her eyes. And, his momma, Daisy, has blue at the bottom part of her eyes. He is going to be such a beautiful buck.

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Lilah is my 10 year old herd queen. She may not be as fast as the younger does, but they know she's the queen. She has a deep voice and the body language that they respect. She kidded Tuesday night the 20th.

It looked like she may be in early labor when I made my check on the does before bedtime and I sat watching her for a while. But, I got cold! And, she wasn't giving any definite signs of being in labor ... so, I came back to the house and my warm bed.

When I went out to the kidding barn early the next morning, she had her nice dry babies standing there to greet me. She had a pretty tan spotted buckling and a tan doeling with white ears.

Lilah and her doeling

Nap time.

If you'll notice, there's no kittens sharing Lilah's pen. She won't allow them in.

Lilah's kids playing.

The doeling has the big white star and the buckling has more spots.

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Between Sunday the 18th and Tuesday the 20th, There had been 13 babies born here ... 9 bucklings and 4 doelings. I had a talk with the rest of the does in the kidding pens waiting to deliver. I told them I needed them to deliver more girls to catch up with the number of boys!

One of the things you may have noticed ... or not ... is that I haven't had to assist any of the deliveries. They have all been natural and accomplished by the does without my help. In prior years I've had several that needed help delivering their kids.... either with babies in bad birthing positions or babies too big or too small or tangled up and trying to be born two at a time.

I feel there are two big reasons for this difference. First being that my goats have been out grazing/browsing every day for the past 2 and a half months. Some days they walk miles as they look for the next best thing to eat. They're getting more exercise than they've ever gotten in their entire lives living in goat yards at the prior farm. And, they're getting to eat whatever they want to eat out there. They eat dry leaves, cedar trees, young branches of blackberry canes, and all the green grass and other forages they want.

The second reason I think they're having an easier deliveries, is that I removed all corn and soy from their diets several months before we moved to the ranch. The Rockin H is a "grass fed" ranch and I wanted my does to be ready for that. I think it has made a big difference in their health.

I'm seeing much easier kidding this season and I'm very thankful for it.

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Working on the Milk Barn (part 2) The Floor

2011-12-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

It was Saturday, July 2nd (2011) and the temperature was forecast to be around 103* again. This summer was really a hot one! But, I couldn't let that slow down the work on the Milk Barn project. I had given notice of my intention of not renewing my lease to the lease holder of the farm I was living on. I had to be completely off the farm by the middle of August. There was so much work that had to be completed before I could move all the farm stuff, the goats and the milking operation over to the ranch. The milk barn had to be completely functional before the move since I was still milking over 40 goats every evening.

The work preparing for the new floor had been completed and we were ready for the "big pour". We would be mixing bagged concrete with a small concrete mixer and carrying it into the processing room in 5 gallon buckets.

I brought lots and lots and lots of these bags out to the ranch in preparation for the big day.

We were lucky to have access to this concrete mixer. And, lucky to have the help of 2 of the ranch interns.

Lina was one of the interns on the ranch this summer. She is from Hawaii. I always teased her about going back home to Hawaii at the end of her internship with a Missouri "farmers tan". She was so much fun to work with.

And, Dylon was also one of the summer interns on the ranch. He is from California and had a personality all his own. He was always willing to help and learn new things.

The work on the floor actually started a few days earlier. Since the floor slopes to the two drains in the floor, I needed flat areas for the walk-in-cooler and the large commercial fridge. Kyle poured these two areas before we started on the main part of the floor. I wanted these concrete pads to be a little above the level of the new floor to keep water from standing under the refrigeration units when the floor was being cleaned.

The photo below shows these completed pads. You can also see some of the repair work I had done to the cracks in the block wall behind the pads. I used Quickrete caulking on these cracks. It worked great and was pretty easy to apply with a caulking gun. I was able to "sand" the repaired areas smooth with an old piece of broken block.

Kyle (my friend Tonia's husband) is a professional brick layer with many years of commercial brick laying experience. So, he was completely in charge of the concrete work! Here he is working the new concrete on the floor.

Lina is adding water to the mixer ......

..... while Dylon is opening the bags of concrete.

Kyle taught them exactly how he wanted the concrete to be mixed with just the right consistency.

Here's most of the floor poured and smoothed out. You can see one of the floor drains at the top right of the photo and the other floor drain just at the edge of where the new concrete is in the lower part of the photo. Kyle did a wonderful job of sloping the new floor just right to drain to the new drains. When I wash the floor, the water flows off of the floor right into the floor drains. It's great! I have no idea how he was so accurate with the slopes. He did it all by eye.... and his experienced hand trowel.

Here they are mixing the last batch to finish out the floor.

It's ready to be tipped over into the 5 gallon bucket to carry over to the floor.

Gotta be careful to get it all in the bucket.

And, here's Kyle finishing the new concrete floor.

Actually, he stayed for several more hours working on smoothing the concrete after the interns went back to the ranch house for supper and I went back to the old farm to milk the goats and take care of evening chores.

You might ask what I did during all this work ?? Yes, I took lots of photos, but it became apparent that we were going to run out of concrete before finishing the floor. So, I had to run to the lumber yard for more bags of concrete so we wouldn't run out before finishing. By the time I got back with the extra concrete, these 3 had such a smooth flow of work that I stayed out of the way as much as I could. Dylon, Lina, and I took turns carrying the 80 pound bags of concrete over to the work area from the trailer I had hauled them in on. We were all exhausted by the end of the day! Thank goodness for great help!

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Working on the Milk Barn (part 1)

2011-12-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

There were a lot of things that needed to be torn out of the old milk barn before we could start preparing it as a place for the milking the goats and making cheese. If you missed the "Before" stage of this project you can read about it by clicking here.

One of the first things to get done was to tear out part of the wall that divided the milking parlor and the old tank room. The plan was to make a bigger doorway (the old one was only 24 inches wide). And, to make more space available in what would become the processing room by pushing the wall back 4 feet into the large hallway in the milk parlor.

In the photo below, you can see Kyle removing the dividing wall. Kyle is my dear friend Tonia's husband. Kyle has done a lot of work on this project. He is amazing. He can get more accomplished in a day than I've seen whole crews of men get done in a week.

He brought along this handheld concrete saw and a sledge hammer to tackle the wall. He made quick work out of getting it removed too.

He also cut some groves in the old concrete floor for running the drainage plumbing that would be necessary for the sinks that would be going into the processing room.

These things had to be done before we could put the new concrete layer on the floor.

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My Dad is 75 years old and has put a lot of effort into helping me with this project. He had to drive over an hour each way every time he came to help. Here he is taking out the old pipe guard rail in the milking area.

Here is the milking side of the parlor after the extra pipes and old cow feeders have been removed.

Here's what it looked like before we cut and carried the old stuff out.

After removing the cow feeders, there were holes left in the ceiling where the feed was loaded into the feeders. The ceiling would need more work.

Dad always came prepared for the work we would be doing that day. He had his pickup loaded with the cutting torch, all the tools and supplies he'd need, as well as his generator since we didn't have electricity in the milk barn yet.

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After we took out the concrete dividing wall, some of the waterline pipes needed to be shortened and capped off before we could put in the new floor. Dad brought his cut off saw/grinder to do the job. He also brought a tool that cut new threads into the pipes so the caps could be securely screwed on to prevent future water leaks.

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Remember all that old paint that needed to be removed from all the walls and ceilings?

Well, days and days of standing with a pressure washer aimed at the walls and ceilings took care of the problem. I must say that I never ended any of those days dry and I was always covered with little white paint chips. But the end result was much smoother and cleaner surfaces that was almost ready for paint.

You can see in the photo below how some of it came out. I also sprayed expanding foam into the rather large gaps where the ceiling and walls met.

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Getting electricity to the barn was another very important task. Dad and I mounted the new 200amp service box in preparation for the wire being run to the milk barn.

Cody brought in a backhoe and had the trench dug from the meter on the pole by the house. He then brought the heavy wire inside of conduit over to the milk barn.

I pushed the heavy wire through the box on the wall into the service breaker box. That was not easy.

Here it is ready for Dad to hook up. As soon as we had the box wired and ready, the electric company came out and hooked the wire up to the meter and we were "hot". It was such a good feeling the day we had power in the barn!

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When the backhoe man was out digging the trench for the electricity, he also dug the trench for the waterline coming from the well house.

With the trench dug, we could test the old waterlines inside the barn to be sure they flowed freely. I hooked a hose up from the well house and back flushed the inside waterlines. I did a happy dance when I found that the water flowed freely out of the pipe that would bring the water into the barn.

The old pipe was a little damaged, so Dad cut off the damaged part and used his tool that puts new threads on the pipe. Now it was ready to install the new water line in the trench and hook up the water from the well house. Cody put a water hydrant in when he hooked up the waterline to the milk barn.

It was time for the big test ... to see if the water flowed freely from all the outlets in the barn. I was holding my breath when I turned the first one on.

The water flows!

A lot accomplished and a lot of work getting it done. Some great memories were made and new skills learned working on the milk barn. Now, we were ready to pour the new concrete floor in the processing room.

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The "Before" of the Milk Barn Before and After

2011-12-18T17:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you know when you're looking at a diamond in the rough. You can see past the years of not being used and disrepair. You can see on to the potential of what something can be. This is what I saw when I first saw the empty milking barn here on the ranch. Knowing all the issues I had with the remodel of the milking facilities at the previous farm, armed me with real knowledge of what it would take to turn this old milk barn into a Grade A milking facility and certified cheese processing plant.

The barn hadn't been used for milking since the mid-1970's. Yes, that's nearly 40 years of sitting idle. We had no idea if the water lines were still able to function and the electrical (what was left of it) was sub-standard and definitely not up to safety code!

The biggest thing this barn had going for it is that it's concrete block and has stood the test of time here on this hillside.

The North and East side of the Milk Barn

The West and South side of the Milk Barn

The South end of the Milk Barn

Three things that would have to be accomplished before I could move the goats and the dairy operation to the ranch were:

(1) Repair/remodel the milking parlor and get it ready to milk goats in. It would also have to have water run to it from the well house and electricity run to it from the meter at the house pole.

(2) Repair/remodel the old Tank Room into a functioning milk handling and cheese processing room. This included installing a new concrete layer on the floor to assure the ability to properly seal it for cleanliness and sanitation.

(3) Remove the remains of the old collapsed livestock barn that was just beyond the milk barn. And, build shelter for the goats in the corral area.

The Milking Parlor

The west side of the milk barn would be the easiest to use for milking the goats. There was an entry door on the south and an exit door on the west. Pre-milking and post-milking pens could be set up pretty easily by using this side of the barn. My existing auto-lock stanchens could also be modified to fit into this area. This parlor was a few feet shorter than the one I was using, so we would have to cut off 4 of the stanchens. I would be able to milk 12 goats in this barn at a time instead of the 16 goats I was used to bringing into the barn at once.

The parlor had been used to milk 6 cows at a time (3 to a side). It was set up so the bulk feed was loaded into the loft part of the milk barn and fed down through the tubes leading to the feeders you see in the photo below.

Well ... the feeders and most of the pipe would have to be removed to set the parlor up for milking goats instead of cows. The cracks between many of the blocks would have to be repaired and the old chipped pealing paint would also have to be removed so the walls could be repainted. The drain pit in the floor of the milking platform would also need to be brought up to the level of the rest of the floor so the goats could move through the area easily.

The Before of the milking side of the barn

The Before of the milking pit

A view from the south entry door

At some point in time something had been either backed into or crashed into the wall beside the east entry door. We decided that this wall was beyond repair and would have to be torn out and replaced.

The damaged wall

The damaged side wall and the entry door to the tank room

The ceilings were some sort of very hard material like tile concrete backer board. It was broken in several places with large holes that would need to be repaired and had pealing paint that would have to be removed before new paint could be applied.

Part of the ceiling in the milk parlor

The Milking Handling & Cheese Processing Room

The north end of the milk barn was the old Tank Room where the bulk tank would have been during the productive years of this milk barn. This room would become the new milk handling area and cheese processing plant. But, it needed a lot of work before it would be ready for this new purpose.

The big door on the east side will be replaced with a sliding glass door. The photo below is an inside view of that wall. There's several places where the cracks between the blocks needs to be filled in and the paint needs to be removed to prepare for new paint.

Below is the west wall across from the big door wall. There is a lot of cracks to fill in on that wall also and the paint looks like a thick putty on these walls. All of this will need to be fixed.

You can see the condition of the old cement floor in these photos. This is the reason I decided to start out right in this "new" processing room by preparing to install a new concrete floor on top of the old one.

The photo below shows the small 24 inch wide door that joins the milk parlor to the tank room. This will need to be made wider. In fact, I decided to remove part of this wall and set it farther back into the milking parlor hall area to give more room to the processing area.

The ceiling had several holes in it to repair and needed the seems sealed before putting on a fresh coat of paint.

The Old Livestock Barn

If the old barn had still been standing ... it would have been a really nice goat shelter. But, a storm flattened it a few years ago. I have no idea how old the barn was. But, the nails that it was built with were hand made square nails. It's amazing to think of the people who build this old barn and how they used it for their livestock.

The photo of the old barn below is taken standing at the back of the milking barn. This is the area I'll need to build temporary goat shelters. So, it's gotta go.

Cody and the summer interns worked on pushing it together with the bucket on the tractor and then set it on fire. It burned slowly for a couple of days. Below are some photos of the summer interns tending the old barn while its burning.

Arlin came from Berkeley California for a summer internship here at the ranch

Arlin and Dylon

Dylon also came from California for a summer internship

Lina came from Hawaii for the summer internship program

The photos below show what was left after it finished burning.

They cleaned up all the left over tin and ran a magnet over the ground to pick up all of the nails possible. I was left with a two level open flat space to build the goat corral and shelters.

Yes, there was a lot of work to be done before I could move my goat dairy onto the ranch. It was already late May and I had to be out of my current farm by mid-August. So, I got busy and got to work! I had lots of help from family, friends, and the ranch interns. I'll share the work and progress next.

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My New Home - The Rockin H Ranch

2011-12-17T19:26:00.000-08:00

Finding the "right" place to develop and grow a goat dairy and creamery hasn't been easy. I started out with the idea and business plan of milking goats and making cheese during the winter of 2006. I obtained my first goats the following summer and things grew from there. Here are some things I wrote about Getting Started

It soon became evident that the farm I had at that time wasn't the right place to grow this business. The search for a farm that had an existing milking parlor ... even one I would have to remodel for the goats brought me to the farm I just moved from. I wrote about my excitement about the possibilities of The New Farm I spent 3 years there and learned a lot about making cheese, remodeling milking parlors and cheese processing rooms. Here's the story about the Milk Parlor Remodel

After much work and money poured into this farm, I found things with the structure of the remodeled Processing Room that would never pass the inspection of the State Milk Board. Passing this inspection and having the dairy certified with the State Milk Board is essential to selling my cheese in stores and making a living at this business. It looked like I would have to build a new structure or at the very least sink a lot more money into the current structure. Since I was leasing the farm, I wasn't willing to do either of these.

My heart was in turmoil over the years, effort, and money I had put into the dream of a goat dairy and creamery. I had learned so much about making cheese, growing the goat herd, and what the requirements were to have a successful cheese processing business. I wasn't ready to give up. As always, I took my concerns to God in prayer. He has always lead me in the right direction.

Then out of the blue ... this past Spring (2011) ... an unexpected offer was made by my friends Cody, Dawnnell and Taylor.... owners of the Rockin H Ranch
(Several of the photos below were taken by Cody, Dawnnell and Taylor. They have given permission to use them in this posting)

They asked me if I would consider moving my entire goat dairy operation out to their ranch. They didn't know anything about the turmoil I had been in about the dead end I had run up against at the farm where I was living. I felt like this offer was an answer to my prayers.

A goat dairy was an enterprise they had been planning to add to their ranch. In fact they had bartered with me for a "truck load" of my Nubian babies to get started on that goal. Here's the post I wrote about it this last winter New Home for the Babies

With moving my dairy onto the ranch, the goal of an operational goat dairy on the ranch would be realized much sooner than they had expected. And guess what ... they just happened to have an older unused milking barn and an empty house on the ranch. Both the house and milk barn are pretty old, but have great possibilities. I'll be posting more about these and their remodel soon.

The house

The milk barn from the Tank Room end

The milk barn from the Milking Parlor end

Over the next few weeks we discussed the details and came to an agreement. Soon, I began remodeling the old cow dairy to fit the goats and preparing for the move to the Rockin H Ranch. Yes, I have lots of photos and stories to tell about these activities.... But, first let me tell you about the Rockin H Ranch.

It is 1,000 acres of the most beautiful and peaceful land I have ever experienced. The views are breathtaking. From the top of the hill above the house, you can see forever.

The fields just below the milk barn are so lush and have a creek running at the edge of them.

Cody is a well respected expert and authority on raising grass fed and finished animals for meat production. He has been ranching for most of his life and has spent the last 10 years building the forages and livestock on this 1,000 acre ranch. It takes thinking outside the "normal" modern ranching thought process to create a sustainable ranch where it alone completely provides the living for his family.

They raise and direct market grass fed beef, lamb, pastured pork, chickens, turkeys, and free range eggs. There are never any grains fed to the beef and lambs. The pastured pigs and chickens get a little organic feed in addition to the grasses and forages. The pigs also get the whey from my cheese making and extra veggies from the huge gardens.

Their food label is Real Farm Foods. Their products are sold and delivered directly to their "preferred customers", their CSA members, and to several of the health food and local foods stores in Springfield.

Here are photos of some of the animals on the ranch.

Grazing the cattle herd is managed with a series of 15 acre paddocks. The cattle are rotated to new paddocks of grass and forages every day or so. It takes a little over 3 months for them to rotate completely around the ranch. One of the amazing things is that hay is only necessary when the ice and snow is too deep for the cows to dig through. This style of pasture management has enough grass growth and forages for the cattle to eat year round.... even during the winters here in southern Missouri.... and in the dry times of the summer.

The pigs are raised naturally on pasture and never in confinement.

The large flock of sheep free ranges over the ranch. There have been lots of baby lambs born this winter. They are so much fun to watch.

Meat chickens are grown during the warmer months in hoop house like shelters that are moved every day to new grass. These chickens stay clean and healthy while they grow into delicious chicken dinners!

Turkeys are naturally grown in time for fresh Holiday turkey.

The free range laying hens have two jobs. The first is egg production and the other is fly and insect control.

Dawnnell has a small herd of dairy cows. She milks them to provide fresh raw milk.

Here are my goat girls free range grazing. They have access to 250 acres on this quadrant of the ranch. In this photo taken in early December, you can see them in the foreground and the cattle grazing at the bottom of the hill. My goats have become very comfortable here at the ranch. They're so smart about finding the best places to eat and finding their way back home in the evenings just before dark.

Multi-species grazing is one of the keys to the success of the ranch. The goats and sheep eat the forages that the cattle won't eat. And, by having the cattle rotate through each paddock on the ranch, parasite control is enhanced.

What is the most important thing on this ranch? You might think it is the livestock or the grass they eat. But, the most important thing on this ranch is the soil and the microorganisms that live in it. By free range grazing, the animals not only spread their natural fertilizer on the soil ... they also trample the organic material into the soil. Healthy soil makes healthy grasses and forages ... and this in turn makes lots of healthy animals who eat the grass and forages.

Did I mention how beautiful the views are here on the ranch? I took the photo of the sunset below from just outside the milking parlor. Yes, I love living here on the ranch!

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My Goats - Confinement to Free Range Grazers

2011-12-16T17:58:00.000-08:00

In all the years I've had goats ... I've had to keep them living in confinement ... until recently.

They had access to the barn or sheds and nice sized goat yards that were securely fenced to keep them in and predators out. This was because I just didn't have enough pasture nor fencing to graze them effectively. And, because the dangers presented by the free ranging neighbor dogs and the coyote packs in the area.

Since I made sure they had fresh water and fed them their hay and grain everyday, I knew exactly what they were eating. This made their milk have a consistently sweet flavor which was great for drinking and making cheese.

Of course I have to admit this living arrangement for the goats made it somewhat easier for me to take care of them. Somewhat easier.

I had them divided up into pens of 16. This was exactly the right number for each pen full to fit into the milking parlor at one time. Milking was easy. All I had to do was open a pen to let them run into the milking parlor .....

.... milk them ...... and let them go back to their own pen ...

..... close their gate and let the next group come into the milking parlor. Yes, this was an easy arrangement.

However, I had to buy and haul A LOT of hay to feed them and this caused the end result of having to haul A LOT of compost material out. Yes, poop, pee, and hay makes great compost. But, it builds up pretty quickly when the goats are living in confinement.

Here's my friend Jim scooping the built up muck out of one of the goat yards. For most of the day, he loaded it into pickups and trailers of friends who took it to their gardens and green houses. Yep ... that's gardener's gold!

This had to be done every few months. In the rainy seasons, it was a real mess to walk in ... for me and the goats! The smell wasn't very pleasant either.

Over this past summer (2011), an incredible opportunity was given to me and changes have taken place. I've moved the entire farm and goat dairy to a wonderful ranch (The Rockin H Ranch) where my goats have access to hundreds of acres of fresh green grasses and forages. (Yes, I'll share the details of the move and photos in the next few days.)

Here are my goat girls enjoying their first free range grazing experience. My dear friend, Tonia, and her daughters came to help me be goat herders that day in early October. We didn't know how the goats would react or behave when we took them out, so I was glad for all the help I could get that day! (I'll share more of that special day in a later post.)

People told me that I'd probably have to teach my goats how to be grazers and browsers since all but the oldest ones had lived their entire lives in confinement with their meals catered to them each day.

Well, I gotta tell ya ... I didn't have to teach them anything about eating the wonderful green stuff they found out on the hill sides around our new home. They ate blackberry leaves and grasses till their sides were bulging!

Happy goats!

But, they were completely untrained about electric fencing and coming and going from their new goat yard. There was lots to do before they could become full time free range grazers. I'll be sharing the rest of the story in the next few days ......

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A Productive Day with Surprises

2011-03-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

With the weather forecast to be in the upper 60's today ... I had planned a lot of extra work to get done around the farm ..... and, scheduled help to accomplish the work! I've come to the conclusion that there just aren't enough hours in the day nor energy in my body to get all the work done that needs to be accomplished around here.

I asked my son to come help me with cutting some trees that were growing around the lagoon of the dairy and some other odd jobs that were always on my "list" but just never seemed to get done. Thank you J!

J ready to go cut some trees and pull them around with the yard tractor

Another task that has been terribly neglected is the trimming of my goat's hooves. I have 57 adult goats and keeping them all trimmed has become difficult to get done. So, what did I do? I asked my wonderful friend Tonia from The Simple Life if she'd trim goat hooves for me. We worked out a deal and she will be taking very good care of their hooves. I am so happy and relieved about this. She came today to trim hooves. And, her daughters, Candice, Kara, and Kyla, worked on various cleaning jobs. The milk parlor and feed room never looked better! And, all of the cheese presses and hoops in the processing room have been washed. I am so thankful for their help.

I received a wonderful phone call this morning from a dear blogging friend. Terri from OurCrazyFarm was coming out to the farm for a visit. Terri and her family are from Wisconsin. They had traveled to Missouri taking care of details concerning the recent loss of their son. I'm sure she'll be posting details of their trip and the events on her blog in the coming days.

I had just finished milking the first group of does when Terri, Rob, and their children arrived. It was such a pleasure and blessing to meet Terri in person and hug her tight. Even through the sorrow and suffering they've endured this past 3 weeks after the accidental death of their son, Trent, they have kept the Joy of the Lord in their hearts and lives. They are a living example of trusting God in His perfect plan for their lives. I am so blessed and honored that they took the time as they were traveling home to spend some time here on the farm with me.

Soon after they arrived, we took a walk through the barn meeting the goats and then went on to the kid nursery in my basement to see the baby goats. I had the feeling this morning that I should offer to send my last little spotted Nubian buck home with them. Then I kind of felt silly since they had an 11 hour trip ahead of them to get back home. So, I decided that if they really liked him when they saw him and mentioned that they needed a buck .... that's when I would offer him to take home with them. Well ... all those things happened! Terri thought he was beautiful and Rob was agreeable to take him on the trip home. So Lilah's little boy went home with Terri and her family! He's the one in front in the photo below.

Terri's new buckling

After visiting the baby goats, we went back to the milk parlor to milk the rest of the does. While we were milking, Tonia and her daughters arrived. She was very surprised to see Terri and her family standing there in my milk parlor helping to milk the goats.

It was a wonderful surprise ... and a great blessing to meet with good blogging friends. I'm sure not many blogging friends ever get to meet each other, but when you do, it's like you've known each other forever. Sharing the details and stories of our lives through blogging develops closer friendships than I had ever imagined.

Tonia, Terri, and me (Brenda)

We enjoyed our visit very much!

Terri's daughter, Grace, helped get the goats back into their pen after we finished the milking.

Grace helping

Terri's kids helping make sure all the goats were back where they belonged

It was also an incredible honor to meet and visit with Terri's husband, Rob. He is a licensed Cheesemaker in Wisconsin. Not only is he a Cheesemaker, but his Mild Cheddar just won first place in the 2011 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest! You can see his award listed here. He also won several other awards for his cheeses at the contest. I am humbled and honored to visit with him and send some of my cheeses home with them.

Thank you, Terri, Rob and all the kids for your visit!

The last surprise of the day was this beautiful buckling born just as I was getting ready to milk tonight.

Ivy's little boy

Ivy is one of my Yearling first fresheners. She is one of Maggie's twin daughters from last spring. She delivered this little buckling without assistance. He had just been born when I came into the main barn to bring the first group of does to the milking parlor for tonight's milking. He is fat, strong, and healthy.

Ivy and her little boy

It looks like Ivy is going to be a really good momma!

It was a great day!

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Full Moon Surprise

2011-02-17T22:23:00.000-08:00

The Full Moon seems to have quite an affect on living things. If you ask people who have worked in nursing homes, you'll get stories about strange things happening during the Full Moon. And, if you talk to nurses who work in maternity wards, you'll find out that more births happen during the Full Moon. I know the Full Moon sure affects goats and kidding!

I had put the 4 yearling does who are due to deliver early next into the kidding pen area yesterday. It's a good thing because Caramel decided the pull of the Full Moon was more than she could resist. Today is day 144 for her. She's not really due til the 23rd.

But ..... when I got home from making a quick trip into town..... I started to take my things into the house ... but saw the Full Moon rising and decided that I'd better go check on the does in the kidding pens first. When I stepped into the barn I saw the cutest little kid beside Caramel. She had just delivered him a few minutes earlier.

Caramel's little boy

Caramel is Myrtle's yearling doe from last kidding season. She is Nubian/Alpine. His sire is Cappuccino. Cappuccino is Emily's yearling buck from last kidding season.

Caramel giving her baby boy kisses

He is colored so pretty. He has gray Moon Spots. How appropriate for being born on the Full Moon!

Caramel's buckling

Finding that Caramel had kidded was a great surprise .... but not the only surprise of the evening!

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Angel delivered a buckling while I was in town also. If you don't know Angel's story and how she came to live here at the farm you can read the full story here

When she arrived on December 10th, she was extremely thin. When I posted the photos of her on January 7th, she had gained quite a bit of weight, but was still very thin.

Angel on January 7th

By the end of January, I was getting suspicious that she may be pregnant. But, I didn't quite know ... maybe she was just gaining weight and growing a better rumen with all the good food she was getting now.

Photo taken late January

By the first of February she started making more of an udder. That's when I knew for sure that she was pregnant! I was really hoping that she would be in good enough shape to have a healthy baby and stay healthy herself. I watched her every day ... several times a day. I had no idea of when her due date would be.

Udder development

Here she is just a week ago. She is still thin, but does have a baby bulge.

Here's her big baby boy born this evening. It's hard to imagine this big baby was in there. He is strong and healthy. And, Angel is doing great too.

Angel's baby boy

Angel is a really good momma

Angel and her baby

I'm glad both Angel and Caramel delivered their kids without needing any assistance. They gave me a very nice Full Moon surprise. Their babies are so pretty.

So, I guess this means that Kidding Round 3 has started!

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Kidding - Round Two

2011-02-06T00:09:00.000-08:00

The second round of kidding has been bitter sweet. The snow, ice, wind, and sub-zero nights have been quite a challenge this week. I was also fighting off a head cold that decided to move into my chest. That was no fun at all !!

The second round of kidding started off with Fawn kidding last Saturday evening, the 29th, out in the big goat pen. She wasn't due until the 31st. So, I didn't have her in a kidding pen yet. My plan was to put all 6 does in this round of kidding into kidding pens that evening. But, she got in a hurry to have her kids.

When I got to the barn to start evening chores it was already dark outside. I saw a baby goat standing in the outside door way of the LaMancha barn room. I thought - Oh No! Now I've got to find which doe this one belongs to.

As soon as I got into the pen, it was pretty obvious he belonged to Fawn. She was really upset and wouldn't leave the doorway. I looked out the door and a second baby was laying on the step just outside the door. She couldn't tend to both of them since one was inside the barn and one was outside the barn. The whole group of LaManchas were pretty upset by this situation.

I gathered them up and took Fawn and her two little boys to a warm kidding pen where they could better bond with each other.

Fawn and her twin boys

I got Lady, Sissy, NaNa, Shasha and Lucy into kidding pens after milking and feeding chores. They were due between the 31st and the 2nd of Feb.

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This big snow/ice storm was predicted to hit here on Monday evening so I was really glad there wasn't any kidding on Sunday. I took the opportunity to go get a pickup load of hay. My hay barn was getting pretty empty and they were predicting up to 20 inches of snow. There's only 2 days worth of hay in the barn.... not enough to be snowed in!

Need to get some hay!

I only have to go 4 miles down the road to the barn where my hay is stored. Martin has big alfalfa and alfalfa/grass fields and puts up the most wonderful hay! I buy all the alfalfa/grass hay he can produce.

My hay for the goats

I backed up to the hay, climbed up the hay stack and started loading my pickup.

I got 40 bales on the pickup.

The bales weigh 80 pounds ... so that's a lot for my F150.

I was exhausted from being sick, the day's regular farm work, and loading the hay. I was SO glad when Tonia and her daughters showed up to help stack the hay in the barn! I had unloaded it off of the pickup before it got dark and it was in a big pile at the front of the barn that they had to climb over to get inside. :D

Getting ready to stack the hay

Zypher and Bugsy thought they'd help!

The hay bales were really heavy, but the girls got it all stacked nice and neat inside the barn.

I am SO grateful for their help!

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When I got out to the barn early Monday morning, I found Lady had delivered triplet doelings. She had done an excellent job of cleaning them and her kidding pen. Lady is Emily's daughter. She is LaMancha Nubian cross. Nate is the sire of her doelings.

Lady and her triplet girls

Looking for breakfast!

Pretty girls

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I had to get to the feed store in town on Monday before the snow storm hit. I was close to being out of feed for the goats. They would be pretty upset with me if we got snowed in without filling their feed barrels.

I finished morning chores and milking .... decided I'd better take one more look at the does in the kidding pens before I left for town. Good thing! Lucy was getting ready to deliver.

She had a boy and a girl. Lucy is Pureblood LaMancha and Nate is the sire of her kids.

Lucy cleaning her twins

More cleaning

Lucy's little girl

Lucy and Nate's little buckling

He is the buck I'll be keeping for breeding to the does I'm keeping that were sired by RC

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I still was not feeling well on Tuesday morning. I had a fever and I decided to take some medicine and my shower before going out to the barn to check on the does in kidding pens. I figured since there weren't any first fresheners out there that everything would be okay if any of them kidded that morning. None of the does had needed my assistance for quite a while.

I was wrong. I felt SO bad when I got out to the barn and NaNa was in labor with the head of her doeling baby birthed, but the legs were tucked inside. She couldn't get the baby delivered. The doeling was already dead and NaNa was very stressed.

I quickly assisted her by reaching inside and pulling the legs out to finish delivering the doeling. I checked for signs of life, but there weren't any.

I took this as a wake up call and a "kick in the butt" to get out to the barn in the early morning no matter how I felt and no matter how experienced the does were in the kidding pens. You just never know when they'll need help.

After I had the doeling pulled, I reached in to help deliver her little buckling. He was fine and healthy. It took a lot of encouragement to get NaNa to stand up after delivery. She is doing fine now, but I was really worried about her for a couple of days.

NaNa and her baby boy

NaNa's buckling

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The overnight low on Monday night was 1*. I had closed all the barn doors to keep the wind from blowing through and had all the heat lamps on in the kidding pens. Even with these precautions ... one of Lady's triplet doelings froze to death overnight.

When I got out to the barn EARLY on Tuesday morning, I found one of Lady's doelings laying out in front of her and two of them snuggled behind her under the heat lamp. The one in front of her had no signs of life when I picked her up. This made me very sad.

The forecast temperature for Tuesday night was -8*. I brought all the babies into the Kid Nursery in the basement before evening.

I hoped Sasha and Sissy would not kid overnight! I checked on them around 11:00 and both were calmly chewing the cud with no sighs of labor.

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Early Wednesday morning's barn check revealed that Sasha had delivered overnight. Her little doeling was cleaned off but had frozen, but her little buckling was dry and doing well.

Sasha's buckling

I rubbed him really good with a towel to be sure he was dry and then put a kid coat on him to keep him warm. I thought about bringing him inside, but he had survived the coldest night, so I left him with Sasha for the day. Since we were forecast to have temps near 0* again overnight, I did bring him into the Kid Nursery before dark. I couldn't face the heart break of loosing another kid to the frigid weather.

Sasha and her little boy in his kid coat

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The rest of the week passed with being snowed in, regular milking, farm chores, and watching Sissy in the kidding pen. I was beginning to think I had her due date wrong .... but she decided to kid this afternoon (Saturday). She delivered twins. One doe and one buck.

Sissy is LaMancha/Nubian cross and Nate is the sire of her twins.

Sissy cleaning her babies

The white one is the buckling and the black one is the doeling

The buckling has a little black spot on his hip just like his momma

I'm so glad this round of kidding ended on a good note. I was very relieved when Sissy kidded successfully and that the weather has warmed to near normal temperatures! It'll be a little over 2 weeks till the first fresheners start kidding. I'm glad for the kidding break!

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Bottle-Baby Doelings Ready for New Homes

2011-01-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

Even though we fall in love with each and every baby goat born here on the dairy farm, we can't keep them all. I have to select those who will be kept for expansion and replacement of the milking herd. And, put the rest of the doelings up for sale to go on to new homes.

Doelings for sale

Doelings for sale - napping

I've put a lot of thought, planning, and effort into my breeding program. I've bred for high milk production and gentle nature in my dairy goats. There are times that I have intentionally crossbred my LaMancha bucks with my Nubian does. For those does that are either full blooded or Pure Bred, I do breed to a Pure Bred buck though. And, then there are times they have chosen to breed through the fence without my permission! ( Click here for the story of Holly and Latte's forbidden love kids )

The sires of the doelings I have for sale are shown below.

Latte - Nubian Buck

Nate - LaMancha Buck

Here are the Bottle-Baby Doelings that are ready for their new homes shown with their mommas and a little information about them. The babies have been disbudded and are trained to the bottle.

Holly delivered triplets this year on 1/11/11. She is an ADGA registered Pureblood LaMancha and gives a little more than a gallon of milk each day. She chose to breed through the pipe fence with Latte (Nubian buck). So her kids are crossbred this year. I have 2 of her doelings available.

Holly's babies

Oreo delivered twins this year on 1/12/11. She is Nubian/LaMancha cross and gives a little more than a gallon of milk each day. She has one doeling from Nate (LaMancha) and one doeling from Latte (Nubian). So her kids are 75% LaMancha and 50% LaMancha this year. I have 2 of her doelings available.

Oreo and her 2 doelings

Opal delivered twin doelings on 1/12/11. She is Nubian/LaMancha cross and gives a little more than a gallon of milk each day. Her twins are sired by Nate (LaMancha). So her kids are 75% LaMancha. I have 2 of her doelings available.

Opal and her 2 doelings

Kit delivered quads this year (2 bucklings and 2 doelings) on 1/14/11. She is Alpine/LaMancha cross and gives a gallon of milk each day. Her quads are sired by Nate (LaMancha). So her kids are 75% LaMancha. I have 1 of her doelings available. (The cream colored one in the back.)

Kit and her quads

Chloie delivered twins on 1/16/11. (1 doe, 1 buck) She is Nubian/LaMancha cross and gives a gallon of milk each day. Her twins are sired by Nate (LaMancha). So her kids are 75% LaMancha. I have 1 of her doelings available.

Chloie and her twins

SweetPea delivered twin doelings on 1/18/11. She is full blood LaMancha and gives about half a gallon of milk each day. Her twins are sired by Nate (LaMancha). So her kids are full blood LaMancha. I have 2 of her doelings available.

SweetPea and her twins

Ci-Ce delivered triplet doelings on 1/21/11. She is full blood LaMancha and gives a gallon of milk each day. Her triplets are sired by Nate (LaMancha). So her kids are full blood LaMancha. I have 3 of her doelings available.

Ci-Ce and her triplet doelings

I hope to find good homes locally for these doelings. They are being listed on local web classifieds. We'll be sad for them to go, but happy that they will bring joy to their new homes.

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First Freshener Milking Rodeo

2011-01-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

Some people buy memberships to fancy gyms to get their workout ..... I run a goat dairy for my workout. Some days I get more of a workout than I planned on. When it comes time to train the First Fresheners to stand quietly while being milked in the milking parlor ... I get a real workout!

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More about that in just a minute ... but first ... a kidding update ..... My last doe due to kid in this first round of kidding delivered her triplet doelings on Friday morning. That brings our total kids so far to 66 with 36 doelings and 30 bucklings

Ci-Ce and her 3 girls just after delivery

Nap time today

Getting a little dinner!

We have a kidding break until the 31st! Yea!

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Back to the First Freshener Milking Rodeo ..........

These 2 year old first fresheners are sure stronger and bigger than the yearling first fresheners! Now these 2 year old girls are all used to coming into the milking parlor to eat their grain ... they've been doing that for the past year. But, now that they've delivered their babies and have returned to their goat groups ... it's time to get to work and produce that wonderful delicious goat milk.

Some of them are more than a little ticklish when it comes to having the milker put on their milking parts! They jump, stomp, kick, dance sideways, squat ... pretty much any maneuver imaginable to keep me from getting the milker on them. I call it the First Freshener Milking Rodeo.

Now that their kids are in the kid nursery or gone on to their new homes, it's my responsibility to empty their full udders. There's a lot of milk in there and to keep them healthy, I have to milk them out completely. I can't just say ... "Well, she's having a bad day so we'll do this another time." She HAS to be milked twice a day because they are heavy producers.

The solutions I've come up with are pipe bars on each side of the doe to keep her from dancing sideways and Velcro hobbles just above the hock joint to keep her from stomping and kicking. This keeps her from hurting me, hurting herself, and destroying milking equipment!

The hobbles are gentle on her legs and strong enough to hold her still. I had some Velcro strips that are used as leg bands for cows. I pulled out a couple of these ... put each through a piece of rope .... then snugly wrapped the straps around each of her legs just above the hock. If you press the tendon just above the hock, it pretty much immobilizes the leg.

Tiffany was the first 2 year old first freshener to be moved back out to the big goat groups. She is a BIG girl ... as big as my older mature does ... and she's really strong! She not only stomped, but she kicked straight backward. She almost got me!

After coming to the conclusion that she was not going to stand still for milking, I applied the hobbles to her. It only took me about 10 minutes to get them on. I was exhausted by the time I got the hobbles on her. The photo below shows her with the pipe bars holding her straight, the hobbles to keep her from kicking, and the milkers are on!

Tiffany's first milking

The great thing is how fast they figure out that it feels good to have their udder emptied! It only took using the hobbles twice before Tiffany was standing perfectly still without them for milking. The photo below is on the evening of the second day of milking her. She has done great ever since.

Tiffany milking like a pro

When it was time to milk Lacey (also a 2 year old first freshener) ... she stood quietly without any need for hobbles. She does have a habit of squatting when I put the milkers on her. I have to almost crawl under her to reach far enough to get them on her. But at least she doesn't jump and kick!

Milking Lacey

Lexie was as jumpy as Tiffany for her first milking, but she's not quite as big as Tiffany. It took a few minutes to get the hobbles and milkers on her.

Milking Lexie

She still managed to jump enough to get the milkers knocked off!

I ended up having to milk one side at a time.

After that first day of bucking around, she milks perfectly now too.

Trina only needed the pipe bars on each side of her to help her settle down. I did have to hold the milker on her and milk one side at a time. I'm still having to do this ... even 3 days into milking her. She is getting better, but still stomps her back feet when I put the milkers on her. I don't want them to learn that they can kick the milkers off when they stomp. So until she quits stomping, I'll hold the milkers on. If she doesn't quit in a day or two, I'll have to put the hobbles on her to keep her feet still.

Milking Trina

Vanessa also kicked at the milkers, so I held her leg just above the hock. I squeeze the tendon keeping them from lifting their leg to kick or stomp. She's milking fine now without having to restrain her leg.

Leg squeeze while milking Vanessa

I have such sore muscles from wrestling with the first fresheners just to get them milked. Some night's I've felt completely beat up. I'm glad it doesn't take long for them to get the hang of milking in the parlor! Now that the 2 year old first fresheners are milking pretty good, I have the yearling first fresheners to look forward to in the next several weeks!

I also posted stories about Milking a Difficult Doe last year if you'd like to read about some of my mature doe milking challenges.

If you have interesting stories of milking experiences ... I'd love to hear about them in your comments!

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New Homes for Kids

2011-01-20T20:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a very different kind of day than we've had around here for quite a while..... No does kidding at all that day! It was also the day we had scheduled for 30 of the baby's to go to their new homes.

Cody and Dawnnell from Rockn H Ranch are starting their Dairy Goat herd with baby does and a buck from my farm. I am honored that they have chosen my goats for their farm. We've discussed my breeding program on several occasions and they are pleased with the health and production of my goats.

Cody and Dawnnell produce natural grass fed and finished beef, pork, lamb, chickens, turkeys, eggs, and raw Jersey cow's milk. They have chosen to add goats to their farm that will give them good milk production as well as be useful for meat production. Nubian goats are this kind of multipurpose goat.

They selected several Nubian doelings and a buckling as the beginning of their goat herd. They also took some of the additional Nubian bucklings to raise for meat.

After visiting for a while, we started loading the little goats into the back seat of their pickup for their trip home. They would be taking 13 little goats home with them.

Dawnnell and Cody loading the baby goats

When we had a few of the babies in the pickup, Dawnnell had to stand guard at the door to keep them from escaping. My farm dog, Zypher, was there to assist in any way needed. He thinks all of the goats belong to him. He is responsible for guarding the perimeter of the goat yards. He takes it personally when any goat leaves the farm. I have to bring him inside the house or barn to keep him from chasing the vehicle down the road if they take goats from the farm. Otherwise he doesn't follow anyone when they leave ... only if one of his goats is in the vehicle. He is a good dog!

Dawnnell and Zypher keeping the baby goats inside the pickup

Here are the little goats getting ready to take the trip to their new home. I'll bet they got some funny looks as they drove down the highway with all those little goats in the back seat!

A cushy ride home

Cody and Dawnell have been preparing for the new babies even before they were born. They built them new pens inside one of their barns and even bought the kind of bottle nipples they were used to. I am very happy that these little goats will be living at Rockn H Ranch.

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My friend, Brian, has offered to take any of the little crossbred bucks that I can't sell. Since I need the milk produced by the momma goats to feed the little doelings and to make cheese ... I am very happy that Brian will give these little bottle-baby bucks a home.

Baby bucks ready for Brian to pick them up.

Only minutes after Cody and Dawnnell left with their 13 baby goats, Brian and his brother drove into the driveway. We took time for a farm tour and he agreed to take 17 of the little bucklings. He's going to have his hands full bottle feeding all those boys!

Brian loading baby goats into pens in his van.

Here's some of them ready for the trip to their new home

Of course Zypher had to make sure they were all loaded safely. I think he was telling them good- by and have a safe journey.

Zypher and the babies

With 30 of the baby goats gone to their new homes, Mom felt like she was on vacation. She only had 11 babies in the Kid Nursery pens to feed last night! ...... Until .... I brought 14 of the kids in from the kidding pens out in the barn this afternoon! She said the new babies are taking their bottles very well.

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More Kidding and Udder Care

2011-01-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

We're up to 63 babies now! There's only 1 pregnant doe left to kid in this round of kidding. The next group has due dates starting on the 31st through the 2nd of Feb. So, we get a little break from kidding to get caught up on other things around the farm for a few days.

I disbudding the horn buds on the first 33 kids born this afternoon. That was quite a job! Mom helps by giving them their "comfort" bottle of milk as soon as I get them disbudded.

Several of them will be going to their new homes tomorrow. It's a good thing too! I've got the last 30 kids still out in the barn with their mommas. They need to come into the Kid Nursery and their mommas out with the milking does.

For details about how I do the disbudding, you can check out my post Disbudding the Kids . It has to be the hardest thing I do with the kids, but necessary if you don't want them to grow up with horns.

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Early yesterday morning (Monday) ... when I got out to the barn to check on the goats ... I found that Lexie had kidded overnight. I found her and her babies sound asleep in their kidding pen. Her babies are both little girls.

Lexie and her twin doelings

Lexie is LaMancha/Alpine cross. She is a 2 year old first freshener. RC is the sire of her kids.

Lexie and her kids

She is a good momma with lots of milk

At least this time there wasn't any kidding going on while I was trying to get the morning chores and milking done. After finishing morning chores,I checked the does again and none of them looked like they were in labor.... so we decided to go into town to get feed for the goats and some groceries for the house.

I think Lilly heard us drive out of the driveway, because she delivered twins while we were gone. We were only gone an hour and a half.

Lilly is a 2 year old first freshener. She is 75% LaMancha and 25% Nubian. RC is the sire of her kids.

Lilly and her twins - 1 boy (black/white) and 1 girl (tan)

She did a great job taking care of them

No more does went into labor the rest of the day ... until I came inside the barn just as the sun went down. Trina looked like she was in early labor. She is a 2 year old first freshener. She is 75% LaMancha and 25% Nubian. RC is the sire of her kids.

Trina in early labor

I went ahead and started evening chores in the barn and kept an eye on her. I actually got the first group of 12 does down to the milking parlor, fed and milked, and back to their area of the barn before Trina got serious about delivery. When I checked in on her after milking this first group, this is what I saw. She had pushed out the first fluid bubble.

Trina getting ready to deliver

I knew that I wouldn't have time to milk the second group of does so I sat with Trina to make sure she wouldn't need any assistance. It wasn't long before the first little foot was being pushed out.

Little foot coming out

She delivered her first baby just fine by herself. The first one is a boy. It took her a minute to realize that new thing in her pen belonged to her. But, when she smelled of him, she started licking him dry.

Trina and her first baby - a boy

As soon as the babies are born, I take either my hand or a towel and wipe the gooey slimy birth fluids away from their nose and mouth so they don't breath it in. Then I take a piece of the hay from their bedding to tickle the baby's nose. This makes them sneeze to clear out any fluid they have in their nose. The better you can get them breathing ... the less problems they have with their lungs.

Tickling baby's nose to make him sneeze

Trina dried him off really good. She's going to be a good momma.

Drying baby

Here comes the second baby. You can see her nose and eye through the membrane of the birth sack in the photo below. She's about to become an air breather!

Trina's second baby being born

Here's Trina drying her little girl

First meal of momma's milk/colostrum

As soon as the babies are born, I scoop up the thick birth fluid and the wet bedding. I keep a 5 gallon bucket close by to toss it into. This helps keep their kidding pen dryer and more comfortable for the momma and new babies.

Bucket for birth fluids

I also grab some dry hay to spread on the area under the heat lamp to make sure it's dry. This is the place the babies will spend most of their time. I also spread dry hay over any excessively wet areas of the kidding pen after birthing.

Spreading dry hay

After birthing, the clean dry towels and not so clean and dry any more! I usually take a stack of them in each evening to put into the washer. Mom usually puts them into the dryer when she's downstairs bottle feeding the kids.

Towels after birthing

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While I was in the kidding pen with Trina, I noticed that Precious's kids were not nursing her udder evenly. (She is in the kidding pen next to Trina.) Sometimes, even twins will nurse on one side and the doe's udder can get over full on one side. This makes it very sore and even harder for the kids to nurse out that side.

Uneven udder from uneven nursing

If you leave the udder like this there can be problems with mastitis developing in the side of the udder that is not being nursed out. Mastitis is an infection in the udder and if it develops, it can be deadly to the doe.

I always check the udders of the does that are nursing her kids in the kidding pens to be sure there is no tightness in her udder. If there is, I'll milk out completely the side that is tight. If it's very tight it will be sore and she may not want her teat touched. The udder has to be milked out anyway. Just be gentle as possible and secure her from dancing around. I clip her collar to the welded wire fencing that the kidding pens are built of.

Milking out the overfull side of the udder

I usually offer the milk back to the momma. Some of them will drink it and some won't. Precious was glad for the warm milk. The calories and calcium is good for her.

Precious drinking the extra milk

It was only minutes later that her twin girls were nursing both sides

For more information on what I do to take care of my does after they have had their babies, you can read my post on After Kidding Doe Care

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This morning (Tuesday) when I checked the does, I found Tina in early labor. Tina is Trina's mother. Tina is a 3 year old LaMancha/Nubian cross. She is one of the first babies born on my farm. She was one of the quads that Emily gave me during my first kidding season. That birth story is here My Frist Kidding Season - Emily Tina is the baby you'll see in the birth sack being born.

I checked to see if Tina was dilated yet by putting two fingers inside her just a little bit. Her cervix wasn't quite dilated yet. So, I figured I had time to go inside to get a shower and breakfast before she would be ready to deliver.

When I got back out to the barn, she still hadn't made any progress with delivery. I felt inside her again. This time I felt the tail of the first baby. His butt was preventing his birth! I reached in and down to get his back feet coming out so I could help deliver him. I had to push his butt back in a little bit to get his feet started out. This was my first assisted delivery for any of the LaMancha does this season. I'm really impressed with how easy their deliveries have been.

Tina and her little boy

Here she is after pushing her other 2 kids out. She has 2 boys and 1 girl. The little girl was the last one born and is in the center front. Tina is getting them all cleaned up and dry.

Tina and her triplets

Tina babies all dried off

Lots of mommas and babies

Mid-afternoon - I was getting ready to go downstairs to the Kid Nursery and start the disbudding. I decided I had better go out to the barn one more time before starting the disbudding because it usually takes several hours to get finished. (It took3 and a half hours to disbud the 33 kids) I went out to check on the remaining 3 does that were in the kidding pens. They're a little past their due dates. Daphne had a large gel stream hanging from her.

Daphne is 75% LaMancha and 25% Nubian. She is Lilah's granddaughter.

Large gel stream

I knew she would deliver within minutes. So I stayed with her until she had delivered. Here is the foot of her first baby.

Pushing the foot out

Daphne and her first born little buckling

Here she is with her second baby - a little girl.

Here they are all dried off and eating.

Dried off and hungry

When Daphne was finished delivering her twins, I had to get inside to disbud the kids in the Kid Nursery. They're going to their new homes tomorrow! It took a little over 3 and a half hours to complete the disbudding task. This threw me a little late for evening chores.

As soon as I stepped into the barn this evening, I noticed SweetPea with a gel stream and already pushing. SweetPea is a 2 year old second freshener. She is full blood LaMancha.

SweetPea and her first baby girl

Twin girls

We've had 63 babies in 11 days! There's only one doe left to kid at this time. Then there will be almost 2 weeks with no new kidding! I'm looking forward to the break.

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Moving the Kids to the Nursery and More Kids

2011-01-16T21:55:00.000-08:00

Eventually the time comes for the kids to go to the kid nursery in the basement of the house and the milking does to go back to work producing delicious milk for drinking and making wonderful yogurts and cheeses. But, for a while their milk will be used to bottle feed the kids. Several of the kids will be going to new homes soon too.

I like to leave the kids with their momma for at least 3 days. That gives them time to get the colostrum and nurse as often as they want. And, gives the does a chance to be a momma and recuperate after giving birth.

Toward the end of last week we began moving the kids into the kid nursery in the basement of our house and taking the momma's back out to the big goat pens/yards. I'm milking the mommas in the milk parlor twice a day again. Vacation over - back to work!

For more about the kid nursery you can read my post from last year when I built the New Kid Nursery . The pine chip bedding we cleaned out of the kid nursery pens from last kidding season made wonderful mulch for my fruit trees!

When I move the kids, I protect them from the cold winter temperatures by laying them down in a couple of gym bags to carry them to the house.

Stuffing kids into the gym bag - 2 kids in

Stuffing kids into the gym bag - 3 kids in

I carry them into the house and down to the kid nursery in the basement. Here is the first 5. These are Myrtle's and Valery's kids.

Kids in the bags

Unzipping Myrtle's kids

Valery's boys

Welcome to your new home kids!

Mrytle's and Valery's kids on the left - Liz's and Lilah's kids on the right

On Friday my good friend, Tonia and her daughters from The Simple Life , came to play with the kids and help me move the next batches of kids into the kid nursery. Thank you Tonia, Candice, Kara, and Kyla!

Playing with the babies

Oreo's and Tiffany's babies

Holly's babies

Mom lives with me and she takes care of feeding the bottle babies once they're in the nursery. You can read her thoughts on feeding the kids here Feeding the Kids - Mom's perspective I help feed the babies every chance I get too.

Here is Mom feeding this year's babies. It sometimes takes a couple of days to get them used to taking their momma's milk from a bottle and it can be frustrating when they want to buck like a little rodeo bronc horse. But, Mom is persistent about getting more milk inside them than on herself! In no time at all they learn to take the bottle and suck it dry very quickly.

Mom bottle feeding the kids

Lots of kids to feed!

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With the kids in the nursery and the mommas out in the big goat pens, room was made for the next pregnant does to come into the kidding pens for delivery.

Early Saturday morning, I checked the does and found Precious in labor as soon as I walked into the barn. She easily delivered twin doelings. Precious is a registered Pureblood LaMancha.2 year old 2nd freshener. RC is the sire of her kids.

Precious and her babies

Breakfast with momma

All dried off - bellies full - ready for a nap

There weren't any more does in labor on Saturday until just as the sun was setting. This is of course the time I'm doing the evening chores.

I had just stepped back into the barn from feeding the bucks and yearling does. I found Mom at the end of the barn hall petting Angel. (Angel's Story). We talked a minute and I heard Vanessa grunting. I told Mom that we were about to have more kids. She stayed and watched Vanessa deliver her first baby and went to the house to warm up.

Vanessa is a registered Pureblood LaMancha. 2 year old first freshener. She also easily delivered her kids. Both were in perfect birthing presentation. RC is also the sire of her kids.

Vanessa and her first born doeling

Vanessa and her baby girl and baby boy

Almost all dried off

Hey! Did you see my babies?

After Vanessa delivered, I went on with the evening chores which included milking the does in the parlor. I had the first group in, milked and back out to their pen when I heard JoJo grunting with labor contractions.

While I was watching her to see how close to delivery she was ... I heard Coco grunting too. Two does in labor at the same time again! This felt like a re-run of the day before when Mocha and Kit were in labor at the same time ... and on opposite sides of the barn! Same story with JoJo and Coco! JoJo is on the East side and Coco is on the West side of the barn.

After watching them and going back and forth several times ... it looked like Coco was going to deliver fist. She is a 2 year old 2nd freshener (LaMancha/Togginburg cross). RC is the sire of her kids. She easily delivered a little doeling first. I watched to be sure the baby was fine and Coco was cleaning her baby before I went back to check on JoJo.

Coco and her little girl

By the time I got back over to JoJo's kidding pen, she was pushing out this little cream colored doeling. JoJo is a 2 year old 2nd freshener. She is 3/4 LaMancha and 1/4 Nubian. She is Opal's daughter from 2 seasons ago. RC is the sire of her kids.

JoJo and her baby girl

It was only a minute later that she delivered her second doeling. She is cream colored too.

JoJo and her 2 little girls

JoJo was taking good care of her babies.

I went back over to Coco's kidding pen to watch her deliver her second baby. Her second baby is a blue gray buckling. He is a really pretty color.

Coco and her twins

Here is Coco this morning (Sunday)

Her babies are all nice and dry with bellies full.

Nap time!

Here is JoJo this morning (Sunday) with her baby girls

I got out to the barn a little late this morning. It was almost 8:00 before I woke up. I guess I was a little tired! Anyway ... when I got out there ... Chloie had delivered twins! One boy and one girl. They have beautiful markings.

Chloie is a 3 year old and this is her 3rd freshening. She is LaMancha/Nubian cross. Nate is the sire of her kids.

Chloie and her twins

It looks like Chloie's boy is talking to Coco's babies on the other side of the fence!

The rest of the day went along without any more deliveries. The milking momma does gave me 5 gallons of milk this morning and 3 gallons tonight. They're keeping just ahead of the demands of the 34 babies in the nursery ... who get bottles 3 times a day.

Thanks to Mom for preparing and warming their bottles and taking the time to feed all of them at 7am, 3pm, and 10pm. Mom will be 73 next month and does pretty good carrying the cooler (to keep them warm) of bottles down the stairs and feeding the babies.

I was watching the pregnant does in the kidding pens before coming into the house tonight (Sunday). I wanted to be sure none of them was in labor before I left the barn. That's when I saw Kit's 4 kids playing "King of the Mountain" on her back. They were so funny dancing around on her.

Little girl in front, Big sister on top of momma

One of the brothers takes the top of the momma mountain!

Kit was a good sport about the game for a little while. But, she stood up ending the game after being pounced on so many times by her kids.

Well, kidding season started here on the farm last Saturday the 8th and today, on the 16th, we have a total of 50 kids ... 25 girls and 25 boys! As soon as their horns are disbudded in a day or so, a good number of them will be going to their new homes. I'm sure Mom will be glad to be feeding less babies.

There's only 5 does left to kid in this round of kidding. Then they're giving me a 2 week break before the next 5 goes into the kidding pens. After that the first fresheners start kidding on the last week in February.

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Kidding Quads and More

2011-01-15T00:18:00.000-08:00

We're getting close to being finished with this round of kidding... only 12 does left to kid in the next 3 days or so. It has been an interesting and quite busy couple of days!

Yesterday (Thursday) when I went out to check on the pregnant does around 6:30am, I found that Nellie had just finished kidding. I did a double take when I looked into her kidding pen .... there were lots of kids in there! She had delivered quads! 4 beautiful babies ... 3 girls and 1 boy. Latte is the sire of these kids.

Nellie and her quads

Nellie and her babies

The little red doeling was pretty cold and not active like the rest of the kids so I tucked her into my vest to warm her. It didn't take long and she was ready to get down and have some of momma's milk.

Warming the baby

She's getting her belly full.

I thought that nursing 4 babies might be a challenge for Nellie, but they've learned to take turns. When they're hungry, they let her know and she stands up to let them eat. The little boy is the one who tries to get more than his share of the milk! Nellie gives a gallon and a half a day of milk so I'm sure she'll have plenty of milk for her babies for the 3 or 4 days that they'll be nursing her.

Taking turns

When they had their fill of colostrum, they all settled down for a nap all snuggled around Nellie.

Nellie and babies ready for a nap

You'll probably notice that 3 of Nellie's babies look like Boer goats instead of dairy goats. Nellie has some percentage of Boer genetics. I'm not sure what her exact cross is because she's another rescue goat here at the farm.

About 2 and a half years ago I found out about a neighbor down one of the back roads who had 2 goats tied to a tree in his yard. When I went to see for myself. He said he had bought the goats for his kids to play with. I saw the kids teasing and tormenting the 2 goats and his dogs terrorizing them. One of the kids said that he had bought them at the sale for $20 apiece. I offered him $60 for both of them ... handed him the cash ... loaded the 2 goats into my pickup and brought them home.

Bell was the other doe I purchased that day. She didn't give very much milk when she had babies so I sold her to a family who would take good care of her. Nellie, on the other hand, gave a gallon and a half of milk a day. That's the kind of production I like here at the dairy!

The first season Nellie was here she wasn't in prime condition and she gave me one doe kid. Last year she gave me 3 beautiful doe kids. Now this season she has given me quads! Amazing! Pretty good $30 investment.

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In addition to finding that Nellie had kidded early yesterday morning, I found Lacey had given birth to 2 babies ... 1 doe and 1 buck. The little doe is smoky tan color and the little buck is black and white. Lacey is a 2 year old first freshener and is doing really good with her babies. She is the daughter of Opal who is the first kid born on my farm. RC is the sire of Lacey's babies. He is Purebred LaMancha and his color is chocolate brown.

Lacey's kids

I give warm molasses water after kidding to help replace fluids and give the doe energy

Lacey and kids

I found one of my hens laying her egg in the kidding pen with Lacey and her babies. They were checking out the hen and the hen was trying to ignore them so she could lay her egg!

Visitor?

Thursday was a beautiful day with sunshine and temperatures closer to normal. I opened the doors to the big goat pens so they could get out of the barn. I had closed them in due to the extreme cold temps.

Heading out to soak up some sunshine!

It felt like springtime even though it was only 20*

The rest of Thursday was pretty quiet around the kidding pens. But, I did find lots to do in and around the barn so I could keep an eye on the pregnant does who should be kidding any time.

While I was doing evening chores, I saw that Emily had a long string of gel hanging from her back end. This was a sure sign that she'd finally be kidding. This was day 153 for her. I kept an eye on her while I went about feeding and watering the does in the kidding pens and taking the does who were not ready to kid yet to the milk parlor for their dinner.

She had not made any other progress toward delivering her kids or looking like she was going to go into pushing labor any time soon. So, I came into the house to eat some dinner and rest for a little bit. When I went back out an hour later, she was grunting a little but not much else. I gave her a 3cc shot of Oxytocin to help maker her labor more productive. I didn't want her to be in pushing labor for hours.

She is 9 years old this Spring and not as strong as she used to be. I am very pleased with how her pregnancy went this year though. Last year Emily and I fought for her life through Pregnancy Toxemia and Ketosis. You can read about that here in my post Dealing with Pregnancy Toximea and Ketosis

It only took a few minutes after giving her the shot of Oxytocin for her to start pushing with her contractions. She got the first birth sack pushed out and I saw a foot in it ... a BIG foot. Then I saw both front feet. Big feet! I felt just inside of her to be sure the head was coming with those feet and not tucked back inside somewhere. I felt the nose so I pulled on the kid's legs to help her get him out. No matter how hard I pulled he wasn't coming. I didn't want to hurt his legs with all that pulling so I reached in again to see if the head was coming through the birth canal.

That's when I found that the head was not fitting between her bones. He was wedged against her tail bone and her pelvic bone. I had to push his legs back inside and hope his head would fit through the birth canal with out having to share it with his legs. I was able to get his head unstuck and on out. Then I reached back in beside his neck and pulled his legs back out so I could get that baby on out His hip bones almost got stuck as I pulled him on out. He was as big or bigger than the buckling I helped Maggie delivered the night before!

Emily was very glad to have the delivery part over and clean her baby!

I felt along her left side to see if I could feel any other babies. I felt another baby so I waited and let her push out the fluid filled birth sack with the next few contractions. I saw a back foot in the birth sack ... another BIG one. I ruptured the birth sack so I could help pull the baby. I pulled and pulled and he kept coming and coming. I had to back out of the kidding pen door to have enough room to get him pulled out. He was bigger than the first one. I'm really glad he wasn't head first presentation for birth. I don't know if his head would have come through that way!

First born in the back and second born in the front.

It only took minutes for these big boys to be ready for their first meal. Emily gives around 2 gallons of milk a day so she'll have plenty to keep their bellies full.

No need to stand up when your food is down here!

They were up and getting around in only minutes after birth

Emily and her boys this morning (Friday)

Taking an afternoon nap (Friday) They're almost a day old

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This morning (Friday) when I went out to check to see if any of the does had kidded overnight. I found that everything was the same as when I left the barn last night after Emily's delivery around midnight. No new kids this morning. So I went about getting fresh water for all of the does in the kidding pens. That's when I heard Mocha making pushing grunting noises.

Mocha is a 2 year old first freshener. I wanted to be sure she didn't have any trouble so I came to sit with her. That's when I heard Kit making those same pushing grunting noises. Oh no .. two at once on opposite sides of the barn! Mocha is in a kidding pen on the West side and Kit is in a kidding pen on the East side of the barn. This was going to get interesting.

Mocha wasn't pushing out a birth sack yet, so I went to check on Kit.

Mocha in labor

Kit had just delivered a VERY small baby girl. She was only around 2 pounds but perfectly formed and strong.

Kit and her little girl

I went back to check on Mocha as soon as I knew Kit's baby girl was breathing fine. Mocha was just delivering her first baby. He was born without any difficulty.

Mocha's first baby boy

As I was helping Mocha dry her baby off, I heard Kit crying out and pushing. She was giving birth to a normal sized buck kid. I helped her dry him off and went back to check on Mocha.

Kit and her 2 babies

Mocha had delivered a second baby without making any noise. He was already crawling about 2 foot behind her. I laid him up beside her to lick off and felt of her left side to see if I could feel any more babies. I didn't feel any so I went back over to Kit's kidding pen.

Mocha and her 2 bucklings

Kit had delivered a third baby... another girl.

Kit and her 3 babies

Since I knew that Mocha was finished kidding, I sat with Kit for a little bit admiring her first tiny doeling. She is precious. And, then Kit started pushing again! She delivered another buck kid. She has quads too!

Kit and her 4 babies

Her first tiny baby was the first one to nurse. She is a strong little girl.

Little girl nursing

You can see in the photo below how small she is standing under her momma. The other kids have to get on their knees to get under there to nurse.

Kit and babies

You'd think that was enough for one day. But, the does didn't think so. Mandy started groaning and pushing out in one of the big goat pens. I got her into a kidding pen before she started delivering babies. Her due date isn't until Sunday, but she decided to deliver a little early. She has a boy and a girl.

Mandy's buckling - born first

Mandy and her twins

Here they are a little bit later when they're dry and getting their breakfast.

Lots of kids the past couple of days. That brings our total up to 40 kids from 15 does.

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Kidding and Kidding and Kidding

2011-01-12T21:57:00.000-08:00

Today was the busiest kidding day yet of this kidding season. And, the COLDEST !! It was a balmy 1* outside when I went out at 6am to check on the does. The windchill was -9*. I was really glad to find that none of the does had kidded over the night. I took precautions of closing all the barn doors and bringing all of the pregnant does inside the barn over night. Every heat lamp was on and it wasn't really too bad in the barn.

Since everything was calm out in the barn and kidding pens, I came back inside for a shower, some breakfast, and to read some of my favorite blogs. I went back out around 9am to water and feed.

It's been a real challenge keeping water for each of the does in the kidding pens. And, keeping the ice chopped on the top of the bigger water tanks. I've been doing a lot of bucket watering the past few days.

The Barn Cats, Simba and Sheba, helping me fill water buckets.

Holly's beard has ice coating it after she got a drink. That's cold!

I was only half way through bringing water to each of the does in the kidding pens and noticed Tiffany pawing. She also had a gel stream hanging from her back end. Looks like breakfast for the does is going to be a little late!

Tiffany is a 2 year old first freshener. She is Lilah's daughter from 2 years ago. She is Nubian/LaMancha cross.

Tiffany getting ready to have kids

Within a few pushes she had the first birth sack pushing out

Here is her first born little buckling

This is her second born little buckling

And, here is her third born little bucking!

All 3 of her little boys getting warm on clean dry bedding under the heat lamp

It didn't take long for Tiffany to curl up beside her babies under the heat lamp to stay warm.

Here they are about an hour later when they've finished drying off. Maggie watched everything closely and even tried to lick the babies through the fence. If she'd hurry up and have her babies, she could lick her own babies!

Tiffany and her kids

Tiffany's boys all nice and dry at mid day

All 3 of Tiffany's babies were in perfect normal birthing presentation. She didn't need any help kidding at all. I'm really proud of how she delivered her first set of kids. She also stood quietly when I milked her a little to be sure her milk was flowing. I'm really happy with her. I wish at least one of her babies had been a doeling. I wanted to keep one of her kids this year. Nate is the sire of her kids.

After finishing the feeding and watering, everyone looked nice and calm with no signs of labor. I went inside the house to warm up and catch up on some computer work and phone calls. As soon as I got off the phone, Mom called up the stairs to tell me she heard a baby crying out in the barn. As bad as I hated to put my big coveralls back on and go back out to the barn, I knew if there were kids being born, I should be there to make sure they were okay.... especially with this frigid weather.

I checked the kidding pens and didn't see any new babies or any does in labor. But, it the big LaMancha pen, Opal had just given birth to 2 kids. She had one licked clean and Chloie was helping her clean the second one! I grabbed towels and wrapped around the kids. I took them and Opal over to the empty area between the kidding pens beside where Tiffany had given birth just a little bit earlier.

She delivered a third baby only minutes after moving her to a kidding area. She had 2 doelings and 1 buckling. Opal is Nubian/LaMancha cross and Nate is the sire of her kids.

Opal and her kids

I looked around in the big LaMancha pen to see if there were any more does in early labor. I saw Oreo standing with her head against the wall. Withdrawing from the herd is one of the signs of early labor. I didn't have any place to put Oreo. Evey kidding pen is full and I even have a pregnant doe roaming the halls of the barn since it is too cold outside for her. I took a wire panel and blocked off part of the main barn hall for Oreo and hung a heat lamp for her. It was just in time because she started pushing as soon as I had her settled in.

Oreo delivered 2 doelings perfectly.

Oreo and her 2 little girls

When Oroe delivered her kids, I noticed something suspicious about the color and ears of the second one born. It looks Latte has struck again! (If you missed the explanation of this rather suspicious siring, I posted my suspicions here on the post for Holly's Kidding yesterday)

Oreo's babies - One sired by Latte and One sired by Nate!

I really hope this is not going to be an overall trend with the kidding from the LaMancha pen!

Oreo and her babies

All was quiet in the barn for the rest of the day ..... until it was time to do the evening feeding chores again. That's the time Maggie decided it was time for her to have her own babies. I was filling hay feeders when I saw the long stream of gel hanging from her back side. Here we go again ... not only was breakfast late for the does due to Tiffany kidding this morning, now dinner was going to be late too.

Maggie getting ready to deliver

I had to help her by pulling her HUGE buckling while she pushed. He looks like he's already a month old!

Maggie and her just born baby boy

She's taking good care of him and licking him dry

He was ready to nurse only a couple of minutes after being born.

Yes, he really is that big!

I think Maggie's baby is the biggest kid I've ever seen born. She only had the one, but I think that is enough ... given how big he is.

Big boy!

It was a busy kidding day out in the barn today. The weather is supposed to start warming up tomorrow and I'm going to bring the first group of kids born this past weekend into the kid nursery in the basement tomorrow. It should be warm enough to put their mommas back out in the big pens. We'll start milking and bottle feeding tomorrow. I'm sure there'll be more kidding tomorrow too.

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Kidding - Holly

2011-01-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

Today was intensely COLD! We have about 3 inches of crunchy snow covering everything and a Northwest wind that drives the windchill several degrees below zero. It would have been SO nice to spend the entire day inside the warm house. But with temperatures this low, I have to go out and break the ice on the water tanks several times a day for the goats. It only takes minutes for them to freeze back over.

Warm water for each of the does in the kidding pens

After the morning chores of feeding hay to each of the goat pens ... grain and hay to the yearling does and bucks ... chopping ice from each of the water tanks ... feeding and bringing warm water to all of the does in the 15 kidding pens ........ I watched the does in the kidding pens that are still due to kid for a while. I wanted to be sure none of them were in labor before I came into the house to warm up and get some work done inside. Every one looked calm and happily munching hay or chewing their cud. So I came on into the house for a while.

I went out around 3:00 this afternoon to break the ice out of the water tanks again and heard a baby goat crying. I thought it might be Lilah's boy. He's a little noisy.

After I had the water tanks cleared, I went inside the barn to check on the baby who was crying. It wasn't Lilah's boy. It was Holly's baby. She had just delivered triplets.... 2 girls and 1 boy. She's not due until Wednesday the 12th at the very earliest and her day 150 is on the 14th.

I really hadn't expected her to deliver yet. But, since I had built the 3 extra kidding pens yesterday, I had put her into the one over in their larger stall in the barn. I didn't have it blocked off from the wind yet and no heat lamp in there either. So, her kids were wet and freezing cold when I found them.

Holly was licking the babies dry so I quickly added a tarp to the end of the kidding pen that was exposed to the cold wind coming in through the barn door. And, I got a heat lamp hung in the protected end. It was amazing how much warmer it was in the kidding pen with the wind blocked and heat lamp on!

Tarp blocking the wind. (Butterscotch peaking over)

The little doe in the back/top in the photo below was along the side of the kidding pen that was exposed to the wind blowing into the barn door. I laid her up in the protected corner of the pen with her sister and brother while I put the tarp on the pen. Her body temp was very low so I had to take measures to get her warmed up or risk losing her.

Holly's 2 doelings

I rubbed all of the kids well with towels and then wrapped a clean dry towel around the cold little doe. I tucked her inside my fleece vest that I wear over my jacket and zipped her inside. I kept her there for about 30 minutes and she warmed up quite well.

Warming the baby doe

Holly took care of drying the other two kids and licked my face when she licked the baby I was holding.

Holly bonding with her kids

Here's the second doeling having her first meal of momma's colostrum.

If you'll look close at the dark spot on her side, you'll notice that it looks like a heart. I think that's pretty cool.

Heart marking

Holly groomed the little doe that I had been warming

Holly and her 3 babies

Now ... here's the funny part about Holly's babies ...

Holly is an ADGA registered Purebred LaMancha doe. The buck that I put into the pen of LaMancha does for breeding last fall is in the photo below. This is Nate. He is also a Purebred LaMancha.

Nate - Purebred LaMancha Buck

My line of Purebred LaMancha goats have the very tiny almost not there ears. All 3 of Holly's babies have elf ears that are about 2 to 3 inches long.

Hummm ???

LaMancha Ears ??

Holly is dark brown and white. Nate is black and white. All 3 of Holly's babies are redish brown with black trim.

Hummmmm ???

The buck that I put into the pen of Nubian does for breeding last fall is in the photo below. This is Latte. He is a Purebred Nubian. He has long ears and has redish brown color.

Hummmmmm ???

Latte - Nubian Buck

The photo below shows the pipe panels that separate the LaMancha does from the Nubian does when they're out in their goat yards.

Strong pipe fencing

Do you think Holly and Latte might have found a way to have a little affair through the pipe fencing? I think the evidence is in the ears and color of her babies! Wait till Nate finds out! I guess I'll have to add some extra fencing to the pipe panels next breeding season!

Latte keeping an eye on his girls AND those across the fence!

I guess it only goes to show ... where there is a will ... there is a way!

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Kidding - Valery and Lilah

2011-01-10T21:22:00.000-08:00

Things are finally starting to pick up around the kidding pens. Valery delivered 3 little bucks on Sunday and Lilah delivered 2 doelings and 1 little buck this evening.

I was out in the barn on Sunday morning checking for any goats in labor and looking in on the Myrtle and Liz'z babies. I was making sure the babies had full bellies. And, getting a little snuggle time with the new babies.

Snuggling with one of Liz's little girls while her little buck nurses

I took the kid coats off of Liz's kids

After the kids had their fill of momma's colostrum, I milked some to freeze for possible emergency need of colostrum. Her udder needed the relief since the kids couldn't drink as much as she was producing!

Liz's udder

Colostrum ready for the freezer

Valery is Liz's twin sister. She was due on the same day as Liz and I put her in the kidding pen beside Liz.

Valery and Liz are twin sisters and best friends

While I was working with Liz and playing with her kids, I noticed that Valery was in labor. She started pushing getting ready to deliver her kids.

Valery is in labor

I came into Valery's pen to comfort her while she was in labor. She got up to change positions and laid back down on my lap. That's where she is in the photo below. I moved out from under her. I was there to help but, I didn't need her delivering kids in my lap! It was pretty chilly out in the barn and I didn't want to get soaked with the birth fluids.

Valery in my lap

Then she started pushing really hard with the contractions and groaning loudly. I noticed her vulva wasn't any bulging with the hard pushes. She wasn't making any progress with her labor.

Valery pushing really hard

As hard as she was pushing, there should have been something showing by now. So, I got ready to assist her with delivering the kids. I got the kidding kit within easy reach and a couple of towels ready to dry the kids with. I cleaned my hands and arms. Then put the OB lube on my hand and on her vulva.

When I reached inside to find why she wasn't getting anything out with her pushes ... The birth sac was already ruptured and I felt the spine at the top of the baby and the hip joints toward me. It took a few seconds to realize that it was the butt of the first kid trying to enter the birth canal.

I reached farther in to get hold of his back legs so I could help deliver him. He came out easily. I reached in to see if there were more kids in there. I found the second baby in normal nose and feet forward presentation. I let Valery push him on out.

Since she wasn't as wide as Liz was, I didn't go back inside her to check for any more kids. It looked like she was finished delivering. I gave her a shot of Oxytocin to help her pass the placenta, her BoSe, CalMagCo, and wormer.

Valery cleaning her 2 little bucks

More cleaning

They're almost dried off and ready to find momma's milk

One of Valery's boys needed some help finding the nipple.

Here's Valery's 2 boys in the front and Liz's 3 kids just on the other side of the fencing

Valery and Liz's kids

When Valery passed her placenta, she also passed a small underdeveloped stillborn buckling. She had him cleaned up when I found him. The only reason I can think of for her to have an underdeveloped stillborn baby is selenium deficiency. I live in an extremely selenium deficient area. I give BoSe shots to supplement selenium, but it looks like I'm going to have to give the shots more often. I hope I don't have any more of this problem with the rest of the kids born!

Valery's boys

Tonight (Monday night)...while I was doing the evening feeding chores ... I heard a loud cry from one of the does in the kidding pens. I came running into the kidding area to find which doe was delivering. It was Lilah. The does having their dinner in the milk parlor would just have to wait there while I helped Lilah with her kids.

By the time I got to Lila's kidding pen, she had the first little doe half pushed out. She was so close to the wall that she couldn't push her the rest of the way out. It was a little hard to get her pulled on out ... she so close to the wall. But, I got her out and laid her up by Lila's head to lick and clean off. Then Lilah decided to get up to finish cleaning her.

Lilah and her first little girl

I waited for a little bit to see if she would deliver the rest of her kids quickly, but she was too busy licking the first one to think about any more for just yet. So, I went and let the does that were in the milk parlor out to come home to their big pen. When I got back to Lilah she was laying down to deliver again. I made sure she wasn't so close to the wall this time though!

She easily delivered her second doeling. Wow! She is really spotted!

Lila's second doeling

The third baby started coming in just a couple of minutes. This time it was a spotted buckling. He was interested in the warm molasses water that I gave Lilah to drink.

Lilah's buckling

Here she is with all 3 of her babies

The 2 girls nursed and was ready to nap for a while, but the little boy was too frustrated to nurse. He kept yelling, so I milked some of Lilah's colostrum and gave it to him in a bottle. He got his belly full and was ready to nap with his sisters.

Bottle feeding the little boy

I'm still a little concerned that the does with earlier due dates are still waiting to kid and taking up space in the kidding pens. I built 3 more kidding pens this afternoon in the protected areas of the big goat stalls in the barn just in case the next group of does due to kid are early while we're waiting on the first group of does to deliver their kids. I'm thinking about bringing Liz's kids and Myrtle's kids into the kid nursery in the basement of the house tomorrow to free up their kidding pens. That means we'll start bottle feeding babies and milking mommas. WooHoo!

Assisted Deliveries

2011-01-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

I'm really glad the first delivery of this season went so smoothly because the next two required my assistance. I posted the story and photos of Liz's triplets yesterday. You can click the link to check it out if you missed it.

I feel like I should give a warning to those that may have a weak stomach. I am posting some rather graphic photos and stories of Myrtle's assisted delivery. Nothing really gross, just sharing the details and some suggestions just in case any of you have to face a delivery that's not going the way it should.

When I came in last night to warm up and post the exciting news about Liz delivering her kids, I knew that Myrtle was in early labor. She had been pushing mildly all the time I was working with Liz and her new babies. It can take a little while during this stage of labor for the cervix to finish dilating. I don't rush in to assist a delivery if everything looks normal. When I came inside, everything looked normal with Myrtle.

It was almost 11pm when I got back out to the barn to see how Myrtle was doing. She was getting up, pawing, laying down, getting up, stretching... all the normal stuff. I noticed there was a little blood on her and that's not normal. There should be a clear or creamy gel coming from her vulva ... not blood before delivery.

I wrapped up in my big thick comforter and sat with her for a little over an hour. It became obvious that her contractions and pushing was becoming more intense without producing any results.

When they're pushing hard during their contractions with no sign of a baby or birth sack ... assistance is going to be necessary to deliver the kids and save the doe. It is a little scary but necessary.

I got the OB lube out of my kidding kit (cooking oil could also be used) to lube up my hand and her vulva. I gently inserted 3 fingers and then my whole left hand inside her. I had to hold her collar and grip the fencing firmly with my right hand to keep her from moving forward.

Her cervix wasn't completely dilated but was big enough for me to slip my hand through. It feels like warm jello when you're inside their uterus. You have to be very very careful and move slowly when you're inside figuring out which part of the baby you're feeling and not tear anything. You don't want to damage her uterus or cause excessive bleeding.

I only had to go in up to my wrist till I felt the baby that was causing the problem. His birth sack was not ruptured yet, so I felt carefully trying to determine what part of his body was against the birth canal. I felt his back bone and tried to find his head.

He had his head tucked under and I was feeling the back of his neck. Now I knew how I had to get him out so I ruptured his birth sack and slipped my hand around under his head to get his nose pointing out. I tried to get at least one leg coming out with his head, but couldn't. So I went ahead and helped his head come out with Myrtle's contractions. I cleared his nose and mouth so he could breath. Since the shoulders are too wide with the legs tucked under to come through the birth canal, at least one of the legs have to come out before he can be delivered. I told him that we'd have to share the birth canal so I could get a leg coming out to pull him with.

I worked quickly and reached down in front of his chest to get hold of a knee and pull the leg out. With one leg and his head out, I was able to pull him on out. I'm sorry I wasn't able to photograph any of this ... both hands were pretty busy during this time!

When I had him out, I cleared his mouth and held him up by his back feet to help clear his breathing passages. I laid him up by Myrtle's head and covered him with a towel to help keep him warm while she licked him.

Myrtle and her first baby born

Once I have already gone inside her to assist with the first kid, I go head and pull the rest of the kids. I would have to give her antibiotics anyway since I had already been in there.

She was much easier to assist now that she had a baby to keep her busy licking. I inserted my hand back into her and felt a birth sack ready to come out. I let it come out since she was pushing pretty good.

Birth sack coming

One more push and it was out farther. I could see a foot in it, but it looked like it was upside down.

Birth sack out farther

I pressed a little on the birth sack to make sure of it. I could tell it was a back foot because the sole of the foot is on the top and the toe is pointing down. This baby would be born back feet first. That's not much of a problem because you can get hold of both back legs and pull him on out.

Back foot showing

When I ruptured the birth sack ... there was only one back leg coming out in it! You can't deliver a kid with only one back leg without going it to get the other back leg. His butt is too wide to come through the birth canal with the other leg still inside her.

Only one leg coming out

I reached inside her to get hold of his hock joint so I could pull his other back leg out. You can see the first back leg behind my hand in the photo below and the point of his hock joint just coming out.

Getting the other leg out

I got a good hold on both of his back legs and pulled him on out. You have to really hold on. They're really slippery with all that birth fluid on them.

Pulling him out

Here he is just as I pulled him out.

I take my hand and circle his face wiping the birth gel off his face so he can breath.

Cleaning his face

Then I laid him up by Myrtle's head so she could finish cleaning him up. I always lay them with their head a little downhill so they can continue draining any fluid from their breathing passages.

Myrtle cleaning her babies

I reached back inside her to check to see if she had a third one in there. I felt a nose and foot. I positioned the head pointing forward and helped pull the baby with the front leg that was pointing out. She helped push the baby out. The third one was a little girl with pretty frosted ears. Yea!

Third baby delivered.

Myrtle is a cleaning and drying her babies

I helped the babies nurse, gave them their BoSe supplement, took care of their umbilical cord. Gave Myrtle her BoSe shot, wormer, warm molasses water, and CalMagCo. Then they piled up in the corner under the heat lamp to rest.

Settled in for the night

She decided she was really hungry after labor and delivery!

Eating hay

By this time it was 1:00am and I was cold and tired. It was time for me to get to the house and my warm bed! I'm glad none of the rest of the does were in labor at that time!

This morning her babies were all dry and nursing well.

Nursing babies

They're strong babies!

Getting ready for a nap after nursing this morning

Myrtle is a good momma. She's snuggled around them sleeping.

Valery also delivered today. I had to assist her also. I'll post her story a little later.

Here is some Delivery Advice from my past kidding experiences:

If you see only the two font feet (you'll know it's the front feet if they're pointing soles down) and no nose coming out with them ... you'll have to reach inside to find the nose and align it to the front so it can come out with the front feet. You may have to break the water sack if it doesn't break on it's own.

If you see only the two back feet (you'll know it's the back feet if they're pointing soles up) It would be best to help pull them to get the kid delivered quickly... since the head is still in there and needs to breath.

If you see only the head and no front feet ... DO NOT push the head back in to find the feet. The most important thing to have out is the head since kid has to breath. It is much easier to reach in and down in front of the head (after it is out) to pull the front feet out to be born along with the head than it is to lose the head by pushing it back in to find the front feet. DO NOT pull on the head without getting the front feet out first. The shoulders are too big to come through with the legs tucked under and you could break the kid's neck.

If you see only the butt, you'll have to reach in and pull the back leg(s) out in order to deliver the kid.

The most important thing is to stay calm. The doe depends on you to help her safely deliver the kids if she's having trouble.

Kidding has begun

2011-01-08T20:35:00.000-08:00

Well, finally! Liz is the first to deliver babies this season. She is an easy kidder and needed no assistance. She was quick about it too. I was doing the evening feeding when I noticed her starting to push. I finished taking hay out to one of the feeders and she had a baby pushed out by the time I got back. She didn't even have a bubble pushed out when I stepped outside with the hay. It took less than a minute for me to get back inside to check on her. She already had the baby's face cleared. I moved her up by Liz's head so she could clean her up.

Liz and her firstborn doeling

I sat with her for a while waiting on the other kids to be delivered, but she was busy licking this baby dry. I rubbed the baby down with a towel and let Liz do the rest.

Liz finishing the cleaning

Since it was taking a while for her to deliver any more, I went ahead and finished feeding. 30 minutes passed so I gave her 2cc of Oxytocin to help her labor be more productive. It was only a few minutes later and she was pushing again. This time it was a little boy. He's spotted like his momma and daddy.

Cleaning her little buckling

The third one was born before she had the second one cleaned off. The third one is a little doeling and she's spotted too. Here she is with all 3 of her babies.

Liz and her triplets

The last one born was the first one to start nursing. I always make sure they have their belly full of momma's colostrum before I give them 1/2cc of BoSe orally. I also trim their umbilical cord if it's too long and then dip it in iodine to prevent any bacteria from entering through the cord.

Mmmm ... momma's milk!

I gave Liz a shot of BoSe (selenium and vita E), wormed her, and gave her a 30cc drench syringe of CalMagCo calcium supplement. I also gave her a bucket of warm molasses water.

She really appreciated the warm molasses water!

Since it's a chilly 20* out there tonight with a wind chill ... I decided to put kid coats on the babies to help them stay warm. They're also under the heat lamp for warmth.

Kid coats (the girls in the solid green and the boy in the stripped one)

Liz thought the kid coats were okay

They've settled in under the heat lamp to snooze for a while. I came inside to warm up, eat a little dinner and share the exciting news about the new babies before going back out to check the other does for labor.

Liz and her babies

I'm really glad Kidding Season has begun. I hope the rest of the does in the kidding pens take the hint and have their kids soon .... It would be really good though if they'd wait till morning. It's cold out there!!

Angel - A New Arival

2011-01-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

No ... not a new baby arrival! The pregnant does that are past due are refusing to deliver babies at this time. I think they're waiting until there's at least 30 due at the same time! ** deep sigh **

However ... while we wait for the pregnant does to decide to deliver kids .... I wanted to tell you about how Angel came to live at the farm.

The first thing that you'll notice about Angel is that she's a Boer or Boer cross goat ... not a dairy goat. The next things you'll probably notice is that she has horns and how extremely skinny she is.

Angel says - Hi

These photos were taken last Friday when she had been at the farm for 3 weeks already. You can see from this photo how narrow she is. When she arrived 4 weeks ago on December 10th ... she was simply a walking/limping skeleton covered by skin and a rough coat. She has put on a lot of weight in the time she's been here.

Very thin

She won't put weight on her right front foot. I think the break is in the foot area. I have been able to rub the rest of her shoulder and leg. But, she still won't let me touch her foot.

Broken foot

Here's the story of how Angel arrived here on December 10, 2010.......

It was after dark and I was out in the barn doing the evening feeding chores. Even though I'm not milking at this time, I bring each group of does into the milk parlor for their evening grain. This insures that each of them gets their fair share and keeps them into the habit of coming into the milking parlor each day. While they're out of their pens eating their grain, I take the opportunity to put out fresh hay for them. This task is much easier with them out of the pens/yards. They give me a lot of help when I feed hay with them in the pen/yards!

I had the first group of does fed and back into their large pen. I had just taken the second group of does down the hall to the milk parlor for their dinner and was putting hay into their feeders. I heard the door open between the processing room and the milk parlor and then Mom calling for me. I answered her and she came on into the barn to find me. She asked me if I had a goat out. I told her that I didn't think so, but went to check on the group that had just came back from the milk parlor and on the last group that hadn't been fed yet.

There wasn't any gates open on the back sides of their yards, but I did see a goat out behind one of the yards. I told Mom that there was a Boer goat out there and it looked like a young one!

I went out around the barn to see if I could catch her. She was WILD and would not be caught. I had a bucket with a little grain in it so I shook it to get her attention. She came to the grain when I set the bucket down, but wouldn't let me get close enough to grab her by the horn.

I finally got her cornered between two of the outside goat yards. I had Mom go around the other side of the barn so she wouldn't run back out to the highway. Since I couldn't catch her, I had to think of another way to rescue this young goat.

One of the goat yards we had her cornered between belonged to the group of goats that were in the milk parlor eating their grain. So .... I had Mom open the big gate to that yard and I pushed her through the gate. Mom closed the gate while I ran inside to close the gate inside the barn to that pen.

I opened one of the kidding pens just around from the big goat pen. I guided her into the kidding pen and closed the gate! Whew! She was safely inside. She was scared, but at least she was safe.

I asked Mom how she had seen this goat out there in the dark. She told me that she had been outside with my little house dog while he relieved himself. She saw this goat loping down the driveway from the highway toward the barn and came to tell me. I'm glad she was out there and my little dog barked at the goat running by to let her know it was there.

I put water, feed, and hay in the pen for her and let her settle down. The next morning I gave her some wormer, a BoSe shot, a copper bolus, and some B-Complex. And, then just let her rest and enjoy fresh food and water for a couple of days. I posted a "Found Goat" sign at the local store and spread the word that a goat had showed up at my farm, but got no response from anyone about losing a goat.

It took a few days of gentle care and offering her food from my hand for her to warm up to me. She now loves to be scratched and loves to snuggle.

Loving the attention

In the photo above you can see a knot on her right shoulder. It feels like her shoulder was broken too since it has this knot and just doesn't feel like the other one. She's not tender in that area though.

I think she was on her own for quite a while. Early last fall a neighbor who has a large cow dairy a few miles down the road came by asking me if I had lost a goat. I checked to be sure they were all here. And, told him that I wasn't missing any. He said there was a single goat grazing out in his hay fields. He asked if I'd take the goat if he could catch it. I told him to bring it on over and I'd take care of it until we could find where it belonged. He never came back with it so I assumed that it had either gone back home or he couldn't catch it.

It bothered me that there was a lone goat out there by itself. We have a big coyote problem around here ... I hear them yipping almost every night. I was really concerned that the goat wouldn't last long out there by itself. Every time I'd think about it, I'd wonder if it was okay and say a prayer for that goat all alone out there.

Since there hasn't been any response to my inquires about anyone losing a goat and how extremely skinny she was when she arrived ... I think she is the goat my neighbor down the road had seen out in the hay fields several months ago. I think the angels protected her and guided her here where she'd be safe and have a new family.

I'll have to take her horns off and let her foot finish healing before putting her out with one of the goat groups, but she has a home here now. She is a very sweet girl and I love her lots!

Angel - My new snuggle bug

Come on Girls!

2011-01-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

No kids yet! I think the girls are simply enjoying the deluxe luxury accommodations of the kidding pens ... having all their fresh water and meals catered to them ... and personal maid service to clean their bedding!

Myrtle is relaxing on her fresh soft bedding under the heat lamp that I turn on at night just in case babies are born in the middle of the night.

Nellie also relaxing wondering why I keep checking on them so often.

Lilah has also bedded down for the night.

Liz is comfortably chewing her cud and softly humming.

Tiffany and Maggie are due on Thursday and went into the kidding pens on the east side of the barn last night.

Valery is enjoying having her meals catered to her.

Maggie is getting ready to eat dinner too.

Don't they know that other girls have reservations for their kidding pens next week? I only have 12 kidding pens. If these girls don't hurry up and get started kidding, I'm going to be running out of spaces to put kidding does. I may have to get creative with temporary kidding areas.

They all ate their evening grain with enthusiasm. So, that means that none of them are in early labor. I'll check on them one more time tonight and then early in the morning. Tomorrow may be a busy kidding day ... I hope!

Dance of the Goats

2011-01-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

Since the girls are due to start kidding any time now .... I spent a lot of time working in and around the barn watching them today. No kids yet. But ..... A couple of the young does put on quite a show for me.

I thought you might enjoy their performance of the Dance of the Goats. Lydia is the spotted yearling doe and Honey is the brown and cream yearling doe with the face stripes. You might remember Honey from my post on Myrtle's Surprise last kidding season. Honey is the little doeling that was lost out in the rain when she was born.

Honey was trying to get something started with Lydia, but Lydia was a little reluctant to dance with Honey.

Honey says: Come on, Lydia. Let's dance! You do it like this. Stand up tall and hold your ears straight up. I'll bet you can't hold your ears up as well as I can!

Lydia finally gets in the mood to dance a few rounds with Honey. And they start circling each other....

..... staring into each others eyes.

Okay ... take a bow ...

Honey gets fancy with her dance moves.

Now it's Lydias turn. She dances sideways to get ready to make a big impression.

Now we're dancing!

And finish with a big bow to your dance partner. Awww that was fun!

I could watch them dance and play all day. But, I've got work to do .... :D

Getting Ready for Kidding 2011

2011-01-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

January is going to be a REALLY busy kidding month here at the dairy. The due dates start today, the 4th. There are 27 does due by the 17th....and many more before I can call Kidding Season finished. Even though I have pretty good due dates on almost all of the does this year, they tend to follow their own schedule and choose their own delivery dates and times..... usually when I've left the farm for "just a few minutes" to pick up supplies.

Here are the projected due dates for this kidding season:

Doe	Due Date
Lilah	1/4/2011
Liz	1/4/2011
Nellie	1/4/2011
Valery	1/4/2011
Maggie	1/6/2011
Myrtle	1/6/2011
Tiffany	1/6/2011
Emily	1/8/2011
Lacey	1/8/2011
Emma	1/9/2011
Mocha	1/10/2011
Kit	1/11/2011
Vanessa	1/11/2011
Butterscotch	1/12/2011
Holly	1/12/2011
Oreo	1/12/2011
Cocoa	1/13/2011
Chloie	1/14/2011
Ci-Ce	1/14/2011
Opal	1/14/2011
Precious	1/14/2011
Sweet Pea	1/14/2011
JoJo	1/15/2011
Lexie	1/15/2011
Lilly	1/15/2011
Megan	1/15/2011
Trina	1/15/2011
Daphnie	1/16/2011
Mandy	1/16/2011
Tina	1/17/2011
Fawn	1/31/2011
Lucy	1/31/2011
NaNa	1/31/2011
Sasha	1/31/2011
Lady	2/1/2011
Sissy	2/2/2011
Kat	2/6/2011
Rosebud	2/19/2011
Caramel	2/21/2011
Melody	2/22/2011
Mollie	2/22/2011
Tonya	3/1/2011
Lydia	3/7/2011
Nadia	3/7/2011
Willow	3/7/2011
Ivy	3/12/2011
Sarah	3/14/2011
Honey	3/15/2011
Harmony	3/16/2011
Almond Joy	3/17/2011
Daisy	3/18/2011
Jasmine	3/20/2011

The girls are spending a lot of time just laying around ...some of them moaning softly.

Holly is so full and round with babies that she usually sits up like in a dog-like posture. I'm sure she'll be glad for her delivery date to get here. She's due on the 12th.

In preparation for kidding, I have the kidding pens cleaned and ready for this season. This is the 3rd kidding season for using these pens. They are approximately 4' by 6'. I've added the quick lock/unlock latches to all of the gates this year. They make it so much easier and quicker getting into and out of the kidding pens. I put clean buckets for grain and water in each pen and secured the heat lamps to keep the newborn kids warm during these chilly January births.

Kidding Pens

Here's the post from last year showing the details of what I have to do to get the pens ready after a long summer of them standing idle. Getting the Kidding Pens Ready Yes, they looked almost as bad this year before I started cleaning the cobwebs and dust out.

I also have the Kidding Kit and stack of old clean towels ready for this year.

Kidding Kit

I hang the kidding kit and clean towels on a hook and the fencing at the end of the alley between the kidding pens. This keeps it out of the reach of the does, but within quick easy reach for me.

Kidding Kit and Towels ready

Here's the post from last year showing the kidding kit details: Getting the Kidding Kit Ready

I've moved the first does due into the kidding pens. Now we're on "labor watch".

Does in the kidding pens

Here's the link to the detailed post from last year with the signs of what to watch for when we're On Labor Watch

I think they're about as full as they can get and are anxiously waiting for delivery! What do you think?

Lilah

Myrtle

Nellie

I'm ready .... Let the games begin! I'll let you know as soon as we have babies!

Breakfast with the Girls

2011-01-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

The "Girls" and I would like to invite you to join them for breakfast this morning. Since none of them are milking at this time ... they get a nice soft grass mix hay for breakfast. They get their regular grain ration and more hay for dinner. Come on in and pull up a chair ...

Here's Lilah's pen enjoying their breakfast. From left to right (around the back) there's Myrtle, Nellie, Valery, Emily, Liz, and Lilah in the front. They have a couple of chickens visiting today too.

You may notice that some of them are getting big bellies and making udders. That's not from eating too much hay. They're all pregnant and due to deliver this year's kids in just a few days.

From top to bottom ...Emily, Liz, and Lilah

A rear view of Lilah

Rear views of Liz and Emily

Valery, Maggie, and Sasha eating at the outside hay feeder

Let's go on over to NaNa's pen.... These girls prefer to eat at their outside feeder instead of the inside ones.

Here we have (starting at the separation on the front and going clockwise) Fawn, Oreo, Lady, Chloie, Lucy, and NaNa.

A different angle of this group shows Fawn (in the center front, then going clockwise) Oreo, Lady, Mocha, Chloie, Lucy, and NaNa.

Some of the girls decided to go inside and let the rest of the girls have a less crowded breakfast at the outside feeder. Here is (left to right) Ci-Ce, Lucy, Sissy, and Holly.

Sissy says that this is the way to get the best hay!

Lets head on over to visit some of the girls in the 2-Year-Old pen. Here's (left to right) Trina, Lexie, Mandy, Coco, and JoJo. Do you see the chicken in their hay rack? I'll have to check for eggs there tonight!

Let's go see how the Yearling girls eat their breakfast. Yes, all squeezed in ... pushing to get the best bites of hay!

Here they are (from the back to the front) Melody, Harmony, Almond-Joy, Molly, Willow, Tonya, Nadia, Honey, Jazzie, Daisy, and Ivy. Most of them are pregnant too. They're due in late February and March.

Daisy (in the front) and her sister Ivy traded spots in this photo. Daisy is my lap goat. She loves to snuggle.

Here they are from the top. They're always switching places while they're eating breakfast. You just never know ... there might be a better bite of hay on the other side.

Even though there's plenty of room for all of them to eat at the hay rack .. they all squeeze into a tiny spot.

Here's Willow, Rosie, and Splashy. They've got enough sense to eat at the other end of the feeder where it's not so crowded. You can see a couple of the boys from the young buck pen on the other side of the fence at the top. That's Cappuccino, and Crash.

Sasha found a place to take an after breakfast nap in the dropped hay. Looks like a good place to rest and ruminate on things for a while.