New goat

[ainslie]

My solution to bully goats if to put a board up dividing the manger into sections, they will run back and forth for a while but soon tire of it and settle down to eat. Without the divider the bossy doe pushes the others away and then stands broadside so noone else gets in till she's done.

Mine don't jump but their babies will. They use anything that is in the pen or paddock to bounce onto and get more height for clearing fence and partitions. I have to make sure their troughs and toys (stumps etc) are well away from sides. Even at that some of them will still bounce off the walls like a bullet riccocheting and will shoot over if they get their trajectory right :)

miserable beasts

[kimmie]

we did try that ainslie but rita found other ways to escape! we had to tie her on a temporay lease in her pen for a short while...but we have a solution that even Rita cant get out of
she will go in the old chook pen! its the size of her pen only it has a wall of chook wire...floor to ceiling!!

Also it was a good job we had seperated Daisy from Rita....it seems as though Daisy was pregnant when we got her...and with all the wool on her, it didnt show!!

and so ... i am introducing........ Banjo!!


he will be a week old tomorrow!, poor thing has been castrated, so we will have more Mohair than we planned!

[ainslie]

AHhhhh, he's sooo cute! and curly wurly wooly!

That's a good story. Another good example of the animal trying to tell us something that we aren't quite getting. Sometimes I wish I could understand their "speech" rather than having to interpret body language all the time, but I'm afraid (or certain) that what they say about me won't be too flattering!

[farmercoop]

AWWWW, hes so cute, we want more pics, well i definitly do, haha, bless him, congratulations grandmummmy!

[PeterNZ]

Hi,

we have goats, too. 20 white Angoras, 11 colored Angoras, two adult milking goats (Saanen X) and 4 kids from the Milking Girls.

We also have a 7 wire fence but with batten. We run a hot wire at the level of the third wire. We never had goats jumping over fences. But as someone said here before, they squeeze through anything they can.

I am bit suprised that the pictured Angora is dehorned. This is unusal. But I oppose dehorning anyway. Better don't get me started!

You want more pictures? Let me see.

The milking girls when they were little


Kiddies:



Enough?

Cheers

Peter

[kimmie]

Pete i can assure you he is not dehorned and neither is his mother, the kid you see was only hours old when we took that photo, 3 to be exact.

we dont intend to get him de horned either.
mind you he has certainly started jumping around now! The look on his mothers face is sometimes one of "for goodness sake sit down!" type of look

Photos are really cute....love the trio lazing around...you find people think you have sheep as well....people here seem to think they are sheep up here

as requested some more piccys taken today.

plotting an escape route


Dinner time!!

[Annpan]

He is toooooo cute Kimmie, he looks like a cuddley toy. I am still amazed that you didn't even know he was on the way... but what a lovely surprise.

[farmercoop]

Arrw, really gourjous, all of them. have they been out yet?

[PeterNZ]

Sorry kimmie, it must have been the picture or the full fleece which covered the horns.

They are georgeous!

Cheers

Peter

[kimmie]

No problem Peter, and thanks, we have not had them all that long....Rita the saanen 5months, Daisy the angora 4months, and Banjo 1 week and 4 days

Are there any tips you can give, it seems like you're an old hat at this such as how soon after the kid is born do you start to milk....I cant find an answer to that question anywhere

[ainslie]

You can start to milk right away, but the first milk is colostrum and not for human consumption.

Generally it is three to four days of milkings before the "real" milk come in which is what is used for human consumption.

[ina]

You can start to milk right away, but the first milk is colostrum and not for human consumption.

But you can make "beastings" with it - a kind of custardy cheesy stuff, supposed to taste very nice...

[PeterNZ]

No problem Peter, and thanks, we have not had them all that long....Rita the saanen 5months, Daisy the angora 4months, and Banjo 1 week and 4 days

Are there any tips you can give, it seems like you're an old hat at this such as how soon after the kid is born do you start to milk....I cant find an answer to that question anywhere

Hi Kimmie,

yes we have goats since over 5 years now. First Angoras and then we got Saanen X.

As Ainslie said, you can theoretically milk them from day one! But why would you? The colostrum gets produced during the first 4 days and is so important for the entire life of the kid that every drop they can suck in counts! The more the better. And it is really for their whole life! We always have cow colostrum in the freezer for emergencies i.e. if a mother doesn't let her kid suck! Newborns should get their first drink of colostrum in teh first 2 hours of their new life! They NEED this. Sorry can't stress this enough!

We leave the kids with their mums for a week or so. We do this because of the bonding process. After a week we start collecting the kids in the evening and lock them away, but in a way that the mums can still see and smell them. We then milk the mums in the morning but leave some milk in the udder for "breakfast" for the kids. We put them back and release the kids. The kids can now drink during the day and get locked in at night! It also has the advantage that the kids get used to human contact and will be nice and friendly later in their life!

If you have strong kids especially bucklings it can happen that the teats get bite marks or get sore. You should have a skin ointment handy and should be careful when milking them. If a goat which is used to getting milked starts kicking, then that's a sign that she wants to tell you something! Most of the time the kids were a bit rough with the teats.

We wean the kids with 12 weeks and milk the mums once a day. We made the experience, that you have to keep the kids seperate until you dry their mums off, which we do 8 weeks before they kid! Our kids are now 8 months old and if we put them to their mums, they start drinking right away!

I hope this is of some help. Let me know if you have more question!

Cheers

Peter

[kimmie]

thanks peter, great help....and believe me you might wish you havent offered

we will ask

[PeterNZ]

thanks peter, great help....and believe me you might wish you havent offered

Never! If you give me a chance to talk about Goats (or brewing or winemaking) I am happy!

How are you doing?

Cheers

Peter