The Homesteading Survivalist Blog

White Mountains Ranch
Nubian Goats & Anatolian Shepherds

Our Yearlings Give Birth!

4/18/2014

What an exciting time of year, our very own doelings that we created last year are now freshening for the very first time. I get to see the results of my thus far breeding program and learn about what I do and don't like, how the new udders and the new babies turn out! (Though I am learning to look at each individual baby more closely instead of relying on the dam's conformation.)

Several things I've noticed through-out my breeding program. So far I am liking Mark's babies much better than the Breeze babies. They seem to be more correct conformationally and so far the udders seem to be turning out better. One thing I have noticed about Mark's babies though, is that they are a little posty in the back legs and their top-lines could be flatter, which ironically are Mongo's two strong points, so by breeding these batch of babies to Mongo next year should help iron out some of the wrinkles. Mongo's babies are very long with nice legs and toplines. It will be an exciting time showing them next year!

Bree; 1 buckling, 1 doeling
Aurora; 2 bucklings
Cheyanne; 2 doelings
Sedona; 1 doeling
Ayana; 1 buckling, 1 doeling
Camille; didn't freshen

Our Senior Does Give Birth!

2/19/2014

Our senior does give birth! Such an exciting time of year and I am so happy to be able to be home with them. I love goats, and most especially baby goats! They are so adorable. Birthing went off without a hitch this year, just had to help Minyette a little because one baby was stuck in a 'C' position and I had to uncurl it so it could come out. Everyone is happy and healthy though! And I am really excited about our baby does this year, we used a different buck than last year and they seem to have much better conformation than last years babies, which I am really excited about since I want to show next year! We are keeping all five of the senior does babies, with the exception of maybe one. This year was definitely less stressful with much less anxiety than our first year (last year).

Ghia; 2 bucklings 1 doeling
Joline; 3 bucklings
Minyette; 3 bucklings, 1 doeling (yes QUADS two years in a row!)
Ghiselle; 1 doeling
Incantation; 2 doelings

Update

2/8/2014

1. Baby goaties due in 20 days now!!!

2. Started school and have been SOO busy with that and work now. I really liked having time off at home, I don't like being SO busy I come home exhausted every day.

3. I'm sad we lost our intern, time to move on to bigger and better places, but I enjoyed having someone around to work on the farm with and to help me out. It was so nice to have one, I can't wait until we can get another one!

4. Toli is preggers! Her due date will be March 22nd. We already have thee of the pups reserved. It'll be fun having pups around again. =)

Getting The Senior Does Ready~ 2nd Year Breeding

1/26/2014

Yesterday, being 4 weeks from the due dates, with the help of some volunteers, we proceeded to get all the senior does ready for their kiddings. We got the milking stand out and hooked up the extension cords. First thing we weighed each doe with a dairy tape, it's this neat little thing you wrap around the does ribcage behind her elbows and it'll give you a rough estimate as to how much she weighs. My does were all much larger than last year and the two biggest weighed in at about 230 pounds each! Holy tamale, that's a big goat! Granted they ARE pregnant, but still! Next we calculated all the medicines based off their weight. First was a multi-vitamin B-complex shot. Second was the other half of their Bo-Se shot (Selenium & vitamin e). Since the margin of error is so small with Selenium, I do half of the does dose a month into pregnancy and the other half a month before the due date. This spreads the shots out and makes sure the does have it in their system at all times. The last shot we gave is the CD&T Vaccine, this is just 2 cc's for each goat and is the vaccine against Enterotoxemia and Tetanus. After the shots, we trimmed the hooves, and when that was done we got out the clippers and shaved the back of the legs, back end, tail, and udder. This helps make for a cleaner birthing as well as helping to keep hair out of the milk when we are milking. =) And that was it, we let that doe off the stand and put her back and grabbed the next one. We did all five senior does, and in the beginning of April we will also do this to all the junior does that have been bred. Hopefully they all settled! The only thing I have left to do for the senior does is their copper and mineral bolus and that's it! We also have to finish the fencing for both baby goat yards! Hope to have that done before the babies get here! ♥

Tattooing Baby Goats

1/12/2014

Last year was our first year birthing baby goats, and we are just getting around to tattooing and registering said babies! I helped a goat breeder last year do her goats and in so learned how to do it myself. I was super careful to load the tattooer correctly, and punched it each time on paper first to make sure it was right. We put each baby in the milking stand and locked them in. I then cleaned the ears with a dilute iodine solution, towel and water. I then rubbed ink on it and squeezed the tattooer really hard! I then rolled ink over it again several times to make sure the ink was in it real well. I was VERY surprised at how well the babies took it. A couple of them jumped and stomped but since they were in the stanchion there wasn't much they could do. The last two babies did scream and fight but as soon as the tattooer was released they settled right down. I also had two volunteers helping me, which was a BIG help, they were able to help hold the babies and hand me stuff as needed. It was definitely easier with people helping! This next year after the babies are born we won't take so long to do them now that I know it's so easy!

Kidding Season Is Almost Here!!! 2nd Year Breeding Goats

1/12/2014

Well it's almost that time again! Generally every February is when our does start kidding (having babies). We've been dry (no milk) for about a month and a half, and though it's nice having a short break from milking (since we milk by hand), it will be extremely nice to have milk again. We have lots of plans for our milk this year and I am super excited! And though milk is exciting, it's even MORE exciting having the babies! They are amazing loveable amazing little creatures and they just tug at my heart strings like no other! We plan on keeping some of the doe babies from our senior does, and selling all the babies born to our Junior does. We will also be selling as many males as we can and the rest we will keep for future meat. It's always hard sending them to freezer camp, but by the time they are ready to process the males are not so cute, and very "bucky", acting like young boys, (read humping everything) and it's a bit of relief to not have to deal with them anymore. And knowing that they were loved, and had a great life, and are helping us continue our lives makes it a bit easier too. But that's not the topic of this blog! The topic is focusing on the brand new baby goats! We've done a lot to get the farm ready for them, but we still need to get the plywood to finish the inside of the baby barn. We also need to get one more roll of chainlink to finish the yard for the baby girls when they go outside to play. I gave the senior does their "half" BoSe shots about a month ago, and next week we'll get al the does that are due next month and give them their Cd&t vaccines, other half of their BoSe shots, trim hooves, copper bolus, and shave udders and back ends. Then, in about 4 weeks we'll start the birthing of our favorite babies on the planet!!!

Processing our first Goats

10/23/2013

We decided to sell our two bucks from last year; since we got Mark and Mongo we no longer needed these two as herdsires. After advertising them for several weeks online as herdsires and wethers, with no response, we decided to have them processed. It was sad to have to come to terms with having my first two babies processed, especially the brown one as he was so beautiful. BUT we gave them a great life, they were happy and now they are providing us with lots of delicious meat to sustain our own lives. They were 8 months old and weighed about 80 pounds. They gave us 37 and 40 pounds of cuts, respectively. I love goats, they are such a versatile animal.

Welcoming Mark

9/14/2013

We're selling our two young boys we had this year. I bought a nice *B buck and have been kinda sorta looking for a buddy for him for after the two baby boys are gone. And well, the lady I had taken my girls to to breed last year has a buck that I just fell in love with, I had planned on bringing some girls back to her this year for breeding to this buck, but she emailed me 2 days ago and is offering him for sale!!! YAY! It would have costed me half of his buying price just in stud fees, not even including boarding, so I am SOOOOOOO happy to be able to add this AMAZING buck to my herd. We put the deposit on him and we'll go get him in a week or so...... YAY!!!!!!!!!

So we planned the breedings so all our Senior Does are bred to Mark and due in February, and all our Junior Does are bred to Mongo and are due in May.

I can't tell you how happy I am to have this buck added to my herd!!!

I found a picture of him as a baby: of course he is a year and a half now so I will need to get pics asap!!! He topped 200 pounds at a year old!!!

Update & New Goat

6/29/2013

Sorry I haven't been able to post lately. I think about it constantly, but just so busy! This month has been crazy with me finishing the semester at school (another 4.0 semester), been working for a friend a few towns over, worked our local fair, and my boyfriend got a "new job" working for the same people he worked with when he was 16, now he is running their business for them, and as such, has been out of town, and now there is more workload for me to do here by myself at the farm and household. PHEW! I need a vacation! LOL!

Well, at least the animals are all doing really good.

I really like the way my youngest two baby doe goaties are turning out. They have a different daddy than the first ones and they have a lot wider hips and are much stockier overall, which is the look I prefer.

The baby boy goats are doing really well, still sweet and friendly and growing so fast! I have three and plan on keeping two. I was going to sell the third one, but I actually tasted goat over at a friends house and it was SO good now I am thinking I want to eat him. LOL. Like there won't be enough boys for that next year. I may just put him up on Craigslist and if no one wants him, then off to the processors!

The other older girl babies are doing really well, growing fast and very elegant and pretty with very shiny coats. They are still on the Lambar feeder but are losing interest in it, so this will probably be the week where I wean them completely. They are 18 weeks old now.

The milkers are all doing really good, except haven't been giving me much milk the last few days. I think maybe because it has been SO hot. Yesterday I started giving them electrolyte water along with their regular water. They love it.

AND I added a new milker! So excited, she is so gorgeous, I love her! She just won second place in her age group the the Del Mar fair!!! Here she is; meet Incantation!

Sheep are doing good, babies are growing like weeds.

We named our new baby Anatolian LGD Toli. We couldn't think of anything else and the name really fits her. She is doing really good. Not itchy anymore, I think it was just the shampoo causing dry skin. She was underweight at only 9.5 pounds when we got her and last time I weighed her she was over 20 pounds. I need to weigh her again.... later when it cools down. The heat here is unbearable!

And finally that brings us to Diego; what a good good dog he is. He really is. I am not amazed by a lot of things, but this dog is amazing! These last couple weeks he has been barking NON-STOP all night long. I know he is just going through a stage in his development right now, so we have kinda been ignoring it. If I'm up there and he does it continually I'll tell him in a firm voice "enough", but it usually doesn't do any good. So we have been distracting him with bones and letting him out to play with Toli, instead of bark. Well, we added the new milking goat on Thursday and I was really worried about bringing a new goat into his territory. Well, the first thing he did when I put her in the pen was run up to her and started gently licking her face and ears. LOL. She didn't appreciate it very much, but I did. LoL. He is such a good dog. AND on top of this (and it may just be coincidence) since we brought the new goat home he stopped barking all night!!! I actually woke up night before last and went and checked on all the animals because it was TOO quiet. LOL. Everyone was fine and sleeping. It was just odd to not hear him constantly barking, lol. And then last night he was barking up a storm again so I let him out of the goat pasture to run around the property (like I do when I am milking) and then I came back and laid down. Well I heard him chase something through the bushes all the way from the top of our property, down around the side, and out and away from the bottom. I didn't hear a peep from him after that. Have I mentioned he is amazing?!?! I really wish I had two more dogs just like him. I love that dog.

I need to wash the dogs and weigh them and then I'll get updated pics. They grow so fast it's hard to keep up with them!

Welcome home Mongo!

6/24/2013

Welcome home Mongo, a purebred *B Nubian buckling, he'll be one of our future herdsires. He looks great as a baby and even though he has the "supermodel" look rather than the "milk cow" look that I prefer, he is a *B and has great legs and a topline which I need in my herd. My plan is to breed back and forth between bucks to hopefully get the best aspects of both bucks!

Authors

In 2009, we moved to a rural rental on the outskirts of San Diego to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and to get away from the chemicals in our food and in our life. Little did we know that just a few years later we would be real farmers; growing fruits, vegetables and herbs, as well as many different kinds of chickens, ducks, turkey, bunnies, guineas, quail, goats and more! We left the suburbs for "Green Acres" and haven't looked back since!

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