What was I thinking?

[dosthouhavemilk]

What was I thinking back in October? Oh, yes. I was thinking we are so far behind on breeding and we need to get these dairy does bred so we can have nice well grown dairy wethers to ship next winter.....and those Prevention doelings are so well grown, let's get them bred, too.
Clearly I was not really focusing on pen space and the fact that we have four total kidding pens. We can throw up other pens but with FFs, I prefer they have a week for bonding with their kids before reentering the herd. But...but, then another doe I was excited to freshen would come into heat and I couldn't let her go......
So here is what our March kidding schedule looks like.
Bucks- Magic Acre Nubians R Valentino-P {6 yr old Reg. Polled Purebred Nubian}, Sancho {3 1/2 yr old 76% Boer}, Kidd {coming 3 yr old 75% Boer, 25% Nubian}, Itchie Acres Kieran {coming 3 yr old Reg. Purebred Nubian}, CABS Remmington {coming 2 yr old Reg. Fullblood Boer} and Twy Buck {coming 2 yr old high % Boer}

Doe {Breed} (Buck) #F(this year's freshening)
Due dates figured on 150 days
-P Denotes Polled

Due 3/7/11
Savanna {3/4 Saanen, 1/4 Boer} (Remmie) 4F
Victoria {5/8 Boer} (Remmie) 1F

Due 3/18/11
JJ Brown {1/2 Nubian, 1/2 Alpine} (Kieran) 2F

Due 3/19/11 (All bred to Kieran)
Giselda-P {1/2 Nubian, 1/2 Togg} 3F
Milky Way {1/2 Nubian, 1/4 LaManha/Alpine, 1/4 Saanen} 9F
Z105 {high % Boer- TwyBuck's twin} 1F
Ursula {Nubian} 6F (10 years old this year)

Due 3/23/11
Pixie-P {elf eared 7/8 Nubian, 1/8 LaMancha/Alpine} (Kieran) 3F
Jasmine-P {1/2 Nubian, 1/2 Alpine} (Kieran) 3F

Due 3/24/11
French Kiss {7/8 Nubian, 1/8 LaMancha/Alpine} (Rudy-P) 4F
Silky {1/2 Nubian, 1/2 Alpine} (Sancho) 1F

Due 3/26/11
Genevieve-P {7/8 Nubian, 1/8 LaMancha/Alpine} (Kieran) 4F
Ebony-P {Nubian} (Kieran) 2F
Elegance {3/4 Nubian, 1/4 LaMancha/Alpine} (Kieran) 7F
January {3/4 Boer, 1/4 Fainter}(Remmie) 2F

Due 3/27/11
A7 {13/16 Boer} (Kidd) 1F

Due 3/29/11
TinkerBell {Fullblood Boer} (Goliath- Fullbloood Boer) 1F

Due 3/30/11
Y36 {5/8 Boer} (Sancho) 3F
Z111 {Nubian} (Kidd) 1F * Already miserable!
A13 {Nubian} (Kidd) ? Not positive she is bred 1F

Due 3/31/11
JJ White {1/2 Nubian, 1/2 Alpine} (Kieran) 2F

These two does were pen bred to Kidd with the other 2010 does. I don't have heat dates, but at least Mary Jane is bred. They would be due 3/27/11-4/4/11
Mary Jane {Nubian} (Kidd) 1F
A15 {3/4 Boer, 1/8 Spanish, 1/8 Nubian} (Kidd) 1F

23 does due in March. 21 of them in a 13 day span. Oops.
In addition to the above I have to pull two Polled Nubian cross bucklings for herdsires. Though, the doe that one family would prefer is not due until early April. So I will have to pull at least two to be sure I have enough.
Oh yeah...April? There are 11 more does due from 4/4-4/14.

[Oat Bucket Farm]

I would go crazy if I had that many due that close together.

[LFRJ]

What do you do with so many? Is the demand for goats this great out there? Are there few breeders in your area? Do you have to market heavy? Do you raise to sell meat? I'm not being critical, honest...I just see goats sit on Craigs List for weeks and weeks, and the rescue orgs are swelling. One of the reasons I have less interest in breeding is the trouble in finding a home for or butchering off what you know would be a good family milker.

Just can't believe how many goats you have, or imagine what you will do with them all. Maybe it's my area. Anyway, here's a prayer that all goes smoothly, and that the girls are kind enough to schedule it so you get a fat nap in between.

[mammabooh]

Wow...I can't imagine such a thing! We need pictures of them all out on pasture.

[CaliannG]

LFRJ, there is a huge market for goat meat in Ohio...probably due to having so many large cities nearby with large ethnic populations.

Roseanna, you do have a nice cot set up in the barn, with a comfy feather bed on it and fat, fluffy pillow, right? I mean, since you are moving in there on the 18th and won't be back out until April, you might as well have a REALLY nice place to sleep.

If you don't already have one, I'd install a coffee pot and computer out there also.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Originally Posted by LFRJ

What do you do with so many? Is the demand for goats this great out there? Are there few breeders in your area? Do you have to market heavy? Do you raise to sell meat? I'm not being critical, honest...I just see goats sit on Craigs List for weeks and weeks, and the rescue orgs are swelling. One of the reasons I have less interest in breeding is the trouble in finding a home for or butchering off what you know would be a good family milker.

Just can't believe how many goats you have, or imagine what you will do with them all. Maybe it's my area. Anyway, here's a prayer that all goes smoothly, and that the girls are kind enough to schedule it so you get a fat nap in between.

We are about an hour and half away from a market in Pennsylvania that has two meat buyers that compete with one another. So the price is generally quite nice. It helps that we have a guy who happily hauls our goats there for us for a small fee. Almost all of the bucks end up castrated and shipped for meat. Last year I kept one Purebred Nubian intact. He may go for meat yet since I don't have a buyer. Had he been Polled, he could easily been sold. His dam is rebred to the same sire and the first Polled buckling is heading to Kansas and if there were to be a second it is headed to MI. This year, I am keeping a few more intact due to requests for the Polled genetics. I also keep one or two intact to fulfill the requests that come in the Fall for breeding purposes. CL is too rampant around here for me to send my boys anywhere there are goats other than ours. So basically two or three farms have been allowed to lease my boys. I rarely let does come back for breeding either...again due to disease status around here. Only those herds that have my genetics only or clean tests.
This past year, we shipped a number of doelings for slaughter as well. Some nice ones unfortunately. But some had to go, so they went.
What does not sell either stays for breeding or gets shipped for meat.
I only post on Craigslist on occasion.
At this point, I am having trouble filling requests for milking does. I ended up breeding a number of my dairy does meat this year since I couldn't move the doelings and hated sending them to slaughter. Since November, I have had more requests than I have does available. Go figure.
We have our foot in the local Amish doorway as well now.
We had 146 kids born last year. We now have 31 doelings (out of 73 born) and still have 5 or so wethers (out of 72 born + Kudos the buckling) that are being held over to gain weight on pasture and be shipped this coming summer.

We are close enough to the East Coast that the demand for goat meat is strong and they are always glad to take our goats.

I do hate sending good does to the salughter. But I refuse to send them through the local auction where we may get $50 for them and half the time they will end up going through 84 (auction we use) anyways and have the additional stress and trip. That and I cannot ask the $100+ for milking does if they can just go to the sale barn and pick up our does for less. Not to mention the disease they are exposed to. I would rather they go to slaughter and it be over in one day.
I have two milking does and two yearlings Boer cross does (one bred) going to Indiana here on the 13th. That was through Craigslist.

Wow...I can't imagine such a thing! We need pictures of them all out on pasture.

They won't be out on pasture for another month. Need to wait for it to come up. They are currently dry lotted at the moment. Which is more mud than dry at the moment with all the weather.
Here is a picture from about a week ago. It has a number of the kids already born this season. Oddly enough mostly Boer in this picture....

[Backfourty,MI.]

Oh My Gosh, & I was nervous about 4 of mine going in the same week! I would loose all my hair or be totally gray at your house!

[dosthouhavemilk]

Here are some pasture shots from a few years ago

Since Danielle and Utopia are still alive in this shot. And Midge (Boer doe with horns) is new, this would have been taken about 3 years ago.

This is the one I have framed and use at my stand at craft shows. This was taken in 2007 since Lil' Frost Yourself (Frosty) and Genevieve-P are still kids.

This was taken about 2 years ago.

[Backfourty,MI.]

Sure looks like alot of goats but very nice looking girls. I can't imagine trimming all those hooves, CD & T shots, etc. You sure have your hands full.

Cool pictures too, the 1st one is kinda funny, seeing all those goats in the pasture & all those houses & condo's in the background.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Yeah. Most of those have been built in the past 15 years. You can see the dirt around the housing apartments on the hilltop there. They added more housing along our property later a few years later. We have over 40 fenceline neighbors at this stage.
I almost made it through trimming everyone's hooves at least once this year. Hoof trimming is one area where I do fall short. I focus on the ones that need it most though. We have some nice sandy soil so when they are out, it does help to cut down on that.

It might be interesting to note. In the middle picture.
The elf eared doe in front is Elegance. Her polled daughter next to her is Genevieve-P. The doe next to her (on the right) is French Kiss.
Milky Way (the 9 year old) is behind Giselle (the grade Togg). Those are a few of the does due in March.

[rootsandwings]

I didn't see a yearling buck on your site?

I've got one of Kieran's granddaughters in my barn.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Oh. Are you talking about the buckling I kept intact?
No, Kudos is not on the site. I don't even have TwyBuck on the site.
Mind you, this is a very bad picture of a bottle buckling who didn't want to cooperate. He is Magic Acre Nubians R Valentino X Herd In The Valley Eula Planned Pedigree

His polled twin sister, Arabella, will be bred to Kieran for kids next year. That should make a nice cross. Especially with Hoanbu in both sides.

How do you have a Kieran granddaughter? Oh, unless you have a MiniNubian from Sally? I have not freshened any Kieran daughters myself, but Sally had some Kieran daughters freshen in her MiniNubian herd.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Oh right, or an Easton offspring? MiniNubian anyways. lol
I was gifted Kieran by Sally (Beloved Farm) after my buck, Itchie Acres FP*L Alazne died at 8 months. She had use of him after that as well.

[rootsandwings]

she's a mini. I actually bought the doe last spring bred to Andy (Kieran buck) in part because Kieran was so pretty.

Well, and Bunny the doe is a darling too. We bought her for my daughter - who came home from college for our first kids this year and then announced "My goat is still the nicest goat in the barn. except maybe my baby. my baby is the best baby."

I was just thinking about breeding the full nubian girls this fall....

probably a bad idea, since the intent of the first trip to barnesville was to bring home ONE BUCKLING, and I came home with a bred doe and a buck.....

[CaliannG]

Originally Posted by rootsandwings

probably a bad idea, since the intent of the first trip to barnesville was to bring home ONE BUCKLING, and I came home with a bred doe and a buck.....

That's only because you didn't get them from Thaiblue. Why, when I went to get ONE buckling from her, I ended up coming home with two bucks and a doe in milk. All of them in the back seat of my VERY compact car.

You got off easy.......

[rootsandwings]

Wow! at least I had the foresight to take the truck.

and of course after spending all that money on gas to haul a pick-up truck most of the way across ohio, it would have been a waste to bring home one tiny buckling that fit in my child's lap (I did manage to resist taking home the buck, the bred doe, AND the lap goat.)

[CaliannG]

~laughs~ I was TRYING not to bring home anything but a single buckling. However, I had come face-to-face with a TRUE enabler.

Only brought the car. That's okay, they are small, they will fit in the back-seat. I even have some plastic to go over the seat.
Only brought enough cash for ONE buckling. Yeah, but you brought your checkbook, didn't ya? And there is an ATM not far away.

A TRUE enabler can overcome ANY obstacle.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Aww, you ended up with Easter Bunny? She is Easton's twin.
She is a Kieran daughter. Andy was a son of Kieran's sire, Full Power, so Kieran and Andy were somewhat related. Kieran and Alzane were both Full Power sons, but Alazne was also out of a Hoanbu doe. I was crushed when I lost him. I have one known daughter of his.
What did she end up blessing you with?
I wish I had known you were from HT. I should have come over and said Howdy. lol I made it a point to be there when Eliya and her family were down to pick up Freedom.
What buck did you end up with? Midas? I'm trying to remember who went where, with whom.

I have a load heading West on the 13th. I'll be headed to about Columbus area. We haven't decided where we are meeting yet.

[Creamers]

WOW X 20000 lol!

[LFRJ]

Milky Way is 9 years old and still kidding? Wow! I didn't know they could still breed at that age.