Nanny Goats

Nanny Boer Goats

As I said in my post about our Billy goat, I was not in love with the idea of having goats again.  However, I gave in and we purchased our billy.  About a month later we found some reasonably priced nannies that are not registered but are supposed to be 100% boer.  As we were picking them out I knew I wanted some that were the red head, white body for a good mix of color with our red billy.  They were all wild in the pen and crying like crazy.  First, I picked the one little goat that had a heart-shaped white patch on her forehead.  My daughter wanted the dairy goat, which if we weren't after meat goats only she probably would have had!  We were, though, wanting meat goats, so the other we picked was the medium sized little girl.  The smaller one was skinny and looked somewhat unhealthy and the biggest one had a mangy looking coat.  When we stopped for a snack on the way home they both bauled like someone was hurting them.  I felt like a "kidnapper".  I bet people there thought we were crazy. 

We have kept them in the smaller pen separate from the billy.  They are about 5 months old now and both look much healthier than when we picked them up.  We feed them pasture and some goat feed each day.  They were wild and crazy when they arrived, but have tamed down enough to come near us now.  They still don't like being touched but hopefully that will come.  We like our animals to be tame mainly so the kids can play with them and take them to the fair if they want to.  

At least our little girls don't get their heads stuck in the fence as Billy does.  They do however get out with the Billy from time to time.  Or Billy gets in with them.  It wouldn't matter if they were old enough to breed, but as of now they are only 5 months old.  We need them to wait until about October or 7 months old to get bred.  We are looking forward to the babies in March! 

Overall, our goat endeavors are going well so far, I have learned a lot in the short time we have had them and they have not been a huge investment.  So far I would suggest goats to anyone wanting small animals to eat down weeds in the pasture, for your kids to work with and possibly make a little money in the process.   I am looking forward to our goat herd growing this spring, if he doesn't talk me in to more yet this fall. 

Have a great day!

Buying a Fixer Upper

When we purchased our acreage about 7 years ago we knew it would be a lot of work, but we were a little naive to just how much work that included.  We knew we needed to start with getting rid of the brush that engulfed the house or houses.  Yes, there were two houses, on of which didn't even have running water!  That needed to come down, also.  And the house we were going to move our family into was less than updated.  In fact I don't think anything had ever been painted or updated in any way or cleaned for a very long time.  The barns needed work, the fences were terrible and there were only two of us with regular jobs, I was going to college and our funds were very limited. 

Before we moved in I painted every room of the 1 1/2 story old farmhouse with bright white paint after cleaning everything from floor to ceiling while my husband worked on the overgrown yard outside or what would eventually be a yard.  Also before we moved in we burnt the old house we wouldn't be using, which turned into a fiasco of it's own involving the fire department twice.  Many times thoughts of "what are we doing here" and "maybe we bit off more than we can chew" ran through both our minds, but never did either of us regret it.  We moved in on Halloween 2005. The house was slightly smaller than our house in town.  It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere.  My son in school would now have to ride the bus.  The boys shared a less than beautiful room (at first anyway) and everything seemed ancient. 

After countless hours of work a year and a half later, a decent yard and a few updates to the house, including a nice new bathroom (the old bathroom was a closet on the main floor with a toilet and a sink that was about 10inches wide with a slanted ceiling so you had to duck to sit on the toilet and a full bath upstairs with a tub but no shower) we were ready to remodel the house. 

  

We did everything ourselves including new plumbing, electric, drywall, a new garage and a large living room addition with walk out basement underneath. We did all the work with some help from my family except the cement.  We hired that done along with the new heating/cooling system.  It was a ton of work, but now we have a beautiful house to live in and we saved a bunch of money doing it ourselves.  The kids all have their own rooms.  There are a few minor things we still need to work on but it has all been worth it. 

We also in the middle of everything had the chance to purchase 30 more acres of land that was part of the original farmstead.  So now we have 40 acres.  Our attention for the past couple years besides taking a short break on the house due to being totally burned out on house remodeling, has been the rest of the property.  There was junk everywhere!  I'm not sure other owners ever threw anything away.  Everything from old feed bags to lumber to metal scraps to just plain junk!  We have made tons of trips to the junkyard and the dump.  Old buildings in need of repair or torn down and pastures that grow mainly weeds.  The fences are terrible so we have replaced a few but it's an expensive endeavor with funds still limited to what is left from our paychecks after bills are paid, so that is a slow ongoing process.  Often I wish I could win some lottery money just to get the place all the way done and have some time to enjoy it before retirement or before all our children are gone away to college!

My hope for the future after all the updates are made is that our farm animals and land can financially sustain itself. 

  

Billy the Boer Goat

Billy is our first Boer goat purchase.  He is supposed to be 100% boer but not registered.  I was a little hesitant in buying goats again as we had a few pigmy goats the year we moved here.  We weren't equipped for them at all.  We bought them at a sale barn which maybe was our first mistake.  They were wild, got out of the pen repeatedly, ate all my flowers and ended up getting mouth disease that killed most them.  We promptly ridded ourselves of the remaining goats with the conviction I would never buy goats again!

However, my husband has wanted more goats for a while now.  Not pigmy goats, but boer goats which he assured me over and over would go better than the others did.  I finally broke down this spring when we showed up to purchase a cow and they had goats for sale for a decent price.  He and the kids kept asking until I gave in. 

We have had him now for a few months and he is wonderful at eating the weeds that the cows don't eat.  He also herds with the cows.  At first they were not too fond of him and chased him a bit.  Maybe only because they had just calved.  Now they don't seem to mind having him close by.  The only bad thing about him is that he gets his head/horns stuck in the fence constantly.  The past few days he has not had it stuck so I'm crossing my fingers, but some days I have to go unstick him 3 or 4 times!  and in the same place sometimes! 

Anyway, he is a beautiful goat and the neighbors that have goats already want to use him to breed.  All things considered I am still ok with having a few goats and hopefully this spring we will have some cute little baby boer goats!

Lesson in Breeding

We started with 1 heifer on our tiny farm. She had been a bottle calf for my son.  When she was ready to breed we sent her to another farm to "meet" with their bull.  Everything went as expected and she had a beautiful baby girl.  That little girl became our 2nd cow and so on.  This year we had 3 cows to breed plus 2 calves at their sides.  Instead of shipping everyone over to the neighbors to breed we decided to AI them.  Next year we will have a total of 6 to breed so we figured this year was a good test year. 

Not knowing much about the process I turned to the internet.  I read articles and watched videos and I did my homework to find out exactly what was involved, or so I thought, and what the cost was compared to taking them somewhere.  Our wonderful vet was very patient with me and took the time to explain every aspect of the entire process.  As my husband and I looked at the prospective "fathers" online it struck me as a little odd to be doing just that.  We were looking to see who's sperm we wanted.  We were limited to a "calving ease" bull due to one of our cows being a 1st time heifer.  Then a couple weeks ago I called to order my first batch of semen.  That's something I have never done before and had to chuckle a little at myself when I got off the phone.

Ten days ago we began the process with an injection and a seeder.  One of the vets came out and loaded each in the chute (our cows are somewhat tame so it's difficult to get them to go in), gave them the shot and inserted the progesterone seeder.  Seven days later the vet came to give another injection and pull the seeder out.  He also put a sticker on their back that would turn green when they started "getting on" each other.  I have been out there checking that sticker every day two or three times in the hopes of seeing green.  Yesterday the heifer's tag was totally green and the others weren't green hardly at all, so after another phone call to the vet I felt at ease today's breeding appointment would work out.  He said the others probably weren't green due to they are the biggest and leaders of the herd and probably do not let others on them?  I hope so!

This morning we finally got to breed them.  Each went in the chute without extreme difficulty.  He inserted the semen and gave them an injection to make them ovulate and out they went.  He seemed sure that their cervix's were soft and open which he said was the perfect time to breed. Now we only have to wait and see if this whole process worked! 

I have been a bit of a nervous wreck during the whole process of waiting, watching and waiting some more.  My husband laughs at my nervousness about this whole thing and the vet said it's a lot to learn the 1st year but after that I will love it?  Not sure yet.  I guess we will see if it all works.  Hopefully in 20-ish days we don't see anyone mounting anyone else and if not then in 45 days they can be preg-checked.  I still have not dismissed the idea of buying or renting a bull for next year!

New To Blogging

My husband and I have learned so much about "country life" yet we have so much to learn.  We have poured our heart and soul and countless hours into making this the place we both dreamed about.  Thank heavens for good neighbors that are willing to give advice and answer lots of questions! 

My hope is to share some of these struggles, regrets, the things I love about our farm and a bunch of other fun farming things here for everyone to enjoy.