Long Awaited Arrival

It is days like today that make all the hard work and money spent all worthwhile.  It seems like I have been waiting forever to see our first new arrivals of the year (pretty much since the bull was here) and we are calving much earlier this year than any previous year.  

I have been keeping a close eye on the cows out in the pasture with binoculars from the house when busy doing housework and everything else.  Today after lunch I noticed the cows were within sight so I whipped out the binoculars to check on them.  To my shock and amazement there it was, a little black white faced calf running about near it's mother, Maria.  Yep, Maria was the first to calve and a first time mom who did it all by herself without a hitch.  What a tremendous calf she has(as I believe they all are).

Of course, I headed out to check it out and snap some pics of it.  We still cannot tell for sure if it is a heifer or bull calf, although my husband thinks she's a girl and I sure hope so.  If so, she will definitely be a keeper!

I then had to go into town to get our weekly ration of feed for the goats and chickens.  Driving by the field on my way home I noticed Mabel was in the corner of the pasture again as she was when I was out earlier.  I had checked on her then with no signs of labor.  She was now standing kinda funny with her tail straight out, but she wasn't eliminating anything.  I just had a feeling she was maybe in labor.  I ran in the house, grabbed the camera and my phone and headed back out determined to see the whole thing.  I did get to see it and it was an amazing hour.  I got lots of pics of the whole thing, some of which I will be posting maybe tomorrow in a "step by step of labor post".  The end product is a beautiful little boy that is as black as night and also oh so wonderful.  

Mabel is a wonderful momma and let us pet him this evening.  What an experience that was.  She is an amazingly gentle cow who is one of my favorites if not the favorite as far as temperament.

We still have 3 to go and each is sure to be as amazing as the others! My son also has a heifer to calve.  With all the events of today, one never knows what tomorrow might hold!

Boer Goat Kids in December!

Just in time for Christmas this year we have had our first set of Boer twins!  Actually due on Dec. 27th, but with the big winter storm on our doorstep, it's not a surprise she would have them now.  The twins were found in the kidding stall in the barn having just been born this morning.  The little girl is solid red and the little boy is a bit smaller and traditional colored with a few paint spots.  

We moved her to the kidding stall only a few days ago and so glad we did!  She is doing well with them, cleaning them right away and now at least the solid one is nursing.  The little boy was a little colder, so we set up the heat lamp on him, hoping that would get him goin.  We just came in from checking him and he was still lying in the same spot.  We got him up again and fed him a little colostrum (go-go juice as my husband calls it) which did get him standing at least and wagging his tail!  He hopefully just needed that little "pick-me-up" and will be off and running in no time.  Usually, they don't drink much the first time, but he drank over 1/2 cup.  

We will keep a watchful eye for the next few hours to see if he drinks from her or if he is destined to be bottle fed.  We are hoping to keep him on her as they always do so much better with health and growth that way.  

These little ones are the highlight of the dreaded winter so far and they are just adorable!  Goat kids are truely the meaning of cuteness and just so sweet.  Soon, we will be thinking of names for them so any good ideas would be welcome!!

I cannot resist including a few more photos of them:

Baby Goat Kids Updates

Mystery, our first goat kid born on our farm is growing like a weed!  She is doing amazing.  She received her first CD &T vaccination last week, which she was not so fond of.  She stays close by her mama but is willing to venture out and explore.  For now they are being kept in the baby goat pen probably until the fair.  She will be shown at our county fair by my daughter who loves her immensely!  After the fair she will be weaned and go out to the pasture while her mama, Dazzle, goes straight out to pasture with the billy.

We also have had a set of twin boys to report.  The are both doing great and for now are in the barn with mom.  The day they were born mom was especially friendly that morning, which made me a little curious as to whether it would be that day or not.  She did not, however, have any of the signs our first time doe had, no hind end swelling or drainage. She was as wide as she was long -almost. We had been gone for a few hours and went to check her when we got back in the afternoon.  The goats were in our old barn in the back pasture.  When my daughter got close she said " uh, mom, there is something white outside the barn".  Well, it was a newborn goat.  He had slid under the door and when we looked inside his brother was with mama. The other big goats were with her while she had them and even Billy was standing near with a kind of watchful fatherly eye.  We hauled mom and babies up to the "good" barn in a large stall (actually one whole side of the barn).  We had been kind of hoping for girls to increase our herd.  They have done well there and love to run, jump and climb on our junk in the barn.  Some days Billy and the others lay just outside the barn gate as though they miss her and want her to come play. 

Last week the boys were vaccinated and banded.  I always feel sorry for the animals that get banded, but it looks so funny the way they walk just after.  They cried for mama when they got their shots!  They will eventually be butchered and sold as meat.  I have to keep myself from thinking about it for now, as they are so adorable and I love to play with them, but that is why we started raising goats!

I do think the other 2 girls with Billy have bellies that are looking a little pudgy and hopefully they are pregnant as well.  The more, the merrier!  All the bottle babies in the baby pen are about ready to go out to pasture and hopefully be bred. I am a little nervous that they will attempt escaping the different fencing, but all our goats will go anywhere following a bucket of grain, which makes it easy to get them coralled.  We will then move the newest mama and boys to the baby pen with mystery and her mama.  Our little billy is also ready to get to work!  

I would like to build one more nursery pen, but haven't decided where it will be yet.  It has been so busy around here that I find it hard to find time to write, but after the county fair I will have more time!  Hopefully anyway!

As always HAVE A GREAT DAY!   

New Baby Boer Goat

We finally did it!  We have had our first baby Boer goat born on our farm!  So exciting!

Last Friday, I went out to do morning chores and found that Dazzle (momma) was acting a little strange.  She was eating like she was starving and didn't mind having me pet her and feel for baby movement.  She has gotten a lot more tame since being in the barn, but not this tame.  Still, though, no signs of impending birth.  In the afternoon I decided to take a look at her and sure enough there was mucous hanging out.  It was so thick that I thought it was membrane.

 Throughout the afternoon we kept close watch and there was more and more mucous. Not being sure how fast things would progress or if we would be waiting until the wee hours of the night- we had to leave to go get some new cows for my son to show at the county fair and left my mother and son in charge of keeping an eye on her.  My hopes were that she would wait for me to get back.  No luck there! 

About an hour after I left I received a phone call that a hoof was hanging out.  Twenty minutes later another call that it was the same.  My son made a good decision knowing I wasn't there to see first hand and made a trip up to the neighbor to come take a look.  After being there a few minutes he decided momma looked like she had had enough.  He pulled the kid and we are lucky he did!  I didn't want our first kid to be a dead kid.  Out came one large kid for the size of the momma!

Our little girl, Mystery, named by my daughter for the question-mark shaped white marking on her head, is our most prized possession on the farm right now!  Our first baby Boer and healthy as can be and it didn't take her long to start drinking.  Momma takes great care of her and she is an energetic bouncing baby girl.  She has brown knees/elbows, head and feet.  She is truely the meaning of adorable!

We have another doe that will be kidding sometime soon that is all sorts of enormous looking and another that had looked pregnant and now she doesn't so I think she lost it.  So much fun here on the farm with the babies and spring/summer weather.  

More to come soon on momma cow and the AI process and garden planting!

As always, the day is as good as you make it so HAVE A GREAT ONE!



Weak Goat Kid

So, we had a goat kid that couldn't stand when we got her and the farmer who sold the batch of 7( in my last post) to us didn't know why.  She came free with the others if we were willing to take her.  So, of course we did with hopes of nursing her back to health.

For days she drank just like the rest and toileted the same.  You couldn't even tell anything was wrong until she tried to stand.  Her legs seemed weak was all.  After a phone call to the vet, I was doing physical therapy on her legs with each feeding.  This was done in a rigged-up sling I made from pieces of fabric I had laying around slipped over a big tub.  For a couple of days she seemed to be improving, she definately wanted to stand but just could not get her legs to hold her.  A few days after getting her here I got a Bo-Se injection for her in case it was just weakness.  This injection that I was convinced would be a fortune after reading an internet article cost me only 10 cents for a dose!!!  Proof that you can't believe everything you read online!! :)

From what I had read on internet it could be anything from weakness to spinal injury during birth.  I gave her the shot and it did seem to help.  I did a prick test just above her hooves and she definately had feeling in all four of them. The next couple of days she was improving a little again.  This whole time she was eating well and acted just as energetic as the others. 

Last weekend she was very weak it seemed so we still did therapy but not quite as much.  She was still drinking fine and trying to get up.  It was all to no avail, though, as she passed away on Saturday.  The kids were so disappointed.  I had made them hold off on naming her until we knew if she made it or not. 

After talking to our vet, there was probably nothing else we could have done.  Most likely she had gotten stepped on or had an extemely hard birth.  Still, I would like to know what happened and what eventually killed her.

RIP little goat!