Weekend adventure...

We have been out and about at a Goat Show.  We went to an ADGA Goat show in Georgia this last weekend.  We took 5 Nigerian Dwarf Goats, 3 does and 2 bucks.  We did well, considering the tough competition.  Oldesouth Blue Alexa is our yearling doe in milk.  She won first place and 3rd place in the 1 year and under two year class.  She is pictured below.

Oldesouth Mr Marine is a son of Mr General and his dam is our PromisedLand Thundersnow.  He is very dairy and has the signature topline Mr General throws.  Mr Marine won both his Jr Buck classes and is pictured above.

Oldesouth Galloway did well in a huge class of Jr does and placed 2nd and 4th.  She is a bit over conditioned and we will slim her down a bit before her next show.  She is pictured below and to the left.

Mr General won 2nd and 3rd place in the 2 to 3 year old bucks.  He has just turned two and needs to mature a bit, but really is turning out to be a stunning young buck.  He is pictured below and to the right.

I have to thank Mr Paul for taking most of these pictures with the new camera.  He did a great job and they turned out very nice.

The picture below is Udiamond, my Uni daughter.  She is growing into a beautiful doe and is pregnant by Mr General.  She placed 3rd and 4th in a very competitive class of Sr yearlings.  She is over conditioned according to the judges.  With a much wanted pregnancy, a little extra weight is alright for now, but we will keep it under control.

Mr Paul and PJ have set up the shoot to work the sheep.  It was set up in the new barn for shelter during any weather condition.  I had traded some goats a year or so ago for this Billy Goat Gruff shoot and head gate.  It has been sitting in one of the sheds waiting for us to decide where to put it.  Now that the barn is up, we put it on the west side and have built a catch pen in front.  The shoot is built for Boer Goats.  The few Boers we have left do not need to be put through a shoot, but could be for hoof trimming to save the back.  They just stand there for hoof trimming, etc.  We planned to use the shoot on the sheep so we would not have to chase them and lift them onto a stand to be worked or hoof trimmed.   Pictured below and to the right.

Sunday after we returned from the Goat Show on Saturday we worked all the ewes and lambs.  The shoot worked very well.  A couple of springs that operate the head gate door need to be replaced.  A couple of times it did not hold and the sheep escaped.  But overall, it worked great and my back was able to trim everyone's hooves.  The height of the shoot is perfect for me.  We eartagged for Scrapie, vaccinated, wormed if needed, trimmed hooves and resheered several of the sheep that were botched up by a so called pro sheerer.  The chunks of wool left behind was bunching up and ruining the fleece underneath and needed to be removed for a clean fleece to grow out.  We also weaned all the lambs which were old enough to be weaned.

Well, that is enough for now...  I need to go back to work to rest....

How to Show Clip a Nigerian Goat

I have had several folks ask me how I clip my goats.  I personally hate to see naked goats.  If one clips a goat with a 10 or 15 blade, they are naked.  My suggestion is invest in some combs and clip with a comb.  I wish I could get some combs for my sheep shears to control the length of cut with them in the fall.

Anyway, I use a 10 or 15 blade and depending on the time of year, either a 1/8th, 1/4th or 1/2 inch comb.  If it is fall, I use the longer combs so the goats do not get cold, but the hair is trimmed short and looks neat.  Baby goats have a tendency to be hairy and Bucks, well, we know about the mohawk thing they have.  Buck Nigerians have a huge Mohawk along their back, which they can make stand up when they want to look the "tough guy" part.  The bucks also need to have the front legs trimmed, which can be saturated in pee pee in the fall.  I suggest washing the stinky boys and allowing the hair to dry.  If you just clip off the pee pee, there is major clipper trauma and grundgy dull blades.  Bucks usually need a bath first, but the does are very clean and usually do not need a bath before clipping.

In the late spring and summer, I clip with a 10 blade with a 1/8th inch comb.  This leaves a nice, smooth clip and enough hair to make the animal slick and pretty and cover them so they do not get sun burned.  With this clip they can go graze and be a regular goat without being shut up until they grow back enough to not get sun burned.  Yes, a goat can get sunburned, even the dark skinned ones...  I like to use just the clippers without a comb for the hooves and legs and around the head.  Do not forget to clip out the ears so the tattoos can be easily seen.

I have an example of a non clipped goat above who is Oldesouth Galloway.  She is in the raw with her baby coat trying to shed out and the rough looking apparance.  One can see her topline and that she is nice, but she looks coarse and could have more dairy character.  Dairy character is basically refinement.  After clipping, Galloway is a new woman.  She is clean and her dairy character stands out to impress.  I used a # 10 blade and a 1/8th inch comb to clip her.  The entire body is clipped and the legs and hooves are done without the comb.  We leave the little poof for the tail and this baby girl is ready for the show...

The summer is coming to fast...

It has warmed up to quickly.  Today it will be in the high 80s to 90 with high humidity.  Yesterday I was off and clipped up 3 Nigerian does I plan to show in a couple of weeks in Georgia.  Galloway, a young doe, sired by Mr General really stands out in the group.  She was dam raised, out of Oldesouth Annie Oakley and not as friendly as I would like, but Wow, she is nice.  We named her Galloway because she is belted like a Belted Galloway cow.

We are taking Mr General and a young buck sired by Mr General out of Thundersnow.  I had planned on taking Black Panther, a son of Brat, but he is to hard to handle right now and needs more training and taming.  He is a brat boy to say the least.  We really need to bottle feed all our kids and this would not be a problem.  The time factor really limits who we can bottle feed.  Some goats, even though dam raised just decide to be tame.  Thundersnows kids are that way and even her grand daughter has decided to be tame.  Sometimes it depends on the dam and how tame she is, other times, who knows.  I have had a couple of bottle babies who grew up to be not tame, so go figure... Flash was a bottle buck who never was real tame and Blake, a nubian was the same way.  But most of the time, the bottle babies are very tame and a down right pain in the neck.

Oldesouth Alexa has really turned out nice and her daughter by Mr General is very nice as well.  I clipped Alexa, Galloway and UDiamond yesterday to see what they looked like under the fur.  Wow, Alexa is nice for a yearling.  Her sister Babette is really nice as well, but not as friendly.  She may be better then Alexa, just stand offish.  I choose the easier to handle goats and went with Alexa.  We will work with Babette for later down the road and Babette's  daughter is for sale on the website:  http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/.

The picture to the right is Alexa and her daughter
by Mr General.  His signature is his topline and width of body.  Mr General is line bred on Eclipse who is a fantastic doe.  We had Mr General flown in from up
north almost 2 years ago as a kid.  His first kids will
be freshening hopefully this fall.

The picture to the left is of Alexa's daughter by Mr General.  She is blue eyed like her mom with a beautiful front and lovely wide rear.  He has produced some really nice kids.  I have had a hard time parting with any of them.

I have to show everyone a picture of my PIA dog, Grizzly II.  I had Grizzly I, also a Jack Russel for 8 years before he decided to get himself killed by not lisening...  Something Jack Russels have a hard time doing.  Grizzly II is no different and I am surprized he has lived this long.  I think he will be 3 years this August.  The cute factor goes a long ways with dogs.  He is cute and is good with cats, goats, sheep and even chickens.  He has raised countless baby goats and a lamb.  He was raised with a cat and even though some folks say Jack Russels can not be trained to not kill, he is the exception.  My Grizzly I was good as well and I have taken the time to train him from a pup to leave things alone and not chase chickens or cats, etc...  Both my

Jacks have been great family dogs and can even herd to some extent.

Grizzly II is short legged, has all his teeth and has been a good natured little guy.  We do offer him for stud on occation to select females for $250.  We do not breed the short legged Jacks, but Grizzly II does sire pups on occation.  We are looking for a nice female Jack of quality and good disposition for the future.  Let us know of possible canidates...

Spring continues through a new eye...

I am so excited.  I have worn out two Olympus digital cameras and when my sister came to visit from Texas, noticed the great photo's her camera took.  Wow, the clarity of the kids (human) playing was fantastic.  It was a Nikon D60 camera.  My Nikon was delivered Tuesday and the on line site at Nikon has instruction and video demonstrations for the cameras.  I am ready to shoot by the time the Camera arrives.  It is a Nikon D3000.  It is in a kit and has the 55-200mm zoom lens as well.  The picture to the left is Blake (nubian buck) looking at me looking at him.  Look how clear the photo is.

Wow...  no delay in the picture snap or blurry baby goat pictures.  Look at the baby blue eyed Nigerian to the right.

I want to revamp the web site and get some good udder shots of my dairy goats.  I really want to get some nice lamb shots playing in the field.  The zoom lens should work great for that as well as the faster shutter speed.  I am not a pro photographer, but have learned a bit over the years.  My son Tim when he raced bicycles was a great challenge.  My 45mm Cannon took great pictures, but it uses film, which as we all know is so expensive to process and put on a disk for editing.  Not only that, only 20% of the shots are worth keeping, no matter how good you are.

Action shots look great too.  Below is Thundersnow's daughter sired by Mr General.

We plan on milking a couple of Icelandic Sheep as well this spring to make some Sheep Milk Soap.  We will use it with our Goat Milk Soap formula and compare the two.  Have to include a picture of The Trump, one of our Icelandic Rams.  His horns are spectacular.  This photo was taken in the shade of one of the Pecan trees.

We have some nice Nigerian Dwarf Kids For Sale and a couple of adults as well.  We are reducing the herd a bit to allow us room to keep more young stock.  Check out the Goat Sales Page to see what is available.  The new camera will help catch some better pictures to give everyone a better idea of what we have to offer.  Goats and kids are tough to photograph.  Look at blue eyed Dawn to the left.  She is a bit pregnant.  She is For Sale, bred to Mr. General.

Ultram is shown with his beautiful hornset.  He is a two year old Icelandic ram.  He is shown after shearing.

The ewe below is Mini Long Tail.  I love the way the photo's are turning out.

The photo below is of my horse, Joe.  He is a quarter horse from a cutting horse background.  He will be 5 this June and is a big beautiful, sweet gelding.

We can not forget a picture of Brutus.  He is our bull and he sure has filled out.  We will see his first calves next January.  I hope everyone has enjoyed the photos and we will be working on updating our farm website with new and better photography.

Lambing is almost over...

Yes it is great to be almost done with Lambing.  I prefer the lambs to be born early and will try and get everyone lambing in Feb and Mar next year.  The lambs and ewes do better in the cooler weather before it gets to hot.  It would be nice to wean the lambs by the end of May.  We wean all our lambs at 3 months of age.

Today it is in the 80s and a nice breeze is blowing.  It has been dry with low humidity, so it is nice.  We still have 3 ewes to lamb.  One is old Luthien who is bagging up, but probably will not lamb until May.  The other two are 2 year olds, one is the lovely Ulani and the other Blackie.  Neither one lambed as a yearling and Ulani may be pregnant, but Blackie I do not think so.  We will have to wait and see.

The barn is finished and we have put in over half the garden.  To date, we have tomatos, lettuce, cucumbers, sweet corn, collards, sweet potatos, squash, some herbs, and green beans planted.  I hate to say this, after all the rain this winter, but we could really use some rain.  The pastures could use some rain to get the grass to jump a bit and we hope to cut our first hay in May.  The garden could use a bit of rain as well.  We are watering from the well to get the crops going.

We will be skirting fleece and sending it off to the processor.  If there is enough, I would like to have socks made.  I am thinking large and extra large socks, mid calf height.  Let us know what you think.  We will only be able to carry a couple of sizes and right now, everyone we know has big feet like me...

We are experimenting with raising some turkeys.  They are Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys.  We have six turkey poults, which are baby turkeys.  They are straight run, meaning both male and female.  We have had them for a week now and they are growing quickly.  We are feeding chicken starter 18% plus a bit of soybean meal to up the protein to 22%.  We will make a moveable pen out of an old trampoline and place wire around it.  It will keep them safe, give shade and shelter, and can be moved daily for them to free range on pasture.  We will keep everyone posted on how it works. 

We took the two lambs I bought from a friend to the processor and we have had lamb chops and steaks the last couple of nights.  Wow!  They are good, not as sweet as the Icelandic, but pretty darn good.  We grilled the steaks on the grill and boy, they were worth the effort to run to the other farm and carry feed and water over there as well.

Oh, Mr Paul has fixed the water lines and we were able to move the cows to the back pasture.  I had been fusing at Mr Paul for hitting the line with a trencher.  When we dug it up, it had been crushed, more then likely by the fence builders when they put in the cross fencing.  No matter...  We now have water to the back pasture and several water access points to fill water quicker and finally put in the auto waters.

My little lamb Baby Girl is sooo cute (the picture above and to the right is of Baby Girl.)  She is a shetland ewe lamb.  She is black now, but will gray out.  She is a pure Shetland ewe lamb and is my baby.  She follows me everywhere and hollars if I get out of site.  She even helped me catch a yearling Icelandic Lamb with her newborn by hollaring and getting the young mom to follow her up to the barn.  She is more help then the herding dog.  Baby Girl is now at the farm.  I wanted to pen her with Hill Billy, who is now a nigerian wether and have him teach her to eat better.  Hill Billy wanted to knock the baby around and be mean, so Baby Girl is by herself until we come up with a solution.  She is nibbling grain & eatting some hay, but needs to learn to eat more.

Spring has arrived...

We have been busy with spring Lambing and Kidding.  The ewe to the left is Blackberry with her twins by Phanom. 

In between we did some shearing.  I had a pro come in to shear the sheep and was not pleased with the results.  The picture to the left are the four new Mini Cheviots and what they looked like after the Pro Shearing.  Yeah, a picture is worth a thousand words...

I am still not sure if our Shetland Ram will be able to breed.  His penis was cut and he developed an infection and then had trouble urinating.  I think we finally have him straight and hopefully he will be able to breed this fall.  We also had a really nice Icelandic ewe lamb who lost a teat.  Yeah....  and that is not all.  I will be reshearing most of the flock due to the uneven, chunks of wool left behind.  My disappointment in the shearing can not be expressed and the stress of almost loosing my ram is not worth bringing in another to shear.  The young ewe had the tip of the teat cut off, which means I will be raising bottle babies off of her, which is added stress and work. I have put in for two weeks of Vacation in October and will be shearing the entire herd myself.  I did it last spring and no one was missing any body parts. The awful weather last fall caused us to loose most of our prime Icelandic Fleece, which felts by spring.

We have had two sets of triplet Nigerian Dwarf kids from first time fresheners.  They are both producing plenty of milk for the kids and all are doing well.  All the yearlings we have For Sale have kidded.  We will be selling some with their kids and some without.

Our barn is being built today and will look like the picture to the left.  It will be 60 x 80 and we will have an area to put the entire flock, no matter the weather, to get everyone shorn and be able to put them up to grow some fleece if the weather turns cold, like it did last year.  We will add the sides over time and enclose part of it for kidding and lambing and have a nice milking area.  With the hot climate of Alabama, we will leave it open for the summer and enclose the North side this fall.  The pictures below are of the building in progress.

We will be storing hay and this year plan to do all square bales, which are easier for me to handle.  We have purchased a square baler and are ready to bale when the fields are ready.  I hate round bales and really hate unwrapping them.  I find they waste a lot of hay and the goats, forget it, they waste 50% of the bale.  The goats climb on and have a field day tearing it up, urinating and deficating all over it.  You can also bet whoever may have a bit of loose stool will have a blow out all over the bale as well...

We have also cleaned out the goat shed and put crushed ashfault down in order to keep the goats dry and out of the water if we get weather like last fall and winter.  I had let the bedding build up to have a dry spot for the herd.  The bedding is in a huge pile by the garden.  We tried to burn it, but there is enough manure to not burn well and it has been smoldering for a week now.  It will need to compost this year and maybe next year will be able to use it in the garden. 

I am getting spring fever big time and am ready to start digging in the garden.  We still need to add dirt to build up the garden and keep it out of the water.  I do not want everything to drown like last year if we get a ton of rain again.  Hopefully the garden will be ready by the end of the month.  I have onions and garlic from last fall which never got into the ground and want to plant some lettuce before it gets to hot and bolts.  Sweet corn of course and this year I want to try some potatos and sweet potatos as well.

We have also worked the rams, trimming hooves, worming if needed and we trimmed some horns as well.  Snow man is pictured to the left and below.  His horn was growing into his face on the left.  We decided to take both sides because the other was so close as well and would eventually need to be cut.  Duncan the Shetland Ram and Snow man one of the Icelandic rams needed horns trimmed.  PJ, Mr Paul's son helped us by using the saw.  DO NOT USE A CUTTING WIRE TO TAKE OFF HORNS!  I tried this in the past and it was a horrible bloody mess and took me almost 30 minutes to cut the horn off as blood flowed.  Both myself and the poor ram were a bloody mess by the time the horn cut through.  A reciprocating saw is ideal and takes a couple of seconds.  Unfortunately the horns have a vast blood supply and bleed like crazy. 

We wrap the horn end with vet wrap and then put blood stop on the vet wrap as the blood soaks through.  It does not work the other way because the horns bleed to much and wash the blood stop away.  I usually leave the vet wrap on until it falls off.  We have cut Saxon's horns, Snow man and Duncan.  Duncan had the horns growning into his jaw and he was having difficulty eatting and had lost weight.  Once they were removed he was doing great, gaining weight and having a brighter outlook, until his penis was cut by the careless shearer.  Bless his heart...  he has had a tough year so far.

PJ is shown to the left with the saw to remove the horns.  PJ is a BIG FELLA and is a huge help around the farm.

Mr Paul went to Missouri to pick up 4 more Mini Cheviot ewe yearlings.  We will breed them this fall for more spring Mini Cheviot Lambs.  The demand for these little darlings has been really great and worth the trip to purchase some nice stock from Show-Me-Sheep-Farm.  Thank you Russ & Gwen Jackson.

Spring has sprung and we are all enjoying the warmer weather.  There for a week or so, it was a bit hot, but as long as the humidity is low and a breeze is blowing...  all is well.  This week we are back to normal temps for April in the south with more babies to come.

The picture on the right is Posie with her new ram lambs by The Trump.  She lambed today around lunch time with Dorie/Valarie right behind her.

Dorie/Valarie is lambing for the first time.  She had a ram lamb and an ewe lamb.  She has a lovely udder and I may just try and milk her down the road.  She has teats like my Nubian goat does.

Yes, it has been a busy day...  Time to hit the hay...

Elmore County Goat & Sheep Expo...

We had a great time at the Expo, March 13th, selling some wool, making Goat and Sheep sales contacts and generally having a good time.  We took a momma Icelandic ewe and her ram lamb by Phantom.  We also took little Hilly Billy, a Nigerian Dwarf bottle baby.  It rained most of the day, but the event was indoors.  Like last year, the weather was not great, but the turnout was good.  We enjoyed free Hot Dogs and Goat Burgers.  The cook off had some great goat dishes as well.  There were guest speakers and the Goat Show for kids.  The costume class is always fun to watch how the kids dress up their goats.  Every year the Expo gets better and next year there will be more farm products to see and purchase. We will have Sheep milk soap and eggs for sale as well as poultry.

The pictures below & above are of some of our Icelandic Roving and Saxon in full fleece.

Sunday after the Expo one of our horses, Dawn, an old Arabian coliced on us.  We called all the Vet clinics in the area and the one on call refused to come out.  The Farm is 1.5 miles and no more then 4 miles from any area Vet Clinic.  The Veterinarian on call said he did not work on horses at Northside Animal Hospital in Selma.  We could not reach our regular vet, so Dawn received Banamine, an injection for pain and inflamation.  We tried to walk her, but she did not improve.  By Monday morning she had twisted a gut and Dr Lawrence from Selma Animal Clinic examined her and put her down. 

Old Bertha, Mr Paul's Belgan Draft horse seemed to be doing better after a week of treating her for pneumonia. Bertha was close to 20 years old, which is old for a draft horse.  After the ordeal with Dawn, I came over to Bertha's stall to check on her and she was laying down and looked as if asleep in the stall.  Well, she was not asleep and had passed away. 

The rest of the morning was arranging a back hoe to come out and dig a hole large enough to lay the two to rest at the back of the farm.  I must compliment the men who dug the grave and placed the two old mares together.  They were able to use the back hoe to position them in a resting posture.  It is not easy to get large animals into a grave without them becoming contorted.  The extra time spent to respect the old mares was a comfort to us.

Lambing is in full swing and the Cheviots are finished with one more Shetland to go.  We have 5 of the Icelandic ewes who have lambed with many more to lamb anytime and into April.  I will get pictures of the new babies as soon as I can.

We have one bottle baby Shetland ewe lamb we call Tiny Baby Girl.  Her mom had mastitis in her udder and we needed to pull the baby for mom to recover.  Mom is recovered and Tiny is rotten spoiled.  We are feeding her goat milk, good old Ariel has raised 6 kids and now a lamb.  Ariel is a Nubain doe and if her daughter can not reach her udder, we milk a gallon a day.  Her daughter is an escape artist, long necked, half nigerian brat.  I have even considered taking her to processor, but I know she will milk like her mom in a smaller body with a bit higher milk fat.  I have added some Nigerian milk to the lamb's bottle as well and will soon be adding Lamb replacer to make the goat milk richer.  Tiny is black now, but will turn gray as she grows and ages.  Her mom is gray and so is her dad.  Tiny Baby Girl knows her name and comes a running when called.  This is the first lamb we have had to bottle feed, with this being our 4th year.  We will see if she turns into a hudlum like the baby goats and so far has not tried to jump on the furniture.

The weather has been better then expected, but still below average temperatures and this morning, friday, there was frost on the ground, when the weather perdiction was for the 40s.  We are preparing for our Sheep Shearing day.  We have finally been able to get a professional shearer to come and the date is March 27th.  We are cleaning out a part of the shed to pen up the sheep to keep them dry because rain is forcasted for Thursday and maybe Friday, with shearing on Saturday.  The wool must be dry to shear.  We will put the rams into one shed and the ewes with lambs into another.  We will put the lambs in a pen during shearing, which will be a loud protest session from the moms and babies, but the babies will not be trampled and safe.

The picture to the left is a friend of mine, Gary who has helped us shear in the past.