Farm Adventure...

We have been very hot, humid and a good thing , dry.  I prefer dry over the wet horrible summer we had last year.  Parasites have not been to bad and the goat herd and sheep flock are holding their own.

Our new puppy, Lucy is doing well and fitting into the grove of the farm.  She is half Anatolian and half Pyrenees.  She is shorter haired with a wide broad head.  She likes to sit in the water trough and is usually muddy.  She is good with chickens, goats, sheep, but does want to mess with those cats.  Even when she gets slapped by a paw full of claws.  Have had to fuss at her several times to leave the cat alone, she is not a toy. 

All the lambs are weaned and have some of them in the Pecan Orchard under a  tree.  The last of the lambs are all sired by Trump and he throws mostly Moorit (brown) lambs.  A lot of them were solid morrit and just one or two gray morrit.  The picture to the right are a couple of lambs, the ewe (left) is out of a yearling and the ram (right) is out of Valarie.
With the heat indexes in the 105 to 110 range, I have the lambs in the shade until it cools down a bit.

Had a bit of an adventure when I opened a chicken coup door to find a snake looking at me. I jumped back, and saw the color and knew it was not one of the green snakes we had seen in the past and it had a color pattern & was brown & gray.  Well, I ran to the feed room for my shovel collection and called to Mr Paul to get the shepard's crook.  I thought it was a Cotton Mouth... but any snake is guilty of being poisenous until proven otherwise and that is usually post mortem.  Needless to say, the shovel is my weapon of choice, long handles, wide surface are for chopping and the added broad blade in case of a strike.  The picture to the left is the severed head, yes it is gross, but I am trying to educate everyone on what these things look like.  The head had a bit of a shine to it and is trianglular in shape.  I had seen the snake before, but it dissapeared before I could get my shovel.  The right picture shows the shape more. I opened its mouth to see the fangs and they were there, about 1/2 inch, looked like fine hyperdermic needles.  After removing the head, we buried it so kids and animals could not play with it and come in contact with any venium.  I am told a dead snake can cause problems if someone or a puppy was poked with the fang.  The picture above and to the left is the body with the color pattern.  We estimate it at being 3 foot long or a bit under.  It is on top of a medium dog house.

Snow Man, one of our Icelandic rams was watching the ordeal with the snake.  Last summer he was bit by a snake under the chin and swelled up like a basket ball.  We almost lost him and it took a month for him to recover.  I am sure he was happy to see us finally catch that guy... Snow man has recovered and we hope to use him for breeding this fall.  He is long, wide and has the beefy butt we like.  Had to take off the horns though, grew to close to his head.  He carries spots and we want his build and spots this year.  Will breed him to the ewes with the best horns and Havvah.

More later...  Oh, do not worry Ken, the boys were not at the farm when Mr Paul and I took care of the snake.  Mr Paul's grandsons are visiting from Ill..  Mr Paul did fuss at young Ken to not wear flip flops out at the farm and he is wearing shoes now...  Especally after seeing the snake...  Don't worry, the hospital carries  Antivenin.  We deal with several snake bites every summer.  Antivenin covers rattle snake and cotton mouth snakes, all the viper group.

WOW!! The Sauna Summer Continues...

We have named this year, Sauna Summer, due to the humidity and heat.  I am just now getting used to the heat and we are out early and late to care for critters.  We take lots of water and work in the shade and wear our straw hats.  It is dangerous hot.  I have the AC in the house on 80 so we do not have such a hot, cold difference.  The 80 degrees seems cold when you come in soaking wet and cool down.

The picture to the left is Blue with Ariel's collar and bell.  For some reason, Blue liked Ariel's bell and collar and took it from Ariel.  Ariel is a Nubian and the collar is loose around her neck.  Blue used her horns to take the collar and bell & work it off Ariel.  She is a pretty smart critter and is the herd queen.  She wears it proudly like she is wearing a diamond.  She makes it clang and struts her stuff, even though it is to big, she does not care.  We will eventually get her a smaller collar and attach the bell to it.  But for now, it is a conversation piece....

I have had some folks emailing me wondering how Earl was doing.  He is doing great and to the right is a picture I took of him yesterday.  We have had him for about 2 weeks and he has gained quite a bit of weight.  He is a cute little guy.  We will be neutering him shortly and he will be going in with our young heifer after he is neutered and Barbacue goes to the processor.  Earl is a mini Jersey that we aquired.  He was a bottle baby and is very tame.  His cute factor is very strong and he will more then likely end up a pet...

Barbacue the steer (above) has missed no meals and has an appointment in a couple of weeks to go to the processor.  He is on pasture and getting corn mixed with soybean hull pellets once a day.  He is prime to say the least.  We have been raising him up, since a calf for this moment and we can not wait for the home grown beef he will provide.  No hormones, pastured freely, no cruel handling, corn fed, he will provide for us and our family after having a wonderful, but short life.  His girl friend is a heifer calf and Earl will be her buddy when Barbacue leaves.  We have two more calves out in the field with there moms who will be weaned shortly.  Both are steers and one will be sold and the other raised up for next years beef supply.  There is nothing better then home grown beef.

PJ came to the farm Sunday to help work the ewes.  We work them every 3 weeks during the heat of the summer.  We check for worms and give BoSe injections as needed and check hooves as well.

This is the work area in the shade under the new barn.  The shoot is a Billy Goat Gruff shoot I traded some goats for awhile back.  It has come in very handy and really saves your back.

The picture to the right is PJ getting the sheep up to ready them into the shoot.  He squeezes them in with the cow panel to push into the shoot.

This is the shoot in action.  The sheep goes into the ramp and has a door that closes behind them.  Then they go into the shoot and their head is secured in the head gate.  Then the sides can be opened on both sides to trim hooves, give shots, even shear.  We do have to remember before the next working to replace the springs on the head gate.  They are wore out and do not always close as they should.

After the sheep are worked, they go into a waiting area where they get some hay and a bit of grain and wait for the rest of the herd to be done.  There was a nice breeze today and it was not to bad working the flock.  We love the new barn and it has come in really handy for several needs.  After everyone is finished, we open the gate and with a bucket, the herd follows me back to their pasture.

The ewes are done for another 3 weeks and we are off to other things that need to be done.  The above set up will be really nice for the fall shearing of the Icelandics.  We will be able to put them up if it rains and shear come rain or shine.

Enough for now...

July is here...

We have been sooo hot, but did have a couple of days around the 4th which were low in humidity and were great.  We have had some rain as well and need to cut some more hay.

We finally got the turkey hut done and transfered the turkeys to it.

We have 5 Broad Breasted Turkeys who are about 3 months old now.  The Turkey hut is a trampolene which was given to me and we removed the netting around the top and put wire around the bottom frame.  It makes a perfect pen for them.  We did put a tarp over the top, because it is not water proof.  We used the netting that keeps kids from falling off as shade cloth on the west side.  It can be moved daily for the turkeys to get fresh grass.

We think we have 3 toms and 2 hens, but still are not sure what is what with them.  This is an expermental turkey project to see how it goes.

This little fella to the right is Earl.  He is a yearling Jersey Bull calf.  He was not in the best of conditions and was given to us.  Not sure what to do with him, we brought him home for some good feed and see where his temperment was. Earl was a bottle baby calf raised for a pet to a little girl.  He is very tame, but has grown up enough to be large enough to cause problems.  His horns are a problem to and can cause damage to a person without meaning to.

 

The pictures show the sharp horns which may seem small, but are very sharp and can hurt one easily.  The story we had about Earl was he butted the girl in play and knocked her down.  Thank goodness she was not hurt, but the incident scared them.  This calf should have been dehorned as a young calf and castrated when he was a month old, especally if he was to be kept as a pet.

I took him the Marion Clinic to Dr Doug Halbrook and he dehorned Earl.  We plan on castrating him once he recovers from the dehorning and puts on a bit more weight.

Earl is not real happy in the photo, but he is safe now and we do not need to worry about him hurting us by rubbing his head on us and catching a horn on us.

We will keep fly spray on him and watch the wounds closely for any infection or problems.  He is eatting well and is a bit sore.  We had wormed him a couple of days ago and gave him a cattle 7 in one vaccine with tetnus.  Now it is just a matter of time for him to heal up and get to know he is in a good home.

We think he is a mini Jersey becasue he is so small and once he is made into a steer, we will offer him for sale to a petting zoo or some type of simular home.  He is very friendly and leads and loves to be scatched.  His cute factor is pretty strong and there is no way I could butcher the little guy.  We will find him a nice pet home.

HOT HOT HOT!!!

Wow, has it been HOT or WHAT!!!  It has been in the upper 90's with heat indexes of 105!  Last weekend Mr Paul and PJ and some young guys hayed the front field.  It was the first time they used the square baler and it did a great job.  Now we have fresh hay.  We have weaned half of the Icelandic Lambs and I am going to put my breeding groups together early this year as well.  All the lambs who were born in March have done great.  I am thinking about trying some hormone inserts made for sheep to bring them into estrus out of season.  Perfect, maybe I can get most to lamb in Febuary and the rest of the herd in March.  The lastest lambing I had this year was the middle of April.  That group of ewes was from up north and used to being bred in November, a couple did lamb in March.  We will use this from now on and pull the rams the first of December.  We will cull any ewes who do not breed early or try and induce estrus if they are a really nice ewe.  The Icelandics are a really flexible breed.  They are adapting well and dealing with the heat quite well in my opinion.  The Mini Cheviots and Shetlands do not even notice the heat.

The picture above is one of our Icelandic Ram Lambs.  He is sired by The Trump and is a rich Moorit color and his mom is a lovely silver gray.  The picture to the

right is another Icelandic Ram lamb who is probably going to be gray Moorit and his mom is gray, sired by The Trump.

We are dealing with the heat by getting out early in the morning, which is like walking into a sauna and doing what needs to be done.  Then heading indoors until after 630 pm in the evening and taking care of things.  One is soaking wet 5 minutes out in the air and quite often there is no breeze.  It rained a bit this afternoon and cooled off things a bit.  The problem with the rain is the humidity is now 100% instead of 85%.  I really do hate the months of Jun, July and August here in the south.  They are almost unbearable...

Wanted to show everyone a cute picture of Mr General rubbing up to Raisen as if to say, "I Love You!"  This picture shows his topline really well.  We took this right after we clipped him up for the show and he is out with the herd now breeding does for fall.

Here is a cute picture of a young man I took at the Goat Show.  He is in a Showmanship class and getting a bit bored.  His Nubian goat was adorable and so was he.  He did really well and I thought it was great when he won his class.  We need more things for young kids to be interested in and goats is a cheap thing for kids to do.  Cattle and Horses are expensive, but goats are not and kids have a great time training and showing them. Kids can do dairy or meat goats and they are easy to handle, even for the youngest of kids.  I thought everyone would enjoy this picture as I did watching him win his class.

Last, but not least, here is Grizzly driving Mr Paul's truck.  He has turned into quite the farm dog and really enjoys going to the farm.

Have a great Father's Day everyone...

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...