Milking the girls...

 We are milking the girls twice a day and I have to show photos of Oldesouth Blue Alexa.  She has a lovely udder and teat placement.  She is very small, under 19 inches and milking around 3 pounds of milk a day.  This is her second freshening.


I want to thank ITok for fixing our blog so we can upload photos once more.  They are a computer company you contract with to take care of your computer.

The picture to the right is another view of Alex's udder. We breed for milk and conformation.  This is an example of what we are shooting for.  The Nigerian Dwarf is a small dairy goat.  Her sister Babette is a taller doe and should be freshening the end of Feb, first part of March.  Both these girls are very nice and Babette being larger, out milks her sister.




We are hip deep in kidding and UDiamond has kidded twin bucks.  She kidded the 28th at 1230 am.  I paid for it at work the next day...  boy was I tired.  I have some pictures, but waiting for better shots a couple of weeks fresh.  We are bottle feeding the kids so we can measure her milk and keep her udder perfect for the show ring.  Both boys are spoken for, will make fantastic herd sires.  UDiamond needs to prove herself in the milk production so the boys will be stared.  Her udder and fore udder are looking fantastic and we hope everything holds together to get her into the show ring.



I am working on individual pages for our does.  I have some done, but want to get them all done before bringing them live to the website.

Above is one more photo of Alexa's lovely udder with 12 hours of milk.

 We have bad news about our Blue.  Her cancer (squamous cell) had come back after treatment and she raised her kids.  We are sad to announce her passing due to the cancer.  She was humanely euthanized.  She had a rectal lesion which had spread to the lymph nodes.  Blue was my first goat and the Cover Girl to our Goat Milk Products.  We miss her and retained two of her daughters, AnnaLynn and her last daughter Blue Ice.

Our last farewell to our beloved Blue pictured about with her last set of triplets...



Cold Start to 2011

The weather has been very cold (17 to 25 degrees at night) and we have weaned the kids off of the current milkers.  Now we are milking twice daily with our machine.  DHIR is going well, testing monthly.  We have purchased several heated water tubs to keep the girls drinking water to produce milk.
The blog still will not upload pictures.

UDiamond is bagged up nicely and we are waiting for her to kid.  Next time, we will hand breed her so we will know exactly when she will kid. 

The first freshening yearling daughter of Mr General is being milked twice daily now.  She is small, but producing more then expected.  We will be doing our Jan test shortly and will have an idea of how much.  Her name is Princess and she is taking to the stand very well.  We are going to milk her for several months to really stimulate the udder, then dry her up and let her grow out some more before breeding her back for next year. 

It looks like our Linear Appraisals will be in May this year.  That will be good.  Last year they were scheduled for Fall which was not real convenient (shearing sheep and going to fall shows) and most of my does were dry.  This is a tool we use to evaluate conformation for herd improvement.  After all, we are breeding to improve the Nigerians and The Linear Appraisal is a trained person from ADGA who comes and using the ADGA score card, evaluates your herd.  This is a tool to improve conformation.

Our cows, Christy and Beauty have both calved.  Chisty had a brown Heifer and Beauty, not sure yet.  Could not get close enough to really see if the calf is male or female.  The calf is jet black like her mom.  Good thing she waited until it warmed up a bit before calving.

We have several yearlings sired by Mr General who will be freshening this month or early next month. 

Happy New Year Everyone!!

We reflect on the past year and give thanks for all the good times and good people we have had the opportunity to meet.  2011 will be another beginning to improve our milking herd of Nigerians even more.  The milk test will let us know how we are doing.

We are on the edge of our seats waiting for UDiamond to kid.  We call her Diamond and she is a Diva. She is a Uni Daughter sired by Galaxy.  She will be two in February and she is bagged up and ready to kid by Mr General.  Her udder is really nice already and she is such a beautiful doe.  This breeding is bringing together Eclipse, Tiger and Uni.  Mr General is line bred on Eclipse and has produced very consistent wide rears and beautiful toplines.  Diamond is already perfect and really is spectacular when she is clipped up with her golden, glistening coat.  We just need to verify her greatness in the milk pail.  She knows she is special and struts her stuff like the queen she is.  She is a sweet heart and loves her mom...

Mr General's first daughters as yearlings will be kidding in 2011.  Galloway is bagging up (BOB and Jr Doe), Brat's daughter by Mr General, Rosa, and several others.  Pay Off is just starting to bag up by Mr General son, Mr Marine.  One daughter out of Silver by Mr General has kidded, but she is very small  (snow granddaughter) and her udder is good, but not spectacular.  She kidded before a year old and was a triplet.  She had a single doe who is so fat she can hardly walk.  I plan on milking her a bit to see how much she is producing, but will wait until next year to see what she can really do in the milk pail.  The baby doe is beautiful and we will grow her out a bit to see how she matures.  Both the mom and baby are very friendly and the baby pesky.  It is neat how some goats are just friendly and seek out attention, while others prefer to stay at a distance and just watch you...

Have a Great New Year and be safe!!!

Christmas Wishes to All...

It is Christmas Eve and we are working to milk the girls and get everyone ready for the Christmas Holiday.  We want to thank all our Clients and Customers for a wonderful 2010.  We could not have accomplished our goals without your support.  Thank You Everyone!!
We plan to work even harder for 2011 and bring you more GOATS THAT MILK and sheep and goat products of outstanding quality.



Since our Blogger does not seem to give a darn about the picture upload not working, we are not sure what to do.  We may just do a monthly newsletter to let folks know what is happening.  We have so many folks who enjoy our blog, but if we can no longer up load pictures...  It is of little value.  Especally since I love to photograph everything and let folks see through my eyes...


We appreciate you all and want to wish you a Merry Christmas and an even better New Year for 2011!!
Thank you,Terry Babb
Oldesouth Farm

Heading into the Holidays...

Time moves to fast for me...  Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas Season is upon us.  Our weather went from warm to cold again and we are checking for snotty noses on our young kids.  Extra bedding and full bellies keep the babies warm.



We are preparing to go on DHIR (Dairy Herd Improvement Registry) Test and working out the many details.  Once we get going, things will sort themselves out.  We have been milking with the Capralite Machine, which has been wonderful, once a day, until the kids are weaned.  We will milk twice a day once the kids are weaned.  We are milking 8 does now, until several others freshen.  We have several kids who are half bottle babies.  What does that mean??  We are milking mom in the morning and if she has triplets, we need to bottle them to keep the kids from attacking mom and biting teats while they fight for a teat.  We have a couple of kids who have just decided they want some bottle too and show up for a snack.  This tames the kids, but gives us the flexibity to not have to bottle them while at work.  The kids have mom during the day, until moms are locked up at night for morning milking.


The fresh Nigerian milk is wonderful and the cheese even better.  The yield of cheese, with the Nigerians, compared to the Nubian is almost double.  Nigerians have more milk fat and protein.  The smaller teats of the Nigerian makes it difficult to hand milk.  My hands are large and shot from hand milking.  My Nubian Ariel is hand milked because she has large teats and it takes just a few minutes to milk her.  We will be the FIRST and ONLY Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Herd on DHI test in Alabama! 


As our does freshen, we will milk them and decide who to keep and who to move on.  These does will be used to milking both with a machine and by hand.  We do have a waiting list for milk stand trained goats.  If you are interested in a home milker, let us know and we will add you to the list.  These will not be record breaking producers, but will give enough milk for the average family.  Some may even end up quite nice down the road if one continues to milk them.  The more you milk your goats, the more milk they will produce.  The less you milk, the less they produce.  It looks like the blogger photo insertion is not working, so we will cut this short and add photos at another time.  I have some great shots of Oldesouth Blue Alexa's second freshening udder.  It is really nice and she is milking over a pound and a half once a day.  She may just qualify for her star this year.  We will wait and see.  The cold weather has the girls giving less milk.  They milk the best at about 50 to 70 degrees.  I think this will ease up once the girls get used to the colder weather. 



We are going to move in another large storage shed type building to make into a milking Parlor and clean up area.  It will be heated and cooled and have hot & cold running water.  It will be a joy to milk, no matter the weather.  It will not be Grade A or anything, but comfortable for us and the girls.  We won't have the water dripping on our heads either.  When we have frost on the metal buildings, as soon as the sun comes up and it begins to thaw, it is like a rain forest dripping on us.  It is absolutely miserable...  Enough for now...

Thanksgiving is near...

As Thanksgiving approaches, Mr Paul tells me we are going to have one of the Tom Turkeys for dinner.  I can not eat either one of them and they would dress out at a huge weight.  Who is going to eat all that turkey?  We still have turkey and ham vacuum packed from last year.  That was my excuse for not killing my beautiful Turkeys.  The one below is suppose to be a Royal Palm.  But he has some tan on him as well.  His build is lighter then the Broad Breasted Bronze Turkey.  The Palm and his hen can roost on the gates.  The Bronze Turkeys are to big to fly or even roost up high and sleep on the ground with the guardian dogs.

This is the group of Toms, pictured below.  You can see the difference in size and width of the two different breeds.

 Another shot of the three Toms.  The Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys are molting and still growing new tail feathers.  The Royal Palm in the back is a younger Tom, probably 3 months younger then the big boys.

My favorite Tom is this one to the right.  He looks like he has apples hanging.  They are very tame and will let you pet them and will come running up to you like a herd of dinosaurs.  Tom is still bringing in new tail feathers and wing feathers.  He will be really beautiful next year when he has a beard.






The weather keeps fluctuating from Hot to Cold and we have had some frost. With the hot and cold fluctuations, the young kids get snotty noses.  We have to watch closely or we can loose a baby or two to pneumonia.   We have a bunch of kids at the moment.



The last blog had Annie Oakley very pregnant and she had quad bucks.  Two will be offered as bucks and Annie has one heck of an udder this year.  Then things really got going and Thundersnow, Silver Queen, Brat, AnnaLynn, Sweet Caroline, Onyx, and then Amber Blue kidded within days of each other.  We had the lambing pens full of goat moms with kids.  They sure are handy and recommend them for kidding or lambing.  They fold up and can be stacked alongside a building when not in use.  Will get pictures of everyone For Sale on the Goat Sales Page shortly.

We have finally made the decision to bite the bullet and go for the Capralite Milker from Furney Register.  We considered a reworked cow milker from a fella on EBay who collects the old bellie cow milkers and retro fits them for goats with a reworked pump.  The price was half of a new milker, but upon further questioning the fella, he did not respond to emails.  That, to me, was a good indication of after the purchase service.  It would really suck if it was junk and I would have to pay for the new milker anyway.

Furney from Capralite is a character and even answers his own phone when you call him.  We received the machine and called Furney and he talked us through the set up and was fantastic.  I highly recommend him and the machine has been working great.  I am milking ten Nigerian does in the morning.  Their kids are a bit over 2 weeks of age.  I have one, Amber Blue who was being hand milked and was trained to the stand when we received the machine.  She is a first freshener and is taking to the machine well.  She is a daughter of Butter and we hope to get her miking like her mom who has given half a gallon when she first freshened.  The other does are still getting used to the whole thing and of course we have Brat in the line up.  Actually she is doing well, not throwing herself on the ground anymore...  I am milking Blue as well and her baby is ready to wean.  Blue is used to being hand milked and does not mind the machine at all.

Alexa, Brat, AnnaLynn, and Sweet Caroline are milking the best so Far.  We are working the details out to go on test DHIA in January 2011.  Our Alabama DHIA is out of Auburn and we are working on details to become certified DHIA testers and arrange verification testing through our Alabama DHIA.  I was more then thrilled to learn we even had an Alabama DHIA!!




We have also made arrangements for a couple of One Day Milk Tests in January and February.   It is amazing how the girls are improving with their milk in just a weekend of machine milking.  I have some Chevre cheese going as I am typing and will drain it when I finish this blog...  Nigerian Milk is so rich and creamy, it makes spectacular cheese.

We went to the Peanut Festival at Dothan, Alabama and our Oldesouth Girls did very well. We came home with Grand and Reserve Senior and JR does and Brat took Best of Breed. She had just freshened two days prior to the show and is milked out in her picture.

We are done showing for this year and will put together a calender for next year shows. We are also planning linear appraisals (Physical Evaluations of each goat) for our herd and young stock. ADGA does rounds in the fall to Alabama, but most of my herd is dry during that time. We will either milk into that time, change breeding dates or do a special session.  Still considering options to get it all done.

Blue Amber, daughter of Oldesouth Blue Alexa won Reserve Champion Jr Doe.  She is a lovely doe like her mother and she is pregnant as well.

We will have pictures of the new babies shortly and will post the For Sale pictures as well.  The babies are all together and it is difficult to get pictures with out help to hold each kid to take a good picture of them, rather then a group of gangsters running around like a herd of bratty baby goats.
 

More later... it has been a busy week and need to go drain my Chevre cheese.

Fall needs to stay and Summer go away...

It has been HOT the last few days and humid.  Boy, I hate humid weather.  Still waiting for goats to kid.  Mr General sure took his time in getting the girls in a motherly way...  Big belly's everywhere, but still no babies.  Annie is pictured to the right and below.

Have checked on Annie Oakley twice, she is huge.  She is clipped up to go to a couple of shows, thinking she would kid prior to the show.  But she is holding out and  is way to pregnant to stress at a show.  She has been left home.  Annie herself is a quintuplet.  She had a single her first freshening, a beautiful doe, Oldesouth Galloway.  She looks like she has at least quads this time...

Annie is a really nice doe and so Dairy.  Her udder is great and she has perfect teat placement.  She is pictured very close to her second freshening.  Maybe she will kid today, will check her again shortly.

Fall color is coming slowly and photo to the right

shows the Pecan trees turning color.

Hannah our newest Heifer calf is pictured to the left.

These bantam chickens are an elderly couple.  Not sure exactly how old they are, but I have had them over 3 years and they were given to me.  Have not had eggs out of the hen in years so can only guess their age.  They are together all the time, like Grandma and Grandpa.

This is AnnaLynn, Blue's daughter by Buddy.  She is one of the does we are waiting on.  She will be freshening for her second time.  Her sister was beautiful and had a single doe, we named Reba.  Her udder was outstanding and I was sooo excited to have a yearling for the show ring.  Well, that was not meant to be and I found sister, who looked asleep, dead (never did find out the cause).  Reba was jumping on her back, trying to awaken her mom.  We started to bottle feed Reba and she was doing great.  When Reba was about a month old, AnnaLynn lost her kid and I had to help with the miscarriage.  I kept AnnaLynn in a stall with Reba, so I could check her and treat her if necessary.  Well, AnnaLynn adopted Reba and ended up raising her, milking fairly well for not being full term.  This pregnancy AnnaLynn looks really good and may even be as nice as her sister was.

This little rooster is a bantam brought to me by a friend.  Is he not beautiful, such color!

These two characters are Father(front) and Son (back).  This is Bubba and The Politician.   Both of these Nigerian Bucks are For Sale.  Check out our Goat Sales Page.  They are nice bucks, their height is within the standard, I estimate 22-23 inches and The Politician was shown last fall and they have the bucks pass under a measure stick as they enter the ring at most shows.  I have used these two bucks for years, Bubba is 5, Politician is 4 and they are ready to move on to another farm.

Enough for now, need to go check Annie...