HELLO TO EVERYONE!

It has been some time since I have Blogged.  We have not fallen off the face of the earth.  Lots going on and heading into a new level at Oldesouth Farm. We hope you had a great Holiday Season and 2015 is the year of the GOAT!  We have had some time off from milking and the next generation will begin to appear next week.  Back into the saddle and the kidding pens are ready.

We are reworking the milking parlor to milk two does at once and can bring 4 does in, clean them and begin to milk while the other two eat and are washed.  I am trying to speed up the milking process so more does can be milked.  I have 6 yearlings and 3 two year old does I want to fit into the milking string.  Currently I am milking one at a time and it takes an hour and 15 minutes to milk, 15 minutes to clean up.  I have 1 1/2 hours to milk and get to work.  I will get up 1/2 hr earlier to bottle feed.  Everything has to be on a schedule in order to fit it in. We will save a lot of time milking two at once and may work up to milking 30 in the same time frame.  Will see how it all goes.

We have had two yearling does make their milk Stars and Advanced Registry with both ADGA and AGS.

The doe to the left is Farm Oldesouth SD Dessee 3*M AR, 4*D AR.  She is the daughter of Rain-Beau.

This yearling doe is Farm Oldesouth Blessed Angel 4*M AR, 4*D AR, daughter of our lovely SG Oldesouth SR Cuppuccino 3*M AR, 3*D AR.

I like to breed my young does to kid as yearlings and milk them as long as we can stand to.  Then as second fresheners they milk like crazy.

I also feed my milking does for production.  It is much different then just feeding the girls.  I feed the girls on the stand and again when finished milking.  I like the Purina Products. This year we were able to get our hands on some nice Alfalfa and the girls milked double crazy.

Visit and LIKE our Farm Face Book Page at Oldesouth Farm Nigerian Goats.

We will be on Standard DHIR again this year and will LA our herd once more.  We are in the Performance Plus Program with ADGA and on DHIR for both ADGA and AGS.

We are working toward our TB and Brucellosis certification and will begin in March.  The entire herd will be tested.  Then in 2016 the herd will be tested once more and then yearly.  This will allow us to show in most states and not have to get a TB and Brucellosis which only lasts one month each time we head south into Florida.

Our Breeding schedule is posted for 2015 kiddings at our website:   www.oldesouth.citymax.com.

Have a GREAT GOAT YEAR!

Fall is here at last!

The entire summer has been so hot and humid, we can barely get anything done before dehydrating. September into the beginning of October was still hot!  We need a break in the humidity to catch up on a lot of chores.


July came and went and our girls did well at the Nationals in Louisville, KY.  Everyone placed in the top 20 does, many did top 10.  It was nice to be in an air conditioned building.  It was a long week and do wish it was not so long.  We are required to be there the entire week and really feel it is just to long.  More folks would be able to attend if it was cut in half and not an entire week.  To many folks have jobs and farms to care for and it is a hardship to be there an entire week, not including the driving days. We are really happy when it is OVER!

Farm Oldesouth SV Cuppuccino 3*M, 3*D placed eighth at the ADGA Nationals in Kentucky.  She is a two year old milker who has just hit 1000 pounds on her milk testing for DHIR.

          Farm Oldesouth SR Cuppuccino 3*M, 3*D                                                  

Farm Oldesouth SR Cuppucino 3*M, 3*D and her dam GCH Oldesouth Blue Amber 2*M, 2*D

GCH Oldesouth Blue Amber 2*M, 2*D

It is late October and just now cooling down.  We have AIed a few does this year and collecting bucks as well.  We have several bucks listed on our website in the Semen Sales section for your consideration.  We will have *B Oldesouth ZV Marquise Diamond *S and Oldesouth Sun Ray collected the end of November by Cam Faircloth.

We went to the Spencer Farm fund raiser for Labor Day and met Joel Salatin, author of several farming books.  He signed my, "You can Farm" book, one of the first ones I read by him.  The farm tour was great!

We will be raising another 15 Cornish Rock chickens this fall. We like the short grow out of these birds to 6 weeks and done.  We will have plenty of home grown chicken for the winter.  The spring chickens are gone except for two whole birds saved for company.  This group will be halved and frozen.  The half birds were really convenient for our family.

We have attended the Alabama National Fair in early October and took home a few ribbons.  We only took milkers this year and left the kids home.  We came home with Grand Champion Sr Doe, Reserve Champion SR Doe and Best of Breed Nigerian.  We took six does and won six first placements.

Farm Oldesouth Sunshine 2*M, 2*D

Won Grand Champion SR doe and her first leg towards her Championship as a three year old milker.

Farm Oldesouth SR Cuppuccino 3*M, 3*D

Won Reserve Grand Champion SR doe as a two year old milker.

SGCH / ARMCH NC Promisedland Rain-Beau 2*M, 3*D 

Won the Champion Challenge and Best Of 
Breed Nigerian.

The below photo is of Rain-Beau at her peak milk production in July 2014 at eight years of age.

 Farm Oldesouth Blessed Angel

She is a first freshener yearling milker and won her class at the Alabama National Fair.  She is close to earning her milk stars and one of our favorite young does.

We have one more show to attend in November and then will crank down the milk to dry everyone off by the end of December.  We will take a break until Feb 2015 when the kidding begins.

We have had a great year and are Thankful for the lovely goats and good folks we have met along the way. 

Check out our Breeding Schedule at:

 http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/breedingschedule.html

June already...

It is already mid Jun and time flies by...  We have been hip deep in bottle babies and reducing the herd a bit to really focus on the lovely ladies we have.  Rain-Beau has freshened, Galloway and Cappuccino daughter Blessed Angel.  We have some competition this year.  Could not make the Show in LA, due to everyone going into labor.  All is good, and we will see how the girls do at Nationals in July.

We have our hay bought, have sold the Turkeys and most of the chickens.  The donkeys are spoken for and the Deer Folks will begin to purchase milk shortly.  Sales of the two calves have paid for the hay and it is nice when the farm pays for itself.

We still have some nice young does from some first fresheners which are priced lower until they make their milk stars and have show wins.  Call us at 334-327-9252 to inquire about some nice baby doelings I have not had a chance to post on our site.

Lost in Space...

It has been awhile since we have posted.  Did not realize how long.  Time goes by to fast for me!  We went to the Peanut festival in November our last show.  Scandal won another Championship leg and needs one more to be an SGCH.  She is my only doe to settle with AI.  She is bred to JNels Be Bop.  I need more practice and will get this AI down eventually!

Dried everyone off by the end of December and took a break.  Went to Virginia to pick up a Rain-Beau daughter and she kidded two weeks after arriving.  Did our annual blood testing a bit late due to schedule conflicts with Vet, but done in January.  Our 9 th test and tenth year of raising Nigerians.  All negative for CAE and Johnes and had 14 pregnancy tests done.  13 pregnant for sure, one a high retest.  Excellent and waiting for the kidding to begin.

We are on test for our forth year and standard test our second year.  We have at least two does up for top ten.  Udiamond and Rain-Beau are the top contenders.  Our deer folks buying all our milk paid for the feed and I fed them well!  Pampered Diva's they are.

We are excited about 2014 and can not wait to hit some shows!  It has been a really cold winter and even snow, which took several days to go away.  Some of my youngsters to watch are Oldesouth SD Rain Deesse, Oldesouth SR Cuppiccino, Oldesouth Sweet Thyme who is a BSki daughter by the General who has really come to her own this winter, and the entire Diva Baby group who most will be shown as jrs.

We are going to LA this year to see how we are doing with our improvement program.  We will LA every other year and are in the DHIR plus ADGA program.  We plan to test with AGS as well and will not test with NDGA.  Their DHIR program is not up to our standards and we need to move on.

Stay tuned... We are excited to see what our breeding program is and where we will go from here!

Love October!

October is my favorite month and goes by way to fast.  Cool, dry weather and the trees are showing a touch of color.  Today we have some rain and it is a bit cold, so it is a good day to update what is happening.

We went to an AI Refresher course in Georgia with Cam Fairchild.  We synced and bred two does.  He told us when we start we will have a 50% success rate.  When we are good, it will increase to 70%.  Well, Alexa came back into heat, but it looks like Scandal is bred.  We will draw blood shortly to know for sure.  Most of the herd is going the natural route and we are using a few young Oldesouth bucks.  Rain-Beau boys are looking great and Amber's son Crimson Tide will breed most of the does.

We have been to the Alabama National Fair and won the milking classes and brought home Grand and Reserve Champion does in milk.  SG NC Promisedland BHP Scandal 4*M AR, 5*D took the Grand and our baby Oldesouth SR Cuppuccino took the reserve as a yearling.  Rain-Beau took the Best Of Breed and later won BEST IN SHOW.  This is her third BIS for the year.  Rain-Beau has really turned out to be an awesome doe.  I purchased her as a brood doe, fat and furry.  She cleans up really well...

Most of our milking string is into their 8th month of milk and many are pregnant.  All that milking pays off at the fall shows when most herds have either dried their does off or the does are fading in their milk.  It is really important to milk the first fresheners as long as you can stand to.  Then as second fresheners... and beyond, they are magnificent.

(above are the 4 Best In Show wins for 2013.  One is from our buck Oldesouth Blue Blanc Sabr

and the other three are from Rain-Beau.)

 

Wins for the year so far with the Peanut Festival our final show:

2 AGS does Finished Champions

2 ADGA does Finished Champions

9 Grand Champion titles

3 New Stared Milkers

1 SG doe



We have been selling off sheep, have our calves sold with cows due in December and the pigs will be heading to Freezer Camp next week.  Two of the Tom Turkeys born in the spring will be heading to Freezer Camp and a couple of lambs.  Our freezers will be full.

The hay is bought and delivered with the only thing to do is plant some rye grass for winter in one pasture.  It will be a nice addition to the hay for both the goats and cattle.  The goats can graze it when it is small and the cattle when it grows tall.

It has been a fast and furious year and we are thankful for the wins and wonderful goats we have been blessed with.

We have recovered... From Nationals...

SGCH / ARMCH NC Promisedland Rain-Beau 2*M AR, 3*D

National Best Udder and Top Production for Butter Fat Award

***We are planning on AI for Rain-Beau to Chenango-Hills Lysander *B 2014***

 

What is it like to go to Nationals?  Wow, where to begin...  Working to get the time off from work, that was a miracle to begin with.  Patsie and I left July 4th, before the rain broke loose.  We were on the road two days, milking at 12 hour intervals.  Managed to get through a hurricane rain storm from Culmon, AL all the way to Kentucky.  We had some leak issues in the trailer and rigged some tarps to channel the leaks away from our Diva Girls.

We arrived at the show at St Paul, Minnesota the morning of July 6 th to the Vet check in.  No problems, we had our paper work and tattoos in order (can you imagine us with our act together) and off to unload.  We had no idea the stalls were 1/4 mile from our unloading zone.  OMG, never hauled so much stuff so far in my life!  There were no young folks for hire either and it was to bad, so sad.  Guess my cardiovascular system is ok or I would have Dropped Dead that day...  Thank Goodness, Patsie brought that wagon I fussed over (taking up space, etc) ... it saved me from keeling over right there!  Later we found out we could have unloaded on the other side of the barn and had about 6 stalls to haul the stuff!!!

Our lodging was in the dorms of the pig barn, another 1/4 mile or seemed 1/2 mile away from our goats which were moved to the horse barn.  We thought we were in one spot and were told no, we were in the wrong spot and moved, you guessed it, another 1/4 mile further from everything...  Wish I had brought my roller skates...

We signed up for the pig barn and were moved to the horse barn.  No problem, we had plenty of room for the goats, some folks were on top of each other and with it being so hot and humid, we thought we had brought Alabama with us.  We had a breeze and some draft horse open stalls across the way, so we had room to breath and could use fans for a breeze.

The dorms were ok, had showers and all gals, but had to go up two fights of stairs to get there. It kicked our butts each and every time we dragged our exhausted selves up it!  I thought I was in reasonable shape... boy was I wrong!  We walked so much from everywhere to everything, I had to tape my shines for shine splints.  Thought I was back in boot camp marching...

The show ring was beautiful, but the nearest pee spot... you guessed it... long way off... no bathrooms in the show building...  You all can imagine what that is like without TMI...

We enjoyed the show and we were to busy to take photos.  Then I find out the photographer did not take photos of the Nigerians past the two year olds.  Very disappointing...  So no photos of the older does and no line up, no best udder... no anything!  Next Nationals, I will take someone with us to take photos!

Rain-Beau took Second in the over 7 class and second to the National Champion, which was a lovely little doe... what an udder she had.  Rain-Beau took first udder over the National Champion and then went back into the ring where we milked them out right there, those photos lost too, to take National Best Udder.  She also won the Production Award for Butter Fat.

Oldesouth Galloway and GCH Oldesouth Blue Amber took 6th and 7th place in the 3 year old milker classes, which was excellent.  Our Juniors, which I am never strong in, won 19th, 20th and Little Bootsie owned by Patsie won 16th.  The classes were very large and we were happy to MAKE THE CUT, kind of thing.

Would we go back to MN, no way...  If NO AC, we are not going!!!   It was a ONCE in a life time experience, but we are going to Kentucky next year.  We sort of know what we are doing (HA HA) and will prepare better and have only 7 hours to drive, not two days!!  The Kentucky show will be HUGE!  The southeast has some fine goats and we will see what happens in 2014!  BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

GCH Oldesouth Blue Amber 2*M AR, 2*D, 2+DAR

7th National Show 2013

**This doe will be bred to Oldesouth SD Vine Rough *S, son of Rain Beau for 2014 kids.

 

Oldesouth Galloway, 6th National Show 2013 will be bred to SD Vine Rough *S or his brother Oldesouth SD Sauveur *S also.  I purchased semen in 2012 from JNels from Chenango-Hills Lysander *B and plan on using him for Rain-Beau for 2014.

 

We are on Standard DHIR and show our goats.  We offer Excellence in conformation and milk.  Our website is:  www.oldesouth.citymax.com .  Check out our breeding schedule, which is not completed, to many excellent bucks to choose from.  But will have it all completed by the end of August.  We will be kidding in January for our milking girls on DHIR.  Check us out and call me Terry Babb for any questions:  334-327-9252.

 

We are grateful for the awards our does received and the folks at Vaughan Regional Hospital who made it happen for the time off to attend the show!  Thank YOU!!

 

 



What a month!! May has been awesome!

Wow!  We have hit two shows this month and have brought home the awards.  What a blessing and I am so proud of our little gals!  Milk is a flowing and happy girls produce wonderful milk!

We have been attending dual sanctioned ADGA/AGS shows to pick up both legs in one shot. I love the ADGA and AGS and want to have my goats receive awards in both associations.  We are located in the middle of no where.  So to go to shows in GA or LA are close to the same distance.  Go west this year is our plan.  At least we do not have to go through the Atlanta traffic which is the worst in the country!  Hate Atlanta!  Once came through at midnight and took 2 hours to get through due to some folks screwing around with the road and one lane open.  My legs were cramping from the stop and go and when we finally got up to the work area, the guys were doing nothing!  I would have fired them all if they had worked for me... Have not gone through Atlanta since...

Our last show was in Baton Rouge, LA.  Delta Dairy Goat Association.  Excellent show and lots of room at the building.  We ate some fine sea food with a bit of heat.  Highly recommend the show!

Our winnings are as follows:

Ring one:  SGCH NC Promiesedland Rain-Beau needed one more leg for her ARMCH in AGS and she won Grand Champion SR Doe and Best Udder.  Since no Champion Challenge Class we pulled her from the show so others could win.

Oldesouth SD Rain Deesse won Grand Champion JR Doe in ring one.  She was pulled from the show and had her restricted leg.

Both Rain-Beau and her daughter Deesse were finished at this show and could relax.










Ring two:  Oldesouth Blue Amber 2*M, 2*D, 2+DAR won her second leg and Best Udder for her GCH in ADGA and 1st leg in AGS.















Ring Three:  SGCH (pending) NC Promiseland SIA Sunra won her last leg for her AGS, MCH award and Best Udder.  We pulled her from the show at this point.
Ring Four:  Oldesouth Blue Amber 2*M, 2*D, 2+DAR won her last leg of her ADGA championship and her 2nd leg of her AGS championship.








***Then Oldesouth Blue Blanc Sabr won his second ADGA and AGS legs with Grand Champion Sr Buck.  He also went on to win Best Buck in Show!.
 (below)




What a weekend!  The weather was not to hot, had a full moon to drive home in, could not have been a better weekend.  We arrived safely back at 1 am Monday and had the day to recoup before going back to work.

We won 6 Grands and a BIS out of the 4 shows attended.  What a weekend....

***We have decided to not participate in ADGA Linear Appraisals this year due to them being scheduled in July.  We have participated in 2011 and 2012.  July is hell is Alabama and most of our girls freshen in Jan, Feb, through April.  We do not think a good evaluation in 125 degree heat index and 100% humidity will be an option.  I think the poor Appraiser will fall out with heat stroke, especially if they are not accustomed to the Alabama heat.  We have decided to LA every other year and will do the 2014 LAs.  If the time frame schedule does not suit us, we will conduct a special session as we did in 2012.  If we do a special session, we will open our farm to a few select farms, so stay tuned for 2014.