I consider November an entire month of Thanksgiving. Alabama is absolutely beautiful in November, 70 degrees and absolutely beautiful. I Thank the Lord for every beautiful day! It is the first of November and we have been busy putting up some square bales of hay and I traveled to Prattville to get some Alfalfa Hay which has been imported from Oklahoma. The Alfalfa is spectacular. I like to feed alfalfa to my growing boers and milking does. I like to give some alfalfa to my young Icelandic ewes as well to give them a boost before fall breeding.
The picture on the right is what our operation looks like at the moment. I had put up 3 car ports with a storage unit, which is to the left of the picture and another, two car ports (the right) to give the bucks shelter. The bucks are housed separate from the does and only together during planned breeding times. If one does not manage the bucks as such, the bucks are breeding their moms, sisters, aunts, etc. Not the best case scenario. I usually hand breed the does as they come into heat. This makes it easy to know when they will kid. I occasionally put a buck with the group and record the dates he is with the group. This lets me know via their gestation period, who the daddy is.
The picture on the left is my herd of Nigerian Does, Boer Does and mixed Boer Does out grazing on a beautiful day. We have hayed the entire farm to reduce parasites. The little worm larva have a nasty habit of crawling to the tops of grass, waiting for a goat or sheep to ingest them and do their deed of growing inside the animal and causing problems, the number one problem is usually anemia (blood loss). By haying the fields, we cut the little buggers down, dry them and bale them up, killing them and stopping their life cycle of sucking goats and sheep of all their blood. We have had several frosts, which also knock the little buggers off.
It has been a long day and I feel I have run a marathon. I will take an epsoms salt soak and make a light supper. Sunday I will be devoting most of the day to making Goat Milk Lotion. I had trouble getting the ingredients and now have them, so need to make a bunch in time for Christmas and my retail commitments.
You all take care and more later...
