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.
OLDESOUTH FARM We are a small Family farm raising high quality Nigerian Dwarf Goats. We offer Show Quality Dairy Goats that Milk for the discriminating buyer.
