Back again

Well it has been awhile since I've posted, no excuse other than busy farm life. Just sold some of the feeder goats weighing around 55# last weekend. Usually the price is low in summer, but the price was $1.78/lb, which is better than last month. Not sure of the reason, but suspect there was just a shortage of animals being sold.

This past month it has been hard putting weight on the feeder goats. I have dewormed them, but I think it is just the heat that is preventing them from eating. Just too hot! We have had temps in the 100's and little wind. It takes 6 lbs of feed for every pound gained. Since they can only eat around 3% of their body weight, it takes many days to put on the pounds. I have around 45 goats yet to sell, and I believe my does will start kidding at the end of September/October time frame. Then the fun begins all over.

Getting Feed

We feed our goats primarily alfalfa hay during the winter and pasture them during the summer. Only when the does have babies do I put out grain as creep feed for the kids. I use whole oats to creep with, mainly because it is a good protein source plus we raise some, and can purchase it in bulk at our local coop for $2.01/hundred pounds. Mr. Farmer has the job of getting it into the bin for me to feed from, and he is doing such a great job!

Really Growing

It doesn't take long for the little guys to really put on some weight. These kids were born early February, weighing around 6-8 lbs, and now look at them.

Banding the boys

Well we are about a week late on re-vaccinating, but that is just how it is sometimes. I band the boys at this time, following their 2nd shot of C-D-&T. The T stands for tetnus, which is a disease they can get by getting cut with anything rusty, or can get following banding.

Banding is the process of removing the testicles of the boys, making them unable to breed. It is fairly painless, with the kids maybe laying around a little more often for a day. The bander just places a band (similiar to a rubber band) around the testicles, shutting off the blood supply and causing the bag to fall off in a couple of weeks. I have posted a few photos showing the process.

Treating Scours

We've had wet, cool weather, and unfortunately that sometimes leads to scours (upset tummy's). The signs are loose stools, sometimes a drawing up, or hunching up in the abdominal area, and just off behavior.

I am treating 3 babies for the scours. I work with my vet to get some scour pills, "primor" to give to them. It was orignally designed for dogs, but works well for goat kids. The prescription says 1 per 10# of body weight, and then give for 10 days. It seems to work, and I use a small dog pill gun to make them swallow the pills. After you give it to them you should watch to be sure they swallow the pills, because they can fool you. I usually start treating at the first sign of scours as I do not want them to get dehydrated.

1st Vaccinations

Saturday afternoon my children and I tackled the job of vaccinating all the babies. This usually can be a challenging event as sometimes arguments occur as to who has what job assigned to them. This time, everything worked great. We vaccinated 84 babies. Lori was the supreme goat catcher, Megan was a close 2nd but had the major job of double checking all tag records, and recording them as they received their shots, and Kaylee helped catch the babies, and placed a green mark after they received their shots. This helped us identify who we needed to catch yet. I don't really have working facilities yet, so I rely on the speed of my kids. Nate and Mr. Farmer were at a farm sale so they missed out on all the excitement, but Nate said we missed out on some good pie! I have received a few emails as to what product I vaccinate with so I have included a photo. I order mine from Mid-states wool, but I know Valley Vet, Tractor Supply, and Orschelin's also carry it. 2cc's given under the skin and then repeated in 2-3 weeks. The only thing that could have made it better was if our "Haley" would have been there.

Monday

It is time to begin vaccinating the little guys. I was ready to begin this weekend, but with the yucky weather, I decided to put it off for a few days. We will vaccinate them with CD&T, 2 cc's given via injection just under the skin. The target area is just behind their front leg in the loose skin. Then in 2 weeks I will revaccinate with the same stuff, and then also band the little boys. We will take pictures, and try to walk everyone through the process.

#56 & #57 delivered compliments of Nate!

Had to run to a ballgame, and Doe #13 was looking suspicious. Nate stayed in the barn with her while I left, and when I returned he had successfully helped deliver the newest two babies. One was born problem free, but he had to assist the last one being born. He had never done that before, and did a great job !

Section 3 - Loving up that baby

Video of a live birth Section 2

Video of a live birth

I was lucky enough to have the camera with me and videoed a doe having a baby. This is very graphic, and shot in three parts. Hopefully it uploads ok.

Well it has been awhile since we've posted. Been busy with yucky weather just trying to keep everything warm and dry. We lost one goat baby because it got stepped on, one baby has become a bottle baby and one is an orphan named "Lucy". Today 3 does had babies, and I am hoping to graft "Lucy" onto doe #44 as she only had a single.

50 babies have arrived

Well over a period of 5 days, 49 babies were born. Crazy! Yesterday, a doe had a single which brought the total to 50! What were we thinking!

I have turned the group out of their small pens into a larger pen. They are romping round, and then usually all pile up for a long nap. Drives their mom's crazy trying to keep track of all the little guys.

Only problems I am dealing with are two babies got too cold. One due to the fact it's mother decided to kick it out and not feed it. It was a triplet, and sometimes when the weather gets rough, they do decide to only take care of what they think they can raise. Anyway, he is now in the process of being grafted onto a doe with only a single. It is going pretty well.

The other little guy just didn't handle the weather to well. She is looking better today, and I have been keeping her in a heated room in the barn and just taking her back and forth to her mom. Hopefully she will get better. Still have 23 does to go, but should be a little more spread out.

Crazy Day - I am so, so tired!

The day started at 2:00 a.m. for Mr. Farmer and myself. We checked the does, and saw what appeared to be a dead baby goat near a doe having another baby. We went to pick it up to get rid of it when we barely heard it make a noise. It was almost gone, but we warmed it up with vigerous rubbing in our heated room, and soaked it in a bucket of very warm water for almost an hour.

While we were doing all that, 2 more does decided to kid. One needed help with triplets, and the other had twins. One of the triplets was stillborn, but the other two kids just needed assistance being born and warmed up. At 7:00 a.m. we had 7 new babies. It was a busy morning trying to help everything stay warm, yet also place them with their moms to encourage the bonding and feeding. It was a challenge to say the least but all are doing good.

Throughout the day, an additional 7 more babies were born. One set of triplets had to be pulled, but the other 4 were born with no difficulty. The toughest part is building enough pens to hold everyone, tagging everything, and then hand feeding and watering all the pens. I am getting too old to be climbing in and out of all these pens. Since I am running out of room, several of the earlier born kids have been turned out into a larger pen with their moms. Mr. Farmer built a "safe zone" for the kids in that pen. It is really just a fenced off corner under the shed that the kids can get to but their moms can't. It prevents them from getting hurt or stepped on. Plus he has hung a heat lamp to shine on them. It is a nice sight to see them all snuggled in and sleeping.

Well that is all for now. Just checked and everything looks good, I just hope it all stays quiet though the night. I will know more at midnight when I wake to look everything over.

Ready or not!

Just as I predicted, the day I had to be 4 hours away from the farm, the does decided to deliver in mass. The good thing was that my family was paying attention and took care of all the craziness. Babies started coming late friday night, saturday morning, and saturday afternoon. I arrived just in time to help settle the mom's and new babies in their pens, and help with the last two does that kidded.

The kids (mine) helped me tag the babies and record which does delivered. Keeping records are important, especially if little babies move around and get into the wrong pen. After all they all look alike, and until we get to know them better, having a record helps us keep everyone straight.

Sunday afternoon, Megan's 4-H doe had triplets. She was acting crazy in the big pen. She would lay down have one, then get up, run around and act like she didn't know what was happening. We were lucky that we were around. We gathered up the 3 babies, made a small pen and placed the doe and 3 kids in it. This allowed her to settle down, and focus on the triplets. I don't know why some does act this way, but they usually snap out of it once penned. Unfortunately if you aren't around when this happens, the babies can get ignored and die or the mom just refuses to take care of them. Glad we had made it home from church in time to help.

Wednesday morning

Well I penned up two does last night thinking they might kid. I checked them at 10:30 p.m., 1:30 a.m., and 5:00 a.m. No babies yet, but they welcomed their grain and hay for breakfast. Looking through the herd there are 10+ showing all the signs of being ready to go. I imagine they are waiting until Saturday morning because I have a scheduled presentation I need to do in Parson, KS that day. That is usually how it works. (smile)

I can tell the little buck is about ready to be turned out of the jug pen and into a larger pen. Today he was beginning to really find his legs and jump in the air. He also was climbing on his mom's back when she was lying down. When the babies get into that playful mode, I know they are able to handle being in a larger pen.

1st arrival

Number 21 was the first doe to kid. She has been really big, and hanging off by herself the last few days. She went into labor and had a large male kid. I knew she had to have more inside, but unfortunately her second baby was born dead. As she was delivering it, I knew something was wrong, because instead of the sac being bright red and blue, it was dull brown and had a bad smell to it. Once it was out, I was able to examine it and it appeared to have died several days ago as it was less developed than the live kid. I am watching her to be sure their aren't any others inside her. I checked and her birthing canal is open, so if there is another one she should be able to have it. It is just an odd situation. We are excited about the new baby though. He has nursed several times, and appears to be doing well. The doe is a good mom and is taking good care of him. My daughter took some photos and video that hopefully we can upload.

Still Waiting....

The weather is good, I think I am ready, now if the does would just cooperate. It is like watching water boil.

Thursday Morning

No babies as of 7:30 a.m. this morning. Yesterday I decided to get some more supplies ready just in case I need them. I try to have a small feeding tube and 60 cc syringe available to assist any babies that are born too weak to nurse or are born and get to cold to nurse. I have had them very lethargic and weak, tubed them with 60 cc's of their mom's milk, and had them jump back into life. It is like giving them a huge energy boost. I never tube a baby that will suck on your finger or nurse a bottle. I only tube the worse cases, and usually have pretty good success. I would caution anyone not to tube them too often as I think it irritates their esophagus if done too often. Other supplies I have ready are heat lamps, jugging pens, clean cloths, and plastic gloves in case I need to assist the doe.

Wednesday Morning

Checked the goats at 3:00 a.m. Lucky Mr. Farmer installed a yard light on my new shed so it is easier to check the herd. I think they are tired of me waking them up so early. I look for goats that are away from the herd, as they often separate themselves when they are ready to kid. However there are always those few who aren't shy and will have their babies right in the middle of the pack. Not good as the new arrivals are then easily stepped on.

As I walk through the herd, I look to see which ones have really dropped in their back end. They become more steep from their hip back, I believe it is a result of their pelvis preparing to deliver kids.

Prior to raising these goats, my only experience in livestock births was with cattle. This experience has helped me when having to assist births, but I expected the goats to give more signs prior to birthing, but I have found they aren't real helpful in that area. It never fails the ones I think are going to kid, don't, and another one will that has fooled me. This is my third year of doing this now, and so I am getting better at recognizing what signs they do give. So if this is your first time kidding goats, look for the drop in the back end, loss of their mucus plug (snowy white mucus verses clear mucus), and then abnormal herd behavior. When they show these signs you are usually within a few days or hours of kidding.

January 11, 2010

We are in the process of checking the does 2-3 times each night. We check them just before bed 10:30 p.m., then around 2:00 a.m., and again at 5:00 a.m. Last week the temperatures were around -20 degrees wind chill. Too cold to be having baby goats. I kept hoping the does would hold out and they did thank goodness. They are really showing their pregnancy now, which if you haven't been around goats before, you might not realize it is hard to tell who is pregnant early on because they tend to have large stomachs anyway. At least my boer goats do.

I was raised on a dairy farm and beef farm, so kidding out goats was new to me. In order to have the best results, it is best to pen them up in a small "jug" of a pen for 3 days in order to be sure the babies and moms are all well aquainted with each other before re-entering the herd. These does can have between 1 and 4 babies, and sometimes if they aren't jugged up, the mom will only claim 1 kid, and neglect the others.

The other challenge is they don't always give much notice prior to kidding. With the cold temperatures in Kansas, if they kid outside in the wind, there is a good chance the kids will freeze and die. This leads to a sad home at the James farm. My husband has recently built me a small pole barn that is tinned on 3 sides and faces south. He has also built me some kidding pens and a small room with a heater to help warm up any of the babies born in too cold of weather. He is a wonderful husband! (It is also his way of insuring none of the babies end up spending the evening in his bathroom up in the house.)