Herdsire

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We first chose our three Nigerian Dwarf female goats, called does, from a local woman selling hers. Sushi, the mother goat, and her two doelings came to us all together. I knew we wanted milk so would need to breed the females in order to begin that process. The hunt for a male was similar to our earlier search in that we looked at online Facebook goat groups, livestock ads in the paper and Craigslist ads also. We found our Herdsire on a Craigslist ad from Narrow Way Farm which is about an hour away from us.

After doing research on how to disbud, or remove the horns, on a young goat, I knew that vet care to do that would get expensive quickly. We want to use the goats for show which means that they may not have horns. It is also safer for me when handling the goats for their care and milking to not have the horns to contend with. Thankfully the O’Keefe family had begun the process of creating a herd with the genetics that carry goats that are polled, naturally born without horns.

We visited one time when the baby goats were 4 weeks old and chose our m20150425_171601ale from the few that they had available. Jim quickly became the obvious favorite as the babies climbed all over him. The buckling that we chose was a polled, blue-eyed, almost entirely white ball of goat energy. He had characteristics that we wanted. The ability to have his offspring not have horns, blue eyes and he carries black and brown on his predominantly white self. The herd was tested clean for diseases common in goats, the goats were fully registerable and the family selling him had similar goals like us. It felt like a really great match.

Some of the information that I learned was gathered from books and websites, A few of my favorites are specific to Nigerian Dwarf goat colors and other are about Dairy goats, which Nigerian Dwarf are.

Now that Mattis is almost 2 years old, I can look back and say that he is really doing an excellent job being our Herdsire. He is a stinky buck but that’s his job. He knows how to put on the stink to impress his ladies. Is that a bit much? Mattis earned his name from a living legend, USMC General James Mattis. My husband Jim is a USMC veteran and proudly names all our males by either Marine or Army leaders. In our pasture we have 2 wethers, castrated males, named after Army Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur.

He was such a cute boy when we first brought 20150513_155648him home. The girls beat up on him a bit, but we fed him separately and made sure that he was ok during that transition time. Mattis quickly outgrew that collar!

 

 

If we look at how are the genetics doing, then I think I would admit to needing to do a better job of keeping record of who is polled and who is not. Lessons for me to employ for 2017. Just looking at the chart I quickly did, I would say that it has been worth it to find a polled buck.

2 polled boys
2 polled girls
2 polled girls
3 female -1 polled, 1 horned, 1 still

I look forward to seeing the many colors and combinations that happen for each kidding season!

Below is Dalai, Mattis and his two sons, Dwight and Doug wondering why Tommy is keeping the gate closed.

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Green Shadow to the Rescue!

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So, maybe not a superhero move here, but our neighbors continue to be pretty superb folks. While doing chores, my bride and I were discussing how we can help our pigs and chickens that live outdoors get their feet dry with the incessant rain we have been having.

Across the street from us, our neighbor owns Green Shadow tree service, so  I walked over to ask Chuck  about getting some of the wood chips from his piles to put in our pens. He stopped what he was doing, filled his truck and brought two loads to the front of our pens for me to load in with our tractor, without me asking him to do so. I brought a few more loads from his place with our tractor and the pigs were ecstatic, or at least I interpreted their crazy running around, rooting and jumping as such.

This is another example of the type of people and friends we have around us, and reinforces how grateful we are to live where we do. People who jump to help each other, and who go beyond the need to make sure each other are ok are not common enough anymore.

green shadow chipperIf anyone needs tree service done in the greater Bethlehem area, give Green Shadow a call – he has been in business for over 30 years and has a great reputation in the area.

 

Preparing for kidding

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We know that our goats are pregnant thanks to the presence of a buck in their pen for the last six months. We had the vet out and he suggested that we save our money and not do the ultrasound test since we could see by the visibly growing bellies that they appeared pregnant. The Vet laughed and said that we could pretty well guarantee a happy kidding season in our future since we choose to pasture them together. So without knowing an exact due date we proceeded to prepare for kidding season.

  1. Jim built beautiful stalls within a larger pen inside the barn as a start. A place where we could house everyone away from the elements was very important to me. I picked out several lovely designs from Pinterest for him to see where I was gathering inspiration. Husbands love it when we do that don’t they? Pens, gates, and kidding stalls were what I was seeking ideas for.
  2. After that was completed a secondary pen was built using our 10 by 10 dog kennel panels on the far side of our barn. It worked out nicely that we could take down a previously used turkey pen and assemble the panels for the goats with a section saved for our roosters. This was done with shelters and large spools within the enclosure for our buck to be separated from the Mamas. He now lives there full-time with a doe we borrowed from another farm as company. It wouldn’t be fair to leave him out there all alone.
  3. The official “Kidding Kit” was put together and placed near the inside pen in a tupperware container to keep everything clean. There are plenty of clean towels, a trashbag and contents for the kit inside. We left the lubricant and Betadine in the house so they wouldn’t be overly cold when they were needed.
  4. Many books on goats – both dairy and meat goats were read. Each author adds details sharing how to prepare for the impending birth of your goat kids. They provide diagrams, photos and lists to help the novice learn. A few of my favorites are: Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy GoatsThe Meat Goat Handbook and also many websites for goat health.ags2badga
  5. I reviewed our paperwork ensuring that all the does and buck have the appropriate certifications to make selling and showing the kids to be a smooth process. We had our American Goat Society certifications and paperwork in hand. Throughout the investigative process I realized that it would behoove us to seek dual certification through the American Dairy Goat Association.  The reason for this was the number of shows on the East Coast that I found for non-members of ADGS were smaller. Nigerian Dwarf Goats are a great milking breed so shows to share that and attempt to win awards only betters our farm reputation.
  6. Identitfy genetics and pedigree of our animals. Now normally I would say that this is something you should consider prior to buying your animals. We did this backwards so Jim and I began a family tree to show the pedigree of our goats. There were many templates and information found using google, however Jim ended up using PowerPoint as he is comfortable with the program and it is free. Many of the Pedigree sites had a fee. Using ADGA was interesting as I could look up the relatives of the goats we own! Through the process and reaching out to the breeders of our goats, we found out that there are champions in the pedigree so hooray for us, we lucked out.
  7. Physical observation – Now this comes as no imagesurprise that observing the normal behaviors of your goats is important; touching them regularly to keep an eye on the health and wellness. For example – now that we are nearing the time of birth, it is evident that the girls go from sitting to standing, rubbing their sides on the pen walls and exhibit opposite traits than previously observed. Raindrop runs away from me where she used to be the first to greet. Whereas Sushi comes to me, practically sitting in my lap where she used to be more standoffish. Much of the symptoms of labor have been noted in this article by Fiasco Farm. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/175781191678818226/

Acrobatic Goats

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20151212_155900.jpgAn important lesson in keeping goats is that they climb everything and eat almost anything except their medicine! Here you can see our buck letting me know that the walls I built for the stalls are nice places to stand while he poaches the hay bales!

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Our goats have a couple of play areas and this one is just outside the barn with a few toys to keep them and the birds entertained while they get “yard time”

Jersey Giants

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The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, also recognized as ALBC, has placed the Jersey Giant on a “Watch List” of Heritage Chicken Breeds. The group seeks to follow the population of particular chickens to ensure that they do not disappear from our American backyards. The Jersey Giant dates back to the mid-to-late 1800’s from breeders in New Jersey wanting to replace the turkey as the big poultry for the dinner table.
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John and Thomas Black of Burlington, NJ created this large, single comb breed and the APA ( American Poultry Association) acknowledged the breed in 1922 (Hobby Farms, Guide to Chicken Breeds). Through observation we have learned that the hens are quiet, lay a medium brown-mauve- colored egg generously. They prefer to roost on top of the nest boxes or hop from there to our roosting bar. Rarely have I seen them fly.
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The roosters are mildly behaved compared to the Ameraucana and Easter Eggers. I would definitely refer to our chosen JG rooster as docile. Their smaller single comb makes them both heat and cold tolerant. They are black with a green sheen to their full feathers. When going through molt, you can see that their insulating feathers are brown. If you pick the them up you will be surprised at how heavy they are compared to other egg laying breeds. The JG can naturally reproduce and so if you are looking for a dual purpose bird that will lay you beautiful eggs and fill a stew pot, I think this is the bird for you.

Pig Cut List

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In a prior post, I referenced the cut list that we were putting together as well as the source of our planning numbers. Please check that out for some background.

Here is a link to our Cut List as a PDF file. This list is for our pigs. At this point, we will ask that you save it to your computer and print it out, fill out your preferences and then email it back to us.

If you do not have a scanner, please feel free to take a photo with a camera phone and send that or simply mail the form back via USPS. In the future, we hope to have this available to fill out online, but for the next couple of cycles, we hope to work out any issues with this more manual approach.

 

 

Lessons in Commercial Pig Butchering

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This being our first year butchering our own pigs, we learned some good lessons in how to manage our expectations and also what to expect from the process.

While we have purchased 1/2 pigs and steers from other farmers in the past, it was a simple agreement to the hang weight cost and then we got what the butcher cut. We approached the process in much the same way this time, but going forward we will be better educated, and in turn, those who buy from us will be. The options on cuts are significant, as are the ways to use the cuts and trimmings. We have prepared a robust cut list document that will be the subject of a follow on post, and will use that for all agreements going forward to help both us and our customers get the maximum value from their investment.

Note: The data here reflects estimates and approximations and there will be some variability. The source we are using as a base is the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture as they have a great resource available as a reference. You will note the parallels in that to how we structure the cut list for maximum clarity and ease of reference.

When butchering an animal there are a few weights to be aware of.The estimated standing weight allows you to estimate the hang weight. The hang weight is what costs are based on, and reflects the butchered animal, prepared for retail cutting at about a 28% loss of original weight. The retail, or packaged weight reflects all the trimming and related loss to final retail cuts and amounts to approximately another 20%. Some of this can be retained through selection of the trim for other use, including lard.

In related posts, we will cover some of the many options here, as well as recipes for these cuts for those of you who may be new to the array of options a whole or half animal represents.