Wednesday, Nov 19
Cloudy
Currently: 32˚ F
Feels Like: 32˚ F
Hi: N/A˚, Lo: 27˚
Thursday, Nov 20
Hi: 44˚, Lo: 27˚
Friday, Nov 21
Hi: 37˚, Lo: 21˚
Saturday, Nov 22
Hi: 37˚, Lo: 20˚
Sunday, Nov 23
Hi: 42˚, Lo: 29˚
weather feed courtesy of weather.com - thanks!
At the Winner’s Circle Sale, in Murfreesboro, TN on Nov 8th, we purchased a new doe, Beaver Creek T313. Here she is:
Her sire is Beaver Creek’s Colt 45 **Ennobled**, she recently won her class at the 2008 Southern Indiana Boer Goat Classic Show. She is confirmed bred to ANR Wide Load, the 2008 ABGA National Chamption Buck. Kids are due in December. She will be arriving at the farm tomorrow.
On Monday, October 6th, we had our first buck collection on the farm. Geoff & Nancy Masterman of Superior Semen Works arrived around 8:30 AM for what turned into a LONG day. I believe they were up until 2 AM processing semen. We started the day with five bucks to be collected, then late in the afternoon we had three more bucks arrive, bringing the total to eight.
While Geoff & Nancy were here, I had been planning on Artificially Inseminating (AI’ing) four of my best Boer does and any of our dairy goats who were in heat. Two weeks prior to their arrival, I started programming the Boer does with Lutalyse. The does received a 2 ml shot 14 days before the AI date, then a 2nd shot two days before the AI date. Also, during this 2nd series of shots, the teaser does (used in the buck collection) were give a shot of Lutalyse to bring them into heat.
While the semen we collected was being processed, we checked the Boer does to see if they were ready to be AI’d. Unfortunately they were not so we decided to wait until the next morning. On Tuesday morning, we AI’d two of my Boer does to ANR Wide Load, the 2008 ABGA National Grand Champion Buck. The other two does were not in heat so we decided against AI’ing them. We also AI’d two of our Oberhasli dairy goats to Devonshire SK Voyager. I don’t know a lot about this buck, but the Masterman’s thought he’d be a good match up with our does. We don’t plan on showing dairy goats, but nonetheless, it doesn’t hurt to inject good genetics into the herd.
Since the buck collection, on my own, I have AI’d one additional Oberhasli doe to Voyager and this last weekend, I AI’d the EGGS doe I purchased at this years Showstopper Sale from the Ryals to RRD Gunsmoke P502 *Ennobled*. We’ll know in the next three weeks whether the AI’ing was successful or not. If not, we’ll try again as I have extra Voyager and Gunsmoke semen.
I’m still deciding what to do with the two Boer does who weren’t in heat. I have several choices, use one of my bucks, or use one of any number of really nice bucks in the area, or purchase semen and AI them. Well, I decide on that another day.
We will be selling some goats this September at the following sale. You can visit many of the consignors by clicking on their farm listed under “Goat Breeders” (scroll down and to the right).
It’s been a while since I’ve posted…we’ve been busy around the farm as well as fall sports. Baseball is over, soccer is over, swim team and swim lessons have begun. We’ve done the first cutting of hay and been busy with the goats.
This last weekend we went to Gratz, PA for the Pennsylvania Meat Goat Producers Association’s (PMGPA) ABGA Goat Double-Header & Youth Jackpot Market Goat Show.
This has been our best show so far. Our buck BMACK CHIEF walked away with OVERALL GRAND CHAMPION
We had other animals win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd’s in their respective classes and Greg & Lauren had fun showing too! Below are pictures of Lauren showing her goat “Purpureus” and Greg showing one of his wethers he’s been raising for the Clarke County Fair this summer.
We’re going to another show this weekend in West Virginia, the Mountain State Boer Goat Show, hopefully we’ll do as well there.
It’s been one of those months…washing machine broken, garage door opener broken, and now a broken horn. Over the last few weekends we’ve been working our way through the entire herd worming and trimming feet. Well, Sunday afternoon, I went to catch a yearling doe who turned out to be quite wild. I caught her with my crook, but then grabbed her head to lead her over to the stanchion. I needed one hand free to open the gate so I grabbed onto one of her horns with my other hand to hold her. While holding her she decided to jump and it happened…I could feel the horn weaken and knew it had broke. It was still attached and there was only a little blood so I thought “good, maybe it isn’t as bad as I thought and it’ll be okay.” I locked her in the stanchion and went about working on her feet. When I had finished working one side and was switching to the other, that’s when I noticed it. She must have been struggling and moving her head up and down and loosened it the rest of the way. The horn was flipped over 180 degrees and hanging by a “thread” down the side of her face. I called a friend who said to cut it the rest of the way off and if it didn’t stop bleeding, I would need to cauterize it. Thankfully, blood flow wasn’t bad and it eventually clotted. She doesn’t seem phased by it at all. I’ve put her in a small pen by herself for a few days to let it heal.
Now onto bloody feet. We were finishing up the last few goats this afternoon and as I went to make a cut this doe kicked the leg I was working on just as I was closing the clippers. It was a deep cut and blood was flowing everywhere. It was squirting out the hole and blood stop powder wasn’t doing a thing. We quickly grabbed a rag and some duct tape and went to work. We poured on a bunch of blood stop powder, then cut and placed the rag over the wound. Next we used duct tape to secure the rag tightly to the foot so there would be constant pressure to help stop the bleeding. We finished up, let her down and she started grazing. A little later you could see that she was favoring the foot, but didn’t appear too serious. I will check on her tomorrow.
It’s official, we have launched a Goat Share Program. You can read all about it here (or click on the “Goat Share Program” link on the left menu under PAGES). If you are interested in owning your own share of a dairy goat so you can enjoy some delicious, nutritious, fresh milk, click on the link above, read about the program, then let us know and we’ll get you a copy of the boarding agreement.
I finally have my own feed. I wrote about the initial steps of the process here. This is the recipe I ended up going with:
800 lbs oats
700 lbs shelled corn
300 lbs roasted soy beans
150 lbs molasses
30 lbs ammonium chloride
25 lbs goat mineral
rumensin
Protein levels worked out to be around 16%-17%, pricing was a little steep as oats, corn, & soy beans prices have shot through the roof. Overall, I’m very happy with the feed and the goats have adjusted to it without incident. The other nice this is I don’t have to drive over an hour to pick it up, then back home an hour. It’s delivered right to the farm - the delivery truck backs up to my feed shed and it’s a few minutes and it’s unloaded.
Not goat kids this week, human kids (and parents too). Starting last Friday afternoon and still continuing 9 days later, every member of the Shippa family has had a “version” of the flu. I say “version” because each of us had different symptoms or variants of symptoms. For example, Greg started with a cough that turned bad so Jody took him to the Dr. on Monday, they actually said he didn’t have the flu, but “croup” instead so he went on an antibiotic. Jody, on the other hand, had flu like symptoms, starting with a cough, then sore throat, then aches and pains, then congestion and cough again. I, on the other hand, was fine until Tuesday night. I woke up Wednesday morning with all of the symptoms and they hit at 100%, no ramp up, nothing. The aches and pains are gone, but now I’m fighting the sore throat and the congestion is just starting to hit. Lauren, Ben, & Ashley, had more of a cough and sniffles and were just tired throughout the day. Lauren has gone through a couple boxes of Kleenex herself. Her nose is all red and chapped from blowing it so much.
Thankfully, everyone is on the mend and doing much, much better.
After what seems like a few dozen phone calls to various friends, I finally found some hay. I knew there was some out there at a reasonable price, it just involved a long search. Anyway, I’ll be picking up 18-20, 4′ x 5′ bales on Sunday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will last me through the rest of the winter. Since I was using 4′ x 4′ bales, I estimated I needed about 30 more bales. Seeing these are a couple hundreds pounds larger (per bale), I’m thinking the quantity of hay is about the same. We’ll see.
Prepare yourselves, this is a long one.
In my last post I wrote about my search for hay. I’ve also been working on developing my own goat feed. I’ve been using a custom goat feed developed by Ernie & Linda Cullers of Timberville, VA and while I like the feed, I have to drive quite far to get it and prices have been going through the roof. In December 2006, when I started using the feed, I paid under $10 per 100 lb bag (buying at least a ton at a time). Last week when I bought it I paid almost $18 per 100 lb bag, that’s almost a 100% increase in 13 months! Without boring you with the all of the details, this feed contains, Whole Grain Barley, Roasted Soy Beans, Corn, Molasses, Oats, Ammonium Chloride, a Sheep & Goat Mineral, and Rumensin. This feed is about a 18% protein/5% fat feed, and is free choice, not a pellet.
So I know what most of this stuff is, but, what is Ammonium Chloride for? Rumensin?
Rumensin is “Monensin Sodium”, basically a medicine used for the prevention of coccidiosis in goats (also in cattle). Here’s an article I found on the Sweetlix web site, a company that makes great livestock supplements.
Ammonium Chloride is used for the prevention of urinary calculi in goats. Here’s a pretty good article covering Urinary Calculi in Goats. Now that we have this covered, lets move on.
Here is a link to an article from a Tennessee goat owner detailing their “feeding” and their thoughts on it. They also have a large number of feed labels on their site.
On to my feed…
Coni Ross, a goat rancher from Texas, also an ABGA Judge and one of the most highly respected resources (medical, nutritional, etc) for goat owners in the US, wrote this to me in an email: “If you were limited to what you could eat, would you want a huge bowl of iceburg lettuce, or a small plate of meat, veg., and potato? I prefer not to add junk, like hulls of any kind. I do not want to pay for junk. If they need to be filled up, use good hay. The idea is to supply their nutritional needs with a small amount of high quality feed, and let them graze to fulfill the balance. I only full feed kids for show, or sale goats.” She also said “My ration is made with a lot of oats…If you are in Virginia, you are also sulfur deficient, so the molasses with the natural sulfur will help that. I have used this feed as a supplement, and for feeding show goats…I do not add any filler to the feed. NO pellets, since the feed is intended to be a high quality supplement.”
So, starting with the feed I’ve been using and then adding in Coni’s advice along with the information I’ve gathered during countless hours of research, I know that I want my feed to be cheaper (not sure I’m going to meet that goal), around 18%protein/4% fat and have the following ingredients:
What’s Conklin? This is the Conklin Story. In short, I’m an Independent Business Owner and resell their products. Here is a brief summary about their Animal Products (taken from their website) ”Today’s livestock and companion animal owners need high quality products that are cost effective and easy to use. The Fastrack family of products provide lactic acid-producing bacteria, live yeast cells or yeast culture, enzymes, dried chicory root and other components. Use these products as part of a nutrition program for all stages of animal development.” I’ll write more about this in another post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, either in a comment or email or call me.
Where do I go from here? Well, I contacted a local feed mill and am currently working with them on the ingredients list, ratios, protein & fat levels, as well as cost. I’ll keep you posted as it gets closer to finalization.