Latest picture of Baby Longstem

I just had to post this. Annalee and Chip found a couple packs of crayons left over from Halloween, and since the pack included orange, black, and green only, the subject matter that can be created from them with any degree of accuracy is limited. I thought this was a particularly good use of the color scheme... Annalee's latest portrait of Louisianna and Baby Longstem...

Below is an actual recent picture of Longstem. He is behind a kid born in late winter. He has a lot of catching up to do. But he runs, he leaps, and he plays. He has all that baby goat joie de vivre that makes them so entertaining and makes spring such a special time on the farm.

We knew this weather was trouble.

We were a day off. Instead of kidding during the middle of the sleet, Louisianna kidded the next night when the temperature dropped below freezing, but not so low as to freeze all the miserably cold standing water on the ground. Chuck had planned to run up and check on her anyway, and when he got there and found her wandering around, obviously having kidded, he feared the worst for her kids. Not only is Louisinanna a first time mother, she was also a bottle baby (a quad) herself. She has a bond with humans, and we wondered how much this would affect her mothering skills (she is a heavy doe with a lot of capacity and very meaty, but isn't one of the brightest lamps on the post). Chuck found afterbirth in one of the sheds, but could not immediately find the kids. He found one poor soul frozen in water behind the shed (not sure how he got there) and then what he thought was a piece of black roofing paper turned out to be her second kid, also a buck, and smaller than the first, in front of the shed. Chuck picked him up, thinking he, too, was lost, and nearly fainted when the small, cold, sodden package let out a faint bleat.

I was home asleep through all this with our human kids (I am six months pregnant now, and I give out pretty easily) but a phone call woke me up. As Chuck relayed all the details, I couldn't offer much but to get him warm and get colostrum in him if he could. Chuck had put the little buck on the dashboard and was using the defroster to blow warm air over him like a blow dryer. I can't tell you how nice it will be when we finally get power to the farm. He milked some colostrum out of an exhausted Louisianna, and was not sure she was going to be okay herself. After reading so many studies about how premature humans develop faster when they get skin to skin contact, or "kangaroo care" as they call it, I suggested Chuck put the little buck against his stomach so he could be against warm skin and hear a heartbeat like he must have been hearing before birth. We spoke on and off during the night, and when the time came he had to come home so I could get ready and make it to work, we opted to bring the kid home because the wet cold weather was still so beastly. Chuck had managed to get a little bit of colostrum in him, and we always keep a can of condensed goat milk in the pantry although we rarely need it.

The little buck was tiny. The one who died was the larger of the two, but it was obvious from the beginning that this guy wanted to live. Chuck made him a warm bottle and he actually was able to drink a little, and was perking up, but was still totally unable to stand. We'll never know what all happened as she was kidding, and whether he could not stand to nurse ever or whether the ordeal of the night had just left him too weak to stand. Annalee came in to see him, and we explained that this little guy was in very bad shape and might not make it. She looked him over and exclaimed, "look! I can see his stem" as his umbilical cord was still long and was trailed out beside him across the bottom of this cardboard box. Chip met him later, and since Annalee was on spring break, she went with Daddy to take "baby Longstem," as she began to call him, back to the farm to see if Lousianna could nurse him.

When they arrived at the farm, Louisianna was still wandering the field, acting like she was looking for the kids. Chuck brought her out of the field so she wouldn't have so much help from the mob of other does and older kids looking for handouts. He held the buck up so he could try to nurse. I can't recall if he could at this point, when held, or if Chuck had to milk her again, but she turned to the kid and began to do all the things a doe should do with a newborn. She licked him all over as if he wasn't already dry, and talked to him. Chuck made a small pen around one shed and put the kid in there with her to see if the two of them could work things out. At some point later in the day, he found that the little buck had managed to stand, and was working his way back to her udder and making shaky little jabs at it. He managed to nurse a bit on his own.

We could have chosen to bottle raise this kid, but not only do we have pretty much no extra time at our house with human kids' needs, but we figured the best chance both of them had to become "normal goats" was to try to make it on their own. Louisianna is still trying to figure it how to be a decent mother (she wants to nuzzle the kid whenever he nurses, which, while a nice thought, effectively swings her butt, and hence udder, away from him because she is long and he is tiny - the look of exasperation on his face when she does this is the stuff of cartoons). Baby Longstem still has a long way to go, and he is dealing with the effects of his inauspicious birth, but he still wants very much to live. The cold wet weather has finally given us a brief reprieve. I hope the warm sun will be healing and supportive to them, and that he got enough colostrum in him to give him what he needs to make it the first few months of his life. Only time will tell. I hate the other larger buck didn't make it, but Baby Longstem has so much to overcome having all his mother's milk may be what he needs to play catch up. Luckily we have another doe who should kid out soon, and she is a seasoned mother, so hopefully this kid will have some others his age to grow up with. And hopefully next year Louisianna will be better prepared for kidding. She seemed to have quite a bit of pain that first night, but has shown no signs of infection, thank goodness. Just another reminder that Kikos, while tough, are still living creatures. Our does spoil us, really. They have their kids, clean them, and get them up feeding as if birth itself wasn't a miracle and the most dangerous time of their lives. We tend to take that for granted.

I would be surprised if Baby Longstem is the buck he could have been, at least not for a very long time. He has the genetic potential to be a very nice buck, but who knows if he can overcome this rough start. At this point he is the apple of Annalee's eye as tiny as he is. She knows he still has a long row to hoe, but she is smitten. We're just taking this as another opportunity to learn and do it better next time, and also as a reminder of just how strong the absolute will to live can be.

Serious getting sick weather...

And Louisianna is ripe as can be and will probably kid out tonight since they're calling for sleet and snow. That's right folks, after weeks of mild and sometimes downright gorgeous weather creeping up towards eighty, we're having a hard chill and cold precipitation with it. That's one of the things that makes this area a challenge. When North Carolina is beautiful, you can't beat it, but spring and fall often have huge temperature swings that kill budding trees (I mean dead - we had one year with a few weeks of high temps in January, followed by lows down near zero - we lost a big beautiful Japanese maple that year. The tender leaves just melted and it never recovered) and can really stress livestock and humans alike. Last week the goats were hot and panting and trying to loosen their winter coats, and today, I could tell they were wishing more of that hair was on them and less on the fence. I get worried with weather like this, especially with young critters. Louisianna had come over to see if Chip had anything good to offer. I had him in a snow suit and heavy coat. Maybe I got carried away, but I was freezing.

Speaking of freezing, here are a few pictures of some miserable puffed up varmints today.

I was wondering if there are any other producers out there using any "non standard" practices that work, who would be willing to share what they do and why they do it? I am not a vet, I do not play one on TV, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But, these things have been helpful to us with our goats, so I thought I would pass them along.

I know with meat goats it isn't standard to use an herbal dewormer, but that is what we try to do. I use a blend where the prescribed dosage is a wormwood blend about once a month, and a lighter blend weekly. Now, I tend not to use much of anything in the winter, not even the herbals. Since I have goats going to be on summer pasture this year, I am going to try to follow this regimen more closely to avoid any problems with the goats eating low to the ground. One thing I've found is if someone has loose poop and I believe it may be parasite related, it will normally resolve without incident with a three day dose of the wormwood blend. Only rarely do we need to move forward with a chemical after this. I make little round balls and most of the goats will eat them as treats, which makes for a less stressful experience all the way around.

I love slippery elm bark powder. It mixes well as a binder for herbal dewormers, and also helps with any goat stomach problems. If a goat feels poorly, they will almost always eat slippery elm, and per the herbal informaton, it has very soothing properties in the gut and is very nutritious.

I have used Bovi Sera with good luck for respiratory issues. If someone turns up with a runny nose that lingers more than a day or so, my first reaction would be to give a few days of Bovi Sera. It contains antibodies to some of respiratory bacteria, as well as, if I remember correctly, e coli and salmonella, and unlike antibiotics, won't produce stronger germs or kill off all the good bacteria in the rumen.

Several times I have extolled the virtues of lespedeza hay. When we have to feed a legume hay anyway, I prefer to feed one with the added benefit of reducing the load of parasite eggs on the pasture. Since we have very small acreage fenced, this is a big one for us. Anything I can do to help less parasite eggs lie in wait to be reingested is a step to help our goats stay healthy where they would otherwise be too heavily stocked. A side benefit with the stemmier old type lespedeza we have used is that the leftover stems, when speed composted as in a shed where there is a lot of urine or manure on top of it, makes a great dark rich layer of dirt. I don't know what is different about it than the grass hay, but there is something. More information on lespedeza can be found at http://www.wormx.org/ - a great site from people doing specific research on how best to reduce parasites in goats and sheep in the South.

Some of these things have some research behind them, and some are just things we found that seem to be helpful. We feed kelp along with free choice minerals to our does, and I do this to ensure they get all the nutrients they need especially during gestation and lactation. I am hoping that what they don't absorb will pass through and will in turn help improve the poor soils in our pastures.

I've also included a picture of a trick we've seen many other producers use on a goat that keeps getting her head stuck in the fence. What tickled me was the other goats' reaction. I can just imagine them saying, "hey, uh, hey Rita... you know you got something stuck between your horns?"

We had a beautiful day down here in NC, until, of course, we started vaccinating and weighing kids. They were due either their first or second rounds of CD&T, and Chuck was trying a new method of goat holding involving one of those reusable grocery bags. It worked okay for the first few kids but rapidly got less satisfactory after the bag started to come apart. They just aren't made to hold thirty pounds of something that doesn't want to be in there. So far, Fifty's kids are leading the way for total weight. The funniest thing today was weighing the brown buck that entered the world at 13 lbs. Today, at just one day shy of 30 days, he weighed in at 30.5 lbs. He thinks he's a herdsire already. I'm thinking he might be in for an earlier weaning than he would have had otherwise.

We had the shoot and weigh assembly line going pretty well when the rains came in heavy, so we all ended up wet and slightly chilled before we left. The human kids had a great time running around in the rain. The grown ups, well... not so much. The rain itself was a welcome sight. With the warmer weather, we hope it means the grass will continue greening and growing. Chuck had scattered a leftover random bag of pasture fertilizer in a diagonal path across the field, and judging from the difference in that swath, I believe he will be putting out some more on the new top field so it is ready for the yearling does in a couple months when the ones that "took" start kidding out.

Here's a random shot or two of the grown does with kids or preparing to kid that we just moved to the new farm. They seem to like their new digs.

I know there are child labor laws...

But we take help where we get it. Annalee was off school today, and helped Daddy look after the goats. She's gotten pretty good at driving her little gator, so here are a few pictures of her hard at work. I'm not absolutely sure, but I believe she has my headlight on her head. Never know when you might need a headlight in the middle of the day. And of course, even on the best day our road can be a problem. I'm not sure if Chuck gave her a push or if she got out of the rut herself.

Over the weekend we started moving the older does with kids, and a few yet to kid, to the new farm. They are staying with their own group, but it is still a change. Hopefully having some forage starting to green up will make it a good move in the long run. Nobody seemed overly disturbed by the move, although the new kids seemed a little surprised by the wide open space. These three bucklings stayed pretty tightly together as their mommas moseyed off to graze. We are still wondering how long it will take to bring some organic matter back to the dirt here, how long before it becomes a turf instead of looking like you could take a handful of the powdery clay as is, add a little water, and throw a nice pot on a potter's wheel. We hope to run some chickens behind the goats, and are trying to figure out the best spot for a compost pile where it will be handy, get sun, and won't attract varmints. No point in wasting good poop, or leftover coffee grounds, or spent straw, or eggshells...

Here are a couple of pictures from the "working day" on Saturday. One is of our new used barn. Not many people would get so excited over a used metal building, but like I said folks, we are starting from scratch. A great bunch of guys came to help Chuck reassemble the barn. I don't know what we would do without these guys taking their precious time and helping a family of crazy goat folks try to cobble together a farm. The other is of Daddy with his double handful of younguns. One found himself trapped amongst sticker bushes and had to be resuced and the other was the one who suggested to him that might be a good place to go hide. Once of these days, when he is a little more savvy, I imagine that sort of thing will come back to haunt her. We were trying to figure if we could take an unused corner of the farm coated in sticker bushes and woods full of trash (thanks, folks who treat woods like a dump). Cleaning up the old trash will be a hassle, but some of it has reached the age it is not just a piece of garbage, but rather, an artifact.

Just a couple of recent pictures of the kids on the Knight Place. Chuck needs to get some new pictures of the kids from down at the old farm, but just hasn't made it that far. The little whitish doeling has some catching up to do with the kids she's in with, as she was born a couple of weeks later. The doe that ultrasounded with twins must have lost one at some point since the sale, but we've been pretty lucky transporting bred does so I can't complain too much. We got a lesson in udder edema from this doe - but now that the kid has nursed for several days at least the side the kid likes is looking better. She could have used another kid on the other side, but Chuck milked her down and gave her some relief for a few days, and now it looks like her udder is getting back down to a normal size. Thankfully, her milk was always clean and healthy through the whole thing. Last year we underfed the does a little, and I think Chuck went a little far on the opposite end of the scale with the does we had in quarantine this year. He fed about the same as the does back on the other farm got, but the does in quarantine are in a small flat area and the old does are in a large hilly area. They get a lot more exercise. Hopefully by next year we'll have it just right, or even better, not need to feed as much because the goats have forage available.



Here are the two buck kids in the quarantine area. The brown buck was trying to breed poor Speckles as she was trying to kid out. He spent the rest of the afternoon on a leash and she got to kid out in peace. He is still just huge. The black twins are growing well, too. The buck kid goes head to head with the brown buck and is still smaller, although they were born the same day. Thier older sister has been moved down with the other yearling does. She looks like a little angus cow. I hope these two are as solid bodied as she is. We might keep this doeling, and we might offer her up for sale. It will depend on what our bred yearlings present us with in a few months.