I think I need a Kiko doe to help with the baby...

because I had completely forgotten how hard it is on a body (albeit an older one - our pediatrician has already reminded me I'm "no spring chicken") to raise a baby! We are pleased to announce the arrival of our new precious daughter, Virginia. It may be a while before I make it back up to the goats. Chuck is going to be on his own up there at least until I heal up and she is old enough to handle the weather, or the temperatures regulate a little bit. I apologize in advance for being slow to get pictures to folks, and slow in responding to emails. I am simply a bit overwhelmed at the moment but hopefully we will all get in sync soon.

Wayyy too busy...

And not even on goats. Work has been pretty much insane as of late, and while I certainly need the work, it has dominated every part of our lives. I am taking a moment today to play a bit of catch up, although I am sure I won't get very far.

We had been waiting on one last yearling doe to kid out to complete May (which ran into June kidding in the top field. After seeing what a great job all these young does did with their kids, I would probably have been safe to have bred them to kid out in potentially freezing weather, but I wasn't sure, and only hindsight is 20/20. We had some new goat friends visit to look at our goats and see more about the Kiko breed, and Aggie had been walking around "hollering" all morning, so we were expecting her to start labor relatively soon. Chuck took the visitors down over the hill to see some of the older does and some of the unbred yearlings that we had deemed not quite big enough to breed for this kidding. Not long after, Aggie's water broke and she began her labor in earnest. I texted Chuck so he would know she was beginning to kid. Aggie was one of the bottle babies we have bought, and we didn't know if this would make a difference in her maternal instincts or not. She and her sisters did get a few weeks with their mother before she died, though, and that seems to have been long enough. PJ had already kidded out and was taking good care of her twins. Not to be outdone by her sister, Aggie was cleaning the first kid before the second was even out. The first kid was a flashy little thing, looking a lot like granddaddy Iron Horse. There was a delicacy around the muzzle, though, that made us hopeful that maybe we had our second doe kid of the group. Chuck didn't want to be too intrusive, but tried to look and see, and Aggie was totally unbothered by his presence. As of matter of fact, she wasn't the least bit worried about any of us. She accepted visitors watching the event without the bat of an eye, and she really rose to the occassion. She showed them a textbook Kiko kidding. She got the kids out, cleaned, and the first was up trying to shakily butt her udder for that first important drink of colostrum in less than ten minutes. When she had the second kid, brown like she is, we again were thinking that this kid really looked feminine. After Aggie and her kids had some time together and everyone had been up to nurse, Chuck investigated more closely and confirmed we had two new doelings. Finally. So out of the ten kids born to six does, we had seven bucks and three doelings.

The older kids were quite interested in the new arrivals, much to Aggie's annoyance. A few of the new girls' cousins got "flattened" by aunt Aggie. The following pictures show 34's brown and white buck kid by Ace visiting the girls. We also see that PJ's black and white buck and doe pair came to visit their cousins. Aggie and PJ are twins sisters by Iron Horse and were in the last set of kids out of Purdy, so they are heavily Tasman Zorro. PJ's kids are Boomer's, and Aggie's belong to Ace. We'll see how the two sets develop over the next few months.

My Kingdom for a Doeling

I had written that the first two of the young doelings had kidded out last week, presenting us with two tiny black bucklings, and a pair of rather "loud" bucklings. This past Wednesday, two more of the young does began to go into labor when Chuck arrived at the farm. Part of me wishes he would have the same effect on me (as the end of my pregnancy draws near, I find myself very ready to "take a load off").

The first of the doelings to kid was Ginger, a PB doe by Boomer and out of 34, who kidded last week. She seemed to struggle somewhat, and Chuck trying to get a better look at what was going on didn't exactly set her mind at ease. Eventually, she produced yet another black buck kid with a white star on his head. This one was Ace's kid, but Boomer's color passed through to his grandson in this case. Ginger is not a huge doeling, and this was a good sized kid, so I'm sure she is glad to have gotten the whole thing over with. I don't have weights in front of me, but if I remember correctly, this joker was over 8 lbs, when the rest of the bunch in this group have been much smaller and more suited to their first time mommas.

After Ginger had gotten through her ordeal, Piper went into labor. Piper is Ace's full sister, so we bred her to Boomer and I was hoping to get a couple of doe kids that combine the best of both lines since she is a big bodied doe for her age. Instead, she gave us a single buck kid. Another buck - that's SIX bucks out of four does. I was beginning to wonder if there was something in the water.

Today, when Chuck arrived at the farm, he sent me a text saying he thought PJ was ready to give birth. Shortly after, I received pictures that showed she had actually already given birth - and we had the first doeling of this bunch. Of course she had to throw a buck in there, too. When we look at these kids, though, we can't help but laugh. For everyone who says they won't eat goat - hey, we're producing Holsteins now, to keep everyone happy! You know, with horses, you have a reasonable idea what color foal you may get when you breed a stallion and a mare of certain colors. Not so with goats. It has certainly been an eye opening experience this year, what assortment we seem to be getting. And so far there is no predictability from one year to the next. I remember reading something about the complexity of the genetics associated with color and patterns in goats. We sure have a bizarre palette this year. That's good with all the bucklings, though, because chances are the ones that don't make the cut as future herdsires may well make nice fun family wethers.

AI Workshop - Western NC

If anyone is in the Western NC area - a friend of ours has been working towards getting an AI workshop arranged for sometime in the early fall. For details and to express interest, email 4footfarm@gmail.com.

Maternity Ward

Chuck felt like he was in the maternity ward today, with two of the young bred does going into labor and a third looking iffy. The surprise of the day was what Kitty produced. She is a Sports Kat daughter, so I bred her to Boomer to concentrate the Sports Kat genetics. She is one of the youngest bred does, only 14 months old and still growing. She was not very round, so we assumed she was carrying a single. Instead, she presented us with two very tiny black bucklings. The smaller was under 4 lbs and the larger just over, and when I went back and looked at her papers, she was a single and was less than 5 lbs herself at birth. I just can't imagine anything so tiny can possibly thrive, but we have gotten used to some very substantial kids, although to much older and larger mothers. These two tiny packages were up nursing quickly. Now I am probably the only person in the Southeast who can breed does to kid in mid-May (so they don't have to deal with the cold weather my older does have to kid in), that can manage to have those young does pick the very day in May that is below average in temperature and where the night is supposed to be way below average. I have talent that way. Since Kitty, being the smallest of the bunch, often gets shoved out of the sheds, Chuck set up a large dog crate with some straw in the field for the kids and hopefully Kitty doesn't move them out of it. Boy, these guys are tiny.

The next event of the day was 34's labor and delivery. She was such a good first time mother last year, I only had her in with this batch of does because she needed a little less aggressive group of does to be in with than my older mommas. She had a very nice buck and doe by Boomer last year, and I bred her to Ace this year to see what he would produce. I know what she gave me bred to Boomer, so I have something for comparison. Here again we ended up with two bucks. I told Chuck to shove them back in and see if next time they would come out as does, but he didn't seem interested in trying that. I drove up after work to see all the new arrivals, and really enjoyed watching 34 with her kids. She is so attentive, and so available to them. She just seems to do everything per the textbook. Chuck took a sequence of pictures of her laboring, delivering, and attending her kids, and I will have to blog it when I have time to get all the pictures in order. In true Kiko fashion, the kids were up nursing in ten minutes. She delivered, cleaned, and fed like an assembly line. These are Ace's first kids to hit the ground. We'll know more in a few days what they really look like. Right now all we can tell is they are pretty loud in the color department, and that Ace's airplane ears breed true. We hope his growth rate and parasite resistance follows suit.

Happy Mother's Day!

During kidding season, there are lots and lots of reminders of how important mothers of all species are to the survival of the next generation. Our momma goats have their kids, get them up, get them fed, and then protect and feed them for months. Like human moms, their mothering styles vary from the moms who allow their kids more freedom from the first few days and just check in on them periodically to the super protective moms who keep their kids close at all times and would keep them in a tightly knit family group forever if they could. I've said before I like the protective momma goats, and I still feel that way. We decided to wean Fifty's buck kids one of the Animal Welfare Approved ways - we made a pen inside the pasture and put them in it. They cannot nurse Fifty or try to breed the adult does or doelings, but they did not face the stress of a total separation. They are well weaned now, but we notice that Fifty often still checks on them and spends time with them, and can even be found sleeping next to their pen.

I remember last year when we brought little 34's kids out to tattoo them (which we tend to do late). Even though her kids were old enough to wean and paying little attention to her anymore, she stood at the fence, watching us with them intensely, never taking her eyes off them. This year her yearling daughter Ginger got her head stuck in the fence and when all of the goats came running to the other side of the field as we drove up, 34 took a few strides towards us, then turned and ran back to be by her daughter's side, where she remained until we came to get Ginger unstuck. Both are bred this year, soon to kid out. I will be interested to see if 34 is in any way invloved when Ginger kids. Ginger was a year old in March, so she is on the young side for does we breed. She is obviously bred, but if she only singles that will be fine with me as she is so young. 34 is the only doe in this field who has kidded before, and she is very wide so we are of course hoping for twins or triplets, although I have read that if a young first timer twins the first time she often singles the next.

The efforts we have poured into the top pasture as an area for them to kid has paid off - the grasses and legumes are thigh high (although for someone 5'2" that is not so much of a stretch). I know they are not as nutritious at this more mature stage, but I'm thinking about those baby mommas having suppressed immune systems during lactation over the summer, and the parasites will have some pretty steep greenery to climb! We are trying a modified mob grazing scheme within electronet that gets moved when the stubble is about 6". So far the old areas are having good bounce back, and the does are getting a lot of forage going into kidding and early lactation. I don't know if we will be able to move them around like this once they start kidding, but so far, so good. I am still hoping to improve the soils in the pastures at the same time we raise good goats. At the beginning of this post is a snapshot at dusk of some of the expectant young does. The picture quality is horrible, but you can see the difference between the area they are on (we moved them right after taking the picture) and the rest of the pasture in the background.

We are still weaning bucklings, and I am going to keep working the pen within a pasture method to see how it goes. I want to get them back on the old farm for a while because it is getting overgrown, but I also realize weaning is a stressful time, and since they will be on tougher terrain with less attention down on the other farm, I want them to arrive there as healthy and well-weaned as possible without it taking the whole summer. I've got some pretty nice bucklings, and the move should show us who can really get around and forage, and still gain well with the increased activity. In an effort to utilize even the unfenced areas on the farm, we've taken the group of does we bought and quarantined last fall and have been sliding a pen down the outside of the fence line. Outside the fence is overgrown with lovely things like poison ivy and blackberry bushes, and in just a day or two they clean it down so it is quite walkable. It also is helpful for us, until we get that bushhog we've been wanting so badly. Seems like every time we get the money for it, some little complication pops up, like a blown tire on the car, or something else annoying and much more mundane than a shiny new bushhog. You can see the difference between the area they are in and the unmowed "weeds" behind them. That only took them a few days. The doelings in this group are sold, and the bucklings are going to be separated within a few days. The brown buckling against the fence was born the same day as the black twins behind the black doe, so we wonder if he somehow received a dose of radiation or some baseball player's steroids by accident. He is nearly the size of his mother, who is not a small doe.

Last but not least I have to comment on old Baby Longstem. Thankfully, we had another doe kid within a short time after he was born and she had a single doe kid, so Longstem has a partner in crime. I really think kids do better when they have other kids to run and play with. The two of them sprint across the pasture and leap and cavort, and the day one clever goat undid the gate and some of the unbred yearling does got in with the older does, Chuck found Longstem butting heads with one of them and holding his own, so he is getting pretty solid. I don't like bucks to be overly friendly, but Longstem seems to remember the kindness afforded him by a human at birth, and he puts up with the human kids. When he is weaned he will go to the other farm to grow out or hopefully go to a new family. We had a visitor that liked the looks of him, so we'll see how it goes. I just can't help but smile when I see him run and play. It just amazes me what a nearly frozen tiny goat can overcome, if he wants badly enough to live.

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.