Milking Agnes, the Goat

Agnes is our La Mancha goat.  She gave birth to Cupcake about six months ago.  We haven't weaned Cupcake yet, but that day is coming soon.  Last week we took blood samples from Agnes and sent them off.  We wanted to test for all the common diseases and things that could pass through the milk and get us sick.  We got the test back and Agnes got a clean bill of health.

We wanted to do a "test" milking in order to see what type of a milker she is.  Will she be calm?  Will she kick?  Goats have only 2 teats whereas cows have 4.  Pound for pound goats are very productive.  Their milk is naturally homogenized.  Unlike cows, where the cream rises to the top, goat milk and cream is combined and doesn't separate like cows.  Here is a look at Agnes' bag.  She has a nice bag full of milk.  We put her up on the goat milking stanchion and hobble her back leg to the stanchion with a lead rope.

I built this stanchion from plans that I found in a magazine many years ago.  It has held up well over the years and is a very useful tool to have.  We put Agnes' head in the head gate and close it around her neck.  As a result, she is unable to pull her head out.  We also feed her some sweet feed in the trough to keep her otherwise occupied.

Tricia uses a quart jar with a muslin rag rubber banded around the opening.  It acts as a filter to keep out dust, hay, hair and other particles we don't want in the milk.

Milking a goat is quick work - if the animal is behaving.  Annie, our Nubian goat, did not behave.  She was not a good milker at all.  She would kick and thrash about.  She would sit down.  Just horrible.  I thought many times about putting her on the barbecue pit.  However, she delivers beautiful baby goats.

Fortunately, Agnes is a good milker.  No shenanigans like with Annie.

Tricia is a diligent milk maid.  She is determined and serious in her work.  In no time flat she was done.  This is a little bit of the milk from Agnes the La Mancha dairy goat.  It is a lot whiter in color than cows' milk.  We put it in the fridge to chill it.

When it was chilled, Tricia asked if I wanted a taste.  I've never been a fan of goat milk.  It is great in keifer or cheese, but as far as drinking it?  To me, it always had a sharp taste.  However, that was Annie's milk.  I tasted it.  Pretty good stuff!  La Mancha goat milk is much better, to me, than Nubian.  I could drink this plain just like cows' milk.  Once we wean, we plan on getting all the milk and we'll make keifer and goat cheese.

Dealing With Annie's Mastitis

Annie, our Nubian goat, has struggled with mastitis for a while.  Milking her has always been a pain - for us and for her.  She kicks like a saddle bronc every time we milk.  She doesn't let her kids nurse for very long.  We normally shy away from antibiotics.  We normally try natural remedies.  Up to this point, we've been unsuccessful in the methods we've experimented with.  We resorted to trying an antibiotic treatment to attempt to finally clear up Annie's mastitis.

Tricia purchased some Today syringes which are to be inserted into the teats in order to inject the meds to fight off the infection.  You can purchase this at your feed store or Tractor Supply Company. Tonight we started the "Today" process.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow.  Ha Ha!

We went out the the barn at night right before supper and used alcohol to wipe down Annie's teats in order to keep things extra clean.

I have cleats on the milking stanchion and we put ropes around Annie's feet and secured them to the cleats.  This will keep her from kicking as we insert the syringe about a quarter inch into each of her two teats and inject the medicine.  We put some dairy ration and alfalfa pellets in her trough to somewhat distract her.

Tricia inserted the syringe into her teat and injected it all in.  It went surprisingly smooth!

She held the teat closed and used her thumb and index finger to push the meds upward into her bag.

Nothing dripped out.  We did the same thing on the other side.  The directions say to use every 12  hours, but only two doses.  Others, including some veterinarians, say to use it until it clears up.  Tricia did the California Mastitis Test after the second dose and she still showed some slight mastitis.  We may give it one more dose and then test again.  If it doesn't clear up, we may have to culture and see exactly which bacteria we're fighting and get the appropriate meds to knock this stuff out.

Kind of discouraging, but we'll keep trying.  Perhaps we'll find the "Annie-biotic" that will work.  I know Annie (and Tricia) will be happy.

The First Batch of Spring Kids Arrive!

We have been expecting Oreo, our La Mancha goat, to go into labor and deliver her first kids.  On Tuesday, things started happening.  But it was slow.  Too Slow.  Tricia was worried that she was in trouble, so she called our veterinarian.  He was in surgery but told Tricia to bring Oreo in.  She and Benjamin loaded Oreo up and made the one mile trip to the vet.  Tricia left Oreo there.

A little while later, the office called Tricia and told her she could go pick "them" up.  Oreo had delivered two little doelings.  It was a good thing that Tricia brought her in as she had trouble delivering the second one.  The second doeling had her head turned backwards and Dr. Jody had to turn her head around in order for her to be able to kid.

They mentioned that there was a little problem.  Since Oreo was a little early, they theorized, her hormones weren't quite right and she had no interest in her little kids.  Uh oh!  Tricia had the appropriate shirt on for the occasion!:

You've Goat to be Kidding Me is right!  Oreo is not being motherly to her twins.  So now WE are tasked with being the twins' mother!  We put Oreo in the stanchion and got the twins to begin nursing.  It is so important that the little ones get colostrum.  It took some work.  They would suck for a little while and then lose it.

Here they are.  One is light tan and white.  The other is black with white patches.  The tan colored one is strange in that neither the mom, Oreo, or the Dad, Buckwheat has any tan coloration.  I guess there is a recessive gene somewhere.

Tricia wanted to weigh them, so we brought the kitchen scale out to the barn.  The black one weighed 3 pounds 15 ounces, and the tan-colored one weighed 3 pounds 7 ounces.

The kids' father is a Nubian goat.  They have long, floppy ears.  The mother, of course, is Oreo, and she is a La Mancha.  La Manchas have strange little "elf ears."  The kids have traits from each one.  The little doeling has long Nubian ears like Buckwheat.

While the little tan doeling inherited the trait of having little La Mancha "elf ears" from Oreo, the momma.

We are several days into this adventure and Oreo hasn't shown much motherly instinct.  She will let them nurse, but she's not really interested in them at all.  Tricia noticed that Oreo must not be making a whole lot of milk since they nurse and nurse and when finished, they still cry like they are still hungry.

Fortunately, we have plenty of cow milk, so Tricia has been making up two baby bottles full of cow's milk that she supplements Oreo's milk with 3 times a day.

We're hoping this will end pretty soon.  Especially because we have more baby goats on the way.  Annie, our Nubian goat, is very pregnant.  She is as wide as the barn door and should kid any day.  As big as she is, we're thinking triplets...

There's a New Kid In Town

I was surprised that she did it, but Tricia sold "Thunder."  Thunder is Jane's kid that was born on April 22nd.  Thunder had distinctive spots like a Dalmatian.  He also had lots of personality and would jump around and make my wife smile.  They buyer showed up at the house and Tricia wanted one last photo with him before he was loaded into the truck.

The buyer did not want his horns removed.  He wanted Thunder because of his spots.  Tricia carried him to the truck and prepared to load him up.

It was a somewhat sad farewell, but Tricia will be okay, I think.  With goats, if you don't watch it, before you know it they will over-populate your pasture and they'll eat grass that your cows could be eating.  Time to thin out the herd.

But Thunder wasn't the only animal leaving.  So was his mama.  Jane was loaded into the truck as well.  They are headed to Iota, a town east of here.  Jane wasn't sold.  She was traded.  Jane is a Nubian Goat.  Nubians are dairy goats that are well-suited to our hot climate.  Also, one more kid was sold.  Star, Annie's doeling was sold as well.

Well, what did we take in trade for Jane, the Nubian Goat?  We took in a doeling who is a La Mancha goat.  La Manchas are also dairy goats.  The La Mancha is the only breed of goats developed in the United States.  We promptly named her, "Oreo."  Can you tell why?

Here is another angle shot of Oreo, the new kid in town.  She cried and cried while she familiarized herself with her new surroundings.

La Manchas have Spanish origins.  They have a very distinguishing characteristic - their ears.  As opposed to Nubians, who have long, floppy ears, La Manchas have very short, tiny, almost elf-like ears.  This photo not only shows off her odd ears, but also shows how goats have strange, rectangular pupils.

Oreo has another distinguishing characteristic - wattles.  Wattles are fleshy, hair covered appendages that hang from her neck.  They are like skin tags on humans.  Some people remove them, but we leave them on.  Our first Nubian goat, Nellie, had wattles.

So of the four kids born on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm in the last four months, only one kid is left, George.  George was quite upset with his friend, Thunder and his sister, Star leaving the farm.  No more friends to play with!  George cried and cried.  Finally, he hushed after his mama, Annie, calmed him down.

Fewer animals on the pasture.  Also a new breed of dairy goat on the pasture.  The new kid in town will be old enough to breed this fall.  La Manchas are heavy producers of milk that is high in protein and butterfat.  They are tough goats and their milk production holds up even in adverse conditions.  Welcome Oreo, to our farm!

Stripes and Spots

Early Sunday morning the weather man said we would get a couple of inches of rain.  So Saturday we got a lot done in the garden in anticipation of the weather event.  As we were doing chores in the evening, I told Tricia that Jane's bag sure was swelling up.  Jane is a Nubian goat.  She is Annie's daughter and one of the triplets that Annie had two years ago.  Jane surprised us by turning up pregnant.  We knew that she had been exposed to Buckwheat, the buck, but we weren't sure that successful breeding had taken place.

Well...  Sunday morning, I headed out to the barn to milk.  It had rained an inch and two tenths over night.  There was water flowing in the ditches and limbs were down all over the yard.  I didn't hear any of the weather overnight, though, as I was sleeping soundly.  As I walked toward the barn, I peeked in the goat barn and saw a fresh placenta on the ground by Jane.  In the corner, I saw a little kid.  At first I though it was dead, but it soon got up.  Annie had delivered a little buckling during the storm, so we named him, "Thunder."

Our Nubians are spotted, but Thunder has MANY spots.  His spots are unlike those on our other goats.  His hind legs, however, are white.  He is unusual looking.

Except Thunder has not lived up to his namesake.  He is not loud and strong.  He is kind of weak and has the "failure to thrive" thing going on.  He also had scours.  Tricia mixed up an egg with some of Jane's milk and fed it to him in a bottle and it seemed to clear up the loose stool. 

The other thing about little Thunder is that he is not aggressively nursing.  His loose stools are bright yellow, so we know he got colostrum, but at least for the first day, he didn't nurse with 'gusto' like the other animals do.

Here is a photo of Jane next to her little Thunder.  You can see how different the spot patterns are.  Jane is more solid with a few spots.  Thunder, on the other hand looks like a dalmatian in reverse.  Jane has a striped head and has a spotted son.

Thunder has required some special care, but after a couple of days, he is doing much better.

His spotted pattern sure does catch your eye!

Triple the Trouble on 3/3

On Saturday, March 3rd, Russ called me to the barn.  "Annie's in labor," he said.  Annie is our Nubian goat that we had been watching closely for over a week as her due date had come and gone.  As I looked in the stall, nestled in the hay, Annie was most definitely in labor.  She was groaning.  Trouble is, she was right next to an old deep freeze that we store chicken feed in.  I pulled her to give her kid(s) room to be born.

Wouldn't you know she stood up with two feet hanging out!  She seemed to stop having contractions.  I began to wonder if I should pull, but my better judgment won out and I let nature take its course.

Annie began to push and pretty soon the baby goat's back end was out...

Then everything but the baby goat's front end was out...

Plop!!  In a very unceremonious entry into the world, the baby hit the ground.  "It's alive," Russ said.

In a minute or two, Annie began straining again, only to deliver ANOTHER baby goat.  She went to work cleaning them up by licking on them.  Wow, twins!  Annie wasn't even that big.  How could they both fit in her?

I walked back to the house, leaving Tricia in the barn for a minute.  When I returned, she looked through the window and said, "Rosie had a third one while you were gone."  Amazing.

Just like in her previous kidding, Annie has delivered two little doelings and a buckling.  She was being a good momma, taking care of them and making sure all three of them were tended to.

It didn't take long at all for the babies to struggle to their feet on wobbly legs and start looking for some milk.  Tricia helped them find what they were looking for to ensure that they got colostrum - a necessity for a good start.  Annie patiently (for the most part) let them nurse.  A goat has 2 teats and there are three goats.  The math doesn't quite work out, but the goats seem to get enough milk.

Baby goats are the cutest thing.  They make Tricia happy just to watch them.

I put them atop the deep freeze to get a good look at them.  They don't have as many spots as Annie, and one has a mostly white face.  They are curious creatures.  Curious looking, too.

Tricia keeps really good records.  She came outside later and informed me that two years ago ON MARCH 3RD, Annie gave birth to her first set up triplets!!  What are the chances that she would deliver triplets again exactly two years ago to the day?!  Goats have a high probability of giving birth to triplets or twins.

It will be fun watching the babies grow (we haven't named them yet), but we are running out of space on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm and we will be looking for buyers for Annie's triplets from two years ago.  Hopefully we'll be able to find a good home for Buckwheat, Darla, and Jane.

Pay attention to Your Herds

Know well the condition of your flocks,

And pay attention to your herds;

For riches are not forever,

Nor does a crown endure to all generations.

When the grass disappears, the new growth is seen,

And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,

The lambs will be for your clothing,

And the goats will bring the price of a field,

And there will be goats’ milk enough for your food,

For the food of your household,

And sustenance for your maidens. -Proverbs 27:23-27

That's some sound advice from the book of Proverbs.  I'm telling you, you can spend as much time as you want in Barnes & Noble, but the best self-help book of all time is - The Bible.  We have been reading Proverbs over and over.  We have to read it real slow because there is just so much there to be gleaned.

We pray every morning that God would enable us to be good stewards of the animals and the land that He's entrusted us with.  We try to do as verse 23 above states and know the condition of our flocks.  We pay attention to our herds.  In fact just yesterday I was in the pasture and was checking up on Annie, our Nubian momma goat.

To be quite honest, I think having triplets is a little more than ol Annie bargained for.  I noticed that she left her kids out in the pasture and she 'high-tailed it' away from them the first chance she got.  She was enjoying eating hay around the round bales for 30 minutes of peace without the kids.  All of a sudden, it was if she remembered, "Where's my babies?"  She began 'baa-baa-baaing' and soon I saw three little heads pop up out of the grass way out in the pasture where they had been napping.  Then in their best imitation of Secretariat, ran full-throttle to momma!

Photo finish?

Happy to be next to their mother, they swarmed her, getting all tangled up in her legs.

Happy Kids

With the reunion and greeting out of the way, the three found what they were looking for - a late afternoon snack!

Goat milk - it does a body good

The only problem, as we discussed before, is that the math doesn't work out.  With 3 kids and a goat only having 2 teats, there's always someone left out.  I guess I should tell you that we finally named the three kids.  We have one buckling and two doelings, so it seemed appropriate to name the little boy, "Buckwheat."  Staying with the Little Rascals theme - and they are little rascals, we named one of the little girls, "Darla" and the other "Jane".

Buckwheat, Darla, and Jane trying to not be the 'odd man out'

Somehow, they are all thriving.  When we put them in the barn at night, we pick them up and they all have fat little bellies, so we know they are getting plenty of milk.

Learning to Share

There's only one problem - for us, that is.  Back to verse 27 from Proverbs above, it states that, 

"And there will be goats’ milk enough for your food,

For the food of your household,

And sustenance for your maidens."

Until we wean the kids, there won't be enough goats' milk for our food, the food of our household, and sustenance for our maidens.  Fortunately we have plenty of cows' milk to satisfy that need.  Until we wean the three hungry little kids, we'll just have to be patient for the goat milk!

Triple the Trouble

We have been watching Annie, our Nubian Dairy Goat, very closely.  It was a couple days past her due date and she was as wide as the north side of the barn.  Every day we talked to her saying, "Annie, is today your big day?"  The answer was negative until Thursday and then things began moving quickly.  Tricia first noticed Annie scratching the ground by the woodpile.

X marks the spot

Tricia walked out from time to time to check on the expectant mother and pretty soon...  She saw a sac protruding and she could see tiny hooves.  The water hadn't broke yet, but curious chickens gathered around and soon took care of that problem, pecking until the sac burst.

Here comes Annie's first baby

Tricia was taking it all in of Annie's first baby, when another kid arrived!  "Twins," Tricia exclaimed! She was admiring the twins when yet another one popped out.  Triplets!!!  The curious onlookers in addition to Tricia, including cows and chickens, arrived to welcome the new barnyard critters.

Three baby goats

Annie began the task of licking them to clean them all up.  At this point Tricia called me to tell me about Annie's babies.  She told me that she wasn't absolutely sure, but she thought that there were two doelings and a buckling.

The triplets' first bath

The amniotic fluid from 3 babies made a big mudhole, so Tricia grabbed some hay and laid it down to make a comfortable "nest" for Annie and her babies.  One of the females quickly popped up on her legs and began looking for milk.  It is very important for the babies to get the mother's first milk (colostrum) to give them antibodies to ensure good health and a good start.

Where's the spigot?

The chickens were causing all kinds of problems, so Tricia moved the little family into the barn where they could have some privacy.  All of the kids began looking for milk.  There is a problem here.  There are three baby goats and a goat only has two teats.  That means there's always someone left without.  They'll have to learn to wait their turn and learn to be patient.  Tricia ensured that they all nursed and got the colostrum.  Fortunately, they are all very healthy.

Wait your turn, little one.

I tell you what; baby goats are about the cutest little creatures on God's earth. Sometimes they appear to be smiling!  This little girl has a pattern on her head similar to a skunk.  I was tempted to call her Skunk-face, but that's not a very endearing name.

Smiles everyone, smiles!

There is one little buck, so we think we'll call him, Buckwheat.  After The Little Rascals TV show, we'll name one of the girls Darla.  As far as the other girl, the jury is still out.  We'll figure out something to call her soon.  They are so active and seem to be enjoying playing with each other.

Annie and her children

It is impossible - utterly impossible, to pass by these little creatures and not pick them up and hold them!

Benjamin and one of the girls

They all have spots similar to Annie, except their spots are gray in color, whereas Annie's spots are whitish or brown.  One of the little girls is solid black on her side, but has a spotted head.  They all learned to latch on and nurse Annie very quickly.

Milk!

With each passing hour they got more lively.  Sometimes a little too lively.  Pretty soon the kids got tired.  With bellies full of milk and a day full of adventure, there's nothing more satisfying than taking a nap - especially cuddled into a cozy ball with their brother and sisters.

Nap Time!

One little update:  Sunday morning the kids started something Tricia calls, Popcorn.  Popcorn is where the kids start jumping straight up in the air like kernels of corn in hot oil.  They are so playful. Well, they were doing the popcorn thing and the little buckling, Buckwheat, popped right up under Rosie, our 950 pound Jersey cow.  Rosie stepped on the little booger's leg.  Buckwheat's popcorn play was over for the day.  In fact he was not putting any weight on the leg at all.  I checked it out and there were no broken bones.  We were fortunate, but we quickly put the newborns in the "nursery" - away from the cows.  By Monday afternoon, praise the LORD, little Buckwheat was almost 100% back to normal, putting lots of weight on the leg and only walking with a very slight limp.  I'm sure the popcorn game will commence again tomorrow - only this time, safely out of Rosie's way.