Devonviolet Acres

[CntryBoy777]

He sure is very Nice looking with plenty of colors. Just out of curiosity why did ya go with a myotonic?.....

 

[Baymule]

I am so glad that you got the Mytonic buck that you have been wanting! He is a nice looking buck, colored like eye candy and ought to produce some nice babies!

@CntryBoy777 she wanted a meat goat buck to breed to her does. She has the number of does that she wants, so kids will go to the freezer. Since dairy animals are not the most muscled up, meatiest animals, she got a meat buck to breed for bigger, meatier kids.

 

[Devonviolet]

X2 . . . What she said! With one addition . . . from what I've heard, dairy/Myotonic cross does sell easily, for the reason @Baymule gave.

 

[Devonviolet]

Here are some better pics of our newest goat, DannyBoy:

Here he is in his favorite corner of the hoop hut

Before I go too far, I want to clarify something here. DannyBoy is two months old, and the breeder weaned him at two months, to sell him. While it’s not something that will permanently harm the baby goat, I personally don’t think you should wean until three months. So, I decided to try to get DannyBoy to take a bottle for the next month. This will have two pluses: 1. He will get the added nutrition for another month, and 2. He will get used to human contact, which he didn’t get much of at his first home. This will, hopefully help him to be a friendly goat, that is easy to work with.

So, after I got the girls fed this morning, I took the left over milk, in the house and put it in a bottle, with a Prichard nipple. I took it out and got DannyBoy and took him to the barn, so I could weigh him . . . 22.0 pounds. I was a bit surprised, because I thought he weighed more. I also weighed Faith this morning. The girls are one month, ten days old today. So, not quite 1-1/2 months old. I thought, since he was older and a meat goat, he would weigh more than them. Faith was 24.5 pounds and Hope was 24 pounds.

Then I took him and sat on my milking chair. At first I just sat and held him. He seemed to really enjoy that. Then, I tried to give him some milk with the bottle. He would have nothing of that! So we waited and tried again. Eventually, I was able to get the nipple in his mouth and he started sucking. He would suck for a while and let go. I would wait and try again. After a little struggle, we got the nipple in his mouth and he sucked some more. All totaled, I think he got about 3/4 of a cup. Which I didn’t think was too bad, for a first try.

I have an early meeting tonight, so won’t have a lot of time for working with him. But, I think in the morning, I might try putting him on Falina, after the twins are finished. She usually has some milk left in her, which I milk out. Hopefully, she will let him go ahead and nurse on her. We shall see. If not, I will take a bottle out, and try giving him milk from a bottle again.

BTW, I was very happy to see that DannyBoy was totally relaxed laying in my lap. At one point, he even closed his eyes. So, it seems he is going to be a sweet, loving guy.

After he was finished, I took him back out into the yard, and let him wander. Most of the time, he spent walking next to or lying by the fence between the side yard and the goat yard. Of course, the animals in the goat yard were all very interested in checking him out - especially Falina. Although, eventually she would lower her head, like she wanted to head butt him. At that point, both Violet and Deo would merely walk between Falina and the fence. I am SO proud of our dogs! They really do a great job!

So, here is Falina checking out DannyBoy

And here are Violet and Deo taking up position, so Falina can’t hurt DannyBoy

Again this morning, I left the rope hooked on his collar, so it would be easy to catch him, by just stepping on the end of the rope. Works like a charm!!! After he wandered around, in the yard, for a while, I picked up the rope and held it while I let him wander where he willed. He wasn’t crazy about it, but I want him to get used to walking on a lead. The first evening we had him here, I had a leash on him, and he totally panicked, choking and gasping for air. I want him to get comfortable with a lead, so if I need to lead him somewhere, it doesn’t turn into a struggle every time.

After DannyBoy was back in the hoop hut, I got some cute shots of the other goats. Here are best buds Rosemary and Angelica relaxing just inside the dog kennel

And here is Hope chilling on one of the tree stumps

 

[Mini Horses]

I like him -- a lot. The color is a bonus.

There are several young bucks that will be having a GREAT time this Fall ! I went with a full dairy this time as I want to cross dairy/dairy right now. Next will be a Boer for me -- same deal, just increase carcass size for meat use/sales. I have primarily full sized does, so Boer will be fine with kid size. Boys: I have a mature Nubian, young FB Saanen....I love my goats.

YEP -- goat math!

 

[Mike CHS]

A little trivia about our area. We don't have goats but one of our favorite events is the Goats, Music and More Festival in October.

"The festival that began in honor of those famous fainting goats of Marshall County returns for its 16th year at Rock Creek Park in Lewisburg, TN and this year’s lineup of goat shows, musical entertainment and activities for the whole family promises to draw crowds from all across the nation and beyond."

 

[Devonviolet]

I've been thinking about what I said earlier, about letting Danny Boy nurse off Falina. I must have been tired from the grueling weekend we had. That was a bad idea, because we need to quarantine him for a month.

He will be staying in the hoop hut at night, and we were planning to put up a small paddock, for him to have outside time. Its going to have an alley way, that is a mower's width, away from the goat yard, so there won't be any more sniffing each other until the one month quarantine is over.

That is going to have to wait now, because the farmer, that uses the field next to us, is deep plowing the field. We haven't had rain for a while, so it is dry & dusty and all that dust is blowing our way. I really don't want to be breathing it while we are working.

Tomorrow we are going to an all day farm meeting, sponsored by our local farmers market. So, it looks like now we won't get the fencing done until Wednesday.

 

[Mike CHS]

Based on what you two have gotten done in the last few weeks you are due for a break anyway.

 

[Devonviolet]

Based on what you two have gotten done in the last few weeks you are due for a break anyway.

Boy, you've got THAT right! We are both exhausted! I usually go to bed around midnight. Its 9:43 PM and I already have my PJs. When I finish here, I'm brushing my teeth and going to bed!

 

[Baymule]

Nothing like hard work to make you sleep good. Throw in some heat and humidity and you get utter exhaustion. I tell my husband, "I'm done." We stagger to the house, shower, crap out in our recliners and supper will be leftovers.