Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Bruce]

I'm going to ask another of those 'uninformed' questions.
At the local farmers markets I see plenty of beef, lamb, pork, chicken, sometimes turkey - never have I ever seen goat. Or sheep. Or maybe it's there under some other name?? But I can't remember seeing anything at my favorite stand and not knowing what it was...
I've not ever eaten either one that I know of - and would have to google how to cook it. But I don't know how I would go about even getting some other than contacting a farmer directly. And then I'm not sure how it would work? Would I have to buy a whole goat and take it to the processors? With steers, often several folks get together to buy halves or quarters or even splitting a quarter and they just meet at the processors with coolers & pay for whatever they have arraigned to pickup. How does that happen with goat or sheep?

Goat can be called Chevon. There is a lady at our Farmer's market who started a goat dairy at her families "used to ba a" dairy farm. Right up on the Canadian border - Border Hill farm. She sells milk and meat. She bought a Boer ram to breed to her LaManchas for meat animals. She has a Lamancha buck as well to make milk replacement girls. Her goat meat is kind of between beef and lamb in flavor. Very good.

 

[canesisters]

You guys have me REALLY wanting to try some goat now

 

[Mike CHS]

You guys have me REALLY wanting to try some goat now

We raise sheep but slow cooked goat on the grill is about as good as it gets.

 

[Ridgetop]

Absolutely! The saddest thing about giving up our dairy goats is no more goat meat or goat milk. Goat milk is much richer because dairies remove a lot of the cream from cows' milk before packaging it to sell. The cream and half-and-half is sold separately. You need a mechanical cream separator to separate goat milk and goat cream because it is naturally homogenized. If you have does that have a higher percentage of cream in their milk, you can skin a few tablespoons off the top after leaving it to sit for 24-24 hours but not enough for ice cream or butter. Since the cream is not removed from goat milk it is super rich.

When we had ducks, I found that goat milk and duck eggs made a fantastically rich baked custard. YUM!

 

[farmerjan]

Wednesday evening. Been a long but fairly productive day. DS had gotten the panels all set up and we went to the last pasture to get the cow/calf pairs in and moved to the barn. Normally we try to move them 2 days or so before the scheduled vet check... but we were looking at the weather and since it was getting warmer and drier.... and there was rain/showers forecast for Thursday, this just was the best day to do it. We had been talking about it for a few days since we had gotten the vet preg check set up.

So, today was the day. GF had suggested to him to use both trailers to move them as we were figuring at least 5 trips with the big trailer... and it was going to take most all day. So he got the blue truck hooked to the shorter 20 ft trailer, and hooked his crew cab to the longer 24 ft aluminum trailer. I normally drive the blue supercab with the shorter steel trailer. Loaded the 4 wheeler in the trailer in case we had to go "chase a few calves"....

So she came and helped.... she took the flat bed bale truck with some sq bales of hay and buckets of grain... went there ahead of us and at the top of the hill where it is flat; he parked the truck and trailer, took the bale truck and GF and I waited with the trucks and trailers. He called her and said that he finally got them in, all except the cow that had a new calf. So we took the 2 truck/trailers and went up to the pen.... he then got in the truck and went and turned around and I drove up past so he could pull down the drive and back up to the pen... I turned around and pulled up close so we could load his then load mine. We took 2 loads then came back, GF stayed at the pasture to make sure there were no "stupids" trying to get out. We loaded 2 more groups which were mostly all the cows except he left 2 there, and several calves. GF moved the calves into one pen, and got the cow and new calf into the second section. We got back, again, and he loaded most of the calves into the big trailer, and then put the last 6 and the small cow in the front of my trailer, and the cow/new calf pair in the back section. They loaded the 4 wheeler on the back of the red bale truck, and we closed up the field. Will have to go back for the panels eventually but don't need them anywhere else right now. Got back to the barn, tagged the new calf and moved that pair into the back field with the ones that are "due very soon"....and the 3 others with new calves from the previous pasture. Then unloaded the rest into the barn lot. GF left to go get her daughter from school... and DS and I did some hay feeding.

Went out back and got silage loaded without having to slip and slide in the mud....then took silage to the nurse cow field and a roll of hay, I opened a couple of gates there at the barn so he could put more hay in the front field for the cows we just brought back.
Finally turned the cows down in the front field with the hay and they will come back into the lot for water.

One of the ones that were diagnosed 8+ months last week calved the other day, not sure which day... and although DS said he thought he knew who it was, she didn't show much interest.. if it is the one he thinks, she is a first calf heifer that was open before and got a 2nd chance to get bred.
Calf is not real "bright", and although the heifer is not very interested, the calf also is not showing much enthusiasm. So I brought a bottle up and fed it about a 1/2. It shows no interest in going on a cow. I have given it some B-complex to try to stimulate his appetite.... and since it was acting weak, some vitamins also. So I thought it's eye was cloudy, and it looks like a full cloudy eye this morning. Gave it some LA 200 for a possible pinkeye type infection. Fed him a little over 1/2 bottle this morning; He did take almost a full bottle this evening. He also does not act as weak, so I don't know if it ever got any colostrum but at this point it probably wouldn't be very beneficial...

Thought it might belong to another cow that had a calf out to pasture with the other 3, and DS said he could not find that calf.... well, this afternoon he found it down below where he put the hay out, said he just must have missed it. This is the 2nd calf for this cow and she is way too high strung and went over a gate while we were sorting and all that. Thought maybe the calf he found was hers and had somehow gotten into the other field. But it isn't, the dead one belongs to the high strung one and she will get sold. I have a notation on the list from when they went to pasture, "attitude".... from when she had the first calf. She will run you over if she thinks she is getting cornered, and now with no calf, she is going. Cull prices are high and she will do good.
I am also going to get in the 2 cows at the nurse cow pasture that lost the 2 calves that didn't get blackleg vacc... they were on the sell list after these calves were sold, so they will just go with the next bunch to get sold. Got to get them in and moved down to the barn lot so we don't have to try to go to different places to get them all together. DS is feeding silage at the barn so it will help them to "round out" too....

So for now, I have a bottle calf... need to see if I can get it's eye cleared up.... think it would be wise to take it to the sale when we take the cows and get $150-300 for it rather than try to raise it up..... It's a bull calf so feeding it for a little bit in case someone loses a calf... but it isn't too smart acting, so thinking it would be better to let someone else that wants a bottle calf... to raise it... because it is not worth the milk replacer to me....but for now, it is a bottle baby at the barn....

So, these will get checked next Monday..... calves weaned off, and cows moved out to the "dry cow field" with the 11 he moved out from the last preg check... we kept the 8+ month ones close, but the ones that are 5-7 months will all go out back in the "autumn olive" field for a month or so, then rotated back around to the field we calve in, for the spring calves.... easy to check them there daily for calving....

We talked about my brother's visit and his "know it all" attitude... and all that.

I am going to take the Explorer to a dealer that a friend was telling DS offered him a small fortune for his truck 2 weeks ago. Going to just find the best price and sell it to a dealer at this point. Want it gone and out from under the loan... before things get worse financially in this country. Then I will get the other truck DS bought from parents estate, on the road, and have it for a "nice vehicle" to drive. It gets a little better mileage then the explorer...and more usable for me.

Farm cancelled testing for tomorrow... the hoof trimmer came and they had several that needed more work than he thought, and several were a little sore so milk will be off. Will find a day to put him in next week after they have a chance to get "over" the hoof trimming. Still going on Friday aft to the other farm, as far as I know.

Going in to get a shower and go to bed a little early. Still dealing with the coughing, runny nose stuff that I can't seem to shake. Not sick/sick.... just annoying that I cannot shake it. Sounds like @Baymule had a relapse too.... everyone that I talk to that has had it says this coughing crap lasts for weeks and weeks.... and I keep getting these nagging headaches that are not real bad, but aggravating and enough to make me feel crappy....

 

[Mini Horses]

Sounds like cows that needed attention got it. Makes for a loooong day. Hope you feel better sooner than later. Have any SMZs around?

 

[Baymule]

Sounds like a good day, y’all got a lot done. Sorry that you can’t shake this crud, it is annoying. Yeah, I’m on round two. Traipsing out in the cold and rain 6 times a day to doctor Reina’s eye didn’t do me any good, but it saved her eye.

 

[Ridgetop]

Glad that GF was a help and you got everyone loaded and moved without any craziness or knocking down fences. The work may be long but seems easier if there are not a couple of crazies making trouble!

 

[Mini Horses]

looks like you "might" get some wintery mix over the weekend -- ?? I know, I know, it's still winter. It just gets so messy with fluctuating temps.

Hope you're feeling better. Stay safe.

 

[Baymule]

Wintery mix? Blah! It’s still February, we could get a stupid blast, but I hope not.
Try to stay out of the bad weather as much as possible. Yeah, right.