FergusonK's journal - Goodbye Java Jewel.

[Ferguson K]

@OneFineAcre He's still in the CJ field. Only, he's not going to be a trooper. He's going border patrol.... (Yay! )

IF we lease/rent the house the renters are going to have to fix it up as part of the agreement. We've done a lot of work on it but it's not really seller/renter friendly. Lots of work needed in the kitchen and bathroom still and it's a tiny one bedroom house. Not a lot of room for renters. Barely enough room for us.

Most likely we will let it sit dormant for a while then come up and bulldoze the house/keeping the lumber for other projects.

We're building portable chicken coops that are easy to deconstruct and all future pens for the goats will be easy to deconstruct for a quick move. The 'barn' was built in sections and potentially we could take it down one section at a time and move it down to wherever we end up.

He leaves Monday to spend a month with my father to acclimate to the heat. He's going to be helping my dad with some construction stuff. Then off to New Mexico for a 12 week course at the end of... May I think.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - how exciting!

 

[Southern by choice]

 

[Ferguson K]

The birthday girl. Can't believe it's been a year already.

 

[Hens and Roos]

She's very pretty!

 

[norseofcourse]

Awwww - love those eyes!

 

[Bruce]

That is a hard one @Ferguson K, nothing you two can't work through but it sure is a strain when that "second hand" isn't there to help. I hope things go smoothly all the way.

 

[Ferguson K]

My junior herdsires begging for bottles. They're so big, I'm used to weaning much smaller goats! At 6 weeks, Jethro is just over 40lbs. At 10 weeks Tennessee, much finer bones and more dairy appearance, is 49lbs. I need to get a side by side of the two lines. Jethro's sister is 25lbs. BIG difference. Sightly is 15lbs(guessing, didn't scale her this evening as i had already fed her...), but has the greatest growth rate (she was only 3.1lbs when I got her, and an early triplet). Frida's kids are bigger than Sightly by about 3lbs on the doe and 5lbs on the buck, and they're a month younger.

Growth rate in lines varies vastly. Tennessee and Damsel share a sire. Damsels rate of growth and Tennessee are very much alike. From what I've seen on what Breaker throws, his kids are very growthy but slow down around 8-9 months. Sightly is from a third line, a buck that throws small kids that grow at a moderate pace. Yearlings in this line are where the most growth happens.

I love comparing these things. Helps me decide direction. I like growthy kids that end up looking like something I want in my barn. If someone would have told me a year ago that Briar would look like she does today I would've called them a liar. Morgan too. I bounced around the idea of culling her several times but I held on and I'm glad I did. I've seen her future! Meet Morgan's Dam

I mean, even Frida has a good picture taken I just received from a show friend. She's not my best doe by far. Conformationally she's a little challenged but the genetics are there. She was stunted with an early breeding as a young yearling and it affected her growth.

Her yearling Doeling and this year's Doeling show potential. Now to wait on udders.

We're going in a direction I really like. We're getting foundation animals that will bring us closer to our goals.


All that being said, when the move does happen it'll be tough on everyone. It'll put us much further from shows, but we can still do LA and DHIR in between.

Next month is our first milk test and some of the does (June) will have been in milk 6 months. It's more just to see where we are than official tracking. We're still participating we just won't have a full report.

 

[Southern by choice]

I was just talking about these very same things with some one else! Some of our goats are very slow growers and don't get their dairy length til after 2 years. I'm ok with that because I know how they grow... some lines are newer because of an added buck or so and then that takes time to see as well. Some grow legs first... some grow slow, some fast... it is interesting.
We had a nice surprise with one of our girls today... I won't bore everyone else with it but I will pm ya!

 

[Ferguson K]

Our hope is by crossing these two lines we will have growthy kids with length and dairy stature. The Breaker buck, Jethro, will be crossed with the HDF does. The HDF buck will be used with the Kasdemur / CD line does. I can get several years of good breeding out of this pair of bucks before I'll need to bring in another or get semen. Most likely we will get semen.
7
Jethro, the breaker/Kasdemur buck, has some really nice sisters and does behind him and I hope he combines that with his Dams (Diva) strength.

Tennessee comes from very milky, very correct does. His dam is one of the top producers at the dairy and is gorgeous. His sister's are to die for. LONG, LEAN, DAIRY! I believe these lines will compliment each other well. I'm hoping the boys mature enough to cover some does this fall, but if not we have a mature buck on the back burner that we have access to.