OneFineAcre
Herd Master
Congratulations on getting the dairy finished 
Jumping the Moon Dairy - the next chapter
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babsbag
Herd Master
I am keeping all the alpines this year because my awesome young buck has those special genes for cheese making and he will pass them on to his kids so they all stay this year. I am also hoping to buy two unrelated does from the same herd that will also carry at least one of the two genes so then next year I will have a better chance of getting some does that carry both genes.
I am still struggling with what to do with older does. I wish someone would just come and make those hard decisions for me while I am not looking. Three of my best milkers are being knuckle heads for breeding this year. Two are short cycling and one has normal heats but won't settle. The normal heat one doesn't surprise me since her kidding last year was a total surprise after 3 or 4 years of no kids. If she comes back into heat here in a few days I will put her with my Lamancha buck as that is who she settled with last year. The other two...one is a doe I luted and aborted 7 weeks ago so who knows how much she is messed up. And the other I have done cystorelin twice and we will see. Both of those should be back in heat tomorrow if it still didn't work.
@Bruce, there is no one selling milk at farmer's markets. There is milk for sale in the grocery stores and at the health food store. And maybe at Trader Joe's. As far as local cheese and milk for goats I am it. I just hate to raise prices, I feel like if you get people committed and convinced and then up the price it just looks bad.
@goatgurl I would love to have you. Let me know if you want to move to CA. But no one wants to move to CA so who am I fooling. I need to find someone though, or else learn how to clone myself. My DH would be good at the job and he is hoping to retire next Dec but he has no interest in the dairy or marketing. He would do it an emergency but not on a regular basis, which is too bad. But I'm not going to force the issue. God (and @Southern by choice) got me this far so something will come along.
I am still struggling with what to do with older does. I wish someone would just come and make those hard decisions for me while I am not looking. Three of my best milkers are being knuckle heads for breeding this year. Two are short cycling and one has normal heats but won't settle. The normal heat one doesn't surprise me since her kidding last year was a total surprise after 3 or 4 years of no kids. If she comes back into heat here in a few days I will put her with my Lamancha buck as that is who she settled with last year. The other two...one is a doe I luted and aborted 7 weeks ago so who knows how much she is messed up. And the other I have done cystorelin twice and we will see. Both of those should be back in heat tomorrow if it still didn't work.
@Bruce, there is no one selling milk at farmer's markets. There is milk for sale in the grocery stores and at the health food store. And maybe at Trader Joe's. As far as local cheese and milk for goats I am it. I just hate to raise prices, I feel like if you get people committed and convinced and then up the price it just looks bad.
@goatgurl I would love to have you. Let me know if you want to move to CA. But no one wants to move to CA so who am I fooling. I need to find someone though, or else learn how to clone myself. My DH would be good at the job and he is hoping to retire next Dec but he has no interest in the dairy or marketing. He would do it an emergency but not on a regular basis, which is too bad. But I'm not going to force the issue. God (and @Southern by choice) got me this far so something will come along.
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
You might consider rehoming the ones who are not getting bred, They may pass that trait onto their offspring which could quickly become a problem down the road.
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babsbag
Herd Master
@misfitmorgan Two of them have a reason. One lost a kid in utero her first pregnancy and most likely had a uterine infection that caused scar tissue. We treated her with a flush a year later but obviously that will clear up the scar tissue problem. She cycles normally AND comes into milk 5 months after her last heat so I always gave her a pass.
The other one was bred, I didn't know it, and I gave her lute to force a heat. I have two does that I did that too.
I am guessing that her hormones are a mess or she could have contracted an infection during her abortion. 
The third one is a mystery. Infection is always a possibility carried over from last year but it was not a difficult or assisted birth so she would not be on my radar for an infection. I will do a uterine flush if she comes back into heat this weekend. This should have been her 4th or 5th kidding. If I have to move her out of here I will be sad. She is my "goat-dog". She follows be everywhere.
The other one was bred, I didn't know it, and I gave her lute to force a heat. I have two does that I did that too.
I am guessing that her hormones are a mess or she could have contracted an infection during her abortion. The third one is a mystery. Infection is always a possibility carried over from last year but it was not a difficult or assisted birth so she would not be on my radar for an infection. I will do a uterine flush if she comes back into heat this weekend. This should have been her 4th or 5th kidding. If I have to move her out of here I will be sad. She is my "goat-dog". She follows be everywhere.
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
It does seem like the first two do have a good reason then. When ours had a uterine infection we could smell it...easily if you got any where near their back end. The only two that ever had a problem for us, one had a very long hard labor as a FF and the other had twins and one had mummified in the last few weeks before birth. We did a course of penicillin and they cleared up.
The third one.....it always seems to be the nicest or friendliest ones that dont perform how you would like. You could always decide to keep her as a pet and give yourself a set limit on number of pets. That is what we did. DH will allow me one gilt/sow pet and one boar pet for the pigs...he also gets one of each. For the goats/sheep i dont need to worry until numbers get back up then i will need to choose who to keep.
I really hope all the does and ewes are bred. Phoebe is the only one of our current goats who had a kid last year(every year always and twins), the 3 togs were to young and our alpine has not had a kid in 2yrs. Very much hoping for some doe kids. On the sheep side we only have one 2F adult ewe, and 2 1F adult ewe, the other 2 ewe i doubt got bred this year as they were born this past spring. We have two rams, we took our less desirable ram out of the pen and sent him to a friends farm for a month to give our good ram first shot so to speak. So hopefully he got the girls and if not hopefully our smaller ram got them. We had warmer weather for longer so the 2 young ewes may have gotten bred the past week or so. If phoebe is true to form she will kid on the coldest day in February she can find and at 2-4am.
The third one.....it always seems to be the nicest or friendliest ones that dont perform how you would like. You could always decide to keep her as a pet and give yourself a set limit on number of pets. That is what we did. DH will allow me one gilt/sow pet and one boar pet for the pigs...he also gets one of each. For the goats/sheep i dont need to worry until numbers get back up then i will need to choose who to keep.
I really hope all the does and ewes are bred. Phoebe is the only one of our current goats who had a kid last year(every year always and twins), the 3 togs were to young and our alpine has not had a kid in 2yrs. Very much hoping for some doe kids. On the sheep side we only have one 2F adult ewe, and 2 1F adult ewe, the other 2 ewe i doubt got bred this year as they were born this past spring. We have two rams, we took our less desirable ram out of the pen and sent him to a friends farm for a month to give our good ram first shot so to speak. So hopefully he got the girls and if not hopefully our smaller ram got them. We had warmer weather for longer so the 2 young ewes may have gotten bred the past week or so. If phoebe is true to form she will kid on the coldest day in February she can find and at 2-4am.
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babsbag
Herd Master
Do #3 is back in heat today
The one I aborted should be in heat today as so far is not. Praying that the Cystorelin injection worked for her. Mocha should be in heat 1/3-1/6 if she didn't settle. She also had a mummified kid years back and that caused her to abort very close to her due date with the mummy and a dead kid that was obviously much farther along. I should have treated at the time but that was before I knew much about goats. If she comes into heat she will be going in with the LaMancha buck and see if that makes a difference since it did last year.
The one I aborted should be in heat today as so far is not. Praying that the Cystorelin injection worked for her. Mocha should be in heat 1/3-1/6 if she didn't settle. She also had a mummified kid years back and that caused her to abort very close to her due date with the mummy and a dead kid that was obviously much farther along. I should have treated at the time but that was before I knew much about goats. If she comes into heat she will be going in with the LaMancha buck and see if that makes a difference since it did last year.
OneFineAcre
Herd Master
I do not share your reservations on this subject. We had our best year in both milk sales and cheese sales. We sell cheese to 2 small sandwich shops/deli's. We couldn't make enough.
We sell milk for 10 per gallon and chevere for 16 per pound
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Southern by choice
Herd Master
I am only responsible for myself, what others do is their business.
I didn't say I necessarily agree with the food laws but they are what they are.
I would much rather be able to take extra milk, and make cheese to give to families that are struggling and in need. It really stinks that the dairy laws won't allow it. Shake my head at some of this as there are so many families that need help.
farmerjan
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Don't know the particulars of the laws there, but Va is also an "anti-raw milk state" and very adamant about it. You can sell milk for pet food, and there was talk about making it mandatory to put a "charcoal colored dye" in it so that it would not be drunk by humans. In fact I believe there is a state that requires that. Anyway, there were some people that had goats and were making cheese and selling it at a few farmers markets. They had a real good following. The "milk police" cracked down and said that by law they couldn't sell it. So they researched it and there is nothing that says you can't give away what you make as long as it is disclosed what it is made of. There are several cottage bake industries that allow this and that but not something else. Really convoluted.
So this couple goes back to the farmers markets and starts giving it away and by law you can take donations. They actually made more by getting donations than when they were selling it. There wasn't a single thing that could be done because any of the donations were for the "packaging" and the actual product was free. There was no signs or anything, just if people asked why it was really free, like non-customers, they were told that it could not be legally sold in Va but that the goat owners really liked making it and wanted people to be able to taste cheese made from goats milk. If anyone asked about the jar with the money in it, they were told that some people were making donations for the expensive packaging that they used.
They went to court twice over it and the second time the judge said to not bother bringing them back into court, that they were not breaking any laws and if they wanted to give it away they were free to do so; and there were no laws that said a person couldn't make a donation to someone else. If that was the case then they would shut down every fire dept and police charity organization and even the salvation army for the bell ringing.
So this couple goes back to the farmers markets and starts giving it away and by law you can take donations. They actually made more by getting donations than when they were selling it. There wasn't a single thing that could be done because any of the donations were for the "packaging" and the actual product was free. There was no signs or anything, just if people asked why it was really free, like non-customers, they were told that it could not be legally sold in Va but that the goat owners really liked making it and wanted people to be able to taste cheese made from goats milk. If anyone asked about the jar with the money in it, they were told that some people were making donations for the expensive packaging that they used.
They went to court twice over it and the second time the judge said to not bother bringing them back into court, that they were not breaking any laws and if they wanted to give it away they were free to do so; and there were no laws that said a person couldn't make a donation to someone else. If that was the case then they would shut down every fire dept and police charity organization and even the salvation army for the bell ringing.
Baymule
Herd Master
Happy New Year babs! May 2018 bring you customers with money in their hands, clamoring for MORE MILK!
