LHF kidding 2012 PHOTOS AFTER THE STORM

[20kidsonhill]

Snowball: 4 to 4 1/2 months pregnant.

 

[fortheloveofgoats]

So happy that you started early with the pictures. This was great! You have a beautiful heard, and I love your set up. Can't wait for more pictures, thank you for sharing. So do you sell your goats or do you keep them?

 

[20kidsonhill]

So happy that you started early with the pictures. This was great! You have a beautiful heard, and I love your set up. Can't wait for more pictures, thank you for sharing. So do you sell your goats or do you keep them?

thank you for the compliments, and glad I haven't worn out my welcome yet, posting photos.

We sell most of them. There have been years we haven't kept any, and sometimes we keep 2 to 6 doelings for replacements and to add to our herd. Also, we have children that show goats, so they pick show wethers(can be a doe) and show them in August, But this year we only have one child showing goats. After the fair those goats are sold.

Our market is Show wethers(can be a doe) for 4H/FFA shows in our county and nearby counties, last year we had 13 goats at shows, including 4 that our children had. They do okay, but can't compete with the higher-end full-bloods. So that is why we purchased our newest bucks. Goldman and full-proof, and our newest does, classy lady, macy, glory and Hot Mamma. Their pregnancy pictures aren't quit as fun to look at, because they are first freshners and they don't get as big bellied as the older does. I haven't posted all of them yet, I have pictures of Classy Lady and Macy posted so far.


Then we sell, replacement does for other herds and an occasional buck for another farm to use as a herd sire.

We sell the occasional pet.

Finally, anything that doesn't grow well enough or has a fault(structural problem) is grown out to market weight (45 to 80lbs) and sold at market. We try to sell out by the time they are 4 months of age, so we aren't having to feed anyone any longer than necesary. Feed costs money. If the kid isn't growing well, we just cut our losses and sell them at 4 months regardless of their weight.

Although I do have a rule, I don't take anything into market looking horrible, or sickly. I either treat them or put them down.

So I guess in a nut shell, even though I do get attached to some of them, we are purely a production farm and we don't consider them pets. My children have become attached to NIbbles and we will be looking to rehome her.

 

[ksj0225]

Totally off topic, but looking at your fence, do your horned goats get their heads stuck in that type fence...

(We leave horns on as well..)

Thanks
Kim

 

[20kidsonhill]

Totally off topic, but looking at your fence, do your horned goats get their heads stuck in that type fence...

(We leave horns on as well..)



Thanks
Kim

Yes, they can and have. We put electric up where it becomes a problem. Honestly, you pretty much need to put electric up to keep the goats from pushing and rubbing all over the fence. And you for sure need to put electric on both sides if you have a fence line that is seperating two areas with goats in it. They beat the crud out of the fence. Drives my husband crazy.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Our neighbors purchased a right away, next to our property for a future driveway up to a peice of land that would other wise be land locked. They run cattle on the land but not the rightaway, so the right away isn't being used and they have given us permission to run our goats on it. So the high tensel wire is the far side of the right away that the neigbors put up and the woven fencing is our fencing. The neighbor gave us permission to put a gateway into our fencing to just let the goats go over there. It is a pretty good amount of land, considering we only have 6 acres. It runs the entire length of our property, and we have a long narrow peice of property.

what you see in the picture is about half of the length of it.

 

[Ms. Research]

Not tired yet. lol

Really interesting read. And I know I've said this before, really nice set operation. Hats off to you and your DH.

Can't wait to see what Goldman has produced with your new does. He caught my eye the first time you posted about him. He's really impressive.

K

 

[20kidsonhill]

Not tired yet. lol

Really interesting read. And I know I've said this before, really nice set operation. Hats off to you and your DH.

Can't wait to see what Goldman has produced with your new does. He caught my eye the first time you posted about him. He's really impressive.

K

I really have my husband to thank for most of it. He has been to a lot of farms over the years and has seen a lot of set-ups. He has all the ideas stuck in his head.

for example the other day, I got a new large(600lb) squar bale of hay. The problem I have been having with it, is as I take off wedges it collapses, making it hard to get the entire wedge off, since the other wedges are falling down along with it. Had been not as easy as I had hoped. The bale is already up against a tree, since we use the tree to pull it off the truck. So he gets some binder twin, and an end of a pitch fork that had been broken off from the handle(needing to be repaired) and ties it to the string jabs it into the side of the bale around 3 slabs from the end, ties/adjust the string so it is tightly tied to the tree. KNow the slabs no longer fall down as I remove the end wedge/slab. all I have to do, is untie the one end of the string, move the pitchfork inward by 3 or 4 slabs and retie with a quick release knot.

I stood there, wondering how the heck did he think of that.

 

[RPC]

I love this thread keep it coming. I love the pictures and the knowledge I am getting from it. The feeders are a really good idea because I need to make some of those.

 

[jodief100]

You have such nice looking does. Those big bellies mean lots of room for kids.

I really can't wait to see what they give you.