LHF kidding 2012 PHOTOS AFTER THE STORM

[20kidsonhill]

i was asked about the domes in post 716 and 717 in the photos.

They are polydome calf huts

http://polydome.com/calf_nursery.html

The silver rings(tunnels) are feed storage rings for a feed silo. Well, half a feed silo ring, set on their sides to make tunnels.
We have 10 calf huts and around 12 silo ring halves.

In the summer we close our barn off and all the adults are up on pasture and this is their shelter, until we open the barn back up for the winter.

I have straw in them.

 

[jodief100]

I have noticed your polydomes and always liked them. How difficult are they to move? Will they work on slopes?

 

[20kidsonhill]

Daisy sounds like a natural mother. She should be blessed with lots of babies always. It sounds like you had a rough year for kidding, but you still have a bunch of babies and quite a few successful kiddings. PLUS we all learn from you when you do have difficulties, as you are the voice of experience and always tell the story so well even if the outcome isn't so great.

Good luck on your remaining kiddings.

Well, some of you should have learned a lot from reading through the thread.

What I learned is every doe I expected to have problems with based on last years kidding season, pretty much repeated the same problem this year. expect for Sparky, she had a tough year last year and did just fine on her own this year. She had pregnancy toxemia the year before. She is struggling a little bit right now with a worm load and anemia, since she kidded. she is on red cell treatments, iron injections and has been given a good sized dose of copper oxide rods. Her kids are looking really good.

I was really excited to get a chance to take pictures of Annie kidding. I enjoyed using my new camera that my DH got me, and sharing all the photos with all of you.



Now to keep them all alive and growing at a descent rate.

I am going through 8 lbs of grain in my creep feed area right night, and we are going to expand it this weekend, so we can put a regular grain feeder in the area and put more feed in it.

We need to seriously talk about banding, and which ones we are going to band, I now there are a couple kids out there right now above 30lbs.

We haven't done our taxes yet, not even started them. We are in denial.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I have noticed your polydomes and always liked them. How difficult are they to move? Will they work on slopes?

They work on slopes just fine, and stay in place pretty well, the slope needs to be even under the dome, they wont conform to a big dip under them. But they will sit an even slope.

They are easy to move, I move them by myself, but it is easier with two people, We flip them on their sides and roll them to a new location. Although we don't move them around too much. It kills the grass under them, and I am pretty happy with were they are located at this point. They would be easy to pull onto a trailer and move, if they are needing to be relocated a distance or to another field.

We have had ours for almost 15 years, they have held up really well, even with the bucks. My children like to sit on top of them, and that isn't very good for them, because it pops the top down, and if it sits like that long enough it can be hard to pop back up, and then it collects water in the dip. So our children have been clearly told that they aren't for sitting on.

OH, the front ledge part going into the hut is a little high for newborns. We had found a kid stuck on it one time, trying to get in and out of the hut, Ones they are a few days old it isn't a problem with our standard sized goats, However if you are using them with a lot of really young kids or smaller size goats, then I would advice putting blocks on the inside and outside of the doorway as a step. You can not cut the ledge away, it ruins the structural soundness of the hut. We have one hut that someone tried to cut the ledge away and it works okay, but is flimsier than the other huts.

 

[20kidsonhill]

some of you should feel you know these goats personally from all these photos.

I got a good one of the runt on Annie. He is such a cutie.

And a good one of Nova and her family. And for those of you who have been following allowing. Nova's doeling didn't make the final four on my keeper list. So for know I have kept her for sale, although I honestly really really want to keep her. I wish I had a crystal ball and could tell what she is going to have the next couple of years.

 

[daisychick]

I love all the pictures. So if you have a final four keeper list, how many do you actually get to keep out of the four? Or are you keeping all four?

 

[20kidsonhill]

MY top four picks based on overall appearance, growth rate and wanting to continue the blood-line.

Indie's doeling out of Twister, full blood, but can only be registered 50%. Chose to keep her, because she is just WOW.

Snowball's doeling out of Karamba, 93% boer, but can only be registered 75%, I don't have any does from Snowball, and snowball has consistantly been a good producer, great growth rate and great milker.

On of Glory's doelings out of Prooved It.(This is a picture of when she was one day old)(full blood), Of course we have to keep at least one of our new full bloods.

and one of the doelings on Tori. 75% boer/ 25% nubian out of Karamba, I am selling the other does from Tori that I have kept in the past, since Lorily prolapsed and her daughter,the Galloway doe, had kidding problems. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that this new doe can carry on Tori's genetics with out the kidding problems that I don't believe came from Tori, but possibly came from Lorily's sire.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I love all the pictures. So if you have a final four keeper list, how many do you actually get to keep out of the four? Or are you keeping all four?

keeping all four, I may add a couple more, it depends on how sales go of some of the other ones. If some of my favorites don't sell, I will just keep them instead of taking them to the stockyards. But I imagine as they grow they will eventually sell.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Now we need to pick show wethers for my son. We will pick the top two and then two more reserves. Often times we use doelings as reserves. That way we aren't putting all that show feed into wethers.

I now for sure that Annie's bigger buckling is my son's first pick. this isn't a great picture of him, but it does show how smooth a top line and shoulders he has. He is out of Prooved It.

 

[daisychick]

Love all your picks for keepers. I would keep them all plus more. Your son's pick looks great too.