Mystang's Homesteading Circus

[mystang89]

Wow, 35 an animal!? Well at least there is some cooler weather for a couple days. Hopefully it'll stick around till he comes back in town.

 

[Mini Horses]

For that I would have moved the chiro apptmt!

I got more than that doing minis for horse shows...of course, the results had to be perfect, still!

 

[Bruce]

24 hour notice on the chiro appt or you get to pay anyway.

 

[mystang89]

The gentleman and his sons came over to shear my sheep and they were very nice about it all. Talked to me about East Freisians they had sheared, saying they hadn't noticed very many with foot rot or parasite problems. Taking that into consideration I'm backing down from my stance about absolutely no East a Freisians on my homestead and today we are going to pick up 3/4 East Freisians/Lacaune 1/4 Icelandic.

I'm not a huge fan of this because of the East Friesian and especially the Icelandic but there are a few things going for the purchase.
1. Less than an hour away.
2. Does have Lacaune in her which I REALLY want.
3. Only $300
4. She is pregnant and getting ready to pop in about a week.
5. They are throwing in her daughter from last year.
6. When they milked her they were getting 1/2 gal each day.

I haven't been about to find any Lacaune within a 3 hour drive of me, to my great dismay so I think this is the best I'm going to get right now. After spending $2400 on 3 starting sheep $300 sounds much more reasonable. Plus with that money I'm getting another sheep, which even if I don't keep will at least get me food. I'll probably keep her though if she proves to be a good sheep. This might even help me to start thinning out some of the low performers in my herd. (Here's looking at you Clara Bell.) We asked why she was selling the ewe and she told us that it was because she had too many and that she wanted to keep all of her lambs from this year. One half gal isn't an overly huge amount of milk but it's much more than I'm getting from mine right now. That said, I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. These Awassi are mixed with Lacaune so they should be leaking milk all over the place, yet I'm only getting about 2 cups. This is again, one of those times I wish I had someone here to tell me what I'm doing wrong but I plan on asking this person how she does her milking.

Comments suggestions or critiques are always welcome as usual.

 

[Mini Horses]

wish I had someone here to tell me what I'm doing wrong but I plan on asking this person how she does her milking.

DO ASK!!!!! Milking is a learning process for both milker and milkee. There are habits and situations to make more or less milk. Among them, feed, handling of offspring, time of milking (both times of day and length of lactation, etc), ROUTINE. Milk is one reason dairies take young at once and bottle feed. There are ways to "co-parent" & share milk, some does don't agree.

My goats have better or worse production years and it's usually MY fault, not theirs. Some prefer the contact with humans, others not so much. This has a great deal to do with their decision to let down, as much as our ability to milk them. ALWAYS milk in same order...if it's Suzie's turn, don't let Lilly in first. Really, I swear they get mad and hold back! You know how women can hold a grudge I have a "place" to milk and call them by name, open gate, they go there. Head into feed bucket and I can have milk -- so long as, they want.

Easy Peasy!

The buy deal sounds great! Pregnant doe and last years kid, all for only $300?! GREAT buy. Hurry there. We're waiting for pics of the newbies.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Pictures,

 

[mystang89]

Thanks everyone. I purchased the two ewes and she decided to throw in the ram of the ewe which is still being fed. (I've ewe is pregnant, the other ewe just lambed last month and this ram was the offspring so he was still nursing off her.) So 3 sheep + whatever comes out in the next week or two. Pics will be on the way. Been a LONG, stressful day so I'm not really up for it right now. I did ask her about milking and she said she used a cow milker..... Was a new one for me but she said it worked well and didn't bruise the teat. Anyone with experience of this way of milking feel free to speak up. I've heard of using a goat milker and I've tried it but it hurt the teats so I stopped and began by hand.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Happy that you got a great deal ! , I can't answer on the milker...I do the milking by hand as i don't have many to do....and they are nigerian dwarf goats,

 

[Baymule]

Sounds like a great deal! Waiting on pics!

 

[mystang89]

This is the nursing ewe at the moment.

This is the ram nursing off the ewe.

And this is the expecting ewe.

I never expected the East Friesian to be so much smaller than the Awassi but they definitely are. Looks like my Awassi could eat them.

I'm keeping them in confinement right now though. They'll be there for a couple weeks.

I'm not a huge fan of how much Icelandic is in them since I want to use them for milking and Icelandics aren't known for a prolific amount of milk.

Back to making a better version of a hay feeder.