rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

Freakin' animal cracker deficiency... It's a real problem. They probably think they've got me properly trained. (*if we stay "asleep" she'll come and put pizza and cookies right in our mouths" -pigs probably)
I'm enjoying the pigs. Apparently if you keep them pampered and fed they don't make noise above the level of a snort, they stay put, and they don't challenge or test the fences.

 

[rachels.haven]

This weekend Lace went home to live with a family of a horse farrier and their dairy herd. They seem to be able to handle her no problem. Despite not having the best dairy goat temperament, I guess she's not a horse.

This weekend Noober the nubian buck went home with a family to breed their nubian and nubian cross does. * eyes closed and chanting, not breeding nubians* and definitely not breeding Noober to his sister.

Woodland Haven Ellie, Emmie's daughter, kidded triplet does last night. She's a yearling milker, so the first one was hard to get out, and the second two positioned with only heads out so I had to put my hand in and trace along the kid's shoulder down to the curled over leg, and pull one out so the kid could pass through the pelvis before it got so stuck we were in trouble. I've never had to go in that deep, so now I'm fretting if Ellie is going to be alright. Ellie so far has a perfect FF udder, perfect orifices, warm soft butter udder texture, and short but usable teats so she's a keeper and it looks like I can breed Emmie again to Atlas without worrying too much about perpetuating her cone teats, tough udder texture, and smaller orifices. This little doe has a dream udder, and it appears Atlas was able to cancel the frustrating part of my favorite pet Lamancha's genes out.

My newer lamancha buck that I was going to use to breed Atlas' daughters to jumped the cattle panel fence from a standstill to try to be with Ellie while I was putting her in the kidding stall (he hurt his leg mildly and I immediately put him back-negative feedback for you!). He is Kastdemur's Vandal x Kickapoo Valley All About Emu, both of which have outstanding udders and conformation, but a fence jumper will not do. I may use him to breed my open lamancha does after I cidr and pg600 them then sell him on asap. That way we do not get to the temptation of dwarf does while in rut. I could totally run an electric wire around the top of the pen, but from what I saw it would not help because the goat has to be touching the ground to get shocked and he just bunny hopped over, all four feet at once (how he hurt his leg). If he'd put his nose over first he'd have gotten shocked and it would have worked, but he didn't do that. He's too short to do that. Clearly large, fat, and happy bucks are the way to go assuming Atlas doesn't accidentally push over the fence.

Mallow (lamancha) is due tomorrow. She is the second to last lamancha to kid out this year. The next one is another smaller (110lbs at breeding) Atlas daughter next month.
I go to pick up my Lucky*Stars buckling at the airport on Wednesday.

The kids are on spring break. Baby has a cold. We're all trying to sleep in. Oh, and my inlaws are intown.

Oh, and Lacey and Buttah, a little orchard mother daughter pair, are being picked up as exposed does this Friday (may kidding). While their production is very high, they both could use more udder attachment in every way possible and Buttah needs bigger orifices. I told the guy as much, but he's okay with all that. He's going to start his lamancha herd with them. They both have outstanding builds and are in good flesh now.

I'm trying to pick specific dam lines to work with, so narrowing the herd focus and selling bred does that are not my favorite is what I'm telling myself to do. Life is short and all and I'm past the "I JUST NEED SOME DOES" stage of herd growth in the lamancha department. I have some nice does and some nice bucks and I'd like some nice kids from them

Still working on some dwarf issues, but I'll start going through them when they kid. We're definitely pulling those kids because ND on their own dam raised have a high rate of being unfriendly and "witchy" to quote another breeder I've met. All the nigerian dwarf kids left are sired by Dawnland Oberon. I'd like to keep all the does as replacement and herd growth because of his outstanding genetics. Then I get to decide if I breed them to my buck with a Valley's Edge ancestor who stayed (potential buyer abandoned deposit and Ant is still here) or put some local kids in quarantine from herds that have only been tested for CAE and Johnes.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

after I cidr and pg600 them

Huh? (Sorry, my Texas Aggie I/Q is getting in the way...)

 

[rachels.haven]

Huh? (Sorry, my Texas Aggie I/Q is getting in the way...)

Cidrs are a device you put in your doe to make their cycle pause for about two weeks. Then they get a (small) shot of lute or pg600 after you remove the cidr and it jump starts them cycling, twice, I think, even in the off-season. Most goats are seasonal breeders. Cidrs and a hormone shot is a way you can breed the seasonal standard goats for fall kids. And also so we can use the potentially free spirited buck without him being in full on nutty rut. I'd like to try it, although I was going to do it for AI, but if I get around to it I'll do the protocol for some classy kids via live cover too.

Usually Cidrs are for sheep.

 

[farmerjan]

We use alot of cidrs and shot protocols in cattle too. Gets the beef cows cycling better and then they all calve in a shorter time frame (window) so that all the calves are closer in age and size for selling uniform groups... and dairy farmers use them so that they can get cows in heat close together and breed a group AI and also for using cows to be "surrogates" carrying embryo's from more desirable matings.

 

[Bruce]

STA, clearly you and I are not part of the "in" crowd. We don't know the lingo!!!!

 

[Baymule]

Your pigs sure look happy, all cozy in their hay. Anybody buying your goats is getting a good deal. You breed for the best goat you can produce and even if it is one you don't want, it is still a mighty nice goat.

 

[rachels.haven]

Okay, so to recap,
Lace is sold
Buttah is sold
Lacey is sold
Noober is sold
and this guy came to Nashville from Lucky Stars farm in Washington.

We have had six lamancha kids born(4 does, 2 bucks) and two dwarves (2 does).

And Mallow is STILL PREGNANT. She looks like she ate one of the dwarves that she hates so much.

That's right, Mallow. We KNOW about your dwarf munching secrets.

 

[rachels.haven]

The new buckling's name is Lucky Star's LL Pete.
Happy Pepper says, "HI".

She's been a bit of a trip lately so I took her off the puppy food with 30% protein and took her down to 26% and suddenly she's calmer and less pushy. She might require a further step and adult dog food soon because she is not entirely a puppy anymore. She's also been having issues with prey drive and trying to kill cats and be-bopping little animals as they hippity hoppity on by, but we're still trying (she's always gone after the cats a bit but lately it's been GAME ON and the other dogs don't care). She's amazing on a leash though! It's just that when she sees potential prey it results in a battle every time where I get to remind her that all the animals belong to ME and are not her squeak toys and she "gets" to lay down and ignore them or else. The big goats want to pat her flat and into the ground with their heads so she doesn't dare mess with them. I kind of wish the cats could do that. I wonder if my girl will ever be reliable with small animals without constant supervision. She's already gotten one of Aiden's cats. It ran off and was gone for over a week and now has a permanent kink in it's back and atrophied hips (I feel bad about my son's cat too).
My mom went down to Barbara's earlier and wound up with a couple of Pepper's half siblings from an older litter as extra bonus dogs to help sell so Mom loaned me the one that was coping the worst with living in a litter long term. If I have to move Pepper onto a cat/baby goat free home my little shadow puppy will be bought and will stay (I suspect mom thinks I will fail, but you never know, maybe I'll succeed). I don't have pictures of her but she's a wonderful sweet little thing. I can't say enough nice things about Barb's dogs. I wish I could get Pepper's small animal issues mended though.

We also had the last batch of quail for a while hatch. Now all that's left is to grow them out and clean the incubator.
So I've had the highs of kidding and selling goats this week, and the lows of dealing with a now fairly well behaved dog minus small animal issues. Also quail hatching and having to host inlaws for a week. It's another week at our place.

 

[farmerjan]

She is BIG !!!!!!!
Congrats on the new addition. Looks like the travel went well. Hope he settles in with no problems.
How are things in general there for your family? Aside from the rain and wet in the barn.
DH's eyesight still holding?
The baby isn't a baby anymore... 1 1/2 yrs old now? The older boys doing good in school?
Dogs all settled in?
I love reading your journal.