rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

I think I want to come up with a way to grow tomatoes where I don't have to touch the foliage and get a reaction but I can still have tomatos. Other than a little heartburn when I eat them the fruit part causes me no grief when eaten in moderation. Moderation being the key word here.
Okra, tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumber with some salad and sugar snap peas and /or green beans early and late would be nice for next year.

 

[rachels.haven]

...gloves and long sleeves and closed toes shoes I guess could be my fallback.

 

[peteyfoozer]

They have those long sleeves for gardening and you could put on thin .

 

[Baymule]

OB gloves? Tomato foliage makes me break out in an itchy rash. I put on a denim shirt and gloves.

 

[farmerjan]

AI insemination gloves would work and you could use the cheapest ones since you wouldn't have to worry about them "breaking" while breeding....

 

[rachels.haven]

The Williamson county fair was survived.
My goat friend warned me that a couple of judges that the area uses prefers a rounder, fatter, more over stuffed sausage shaped type of dairy doe over the more long boned dairy type and I got to see that in action yesterday. I didn't expect my does to do super well considering I'm a noob, but I learned yesterday that no matter what your does are built like they must have saddle bags and roll when they walk as milkers and look like jiggly over stuffed sausages as yearlings.

Betty the milking nubian is a little chubby, but did not have saddle bags making her twice as wide as she should be and she doesn't roll so she got called "dairy" but well blended and was placed dead last.

Dot the dry yearling was not a stuffed sausage, so she also placed last. She didn't get a lot said about her and that's fine.

Josie the milking saanen was the only doe not scratched in her class so she placed first and last. She placed second and reserve under a fat aged saanen doe with no rear udder attachment who was kind of droopy. There were only two milking saanen in the show. I feel bad I failed Josie that badly. She's still immature so I didn't expect her to do great but she wasn't falling apart yet...the poor doe's feet! The judge did say Josie had a nice open bone pattern and elastic udder?

But whatever. I'm not sure I hold the judge's opinion in very high regard. I wasn't very impressed with the first place animals in any of the breeds. A lot of his firsts across all the breeds had poorly angulated legs, bad front ends, udders that did not have a large area of attachment, toplines that only looked good when scrunched down and while I'm sure they were very nice animals I would want them in my barn.

One thing I noticed was that a lot of the better placing yearling nubians even appeared to have milk goiters with their chonk. I guess I totally could keep my yearlings on extra milk forever but I don't like them being THAT round and roly.

I may not do another show for a while. This one was hot and disappointing. I really wanted to be blown away by the goats that placed well in the lineups. Plus I think I'd rather LA and milk test.

I still want a truck and trailer for my goat exploits though I'm not sure I'll ever get DH to budge and go with me to look at them. One day he's just going to wake up to one.

What I saw at the show also makes me worry, if the good breeders want their goats to be grown out and be THAT fat while doing it, I'm a horrible kid raiser. My goat kids are usually well fleshed with no ribs showing and they grow well and are solid and shiny and there are always a few roly polys or line backers, but none of them compare to what I saw yesterday. Maybe I'll just hide in a hole from now on in the local goat community. I don't really want my kids to be that obese. It didn't look healthy. And if I'm not changing I may as well just hide.

Here's some pics from my bought in bucking pen. They are starting to rut so it's time to start breeding. A few of them might be able to work.

This tall boy is big enough he may be able to work. The first one has a nicer toplines but he's a bit younger and not as mature.

This one has fun hair. Grease! And also he has fun yak pants.

I don't have a more current picture of this shy guy.

Even my wethers look nice to me (not pictured in entirety), but they were not show fat from yesterday. Plus, I like goats that get DEEP and dairy not just roly poly saddle bags. That's why I'm excited to get to use the Lucky*stars genetics (black buck with fun hair is mostly autumn-acres, but one of the Noobers needed a shipping friend and pen mate at the time so I bought him too and I don't think he'll go unused ). Apparently I won't win shows though. Oh well.

 

[rachels.haven]

Anyway, on a lighter note,
L) Summer
L) Hera
L) Emmi
L) Trinka
L) Allie
L) Dot
L) S'more
MS) Iris
S) Abagail
N) Galaxy
N)Betty
and N) Cora
All got their syncing protocol started. In 12 days some of them can start having dates with their appropriate buck matches. Pete the LS buck is going to have a lot of 5 minute dates.

Josie the saanen will be milked through. I'd like her to taper off in production and have her put on maybe a little fat before I rebreed her and it's okay if she has a dry year if she gives out on an extended lactation her ff year.

 

[SageHill]

Ah, welcome to the world of showing animals. Been there, done that with horses, and mostly dogs. I don't know goats, but yours look good to me in weight and structure (and pretty colors too). While the breeders and judges at that show don't seem to have the same ideal in mind as you, I'm sure there are others who do and weren't at the show - you just need to find them.
In the dog world structure and movement for the herding breeds is key. But what I see mostly are dogs that couldn't move their way out of a paper bag, let alone work for hours in uneven ground.
Hang in there, follow your ideal.

 

[canesisters]

I think your goats are beautiful!!
I suppose it's possible that there is as much difference in the goat world as there is between champion 'bench' dogs and 'trial' dogs at shows? I'm sure that there are many, many dogs that actually do work that would place dead last behind dogs of the same breed who can barely manage a couple of turns around the show ring.
Keep to your own awesome standards and you'll get a reputation for High quality, long producing, sound animals even if they never enter another show ring.

 

[rachels.haven]

I know in lamanchas there's a more tubey type that doesn't milk as well and is usually loaded down with "manufactured depth" aka fat and the other type is a deeper, wider, naturally squarer dairy-ier type which is what I breed for. Both types show well, but the tubes do better in California and the deep type I thought did better in the east, but apparently I was wrong, lol. This doe needs more strength, better feet, more foreudder, and she blew out her teats the day she freshened FF year when her milk came in because she had so much edma her teats couldn't handle it, but her body shape is basically what I breed for (if she has a littlr more width) She also had a tremendous amount of rear attachment even when she's deflating like here while drying off. She doesn't sag. If her feet don't fail her, she will live and not fall apart for a very long time if ever. Pregnancy, delivery and milking is easy for her and her build is eye candy for me. She also would have been last place in her class yesterday. She has little fat rolls behind each armpit and has no ribs visible but she could not be sausage shaped...unless I artificially forced her to gain massive amounts of fat. She is not a Kastdemur's type doe.

I'm still speechless about the saanen. I guess my saanen is just that bad? (Second best out of two behind a run down but chunky doe) And the nubians were just gross. So much fat rolling as they walked in the lineup-so few flat rumps, forget level. I'm opting out of showing them from now on. Yuck.
I'll try LA next. My stock comes out of goats that LA well. And milk testing was rewarding. I'll be skipping the next show though. No, I'm not paying money and paying more money for a cvi so I can go last because I'm not raising sausages.
I expected to be beaten, but I also expected to be "wowed" by the goats that beat me, and I wasn't and I don't want my goats to look like those obese does so I probably should not show with them.

Btw, the bff of the lady who sold us the CAE positive does was there. She was not friendly nor were people friendly to her. Apparently to the last show she brought a nice, new to her doe and kid to show and someone dragged it out of her that they were both positive for CAE and the doe had just tested positive by blood for CL too (which sometimes means you need to quarantine and retest to be sure in the case of "suspect" results but the key word being QUARANTINE not show...). And that offended people who also brought goats, but I'm not sure how long that will last. She brings the lucky*stars goats in too, and crosses them to Kastdemur's to get deep tubes and wins stuff. Plus in TN if your reputation is big enough, test results only mean something if it's convenient. So...you know, another reason to stay home. For my does' health, my time, and my sanity. Oh well. Lesson learned.