rachels.haven's Journal

[Ridgetop]

Kids in the 6-8 pound range would probably be fine for her.

Have you tried reducing her feed considerably in the 2-3 weeks prior to her kidding date? Kids and lambs seem to put on a lot of their weight in the last month. Worth keeping her and trying? Great milk production. Registered?

 

[rachels.haven]

Have you tried reducing her feed considerably in the 2-3 weeks prior to her kidding date? Kids and lambs seem to put on a lot of their weight in the last month. Worth keeping her and trying? Great milk production. Registered?

Registered, good lines, only living daughter of my favorite doe (on mom's side kastdemurs, little orchard, south-fork, lucky*star's, Lynn Haven, every herd on the pedigree is one I know of)
Faults that I can see are that she's just BIG and a bit narrow, would like a smoother foreudder, tighter rear udder, has a dip in the chine, roach in the loin leading into slightly steep rump and slight over angulation of legs and slightly imperfect feet but all well within acceptable if not for the kidding issue (all gifts from daddy). I could fix these things in a generation and still be happy milking her for the rest of her days. Bred standard and not induced I'm not sure the rest of her days would be very long.

My YouTuber homesteader friend who has a mini project wants Elsa, so she has a home. She's going to be a heck of a home milker.

Her friend, whom I have met and done business with before, wants Galaxy for her mini Nubian herd.

Elsa

Elsa on the BIG stand.

If Elsa and Galaxy both go to new homes, as far as females I'm bringing, I'll be bringing
4 standard milkers,
2 big "mini" milkers,
6 Pete Lamancha kids,
3 Pete elf eared experimental kids,
3 dry yearlings minis to be bred this fall, and
3 mini elf eared doe kids
...and whatever bucks I see fit. And if I can't secure a quality mini Lamancha buck the temptation is very real to slash the mini program even though I enjoy my minis and their combo of more butterfat/protein and durability and high will to milk well in less than ideal situations.

I'm also tempted to let the experimentals go even though their pedigrees on both sides are top notch if push comes to shove...but objectively, just looking at them like dairy goats, they should grow up to be very, very nice and they should be high butterfat, decent volume milkers too.

If I took out the experimentals and minis I'd be bringing 4 Lamancha adult milking does and 6 Lamancha kids and a buck or three and we'd just be a Lamancha herd. Sounds simple, but I like the mess I've made and I'd still be tempted to get a mini program going again as soon as I could so I should probably just stick with it. The appeal of simplicity is not dead to me though. I have time to decide. School ends at the end of May and we can't relocate until then and we haven't even put in an offer on a house yet.

 

[rachels.haven]

Have you tried reducing her feed considerably in the 2-3 weeks prior to her kidding date? Kids and lambs seem to put on a lot of their weight in the last month. Worth keeping her and trying?

No, probably not worth trying. Normally I do not grain does in late pregnancy unless they start showing tender feet or sluggishness until about the last week or two. After that I feed about a pound a day. I've kidded her with normal grass and alfalfa and the results are the same. If I kept her I'd want to breed her dwarf and induce her on day 150 to kid day 151-152. I believe that's what my friend's plan is.

 

[Ridgetop]

A shame she is so narrow. A good reason to adhere to the Standard is that everything the Standard specifies is there specifically for the heath and wellbeing of the animal.

 

[rachels.haven]

It was tricky. Her sire's dam was the way she was supposed to be-dairy wedge, good and wide. She had her championship. The breeder got a new buck out of a reputable breeder and used him on her and had buck/doe twins. I was going to get a different buck out of a lucky*star's pairing but his temperament was skittish and unfriendly-hard to handle as a kid and she'd rather he go to the meat man if he was going to be like that. So she gave me Atlas, Elsa's dam, out of the buck doe twins and kept the doe. I used Atlas his first year because he grew so fast. He was as big as my adult buck (200 lbs) before he was a year. But it was all leg and length. Despite never having a set back and always being on the best I could provide he never gained any width-he just got longer and taller. And then he had kids on the ground. I kept Elsa, hoping Atlas would leave the "awkward phase" he was in and fill out. Well, he never did. I had a buck that could look me in the eye with his feet flat on the floor and was positively huge but was a bean pole (turns out he was over 250lbs at maturity, all frame). Come to find out his breeder sold his sire for throwing what she called frail daughters. Elsa is the last Atlas daughter I have. The breeder still has Atlas' sister. Beautiful udder, socked on with plumb teats of a good size, loooooooong doe, HUGE, but the only body shot I can find is when she was a yearling ff and I suspect she still looks immature and not filled out. Elsa's dam threw her lot in too and made Elsa look slightly more filled out and mature than her auntie IMO, but overall, Elsa looks like a better blended and built version of Atlas in doe form

Anyway, Atlas is one reason why I try to never use a buck until he's at least two. Carporal hyperextension in ND was another reason. Best to let them fill out just as you would your milkers so you can see what you've got before you pass it around. I'm a little smarter now.

Atlas WAS a *B though, and Summer is a good producer, so Elsa MILKS in capitol letters, and Atlas' breeder has a reputation for cheese making, hence Elsa's higher components.

I haven't seen a buck as big as Atlas since I let him go. His temperament was INDEED tops. He always took great care to be gentle when I was in the pen. He never knocked me over or even so much as yanked a lead out of my hand even though I did a lot of hand breeding on lead with him. He liked his fences and never considered going over despite the obvious (now we have hotwire on top of the fence because we got a different, smaller buck that looked just like Atlas but did try to jump, made it over, but almost broke his leg and limped around for a week after, that buck made sure to "accidentally" hurt me every time I handled him, so I sold him for free to his grand champion show winning mother's owner who wanted to spread mommy around to her does and didn't mind him being a 160lbs turd-OH and his kids were so intense I'm almost glad they all had to go to the meat man during my CAE scare-disposition-wise, Atlas was a better buck).

 

[rachels.haven]

Morning. Preparing for a weekend with no spouse with an oldest with behavioral issues so DH can go look at some prospective homes. We've found some places in MD. Looks like PA has developed to the point agriculture is illegal anywhere within driving distance of the office and DH's boss is dragging his feet getting actual formal permission for DH to work there with the rest of his team.

I've got to go milk so I can fill milk orders today. See you later.

 

[Baymule]

Your DH’s boss needs to get on the ball and make it happen! Hope he finds some nice places.

 

[rachels.haven]

He does, but it's complicated. I think he off record expects the company to force them to move on their personal bill/fire the team members that do not wind up at their second HQ in DC at some point in the next 2-3 years. But at the same time most of the team is there-that's REALLY good for cohesive teamwork. I think he believes he can get DH approval to move there, but he's going to have his team gutted or dissolved if enough of them refuse to fall in line and toss their comfy lives up into chaos when the big wigs say move.

So yes, he can do it, and it's a good thing for the team in the short term, but he doesn't seem to want to do it and doesn't want to DIRECTLY OUTRIGHT say it's unwise even though it's smart given the current equation.

I'm still really frustrated we can't just move to a lower costing, good location 5 acre farmette property right on the edge of a small town in the midwest with all the education and connections DH needs to use his other degrees and for him to get a lower paying but lower pressure job and maybe take a step back from all the "spend money to make money" mentality the higher powered DH jobs come with and SLOW down and enjoy the kids and life. We have a chance and enough cash on hand to do it tomorrow and then when the house here sells we'd have that in pocket to re-start a nest egg with...but my other half isn't ready to give up on ambition. This is the 38 year old guy who when we got married had plans to retire or semi-retire at 40. I've even found a few places in towns I'm familiar with that meet all the requirements.

IDK, maybe the pastoral nature of keeping goats is getting to me...but all this constant change and high powered nonsense makes me so darn tired. I guess I'll just focus on milking my goats everyday and mind my own business.

Elsa and Galaxy left here today.

DH is in Maryland looking at the promising home and a few others that are on the train line to work (no more fast driving for his tired eyes, just to the station or the bus stop). One is plug and play for us and the goats but is small. One will need barn work. One is yet to be looked at.

I found a mini lamancha buckling I may go pick up. Breeder just re-located from out west and hasn't brought any new goats in and tests regularly for all three of the big raw dairy goat diseases and the kid has the lines I like and the udders I like. I still have one more lined up if his ff dam gets his one day milk test star (breeder will not let a kid of a ff go without that star). If I can go get the one I can breed my minis to something even if the second one falls through and if for some reason my standard bucks need to not come I can sell them and not worry about having offspring worth keeping/selling the next year. I like my horse sized bucks though.

Pete's hair started growing in as soon as I started brushing him every day. He looks basically normal again. Blows my mind. That was so freaking fast.

Waiting on yet another CAE screen. Probably going to be just fine.

 

[rachels.haven]

All negative for CAE again.
As usual when DH leaves down we're blessed with the oldest suddenly changing behavior and suddenly becoming normal. I maintain a strict schedule, slash their screen time, and put them to bed on time and I stay firm about giving more screen time or giving in at all but we also do things like going out to eat (Thursday) and other fun stuff and movie parties on nights like last night with no school but they average about 9-10 hours of sleep every night. I guess it works for them.

Dan wanted to meet the bucks this morning. He thought that because they are so big and were nasty smelling during rut that they would kill him out of rut. Nope. They were just goats. Here's Kenai, who just turned 1 year last month, requesting more attention. Dan knows to not go in the pen without mom. My bucks really like their daily handling and roughing up and they did a good job today. Planning on shaving Kenai for summer as soon as the nights warm up. I think he will appreciate that. He's panting at 70 degrees. Probably doesn't help that he's black and a little over conditioned.

Shaun took off across the pasture in a shirt and his diaper and found himself a turkey. Now I get to supervise him to make sure he doesn't try to run back into the pasture to find more magical turkeys...

Aiden swam in their big water trough and is now sunbathing while he waits for the water in the black trough to warm up because it's too cold for swimming (75 degrees, anyone?).

 

[Mini Horses]

Nice looking buck, Kenai . But I bet he is hot with all that hair.