rachels.haven's Journal

and trying to be as close as possible to organic is hard, especially in a swampy property in Kentucky. She does her best. Those wethers will serve her family well.
Next year I'd like to raise wethers for us, but they won't be organic. We're conventional and I like my alfalfa, and I'm sure it's gmo if the sellers don't specifically state it's "organic".
 
Wow, weight taped Pete's doe kid crop from the week of January 19th (scale needed it's AAA batteries changed for the first time since I got it, bad timing). They're all coming in at between 84-100 lbs now. I may breed them live cover in December for kids to sell so I can weed through them for udders that aren't perfect and do some goat subtraction instead of just addition. I wouldn't mind if it was $ubtraction in the name of hay/grain money but I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch. If I have size concerns I may use a dwarf buck if he can reach since our straight Lamancha kids tend to run large but I would not mind seeing how Aramis' genetics play with Pete's.
 
I'm having kind of a frustrating problem to work on this week/two weeks. The remnants of my last delivery of hay are molding in my big barn. It's not to the point the goats can't/won't eat it yet and we only have like 10 bales left, but my alfalfa isn't looking so great anymore and even the round bales are getting dusty. I'm assuming it's because it's been raining at all times for the time it has, keeping the humidity so high everywhere (80%+) with no air movement anywhere so it's the conditions everywhere and is probably normal for here but this really has me concerned. And it's right before I get 200 more bales in. I'm not sure what to do. I could skip the alfalfa because it seems to be faring the worst and just feed the rounds, but that would be a step down in nutrition and leave us vulnerable to parasites (the theory protein is needed to replace protein has served us well). We've ordered barn fans, but when it's wet everything organic in my barn is molding. I've been going to war with my Sam's club commercial spray disinfectant solution killing it back, but this building is not healthy. Not sure what to do.
 
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Fence company just called and left a message. They want to start tomorrow or Monday. Right when I was feeling sorry for myself and more than a little resentful of someone always by default listening more to other people than his wife and me getting to take the brunt of the consequences for it. Maybe things will turn around.
 
The does do not think so, lol.
I didn't get a pic of the reduced buck pen. It was too much work. I think I'd really like to sell some bucks.
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Ugh. DNA drama.
Mr. White buck might be out of here. He's out of a split litter by two different sires-one father and one son, verified shortly after birth. His DNA took forever to come back this time and it looks like that instead of being the nicer buck of the litter, he's probably by a sire that should probably have been a wether based on his mom and the breeder may have gotten the DNA ID's switched (accidentally or intentionally, IDK, the original sale didn't involve me).
The lady I bought him from is more um, scr*wed over than I am. The breeder sells her ND for thousands each. The lady who had him before me and bought him from the breeder put does on the ground by him because his DNA was supposedly all cleared up and he was supposed to be so classy. And the breeder is coming across as a tad witchy specifically towards the lady I bought him from that she ripped off (buyer is trying to keep her calm and in the discussion so she can get the does she has on the ground with clean pedigrees). And the lady that got the nicer buck accidentally is unsurprisingly silent.
OH BROTHER. The drama around these over priced, tiny, serious goats is obscene.
So it appears I have one Oberon daughter bred by this buck, and I'm waiting on mini Saanen recycles to verify he wasn't able/driven enough to reach. Mr. White buck is off duty for the rest of the year and I'll be waiting on his parent re-verification to list him for cheap as a doe freshener, which is too bad because he's an easy handle, mild mannered little buck, but his sire's dam has a softball shaped udder way down under her body by the belly with teats touching her legs (moderately milky if the breeder's milk test records are correct) . The buck's actual dam looks okay. The breeder looks like a peach.
Meanwhile, my mini Lamancha bucks are both on file. One needed a parent verification, and he got it. He's who he's supposed to be. The other option would have been nice too in that equation-so win-win. The other is just on file now, no parents on file to verify him to, but that's okay. I may let him go because he likes to make me tackle him to catch him and is willing to jump things as tall as fences to get away and that doesn't sit well with me as he continues to grow. The Pete son I kept is on file. Oberon is on file. Pete is on file. Aramis is on file. So it's just this little white stubby guy. It's too late to lute and re-breed the does...I guess Dna tends to not to lie, so next year I may be shopping for a ND buck in addition to a Lamancha buck.

Our transporter that drove the does here has a ND herd heavy on the milky, consistent lines I use and isn't over pricing them and she's an open, honest human being, so we'll probably be bringing in one from there to breed Oberon's daughters. She also wants me to get some does too because we milk test like her, so we probably will.

Apparently my mini Saanens don't get to have a white buck conveniently available after all. I'll have to decide what to do with them, I guess. Mini registered grades aren't very interesting to buyers and we only need so many.

Meanwhile, my barn is barking. Riker is very confused, which is good because he was a butt this morning in the micro pen. Something is in one of those old horse stalls and wants to come out. But it gets to wait until the fence is done. It got very dirty in the crate on the way home.

And if my wild mini Lamancha bucks don't settle down...someone may get listed with Mr. Poor Unfortunate White Buck when he comes back ID'ed as his brother.
 
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