Samssimonsays: Blazing Acres journal

[Goat Whisperer]

If she is doing okay on it (IOW not getting the runs!) keep doing what you are doing.
Our girl Zephyr LOVES milk. Last year when I was milking her 4x a day I'd usually feed it back to her.
I know other farms that feed milk to their milkers most of the year, especially those that are showing.
When you are keeping 10-30 does in milk for 10 months out of the year you need to do something with the milk. If the kids aren't eating it all many feed it to the adults with no issues.

Some dairies feed the whey back to their goats, but I don't think I would. I'd worry about it being so acidic and causing issues with the teeth.

 

[samssimonsays]

Amazingly, I have been watching carefully, she has had no soft poops at all even with a hard switch to grain and how fast I had to step it up. She was at a point where if we didn't up her intake faster than normal she very well could have gone down and we could have lost her. I think her milk helped immensely in that but you never know. She had her first taste of Beet pulp soaked in water last night along with some alfalfa cubes soaked in there. She has been enjoying that. This goat actually has a full switch, At least right now she does, where she stops eating when she is full and snacks throughout the day.

Last night she did great for me while I milked her! SHe has lost some of the production that she had but she was so impossible to milk out that I didn't have a choice. Once her weight is back up a bit more, probably this weekend, I will start milking twice a day and working to improve that production again. I also think she is holding onto a good chunk of that milk still and not fully letting it down for me.

 

[samssimonsays]

We have improved attitude wise for me to milk her and she is milking like a dream finally! She lost some of her production unfortunately in the time it took to GET her to cooperate with me but I have started her on 2 a day milking as of today to get her production growing. Since we don't have a scale big enough for her lard @$$ I am guessing she has gained a substantial amount of weight ranging in the teens. I am very happy with her progress!

As for Olive, we still don't have babies but we are getting closer! She must have taken for her second due date and baby is still moving and she is doing well

 

[samssimonsays]

I managed to get a substantial bump of milk from Cece this am. Yesterday was disappointing with only getting around half a cup in the am and not even a full half gallon in whole yesterday. that her production picks up even more now that she is getting probably more than her full amount of grain and getting lots of extras.

 

[NH homesteader]

 

[samssimonsays]

Happy Easter y'all! From my family to yours!


Farm Update:
Cece is doing wonderfully. Her production is growing again which is great news. Still not sure what happened exactly there.

Olive is doing a wonderful job with her new baby boy. I got 1 cup yesterday and 1/2 cup today of colostrum for the freezer in case of emergency and I didn't take more than that just due to wanting baby to have what he needs. I am so proud of our little olive.

Tilda was supposed to be day 145 tomorrow but she came into heat again in February so I need her. I don't know.... She's not showing any signs of being far along and I know some goats don't. She all of a sudden developed a little bit of an udder on one side yesterday. I'll be making another stall and watching her closely just in case but I don't have high hopes for her to kid. She had a precotious udder last year as well so it could just be that.

 

[Ferguson K]

Happy Easter friend!

 

[samssimonsays]

We head to get our newest herd member this weekend.

Our first bottle baby will be on its way!

 

[goatgurl]

sam, congrats on your first bbgoat. what a cutie he is. and now a new bottle baby too. of course let me be the first to scream PICTURES!!

 

[samssimonsays]

sam, congrats on your first bbgoat. what a cutie he is. and now a new bottle baby too. of course let me be the first to scream PICTURES!!

Thank you! It's great to see you back! I will certainly post more photos when we get her but right now this is all I have. She looks perfect in every single way. And since all 12 does I had picked to get a doe out of last year had bucks (two had 1 doe each but we're retained) she was well worth the wait. She's gorgeous.

Photo courtesy of the breeder :

And of course, baby ralphie is doing wonderfully and getting his legs now. He was starting to bounce around yesterday with us haha. I will post pics when it lets me of him!