goats

rocket

moving the shelters

turnip in double wide

rudy

esk

Sam thought this heat cycle for the lady goats would be the best time to breed them. She found us a really neat buck names Esk. From what I imagined, the buck was possibly going to look like a mini dinosaur. He doesn’t. He is actually very similar in size to the girls, however, his goatee is much longer and he has one of his horns. We picked him up in Sam’s van. When I say we, I mean Sam and Debbie. I drove a safe distance behind. At first I didn’t think I was going to be able to handle the aroma this gentleman put off. Over the last few weeks though, I can hardly notice it. But let me assure you, it is potent.
We currently have Esk, Turnip, Rudy, and Rocket over at our place. For one morning, we had all of them as we were letting Esk have his way. The first few days Austin had to secure and re-secure the fence around them. Every once in a while Esk still likes to show us he has a secret escape route. He appears in the field, or is found chillin outside the fence. We had witnessed some action from the goats, but I’m not sure when we will know who is pregnant.
We moved two of the shelters from Sam and Chris’s and combined them to make a double wide. The shelter has straw bedding. We also set up a temporary tarp to provide some extra protection from the rain and snow we have been getting. We feed the goats two times a day, compressed alfalfa and molasses, grain, and beet pulp. They also get some regular alfalfa. We also have to spray Turnip and Rocket’s teats with a sanitizer to prevent mastitis. Rocket has the name “Rocket” for one simple reason. She runs. It isn’t always bad, but she is a bit skittish, and you have to side tract her with the food in order to spray her.