What's In A Goat?

Snowball

Do you ever play the game hi-lo? Where you tell the people around your dinner table your high point of the day and the low point of the day. Last week my high was that we sold 85% of our goats. The low was that we sold 85% of our goats.

It started when a few of our goats kept squeezing through gate rungs and eating our ducks' food. Our ducks eat grass, bugs, algae, and the amazing high protein grain we feed them. Our goats get sweet feed and have a 55" round bale of beautiful coastal, and they choose to kick our ducks off morning feed. I was livid. I mean I was throwing gloves, scoops, halters, and anything else I could find to get them off the feed from across the barn. I had HAD it! I called Mr. Smash, and I believe the words out of my mouth were "we are selling these turds or we are having goat for dinner."

So, fast forward to 14 days after that. We've sold 12 goats. At the beginning of this fiasco we had 16; including 3 babies. I could deal with getting their head in the fence and even jumping the fence; they always came back. But eating my ducks food was the last straw. The first 10 that were gone included our very first goats, Spot and  Stripe, and also included our first kid to ever be born on our farm, Tater. I did get teary eyed. We were left with 3 doelings, 2 does we were milking, and our 1 horned doe (Elsie) who was due to kid any day.

Sweet Patty

Last night we sold Patty. I did more than get teary eyed. If you remember her story, she lost her little buckling to a horrible donkey attack. She was the reason we started our milking adventure. We bonded. We also sold snowball last night. A3 was hysterical! This little goat mimics ADHD on steroids, but is the sweetest little thing in the world. They both went to a great family who are beginning homesteaders... like us!

We have kept in contact with the buyers of our goats. We love them and want to keep up with their progress because many were pregnant by big man Tater.

Buck.

 But wait, so we are getting out of goats?  Good gracious NO! We have moved to a bigger breed. And it was a GREAT plan God had for us. I really do agree with Him on this one. ;)  8 days ago we purchased a beautiful Nubian buck named Goliath. Everyone knows that Goliath was a big mean giant. This guy, not so much. What a pansy! He is so very handsome and sweet and it's a good thing because his horns are huge! He is considered "moon spotted" and is about 2 years old. We've changed his name to Buck after a vulture on a show called Oscar's Oasis. 






But, we can't have a buck without some does. Nubians are big goats. It is possible to breed a small buck to a big doe, but not the other way around. Birthing problems galore. So we set out to find him some women. An amazing family that has decided to change breed sold us the most amazing goats I've ever encountered. Sunny and Diamond are both registered full blood Nubian does. They love to be loved!

A1 and Diamond

We decided to go with Nubians for 2 reasons; their size and their milk production talent. There was one time in my life that I swore I would never milk a goat, much less drink goat milk. It all completely changed when I realized that was God's plan for our family at this time. 7 days ago we bought Sunny and Diamond, and for the last 6 days we have been drinking raw goat milk.

We go out about 20 minutes earlier to have time for milking. We follow safety protocols, and by naptime we have ice cold milk available. A1 is starting to get really good at it too! We have plans to build a new barn with a milking parlor this spring. Hopefully by then we can have 3 does being milked by 3 A's. Maybe that's too much to ask. Honestly though, I enjoy it! It's peaceful, the goats love you for it, and I know exactly what I'm feeding my family. Well, the milk anyway. Does it taste funny? Not really. It tastes like whole milk, but there's a freshness to it that is hard to describe. Right now, ours has a "goaty" aftertaste because they've been in with Buck. The pheromones that are given off from the buck affect the taste of the milk. It doesn't bother me or the A's, but it does Mr. Smash. He is just going to have to make his weekly Braum's trip until we get Honey and Missy going.

So, what's next? We're always in the market for a goat. They are so very addicting, and you will never get it until you have one or two or twenty. Tomorrow we take our sweet Frostine to a man in east texas to trade for 2- 5 month old Nubian doelings. That will leave us with 4 total kids and 1 doe who will domino any day. Plus 1 buck and 2 adult does who are most likely pregnant. We're going to keep milking and I'm looking into raw milk laws from our extension office. We are getting a ton, and I'd love to sell it. There's a market in our area for it, so it may be a new business endeavor. Maybe I should've paid attention in that business class I took in college.