Farewell, Foals

We received a phone call earlier this past week asking about one of our foals for sale. The lady said she would be coming to see the filly (female horse baby) pictured here on Saturday.

Here on Rainbow Gate Farm, we do not handle our foals for the first four to six months of their lives. While many people believe in early handling and even imprinting the foals, we think this can interfere with the very important 'horse' lessons a foal must learn about being a part of a horse herd. Most of our mares are very friendly and come up to see us when we walk into their pasture, so the foals, while wary, learn very early that people are not so bad.

During those first few months of life, a mother horse teaches the baby about the horse world's "social ladder" and how to behave around other horses. When a young foal sees an adult horse it doesn't know it will stretch out its neck and open and close its mouth rapidly. This is horse language for "Don't hurt me - I'm just a baby who poses no threat to you." I have seen young horses do this up to the age of two years when they encounter a strange, older horse they do not know.

There is a distinct pecking order among horses in a herd. Even though our stallion (male horse capable of breeding) runs with the mares, he is not the boss. A mare is always at the top of the pecking order. The head mare always decides who eats first when hay or grain is given out and she leads the herd through the day when they graze out in the pasture. The stallion may be allowed to eat beside her if she likes him, but quite often his position will be at number three or four.

Foals are often an exception in a group of horses who know each other well. Younger mares without foals will even "babysit" the youngsters, allowing them to eat with them, while the mother is eating elsewhere or if she is taken out to be ridden on a trail ride. The foals will spend less and less time by their mother's sides as they grow, returning only to nurse and if they become frightened.

Once the foals reach the age of four to six months they can be weaned from their dams. If a mare is maintaining her condition very well, we might leave the foal with her until it is seven months old.

With a pending sale, however, the weaning and handling process must begin. We promise our foals will be halter-broken and know how to lead by the time they leave the farm at purchase.

On Wednesday night, we weaned "Lucky," the filly in the photo, and left her until Friday morning, to get used to the idea of being without her mother. She soon realized her source of food was coming from us, and would nicker when we entered the barn, but touching her was out of the question. She didn't trust us. You could almost see her wondering, Are they going to eat me now? I'm ready to run away!

On Friday morning, I entered her stall with a lasso, being careful to leave the door unlatched behind me as an emergency exit if I needed one. The filly moved as far away from me as she could. Tossing the rope over her back, I let it slip to the floor several times. At first she flinched but soon realized the rope was not hurting her, and she ignored it as it flew past her head.

I threw the rope so the lasso end fell over her head and pulled it just tight enough so she knew I was now in contact with her. She ran around a couple of times and then stopped. I walked up to her and she moved away. Talking to her in a gentle tone, I continued walking up and reaching out my hand until she finally stood long enough for me to make contact with her head. As soon as my hand touched her, I stepped back five paces. End of lesson. I stood looking at the ground for a moment before glancing at her once more.

She watched me intently, and you could almost hear her thinking, Hmm, I wish she would go away. I run around and she follows me. I let her touch me and she leaves me alone. Letting her touch me is a good thing to do because then she leaves me alone.

We repeated this scenario several times. Touch her, walk away. By the third time, she hung her head and licked her lips. This is a key sign to a horse trainer that the horse just calmed down and relaxed. The next time I walked up to her, I stroked her neck and under her chin, lingering for about ten or fifteen seconds before walking away again.

She stared at me, and I imagined her thinking, Well, she hasn't eaten me yet. That actually feels kind of good when she scratches underneath my chin. Maybe that's why Mama liked these people creatures.

Within fifteen minutes of entering her stall, I was able to place a halter on that filly. I then left her alone for a few hours to absorb her lessons.

When I lived in Australia I was blessed to know the great horseman, Tom "Robbie" Roberts, author of the "Horse Control" books. In 1982, Robbie was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, for his service to equestrian sport. A veteran of both World Wars, he took on difficult and dangerous horses and turned them into well-mannered, riding horses. He taught me a great deal about "gentling horses" and I still use his methods today. I remember him telling me over and over again, "A lesson is anything you teach a horse, good or bad." It is up to us to be sure every "lesson" a horse receives is a good one.

When I returned to the filly, she allowed me to walk up to her. I patted her and then snapped a lead-rope to her halter and taught her to give to the pressure and follow me wherever I went. I spent another fifteen minutes or so with her, and then put her away in her stall for the night, confident she would be ready to meet her new owner the next day.

On Saturday morning I received a phone call from the lady coming to see "Lucky," our filly. She mentioned having seen a buckskin foal on our website and indicated she was interested in purchasing that colt too.

Out the door we flew to catch the mare and foal in question. We weaned the foal, and I began to work with him right away. Using the same methods as for the filly, I had the second foal leading by the time the people arrived.

Tom "Robbie" Roberts always said if you teach a horse the right way, you give them a very good chance of having a good home for life. Although he was referring to a horse raised and then 'broke-in' or gentled for riding, I know the same holds true with foals started the right way too.

I always ask people to keep in touch and e-mail photos of the foals as they grow. Most people love to share but sometimes we never hear from them again.

As evening fell, I watched their trailer loaded with two foals, travel up our driveway, and drive away. I wondered if we would ever hear from them again and I think of Robbie's words, and smile, knowing I gave them a good head start on a happy life.

A White Thanksgiving on Rainbow Gate Farm

This morning as I head out for chores, I'll don snow boots, hat, gloves and a thick coat! It's a crisp 17 degrees out there with the wind chill and only 27 degrees if you are lucky enough to be out of the wind. Here on Rainbow Gate Farm, we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day with a blanket of snow covering everything in sight. No dreaming neccessary!

The flurries began yesterday and quickly turned into a steady snowfall. My journey to see a movie last night, with my two children, turned into an ordeal worthy of a 'Survivor' episode. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration but the forty-five minute drive took two-and-a-half hours each way. The snow surprised us halfway there. In retrospect, I should have turned around, but the nice radio weatherman assured us only flurries would be falling. He forgot to mention there would be four inches of them.

I slowed to thirty-miles-per-hour and watched car after car speed around our vehicle and vanish into the white cloud of wind-driven snow surrounding us. Being a dutiful parent, I turned boredom into a "How-Not-To-Drive-In-A-Snowstorm" lesson for my seventeen-year-old son, Sam. If he doubted his mother's wisdom at first, it didn't take long before he became a believer. We started passing flashing lights, police cars, tow-trucks and at least ten cars, trucks and SUV's in the ditches along the road.

We enjoyed the movie, Enchanted, and made it home safe. Now, there's something to be thankful for.

Here on our farm, I transfered fifteen half-grown chicks from their grower-cage up to the main poultry barn yesterday afternoon. Until then, they'd been under a heat lamp so I hope they are doing okay. With over 100 other chickens, ducks and turkeys up in our poultry's wintering room, the temperature does stay a little warmer. Chicks are born with a downy, soft covering and it is crucial they stay in a warm environment until they grow their adult feathers, which protect them from cold temperatures.

Thirty Pekin Duck eggs are developing in the incubator. Those ducklings will be needing that heated growing cage a few days after they hatch. We keep them in a cardboard box inside for a few days to be sure everyone is eating and drinking. I "candle" the eggs in the incubator every week to check on the development stage of the embryo. Using a small, white light in a tube, I hold the wide end of the egg up to the light in a darkened room. Like magic, you can see the growing chick or duckling inside. Bad eggs are removed so they don't explode. Depending on the stage of development at the time of candling, you might see a beating heart, a beak, a head or a foot!

The last time I checked the duck eggs, one embryo plastered his tiny webbed foot against the side of the shell when I shone the light into his egg. The foot was the size of the nail on my pinky finger and I laughed at his protest against my intrusion into his private world.

We have over ten different varieties of rare-breed chickens, two breeds of ducks and Narragansett turkeys. Last year, I could not keep up with the demand for chicks and hatching eggs. I've increased our numbers of breeding stock this summer and fall. If you would like to see them on our website, just type in http://www.rainbowgatefarm.com/ on your browser and go to the Poultry page. We have chickens who lay blue, green, brown, white and tinted (off-white) eggs.

Well, I'm off to do chores in the snow. Brrr! The goats are waiting to be milked. We are milking less than 100 does now, as the others have dried-up in preparation for the pending birth of those five-hundred goat kids we are expecting in February and March. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Jack Frost made an early appearance this morning to our mid-west farming operation. He greeted me by nipping at my bare hands as I hurried across to the barn to feed hay and check the livestock. Our radio weather man announced we could expect snow flurries this afternoon. Just in time for Thanksgiving.

We are weaning foals this week. Most of them are already five to six months old. One paint filly is heading off to Indiana this weekend, so we need to work with her over the next few days. Right now she is nervous of us but over the next few days she will learn how to lead, and tie up, pick up her feet when asked and stand still to let us brush her. We use a gentle approach to training but firm enough to teach the foal manners also. A newly weaned foal will treat human handlers like another horse from their herd. At some time in their training they act out, perhaps trying to kick or nip at their human. A sharp smack and a loud "No!" is usually all it takes for the foal to think Whew! I don't think I will try that again.

Even though we have six turkeys sitting in the freezer, we've decided to go out for Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow. It is our first Thanksgiving without my mother-in-law and nobody feels like much of a celebration.

The goats are falling on milk pounds. Their bodies are preparing for the new kids they are carrying, due in January and February of 2008.

Which reminds me, I have a lot of cleaning to do! Both our "kid buildings" need to be cleaned out by hand and restocked with fresh sawdust. Pens must be dismantled for cleaning and then rebuilt. It will be worth it, when those gorgeous babies start to arrive and I can transport them to clean, dry and warm buildings in which to grow and play. We are expecting over 500 goat kids this year, so it's never been so important to be prepared.

Rainbow Gate Farm Web Site

I have been doing a lot of work on our website

http://www.rainbowgatefarm.com

This is where we feature our horses, our dairy goats and rare-breed poultry.

You will find short stories and poems in Janilou's Corner.

We have informative "how-to" articles on hatching your own eggs, and shipping eggs for hatching.

I am working on a recipe page for poultry recipes and would love to receive some ideas!

There is a dairy goat record form that can be downloaded and printed off for your own use if you have your own goats..

Lots of photos, stories and more!

Feedback is always appreciated!

Houdini Horses

This morning, we looked out over a frosty blanket of grass, a blue sky and fifteen horses meandering around the house eating our lawn. The problem with this cozy picture is the horses, who should have been down in the pasture eating grass!

Lucky for me, a bucket of grain soon solved the problem as thirteen of the escapees followed me back to their home. The other two were quickly apprehended and put away. But our gaited stallion was also here, and he is pastured at our neighbors!

Deer had knocked down a corner of fence, allowing him to escape. At least he came home!

Turkey Day Is Coming!

We raise rare-breed Narragansett turkeys. Even though numbers of these birds are limited, we still end up with too many males to females ratio.

My husband, being a practical man, thinks we need to recoup some of our feed costs involved in raising the birds by selling hatching eggs and eating the extra offspring.

So, off to 'Sue's Pin and Feather' we went the other night with six turkeys and four ducks. Sue provides the butchering and preparation of the birds, and this morning when I go back to Fort Atkinson, I will pick up ten snap frozen, bagged birds ready for our freezer.

This time of year is obviously a good time to be loading up with turkeys as Americans prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, or at least the rest of our extended family seems to think so! Turkey, anyone?

Our turkeys free range through the summer out on pasture eating bugs and insects. They are not fed hormones so their growth rate is slow, but the meat is excellent.

Our ancestors knew what they were doing when they created the Narragansett breed by crossing wild native turkeys with the ones they brought over from Europe. Even Abraham Lincoln was once given a gift of Narragansett turkeys from the people of Rhode Island.

If it was good enough for Abe, whom I have always admired, it's good enough for me.

Pass the cranberry sauce, would you please?

Milking Dairy Goats

Today is Thursday, November 8, 2007.

The photo above shows my dairy goat "girls" waiting to be milked. The dark brown doe in the forefront is 'Bella', a Nubian two-year-old doe who is a real sweetie.

You can see from the photo that we use a low deck. The does run in and jump on the deck. A manger in front provides them with their favorite food- grain!
We sit on a mechanic's roller chair and along behind the does to change the milkers.

Yesterday we changed our milking schedule from twice daily milking to once a day.





Goats are seasonal breeders, meaning they all breed in the fall and then have their babies (kid-in) in late January to mid March. The does need to be "dried off" or stopped being milked about two months before they kid.





They naturally fall off on milk production at this time of year and their SCC or Somatic Cell Count goes up. The Somatic Cell Count is an indication of how many white blood cells are present in the milk. A high count can be an indication of infection, but at this time of year, it raises naturally as the does give less milk.





I have to go out each morning and feed hay to everyone, including our horses and foals. Then about 2.30pm I will head outside and milk the does that are not already "dried off". This takes about an hour and a half.

This is the quiet time of year. When the "kids" begin to arrive, we will be outside upwards of 12 hours a day!

Dairy Goat Record Keeping Form

Rainbow Gate Farm has 275 milking dairy goat does. Each year we "kid in" (the does give birth to-) about 500 baby goats. Half of those will be females. The female baby goats are called "doelings" and the males are called "bucklings".

I have devised a record-keeping form for anyone who has dairy or meat goats that is simple to use and provides a one-page record of each doe or breeding buck from birth to death.

You can access this form and print it for free from my website, Rainbow Gate Farm.

The website address is:

http://www.rainbowgatefarm.com

The page where the form is located is at:

http://www.rainbowgatefarm.com/RainbowGateFarmGoatRecordForm.html

Milk Inspector

Two words that fill the heart of any dairy farmer with fear and trepidation are "Milk Inspector."

All dairy farms in the United States are inspected on a bi-annual basis by a milk inspector who works for the State in which the farm is located. They check for cleanliness, condition of buildings and milking equipment, and the general health and living conditions of the livestock.

The inspector has a sheet he or she uses to mark down any problems found. If there is a health risk or terrible conditions, they can shut down your operation on the spot - no more selling milk until you correct the problems and are re-inspected for a fee.

Today was our day. We passed with flying colors, much to my delight!

We sell our milk under a Grade B licence because our goat's milk is all goes to be made into cheese. Grade A is for fluid milk production.


The wind is whipping through our November midwest today. I felt like Mary Poppins sans umbrella out there trying to carry hay around this morning to feed everyone.

The horses and goats are growing the thickest winter coats I've seen in years. I'm hoping they won't need them, but Mother Nature sure is preparing for the worst.

Sunday's Tail

Yesterday morning, I received a phone call from a friend. She told me a neighbor of hers was giving away "about thirty" Pekin duck eggs and she had a couple of chickens she wanted me to have. Never one to miss a bargain, I turned the incubator on to warm up, jumped in the car and drove over to the neighbor's home.

When I arrived, the neighbor directed me to a dog house behind a silo and then pointed toward the road.

"The rest of the eggs are out there by the road. Oh, by the way, there may be some goose eggs in with them."

My young daughter and I squeezed through an incredibly small space between the silo and a wire fence panel and looked inside the dog house. The very small dog house. There lay about forty eggs.

I reached my hand and removed the first few, before turning to my daughter and saying, "How would you like to get in there and collect them for Mommy?"

Lucky for me, she agreed and we soon had the eggs wrapped in a towel.

We headed for the road next and collected another thirty eggs.

With seventy eggs on board we headed to my girlfriend's house. The cutest puppies I have ever seen waited for us in her yard, eight-week-old 'cockerdoodles'.

After cuddling the pups we headed for her barn and chicken pens. She mentioned she wanted to sell her Naragansett turkeys for $10 each. I am raising Naragansetts so it didn't take long for us to bundle two of them in the trunk of my car after her husband tied their legs together with twine. We set them on a towel beside the cage I'd brought for my two chickens, and after a short chat, waved goodbye.

Now, you can't put turkeys and chickens in a trunk without opening the middle console section of the back seat, so they don't get too hot or short of air. My daughter buckled herself into her booster seat and opened the console.

"I can see them, Mom!" she said.

"Great!" I replied and we began driving home.

About ten minutes later, just as I swerved wide to avoid an Amish buggy ambling along the road, a blood-curdling scream erupted from behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder I caught a glimpse of my daughter's terrified face through the blur of turkey feathers flying around the back seat.

Thirty pounds of live turkey loose in a vehicle doesn't make for safe driving so I pulled over, and we managed to bag the turkey with her leg bindings still hanging from one ankle.

Securing her with an apology for treating her in such a manner, I drove the rest of the way home with a turkey sitting beside me.

We reached home without any further drama. I was prepared when we opened the trunk and the second turkey hen flew over my head! I made a vow to always tie turkey's legs myself in future and lunged for the hen. Much to her disgust, I won.

Now both turkey hens and the chickens are safe with their companions in our barn and the eggs are in the incubator. Duck eggs take twenty-eight days to hatch, but I am not sure about goose eggs! Time to go googling!

Friday's Day On The Farm

Hi! Welcome to my Friday. It's been an interesting day, starting with a phone call early this morning to go collect two of our American Quarter horse mares who were loaned out for the summer to a family with teenage girls who like to ride. It's weaning time for foals anyway, and we have several "babies" in stalls in the barn.
We wean the babies slowly, taking their mama's away for short periods of time over a week, until both mare and foal are happy enough to leave each other.

The vet was here the other day to remove a cast from our dairy goat doe, Squatti's leg. Squatti panicked and jumped a gate five weeks ago, breaking her leg. The report was all good - a beautifully healed leg!

Milking the does this morning didn't take too long. We are down to 125 milking does, as the winter approaches and they "dry up" or stop milking. Goats are seasonal breeders which means they all come into "heat" for breeding in the fall, and then "kid" (have their babies) in the early months of the new year. This year we are expecting over 500 baby goat kids to be born! Half of those will be males and most of those will be sold as day old kids. The girls or "doelings" will be retained to expand our milking herd size next year.

A baby doe is called a doeling. Doelings only take eight months to reach maturity and will produce their first babies around the time of their own first birthday! Once a doeling has milked for one year, she is called a 'doe'.

Our chickens are also slowing down for the winter. During the summer months, we keep all the breeds separate and collect 'purebred' eggs from the different varieties. I sell hatching eggs on eBay of rare breeds such as Swiss Spitzhauben, Blue Silkie, Cream Brabanter and Barnavelder chickens.

This year we also raised Nargansett turkeys for the first time. Out of nine turkey chicks we only ended up with three hens. But we won't have to buy any turkeys to have Thanksgiving Dinner.

Of course, we also raise Muscovy ducks for the same reason - providing meat for the table. The Muscovy duck raised three clutches of ducklings this year, and not one of them has ever made it to the pot! So there is a good possibility the turkeys will be safe after all!

Cheese, Please Louise!

I wrote this story a few months back on the writing site, FanStory. Thought you might enjoy it! :-) I was really enjoying telling you about our cheese, when Louise the Saanen doe took over!



Goat cheese, please! Hot toasted cheese sandwiches; melted cheese on a baked potato; sliced cheddar cheese sandwich on fresh oven-baked bread. I’ve loved cheese since childhood. Blue cheese, camenbert, brie - I could go on and on. But I never imagined I would end up being a producer for one of the biggest goat-cheese factories in the United States, "Mt. Chevre Creamery," in Wisconsin. Mt Chevre is owned by two French brothers, Arnaud and Jean, who really know how to make cheese.

It started when I read a newspaper article about milking dairy goats and became enthused with the idea. My husband, Paul, calls it an obsession, but let's not nit-pick. Within months, I was the proud owner of a black and white ‘La Mancha’ doe, named 'McKenzie'. La Manchas have little tiny ears but they are excellent milkers. (except Saanens are better)

Soon after that, I persuaded Paul to drive to Ohio to purchase a small herd of thirty Saanen does and two bucks. Saanens originated in Switzerland and you may have read about them, in the classic story, Heidi. The following year we were accepted by the creamery to ship goats milk, and our new career took off.

Now, just four years later, we own 280 dairy goats. Only 170 are milking this year, but they produce over 1000 pounds of fresh goat’s milk each day. Every Wednesday and Sunday, a refrigerated truck pulls up next to our milk-house and empties our "bulk tank", where the milk is stored after each milking.

Next year, our yearling doelings will also begin milking and our pounds of milk produced each day will nearly double. About 560 baby goats will be born in the coming late winter/early spring here on Rainbow Gate Farm. I'm taking applications for anyone who wants to come help and experience life on a dairy-goat farm. Just kidding! (That is a baaaaad pun.)

Goat cheese is superb! Mt Chevre produces so many different varieties. Although I can buy it in our grocery stores, our milk-hauler also brings us cheese direct from the factory. There are soft cheeses blended with pepper, garlic and herbs and my favorite, cranberries! Spread on crackers, they are delicious. They also produce camembert cheese and a variety of hard cheeses. My husband loves feta and usually eats the entire slab before I can get it to the house.

People are amazed when I tell them we milk goats. Here in the United States, goat milk and its by-products are not widely recognized. World-wide, however, there is more goat’s milk and goat’s cheese consumed than cow’s milk. Did you know. . .

Bleeeaaat.

Hey what’s going on! Wait a minute! Get out of that chair! Give me back the mouse. . .

Okay, move over Jaaani. Hi folks. This is Louise, the Saaaaaanen doe. I can’t believe Jan is writing an article about our cheese without letting us goooooats have a say. After all, we’re the ones doing all the hard wooooork.

Hmm. I think she cooooovered most of it already. I've made a few corrections, so now, let me leave you with this little limerick about yours truly!



There was a young goat named Louise

Who produced an abundance of cheese

She became quite a star

Her fame spread so far

That her owners gave her all that she pleased!



When we untie Jan, it’ll be too late for her to change this. I’m going to post it right now. I’ve been listening to her all year rambling on about how much she loves writing on the computer, while she milks us. Now it’s our turn.

What’s that you say? Editing? She can edit this after it’s posted? Naaaaa, she won’t do that. We might all go on strike!

Don't blame her for the title. She had a really dull one posted that didn't mention my name. Siiillly giiiirrrl.

Goooood bbbbbyyyyyeeeee. Enjoy our cheeeesssseeeee!

Love,

Louise, the Saaaanen.