It's Raining Baby Goats!

The babies keep coming! We had eighteen more little goats born today. I took photos, now I have to get them downloaded and posted! They are so cute. The three and four day old babies bounce around their pen, giving entirely new meaning to the phrase "bouncing off the walls!" I put a small wooden box in the pen for them to play with, and they jump up and down playing "King Of The Castle" all day long.

Taking care of their mothers is a full time job right now. As each goat gives birth, she is allowed to clean off her babies and take care of them for the day, as long as the temperature is warm enough.

At night, we bring the mother goats or does in to the milking parlor, and milk out any remaining colostrum milk to feed to the kids. Each doe is wormed with a pour-on de-wormer, and her toenails are trimmed while she stands on the deck and eats grain. She is offered a warm drink of water with a special energy solution made with sweet-smelling molasses. Most does drink it right down.

The doe is marked with non-toxic spray across her back to show the date she "kidded" or gave birth. For the first two days, she is milked out by hand. Then on the third day, she is added to the general milking line, where her milk will be transferred to the 'bulk-tank' to be cooled. The milk is picked up by a big truck every four days and transported to the creamery where it will be made into delicious goat cheese.

Our goats are milked twice a day at 5.30am and 5.30pm. We have nine automatic milking units that we put on each goat. When all of the goats finally have their babies, it will take about three hours each time to milk, plus a further hour or so to feed hay.
Hard work and lots of it, but I love my job.

Jan