Goat Farming, Not All Lollipops and Rainbows

Reader Contribution by Janice Spaulding
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Even though I have been talking about kidding in my blog, things just don’t always go as you would like them to. Something just happened here at Stony Knolls Farm that I thought I should share with you. My next blog will go back to kidding.

Every now and then a goat has to be culled. Today, our dear Carlotta had to go to “freezer camp”. Because of our appreciation of God’s creatures and our love for all our goats, we try to do this as gently and as humanly as possible.

Carlotta, one of our registered Alpine does, was getting older, 8 ½ to be exact, and was beginning to be difficult to deal with, nervous and afraid of her own shadow. She had some really gorgeous kids, however, this year we were not able to get her bred. She went in with our handsome Alpine buck, Bat Man, over and over again, every 21 days. This past Friday, she was in heat again. We were pretty bummed out because she is a terrific milker, over a gallon a day, and very easy to milk. However, the inability to be bred, along with her age, and with the developed skittishness, we realized we had to make a very difficult decision. Ken called the processor and found that we could bring her first thing this morning.

At 5:45 a.m. we were up, and out feeding all the goats, bringing in firewood, checking the hay feeders, and making sure the heated water buckets were all topped off. We have a small crate called a “Goat Tote” which we had loaded on the truck yesterday, and lined the bottom with hay. It has a nice well fitting cover that zips on to keep the goat or goats being transported, warm and cozy. Ken

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