And Everyone Lived Happily Ever After

The bulls are gone, the protective momma donkey is gone, the routine is starting to feel normal (milking, feeding) so it's like a calm has started to settle in. We've been running crazy it seems like since last October (about the time we bought the bulls) and I've got lots of posts to write up about some stuff that happened since Jeff decided to get two cows.

Everyone out in the pasture seems to be getting along pretty well, horses, donkey and goats. Maybe we've finally reached the pinnacle and things will steady out a little bit.

Today I'm going to start saving the milk again for our own use. I've been throwing it out ever since I had to give the goats wormer and a med for coccidiosis. Need to write some posts up about that, we've made a mess of goats and eventually it will be equines, with the way we wormed them. Just like all the people who've taken antibiotics for colds for the last 50 years, we now have super penicillin resistant bugs. The animals have super resistant worms all from rotational worming and treating all goats, not just the ones with the high worm counts. Anyway, I did do fecals before worming them, but that's for another post.

So my milk has been on hold till the meds clear Edna's system (just try finding the appropriate milk withdrawal time (MWT) for specific meds for goats on the internet. You'll find so many conflicts and contradictions, you'll feel like you got tied up in your under-wear). Another post topic!

Anyway, safe milk handling. What is it? I bought two books when we got the goats. I wanted to learn a lot about goats, but I also wanted to find out what the process was for safe milk handling. I don't care whether the goal is to pasteurize or not, just what is the procedure for safe milk handling. Well both books said, "You should safely handle your milk." That's it!!!

So then I go to the internet. Where are the we pages that specifically describe safe handling of milk. It's pretty much like the wormers and MWT for goats.

My best source of information came from Fiasco Farm. The lady should write a book, she's got more goat information that's in line with reality and actually how to do things than the two books I bought. Jeff told me to call her and offer to be her ghost writer and get all that good stuff she has on her web site on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. Another source I found that was pretty good was from a guy that I believe is a retired professor from some university (science department). I can't find the web site now and don't remember his name. Can't believe I didn't save it because he had lot of good tricks to the trade. (Found the web site: David B Fankhauser. He is or was Prof of Bio/Chem at the University of Cinncinnati.)

Anyway based mostly on those two web sites and some other books. I've come up with my own safe milk handling procedure. If that ain't something. I've just caused some other person to get tied up in their under-wear over this and added to the contradictions that abound on the internet.

Tomorrow I will post everything I do to safely handle my milk. I might be wrong, I might be right, but it is what I do. Gotta go milk my goat :)

Stacey

Jeff, The Bull Raiser

For months we been trying to decide what to do with the bulls. Should we send them both to the live stock market, or send one to a butcher? They are really growing now and with it being summer and all the pretty little cows down the road, I've been worrying about the 2 AM phone call..."Your bulls are in my cow pasture..."

The cows have been a learning experience, probably one of those things, we're glad we did it, but probably not the right thing for us. We aren't set up for it, we don't have crowding pens or shuts, they won't fit in our cute little 1970's horse trailer, and they got really big!!

After weighing a lot of negatives and positives, we decided to send them to the auction and not fool with butchering one. They are bulls, and Jeff read lots of info about the effect of testosterone on meat quality and taste, it wasn't worth it to us to spend the money on something that might not be very good.

Jeff arranged for Stacey and Steve (the people who have our momma donkey Claire) to bring their stock trailer up and take the bulls to the auction. This sounded feasible. Jeff got the bulls up in the round pen after he got home from work. We waited for Steve to get here. We planned on putting some feed in the trailer and shooing the bulls into the trailer. Go figure, bulls don't shoo!!

We've watched these bulls for 9 months. We bought them at 6 months of age (about 500 pounds each, now they are around 1200). They play a little, mostly they butt heads and see who can push who across the pasture. The Brahma/Angus cross likes to act brave and shake his head and snort at Jeff when he's on the tractor. But other than that, these bulls move slow and we figured they would shoo.

The last thing they wanted to do was get in a trailer. They ran around the round pen, bucked, pawed the ground, and stomped. Jeff and Steve chased after, blocked, and mostly tried to stay away from them. Jeff kept saying, "This isn't going very well."

I gave Steve a buggy whip and Jeff had a riding crop trying to use them as props to block and direct the bulls (we're set up for horses not cattle). After a lot of stomping and running, we've attracted more attention, the four-legged kind. Lined up along the fence, watching all this commotion were two horses, a donkey, and three goats. The looks on their faces said, "We don't ever want to go where these bulls are going." You can get the image. If we didn't really want to get rid of them, it was quite funny.

Finally we stopped the chasing; it wasn't working. These are pretty calm bulls, they've got fed every day, they get bread and bun treats, they get petted, they've been acclimated to us being around outside all the time, they have horse and donkey friends, and they lay in the grass under the tree watching us fool with the little goats. They have NEVER been chased.

Jeff got the idea to use the round pen as a crowder. He and Steve started bringing in the sides, slowly pushing the bulls to the front, towards the trailer. They ended up with a long shut aimed for the trailer door.

Jeff and I started talking to the bulls. My mom says we have this distinctive "voice" when we're talking to our animals. I'm sure Steve, an experienced stock man and someone we don't know very well, thought we were those goofy kind of people. I can hear him telling his farmer friends, "You should have heard these two people talking to the bulls!" I mean who talks sweetly to bulls. I'm sure we resembled Maureen O'Hara and Juliet Mills, talking and whistling for Vindicator, the bull, in the Jimmy Stewart film, The Rare Breed.

We kept talking to the bulls, like we always do, and they calmed down. With the round pen getting smaller and crowding them, they jumped right up in the trailer. I tried not to think about them ending up in the slaughter house as the trailer pulled out of the drive.

I got a call from Jeff about 40 minutes later, excitement in his voice. He told me the guy at the auction place said multiple times, "Those are the nicest bulls I've seen in a long time, they won't end up at the slaughter house, some farmer will buy them to breed to his heifers."

I'm so proud of my husband! It was a lot of hard work, the learning curve was steep and never ending, yet he ended up raising two bulls destined to father the next Angus steaks you get at the grocery!!!

Oakmoon Farm Goat Husbandry Class

I went to Cynthia Swain's Goat Husbandry Class at Oakmoon Farm in Bakersville NC. I attended her cheese making class last April and learned a lot about cheesemaking. The Goat Husbandry class was wonderful. Learned lots about goat care, some tricks to the trade and got to practice hoof trimming on some of her goats. Thought this was interesting, not sure about the science of it, but she said if you want to be up all night during kidding season then feed your goats at night. If you want the kids born during the daytime then feed the goats in the morning. Goats want to get that last meal before they kid, so they will put off delivery if it's close to feeding time. They start milking their goats once per day (feeding time) in September and they do it in the morning.

Her husband Dewain taught the portion of the class related to fencing and shelters. I told him he should write a book, because his goat stories were hilarious and he had us all laughing. Having lived on a small farm now for 7 years, I can attest to his profound statement. "When you do any sort of project do it permanently from the beginning, rather than temporary with the intention to come back later and make it permanent, because on a farm, temporary becomes permanent."

Tess the Donkey Stands Up to Edna the Goat

I figured this would happen sooner or later. Tess, who has been timid with the goats, decided she'd had enough. She needed to take charge. She was eating her breakfast without causing anyone any trouble, while I was feeding the little girls and getting ready to milk Edna. Edna decided that she didn't want to wait for me to get her breakfast set up on the milk stand and assumed that Tess would be willing to share. Edna has done this before and usually Tess backs up and looks mournfully at me. Not today, she reached over and mouthed Edna's ear. Edna came running to me so I could check out her ear and make sure it was still there. It was, no breaks in the skin, no damage. Edna didn't learn her lesson though and headed back to Tess's feed bucket. This time Tess chased her out of the barn. Edna stood outside an cried at me then finally slunk along the side of the barn wall and jumped on the milk stand.

Later I let the little girls out of their stall and Tess decided she need to try out her new found skill, "goat intimidation".  Nothing really serious, but she found out if she laid her ears back and took a few steps towards the impinging goat, the goat ran away. She seemed quite pleased with herself and tired of it. When I left the barn they were all by the picnic table. Goats on top, Tess at the side. Blue Belle and Daisy grooming and kissing Tess's face.

Alpha Skipper

Skipper has always been the alpha male here at Sadie Lady Farm. He showed our angus bull calfs who was boss when they first arrived. They stay away from him even though they out weigh him now. He's let Sadie know that the pasture's his territory and she's welcome to come it, but don't expect to be my long lost dog friend.

So it was a little surprising tonight. He wasn't sure what to do about the goats. Cathy (Jeff's sister) and her husband Cal are down for the weekend and they went out with us at milking time to see all the animals. It was still a fiasco. We still don't know what we're doing or the best way to go about doing what we don't know how to do. 

So we gave Tess her little bit of horse treat in a far corner of the paddock, Skipper and Peanut got theirs a little closer to the barn. And I started rounding up goats in the barn. Well the goats didn't want to be rounded up. All three of them have come to the conclusion that the horses get better meals than they do (by the way, the horses think the goat kibble is better than the stuff they get). So next thing we know, three goats and one horse, SKIPPER, are eating out of the same feed trough. This goes on for a minute, then Skipper realizes his feed level is rapidly decreasing and it's not all going in his stomach. So he backs up a step and looks at them, like "when did you all show up?" Then he lays his ears back but the goats don't notice it, their too busy eating his dinner. He looks over at me with this expression on his face like "How did this happen? Do I have to put up with this?"

Those soft brown eyes get me every time. I swopped up his feed trough while Jeff wrangled the goats into a stall. I gave Skipper some kind words and a thank you for being such a gentleman with such rude barn mates and a little bit more horse feed, with goat feed dressing!

Animal Shuffling

I locked the goats out of the paddock this am, but by the time Sadie and I walked it was raining.

So had to open the paddock back up. Left the crossbar at the stall door down so they could go in and eat a little, they were all at the hay bin. Later if I get a chance I'll go down and lock them out of there also. Tess is with horses. I know this week is crazy, and all this rain is not cooperating. But next week I think we should put the boys up front in the daytime and lock goats and Tess out of Paddock. I think she will stay with them if she has no one else. Also might just leave boys in front at night for a week. I have a feeling she likes the horses, so there might be nothing we can do about that, though she's perfectly fine with the goats if that's all she has for company.

Sadie just came running in and dove under the computer. Went to look outside to see what was going on. Down pour, saw Skipper racing across the pasture to get under the trees, Tess trotting along behind him. Now all three of them are under the trees, Tess in the middle. I think the boys have been more receptive to a girl than if we had got a gelding. Goats are in the barn, looking out at me, like I should be able to stop the rain.

Multi-Species Farming

I had forgot the horses were in the back when I opened the gates this am. So Tess left and sort of stayed half between them and the run in shed. Just went out to take a look and she was in the paddock, could see the goats lying by the far stall.

Next thing, Skipper peeks his head out, he and Peanut were snoozing in the run in with the goats. So I kicked the whole menagerie out and shut the gates. Skipper seems to like Tess, walks by her without raising a big stink and she was grazing pretty close to him. Blue Belle likes Peanut, she was kissing him and pulling his tail, now they are fighting over the same pieces of grass. Edna is a little ticked that she can't get back in the paddock and Daisy is the one letting me know that Edna is ticked :)