Re: Dairy goats

From: Bird! (zbird_at_nospamuk2.net)
Date: 08/07/04 

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 17:35:40 +1200

Ohh yes! he has had his horns done and his other end is getting done in the
next couple of days. We were warned well in advance of even getting a goat
about the bucks.... pong.

Tumnus is tethered. Our fences aren't good enough to keep a mischievous goat
in. He has a flash hut which is still being finished off as materials can be
obtained. The local cafe was ripping out some internal walls and we got a
trailer load of wood and corrugated iron. There have been some intense
negotiations over where the spa and sky dish are going!

The vet told us when we took Tumnus in that we had three choices, leave him
and see what happens, take some injections home with us and if he shows
signs of frothing at the mouth, bleating and stomach pains, give him half of
each syringe, or they could take him in and cut him open and clean out his
rumen but it was 5pm on a Friday night and they wouldn't be able to get any
of the replacement bacteria needed because the freezing works would have
closed for the weekend, all outcomes were that he may die. I felt the
colour drain from my face and my partner nearly burst into tears.
We sat up with him until 3:30am while he lay on his bed a little way from
the woodburner, he quietly chewed his cud, had several long naps with
intermittent chewing and was nice and warm and comfortable thank you very
much. We sat there with bloodshot eyes jumping at every little movement he
made and muttering nasty things about azaleas.

The electric fence is to keep the chooks and cats out and if possible those
ruddy pukeko, they walk or fly and are used to preying through swamps so
they're quite clever at getting through fences of netting.

Zayle
"Ray" <cosmicpam@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:2niv3mF1f870U1@uni-berlin.de...
>
> "Bird!" <zbird@nospamuk2.net> wrote in message
> news:Q6WQc.9953$N77.473185@news.xtra.co.nz...
> >
> > "Keeper" <flowers@butterfly.com> wrote in message
> > news:10h7c2o1g0s5if3@corp.supernews.com...
> >
> >
> > > I bought 3 miniature dairy goats in may of last year; A
> registered
> > > buck and two bred does. May of this year I started selling them,
> since I
> > had
> > > gone from three to 12 in that short time. Because they were
> registered, I
> > > had no trouble selling them, but they are expensive to obtain
> originally.
> > > They dislike grass, but will intently hunt for tasty weeds
> between
> > the
> > > blades. A man nearby who raises and sells bailed hay has a crowd of
> goats
> > in
> > > his fields just for the purpose of getting the weeds out of it,
> leaving
> > the
> > > long grass alone.
> > > I have eight geese and a dozen chickens in the side field, and
> yes,
> > > they eat grass; but don't make a dent in the field as a whole. The
> twelve
> > > sheep I had in a 2 acre field didn't keep it down either, and are
> prone to
> > > parasites in the fleece. Unless bottle raised, they are incredibly
> stupid
> > > panicky creatures; the only animal I couldn't like.
> > > A lawn mower is pretty cheap in comparison to the number of
> animals
> > > you would need to do the job, each wanting housing and medical
> attention
> > in
> > > one form or another. And all need feed in winter months.
> > >
> >
> > I'm reading all these posts with interest. We were given a feral buck
> kid
> > about 7 weeks ago. His mother and the rest of the wild herd had been
> chased
> > by our friends huntaway and our wee tot had tried to keep up but
> dropped and
> > hid instead. A watch was kept on him to see if mum would come back
> but the
> > herd was seen crossing the road into the neighbouring farm and didn't
> come
> > back. Our friend who'd been making sure he was ok, went back and
> retrieved
> > him.
>
> Are you planning on neutering him? I would highly recommend it, because
> an intact buck goat smells, and has a few habits that are disgusting to
> use prudish humans.
>
> I made the mistake of petting a buck once. It took a while to wash the
> stink off my hands, and I had to toss my nice suade leather coat into
> the laundry because the sleeve brushed the stinky animal.
>
> Really, that musk lingers.
>
>
> > We got an e-mail asking if we'd like a baby goat (they had one they'd
> > rescued as a baby from the creek a year or so before). I wrote back
> and said
> > Oooh YES!
> > So now we have the most gorgeous little bloke who loves cuddles on the
> lap
> > in front of the TV every night, loves to be groomed, loves any sort of
> > attention really and will bleat like the blazes when he needs
> something.
> > It was 'love at first sight' including the cooties he had, millions of
> them!
> > The flea comb was full with every swipe.
> > He's clean as a whistle now, growing well in spite of a major 'spit
> the
> > dummy' with his milk bottle which gave us a bit of worry. He also got
> stuck
> > into a tiny azalea shrub, which involved a very quick and worrying
> trip to
> > the vet, a very very late night vigil and a gunshot reaction from us
> at the
> > slightest movement from him. He showed no signs of poisoning a we went
> off
> > to bed quite relieved.
>
> I have never heard of a goat poisoning himself. I'm sure it has happend
> sometime somewhere, but any book I have read about them says that it
> doesn't happen. They take a nibble here and a nibble there, and reject
> the stuff that they don't like.
>
> The exceptions are things like nitrate poisoning (often due to
> overfertilization) and oxylate poisoning (almost always due to things
> like Sorrel in the hay). If rhubarb leaves are poisonous to goats, they
> won't eat them.
>
>
> > We're looking at putting a couple of strands of electric fence leaning
> out
> > from the top of the existing fence to try and keep the chickens out
> and also
> > the cats.
>
> If you're talking about putting electric fence on top of existing fence,
> that might work. Keeping goats penned with nothing but an electric
> fence is difficult. That buckling we are borrowing can still get out if
> he really wants to. He has only gotten out once since we got that new
> charger that is good for something like 8500 volts. Maybe it just isn't
> worth it to him anymore.
>
>
> > One in particular, Phoebe, waits and watches as I dig and prepare
> > the soil for rows and seeding. As soon as I've finished, she's into it
> > digging holes everywhere. Slugger the crossed beak chook isn't
> usually far
> > behind, if in fact she's not already there.
> > Slugger follows me around when I have a spade or a fork and if I have
> to dig
> > a hole anywhere it will take twice as long with Slugger around. It's a
> case
> > of, dig dirt from the hole, tip it off the spade, put the spade down,
> move
> > chicken from hole, dig out another spade full, tip it off the spade,
> put
> > spade down, remove chicken from hole. Any worms dug up need to be
> picked out
> > and thrown to her or she'll descend on the tailings from the hole and
> in
> > her pursuit of the worm will scratch and flick soil, filling in what I
> have
> > just been digging out. Love her to bits though.
>
> Chickens may be stupid, but they're really good at figuring out where to
> get food. Our batch comes running as soon as they see me leave the
> garage with the coffee cans that I use to fill the feeder.
>
> >
> > It's been interesting watching the animals associating with each
> other. How
> > the goat reacts to the chickens and the dog, how the dog reacts to the
> > chickens, (she's frightened of them mostly and keeps away, she's a
> blue
> > heeler, a cattle dog for goodness sakes and she's scared of sheep,
> chickens,
> > horses and cows! woof woof indeed! but I should add, we are grateful,
> at
> > least she doesn't have any designs on being a stock worrier)
> > She's a little jealous of Tumnus but in a 'poor me' way. They both get
> lots
> > of fuss and attention so her worries are unjustified.
>
> Our black lab ignores the chickens, and treats the goats like dogs. She
> wants to play with them, but the goats just don't get the picture.
>
> The other dog, however, managed to kill a pretty little Rhode Island Red
> pullet. We are currently trying to give him away. He would be a
> wonderful family dog for someone who doesn't have livestock.
>
>
> >
> > The cats don't bother with the chickens at all. Phoebe is rather
> interested
> > in their shed but only because the sparrows and mynah birds hang
> around for
> > leftovers and it has dry hay to loll around in.
>
> Our little tomcat that's perhaps ten weeks old likes to chase the
> chickens. The chickens are bigger than he is, but they are so much fun
> because they run and make funny noises. I'm just wondering when one of
> them is going to get bigger and decide to turn around and give him a
> good peck.
>
> [...]
>
>
> Ray
>
>
>
> >
> > Zayle
> >
>
>

Quantcast