Betcha thought this was gonna be about GOATS!

-- old hoot gibson, the Illinois hillbilly. (hoot@pcinetwork.com), November 20, 2000

Answers

Yep. And it turned out to be from an old goat (;o) )!!!!!!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), November 20, 2000.

Yep, I always will check out a goat thread...you got me.

Does everyone have all there does bred by now? I still have a couple to go.

There, now it is a real goat thead. ;-)

-- JimR (jroberts1@cas.org), November 21, 2000.

Yep, we start kidding on December 24th, (darn I won't be able to go to Houston to the inlaws for Christmas again :) Last doe to kid will be end of March. My kids from this last year are so large that I may break my own rules and throw a couple of them in the buck pen with my new buck kid from this year, so he will have company :) Usually hold most of my kids over to kid right before they turn 2. But several of the January and Feburary kids are already 100+ pounds, so we may be having summer kids, just to get them milking. Never happy with kids born and being weaned in the summer heat here, maybe I will breed to Boer so at least their will be some meat on them when weaned, for the freezer!

Getting some nice cold weather, praying for some nice days of freezing weather to kill some of these overwintering bugs! Using DE in the barn this winter to kill overwintering parasites in the shavings/manure pack we keep down all winter. We have alwaysed used lime, but since my girls are big diggers, I really like the idea of using DE since the lime isn't all that healthful to lungs.

We were able to come up with some great grass hay this year, first hay in along time that even looks good, we mostly feed dehydrated alfalfa to our milkers, so we really rely on good grass hay when the pasture and browse is depleated. Course if they weren't so lazy they could go out into the woods, but after to much rain, we may get our feet wet, or worse yet!!!! Stuck in the mud!

Oh! And my two new rescue donkeys blackbeautyranch.org are doing great, one will already eat carrot pieces from my hand! They are adorable!

So what else is happening at your farm? Hoot! What animals do you have? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 21, 2000.

It's great to see that there are some "goat people" on this board. My husband and I (and our 5 children)are interested in raising goats, but I think that we're going to try chickens first, then goats next year, as we're still new to "country living". Can anyone tell me how much "roaming" space each goat needs? i.e. how many goats would be comfortable on 3 acres of land to run around on? Thanks in advance!

-- Kristin in Central Alabama (positivekharma@aol.com), November 24, 2000.

Hi-about the how many goats on three acres. If you are just getting started and new to country living I would tread lightly on the numbers when it comes to goats. I got big really fast and I only started out with a couple. If you keep the doe kids they increase geometrically and the next thing you know your whole life revolves around the goats and milking. You didn't say if you were wanting them for milk or meat. I am assuming milk. How many are in the family? I like to keep at least two and have one in milk all the time. A good milker, well fed, watered, bedded and cared for will provide a gallon a day (average). I raise nubians which have a nice high butter fat content and we make our own ice cream and some of our butter. We are always tempted to go for what the land can handle instead of what we can handle. Good Luck - diane in michigan

-- Diane Green (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 24, 2000.

Sorry - just reread your note about the goats and see you have 7 in your family. I would go for 2 in milk all the time and really use the milk making cheese etc. diane

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 24, 2000.