Next weekend, I have ordered a 1.5 tonne excavator from a local hire store. I’ve had a pair of dying wattle trees cut down and the stumps ground so that I can extend the existing shed in the top paddock extended when I need to.
I am pulling out a useless fence between the top paddock and the little enclosed field (with no gate). It is hard going as the fence has been rabbit proofed. Thank goodness the excavator is more persistent than a rabbit!
I will be removing the old rubbish from the top paddock including an old bed frame, at least six fallen trees, a pair of rusty rabbit pens attached to a 4 x 4 m concrete slab and scrape the boundary in preparation for the new fence. The new fence will be a 6 foot fence made from 8 foot Koppers sunk two feet deep with dog link fencing between. Well, the plan is a plan J I just hope that I can maintain the desire to get the damn thing done.
There are a couple of hard landscaping items that I want to achieve in the top paddock. One of them is the building of a suitable barn for the goats. I want to have at least 4 milking does and a pair of wethers as paddock pals for the girls. During kidding, I may have from 4 to 12 kids depending on the fecundity of my does. So I need to be able to accommodate 10 to 18 animals. When the does have kids, their milk will be for the kids, however, I should still get enough milk from the does to be able to produce soap and cheese for the family. I want the barn to be able to serve the needs of up to 20 goats as well as milking up to 4 does. The barn will need to provide storage for hay and grain for up to 20 animals.
Another of the landscape items that I need to incorporate into my top paddock is: - goat toys. I’d love to build swinging bridge and platform for the goats to play on. At the moment, my goats tend to dominate the hammock that I made for my daughters. They don’t have much luck getting into the hammock and often end up landing on their sides on the wrong side of the hammock, but they luuuurve it.
One of the games that I have noticed that goats love more than any other is King of the Hill. I need to make the goats a decent hill for the little darlings. One of the good things about a decent goat hill is that it can be a great way to wear the goats’ hooves down if it is made from a solid and abrasive material (such as concrete or sandstone, etc.)
Saturday 30 January 2010
CAEV–Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus
This is a condition that was almost eradicated in Tasmania a few years back. According to a reliable source, because Tasmania no longer exports goats for meat, the Tasmanian State Government abandoned its CAEV program and allowed a herd of CAEV positive Saanen into the north of the state. Now we have to deal with the virus through careful farm management and quarantining process. Even when we are sure that the farm that our new goat comes from is CAEV free.
CAEV is a disease that will kill a goat. It does it slowly, and painfully. The goat will suffer from swelling of the joints until they are rendered lame. Also, the goat may suffer hardening of the lungs and or stomach this will show as a persistent coughing and sneezing in the goat as well as poor appetite and a failure to thrive. The encephalitis part of the virus causes abnormal growth in the animals’ brain with far greater white matter in the brain than normal. This is shown by the goat being unresponsive, passive and eventually death.
Personally, I cannot accept that our State Government does not have a suitable response to this disease as it affects the viability of the dairy goat, meat, and textile industries in Tasmania. In my opinion, the State Government (DPIW Tasmania) should seek to destroy animals with that are CAEV positive and compensate the farmer. In this way, the farmer would not be financially set-back by the eradication of the disease and we can work toward a CAEV free state.
With a dairy goat’s productive lifespan being much longer than that of a meat goat, CAEV impacts the dairy goat industry much harder than the meat goat industry. In meat goats, the animal may be sold as chevon well before the goat every shows signs of CAEV, so it may never be discovered without an annual blood test (about $35 per animal).
I am now going to step away from the soap-box … I can feel my blood boiling … sorry about that.
1. Goats are herd animals and separation from the flock is a distressing time for a goat;
2. Goats kept in close confinement are more likely to graze (close crop vegetation) rather than browse (a goats preferred eating style);
3. Grazing goats are more likely to acquire intestinal parasites;
When planning a quarantine area for goats, you need to make sure that you provide the space for the goats to be able to browse rather than graze, so an area of approximately 8sq meters per goat is sufficient if the goat is provided with plenty of hay and grain to supplement their paddock vegetation.
The quarantine area needs to be within proximity of the rest of the herd so that the goat(s) are able to communicate with the rest of the herd. It is recommended that quarantined animals are separated by double fences with an area of at least 2 meters between the two areas.
If you are going to keep goats, it is also a good idea to keep a microscope and learn how to perform simple faecal parasite load testing. This is something that I am learning at the moment, and I will be reporting on this technique in a later newsletter. Basically, you are taking some fresh goat berries, breaking the faeces up in alcohol and then counting the number of cooties in the poo through a microscope. All goats have parasites in their faeces. It is only when the number of parasites get very high that your goat will suffer.
I have started to build a quarantine pen that will provide two 3 x 6 m pens with shelter food and water. This will allow me to quarantine two goats at a time for as long as is needed. The reason that I am allowing for two goats at a time is that I have an immediate need to separate my older goat (Holly) from my new goat (Minnie). My two goats need to be quarantined for 60 days before I get them blood tested again for CAEV. Both Holly and Minnie are from the same goat stud, and are very unlikely to have come with the virus. Holly may have picked up the virus from Mille (the British Alpine), but that is also a low probability. Having said that, I am not going to fool myself into believing that Holly is not infected with CAEV.
CAEV is a disease that will kill a goat. It does it slowly, and painfully. The goat will suffer from swelling of the joints until they are rendered lame. Also, the goat may suffer hardening of the lungs and or stomach this will show as a persistent coughing and sneezing in the goat as well as poor appetite and a failure to thrive. The encephalitis part of the virus causes abnormal growth in the animals’ brain with far greater white matter in the brain than normal. This is shown by the goat being unresponsive, passive and eventually death.
Personally, I cannot accept that our State Government does not have a suitable response to this disease as it affects the viability of the dairy goat, meat, and textile industries in Tasmania. In my opinion, the State Government (DPIW Tasmania) should seek to destroy animals with that are CAEV positive and compensate the farmer. In this way, the farmer would not be financially set-back by the eradication of the disease and we can work toward a CAEV free state.
With a dairy goat’s productive lifespan being much longer than that of a meat goat, CAEV impacts the dairy goat industry much harder than the meat goat industry. In meat goats, the animal may be sold as chevon well before the goat every shows signs of CAEV, so it may never be discovered without an annual blood test (about $35 per animal).
I am now going to step away from the soap-box … I can feel my blood boiling … sorry about that.
Building a Quarantine Pen
Good farm practice gives that the goat-herd quarantines all new herd members for a period of time. There are a couple of considerations here that need to be addressed.1. Goats are herd animals and separation from the flock is a distressing time for a goat;
2. Goats kept in close confinement are more likely to graze (close crop vegetation) rather than browse (a goats preferred eating style);
3. Grazing goats are more likely to acquire intestinal parasites;
When planning a quarantine area for goats, you need to make sure that you provide the space for the goats to be able to browse rather than graze, so an area of approximately 8sq meters per goat is sufficient if the goat is provided with plenty of hay and grain to supplement their paddock vegetation.
The quarantine area needs to be within proximity of the rest of the herd so that the goat(s) are able to communicate with the rest of the herd. It is recommended that quarantined animals are separated by double fences with an area of at least 2 meters between the two areas.
If you are going to keep goats, it is also a good idea to keep a microscope and learn how to perform simple faecal parasite load testing. This is something that I am learning at the moment, and I will be reporting on this technique in a later newsletter. Basically, you are taking some fresh goat berries, breaking the faeces up in alcohol and then counting the number of cooties in the poo through a microscope. All goats have parasites in their faeces. It is only when the number of parasites get very high that your goat will suffer.
I have started to build a quarantine pen that will provide two 3 x 6 m pens with shelter food and water. This will allow me to quarantine two goats at a time for as long as is needed. The reason that I am allowing for two goats at a time is that I have an immediate need to separate my older goat (Holly) from my new goat (Minnie). My two goats need to be quarantined for 60 days before I get them blood tested again for CAEV. Both Holly and Minnie are from the same goat stud, and are very unlikely to have come with the virus. Holly may have picked up the virus from Mille (the British Alpine), but that is also a low probability. Having said that, I am not going to fool myself into believing that Holly is not infected with CAEV.
Mareks Disease
The chickens are all doing well, with one notable exception. One of our last brood of chickens was found in the chicken run, unable to stand and very listless. She went into the brooder for a couple of weeks and was still unable to stand. Going through a couple of diagnostic observations, we saw that the chicken was not injured and did not have any unusual faeces. The chicken was not breathing poorly and her eyes were clear. The most likely diagnosis is a condition known as Mareks disease. Mareks (MDV) is a herpes virus that most often affects chickens up to 5 months of age and can present as sciatic nerve damage showing as lameness in one or more of the limbs, or as tumours growing in the skin and organs of the bird. She had never really been very steady on her feet and, as she grew, her hips were less and less able to support her. In the brooder, she found it very difficult to stand and would often lurch from one end of the brooder to the other in search of food. In the end, it was cruel to let her suffer like this so she was put down. Now with a second chick showing similar signs, I believe that our conclusion that MDV is the likely cause is more confident.
We decided that our chickens would not be table fowl, so when we were faced with dispatching a chicken, the only sensible thing to do was to put her down as humanely as possible and then dispose of the corpse. Some people may disagree with me, but to my mind, this means decapitation. The chicken is dead very quickly and does not suffer for more than a second. It still feels very crappy.
We decided that our chickens would not be table fowl, so when we were faced with dispatching a chicken, the only sensible thing to do was to put her down as humanely as possible and then dispose of the corpse. Some people may disagree with me, but to my mind, this means decapitation. The chicken is dead very quickly and does not suffer for more than a second. It still feels very crappy.
Saturday 2 January 2010
Welcome and quick blog catch up
This is the first post for the web log of Carembache Stud. In this blog, I'll be rambling on about the animals on my property. Mostly we breed Anglo Nubian dairy goats.
I started with an old Saanen doe that we got from the RSPCA, "Blossom". That was back in the days when we didn't know that one goat just means trouble. Blossom escaped once too often into our vegetable patch, so she moved back to the RSPCA ... lovely goat and really sweet natured.
Next we rescued a pair of kids from the north of the state, a Saanen and a British Alpine doe kid (Molly and Millie). Unfortunately, Molly died from scours very soon after getting home, so we very quickly raced around trying to find Millie a friend ... and then we come to Holly (pictured above). Holly was our first Anglo-Nubian goat.
Much later, we discovered that Mille had CAE (Caprine Arthritis/Encephalitis) disease and so she had to be put down. Again with the running around and trying to find a companion for Holly. This brought us to Minnie ... another Anglo-Nubian goat (actually, Holly's cousin).
I started with an old Saanen doe that we got from the RSPCA, "Blossom". That was back in the days when we didn't know that one goat just means trouble. Blossom escaped once too often into our vegetable patch, so she moved back to the RSPCA ... lovely goat and really sweet natured.
Next we rescued a pair of kids from the north of the state, a Saanen and a British Alpine doe kid (Molly and Millie). Unfortunately, Molly died from scours very soon after getting home, so we very quickly raced around trying to find Millie a friend ... and then we come to Holly (pictured above). Holly was our first Anglo-Nubian goat.
Much later, we discovered that Mille had CAE (Caprine Arthritis/Encephalitis) disease and so she had to be put down. Again with the running around and trying to find a companion for Holly. This brought us to Minnie ... another Anglo-Nubian goat (actually, Holly's cousin).
We kept the pair of them (Holly and Minnie) in quarantine for a month while we waited with baited breath for the outcome of their CAE blood tests and were so very relieved to discover that they were CAE free!
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