Saturday 30 October 2010

Goat News

Well, Holly and Millie are happy little does. I have been looking into training the goats so that they are easier to manage for the girls and also because I’m more than a little interested in the use of goats throughout history.

Goats were mankind’s first domesticated animal used for the provision of meat, fibre, milk, bone, sinew and also as a beast of burden. The role of goats as a cart animal only dwindled with the general availability of horses. Goats were used to pull ploughs, harrows, carts, buggies and any number of other draught implements of a weight up to 1.5 times the animal’s body weight. Additionally, goats were used as pack animals able to carry weights up to half their body weight (some sources indicate more). There are two great websites that I have found for people interested in these activities:

The UK Harness Goat Society (http://www.harnessgoats.co.uk/index.html) is a great website for information on goats as draught animals; and

The North American Pack Goat Association (http://www.napga.org/default.asp) is a great resource for information on goats as pack animals.

There are great photos on the site (under the members’ gallery) of goats on pack trails through some absolutely stunning American wilderness trails.

I have made myself a driving bridle for my goats and I am in the process of training my goats to wear it. Basically, this involves having the goats wear the bridle for brief periods while eating (and otherwise distracted) and giving them plenty of positive reinforcement.

I have ordered a ground driving rig (driving halter, long lines, and belly strap) so that I can train the goats with more tack and so that they get more experience with the sort of harness that they would wear for most types of ground driving equipment. More on that in future!

I am glad to say that the goats are now fully weaned. No more making up formula, yay! They are growing quickly and love long walks in the top paddock where they get to forage to their hearts content.

Another Welcome addition to the farm

clip_image002My lovely wife and I have been talking about getting a new dog. Our dog, Salome, is a lovely Staffordshire bull terrier.

When Sally was only little, she was a wild and excitable dog. We named her Salome, because we believed that she would dance for the head of John the Baptist. I know ... probably bad taste, but it is a name that really suits her well.

She is a great dog, but a bit hair brained. When we open the gate, Sally will take to the hills without a care in the world. Several times in her life so far, Sally has run away from home and she has always turned up at the council dog lock-up. Sally is now nine years old, but she still has lots of years left in her (hopefully).

clip_image004Sally isn’t a working dog ... she is only a pet. Not that there is anything wrong with that, she is really just not a working dog. We love her lots, but she is a dim thing.

Our newest Green Home Farm animal arrived on the 11th of October is a pure bred Cardigan Corgi by the litter name of “Mighty Mouse” we very quickly realised that this was not the name that would do well for us. Our choice is much more simply ... Max.

clip_image006Max is just twelve weeks old and is one hundred percent boy dog. Aww but he is so cute! It’s a good thing that our two dogs don’t get along together!

Goat toys

My lovely wife had a brilliant idea. Now when I hear the words “I’ve been thinking” issue from the mouth of one of the women in my life ... I run for cover. Usually, no good can come of hearing those words. I will also point out that what usually follows that particular conversational opening gambit is a good idea. In this instance, my wife’s excellent idea was to build something that the goats can climb on.

We had some old unused cement bricks on the property that were simply being used as free accommodation for scorpions. These bricks were simply stacked to make a series of steps (kind of like a ziggurat), that the goats can climb and jump off. This turned out to be an immensely pleasurable experience for the goats. We had two little kids who really wanted to help (by climbing on each brick as it was placed and jumping into and out of the wheelbarrow). When it was finished, the goats got stuck in and tried out their new toy.

clip_image002It seems that the ziggurat is also a good way for the goats to wear their hooves down ... but not enough that they don’t need to be trimmed!

Later on the weekend, we went and picked up three large tree stumps and arranged them in the paddock so that the girls could jump from the ziggurat to the stumps.

As soon as the stumps were in place, the goats started climbing on them and jumping from stump to stump. I also noticed that they like kneeling on the stumps and nibbling the edges as well as using the stumps as a great way to get to those itchy spots on their heads that they just can’t reach.

Upgrading the Goats Shelter

clip_image002The original goat shelter worked OK as it was ... but unfortunately, it quickly became draughty when the fence palings shrank when exposed to the weather. To fix this, I wrapped the shelter with an unused nylon tarpaulin and nailed some more palings around the edges (so that little goats couldn’t easily get to the tarp).

This has now made the shelter very weather proof. The shelter was also moved so that it faced north-east and it is now protected by a very large wattle tree.

Happy goats indeed!

My lovely wife picked up a couple of sections of a discarded picket fence, with the idea that this would protect our lovely little sugar gum sapling that shares the field with the goatlings. I diligently cut the picket fence into three sections and bound it together around the sapling so that little goat teeth couldn’t get to it. O contraire! The little servants of evil knocked the fence over and had a jolly good time reducing the sugar gum to a sugar twig. With the picket fence re-erected and reinforced, we are hoping that there is still enough life left in the root stock and young cambium material left to photosynthesize.

New Chicken Run

The new chicken run is progressing nicely. I have finished welding the structure together and the last of the colour bond steel sheets are fitted to the outside of the run. Over the past 3 weekends, I finished the run with colour bond and chicken wire. It looks pretty good so far!

clip_image002My lovely wife and daughters went through the run and cleared out the last remaining bits of old swimming pool from the ground and I’ll be making another run up to the tip to get rid of it.

I bought some timber from the tip shop to make the new chicken coop. The timber will make the floor and the frame for the structure; I’ll get some external grade plywood to clad the outside. At the same time, I picked up some corrugated iron to make the roof of the coop.

I also fixed the old gate on the chicken run on the 1st weekend of October. Over time the door had slipped making the door impossible to open. It was out with the angle grinder and welding on a new gate latch onto the gate frame. Now it opens easily.

The chicken run, with its colour bond steel cladding, is now suitable housing for the girls’ pets. “Fluffy” an overstuffed white rabbit; and “Flower girl” a similarly overstuffed white guinea pig. We made some shelters for the pets in the chicken run with some corrugated tin and old logs. This should give them somewhere to escape to should they be threatened by the birds of prey that live around our little valley.

The lovely wife also picked up four new apple trees from the tip shop (at $2 each): two royal gala, and two ruby red. These new apple trees have been planted in the chicken run. We are hoping to stick a lemon or a dual graft lemon and lime in the middle of the chicken run. The idea behind planting the fruit trees in the chicken run is two-fold. On the one hand, the chicken run used to be a pool, so water is a possible problem and the trees will help abate the “swamp” effect. On the other hand, citrus trees are gross feeders, and with the permanent supply of chook poo that’s exactly what it’ll get.

Chickens Growing Apace

clip_image002The thing that surprises me so much about growing your own chooks ... is that they are not chicks for very long at all. They go from being the lovely little balls of fluff one minute, like the picture above, to being ungainly things half fluff and half feather with long necks. Nevertheless, they are still lovely little things that I am quite attached to. I think that there is one cock and three hens.

The chicks hatched on the 29th of September. Now it’s only three weeks later and they have turned into half chick half chicken hybrids. They have grown wing feathers and their wings have grown bigger, their tail feathers are starting to grow strongly, their necks have grown longer, their wattles are starting to appear and their eyes have grown bigger.

Three weeks more in the brooder and these chickies will be heading for the new chicken run. Then the next round of chicks will be ready for the brooder.

Ideally, we want to have a dozen hens. Any cocks that we get from our breeding, will be kept with Raj until they are big enough for the pot.

The Incubator is Empty

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Now that my latest batch of small yellow bundles of chirpy goodness have hatched, the incubator is almost empty again. I have now got four chicks (three more to hatch) chirping and running around the incubator. They’ll be moved into the brooder box soon so that they can have more room to grow.

This clutch of chicks is the second batch of progeny from my Rhode Island Red rooster and White Leghorn hens. They are very funny little creatures and give us hours of entertainment at night as we wind down from a day of work and watch television.

These little chicks are growing quickly and we will be putting them into the brooder box very soon.

The Army of Chickens is growing and I will soon have a vast horde of chicken minions (not mignon) at my beck and call! Mwahahaha my evil plans to take over the world with my legion of chickens is coming to fruit!

Eh ... not so much.

More Dairy Goat Stuff

Something that I have learned through these early days of goat ownership is that it is a very good idea to become a member of a local group relating to the animal that you are responsible for. The benefit of being a member of such an organisation is that you have ready access to a wealth of knowledge that has been grown over a much longer time than you have. This includes access to information on breeds, value adding the produce of your livestock, access to other breeders and members as well as tools and equipment that you would not normally have access to.

For example, Shelley Johnson provided us with a copy of her booklet “Dairy Goats in the 21st Century” – taking goat owners from your “L” plates to your “P” plates. This booklet contains an enormous wealth of well considered and accurate information about raising dairy goats in the southern hemisphere.

As I have very little experience with goats and with goat ownership I have found that becoming a member of the Tasmanian branch of the Dairy Goat Society of Australia is very high on my list of priorities.

Sad News

I am sad to report that Molly died. Our lovely little Saanen doe kid died just two days after coming to our farm. After nursing her for a couple of hours in the night to rub her belly and try to help her (I believe that she had bloat), Molly died in the early hours of the morning.

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The lovely lady in Burnie who gave us the goats gave me all of the support and advice that I needed to try to help Molly and I have nothing but thanks for her. Her daughters were very upset by the news too (not to mention my daughters).

This left us with a very distraught Millie who was in obvious distress at the absence of her companion. I contacted the President of the Dairy Goat Society of Australia – Tasmanian Branch, who provided me with the name of a dairy goat breeder who was likely to have goats with kid. The breeder (Shelley Johnson) was very helpful indeed, and offered one of her cross British Alpine/Anglo Nubian goats. My wife jumped into the car and raced off to Tinderbox to check out our new goat (Holly).

While I am very sad that we have lost a dear little goat that was only 6 weeks old, I have experienced a wonderful community here in Tasmania. The community of dairy goat owners and breeders in Tasmania is a wonderfully supportive and compassionate group of people. I cannot say enough in praise of this community. I am truly touched by their care and helpfulness.