Because we have 3 acres, mostly pasture, and not much money right now for fencing it all in, we are tethering our goats so they can get plenty of grazing in. There’s a lot of fescue in the pasture. It tends to grow in large clumps that make it hard to walk out there or drive a mower or tractor. However, it grows in the winter, which makes it ideal for goat grazing, and they are loving it.
Along with the fescue, there are brier patches, lots of ragweed, privet, and sweet gum saplings that they love to much on. We do have a small fenced area for the does, but they have it mowed down to nubs now so we came up with a safe tethering idea for all of them.
We’ve had Mr. Stinky Buck tethered pretty much for the entire time. He’s quite an escape artist and can jump a 5 foot fence! He doesn’t go far when he gets out, but I can’t manage him because he’s so strong and when he’s in rut, he’s mean to me. So, we got an 80 lb sack of quick-crete, mixed it up and poured it in a bucket. Added a strong eye bolt pushed deep into the middle with just the eye sticking out, and let it cure for a few days. It slid right out of the bucket. We have a strong chain hooked to his collar and attached to the eye bolt with a strong screw-on link. Let me tell ya, he drags that thing all over but he can’t drag it at a run!
Anyway, we did something similar for the does. We used 2 of our 2-gallon buckets to make 2 anchors with eye bolt in them. One sack of the quick-crete divided between the two buckets was enough to keep them where we put them. They don’t drag their anchors. Got somewhat lighter weight chain for them (still not as light as a dog chain), screw links, and swivel hooks to attach to their collars. They learned very quickly how to not get the chain around their legs, how to maneuver with it on, and have had a good time eating lots of grass. They are gaining weight like crazy. Goats need more grazing and browse than feed to keep them healthy and happy, and to keep their rumen in good order.
We do keep a close eye on them, though, just in case they get their chains together. Now, the girls haven’t had any issues, but Mr. Stinky Buck drags himself over to them, since they are in heat, and gets everything in a mess. My son holds the buck while I free the does and get them put where they belong or, if it’s late in the day, put them back in their fenced area. Then, my son gets the buck untangles and takes him back where he belongs, near his shelter.
We have actually put the does, one at a time, near the buck. We’re hoping he does what nature intended and that in the middle or end of March, we have new babies on the ground. Yes, the chains get wrapped around each other, but careful monitoring means no one gets hurt or choked, and we are always present to make sure they’re ok. We never ever leave the does on their chains when we leave or even overnight. Goats are always looking for a way to kill themselves, so we do what we can to prevent that.
When you raise any animals, whether pets or livestock, a certain amount of health maintenance is necessary. For the goats I have, it's not a lot. Their systems aren't real fussy. Being part Kiko, they are resistant to parasites. Not immune to them, but resistant. I do give them diatomaceous earth (commonly just called DE) in their feed to help control any internal parasites. I also brush it into their hair and skin to avoid mites, ticks (they are BAD this year) and any other external parasites. Brushing a skittish goat also helps establish trust.
What we can't see, though, are pathogens that are naturally occurring in the soil. This means that even grazing or browsing on brush, they may ingest some nasties. We also can't see things like tetanus that can enter through a wound. So, annually we give the goats a vaccine for Clostridium perfringens type C and D and Clostridium tetani (tetanus). This is commonly called the CD/T vaccine. It's very inexpensive to purchase and a small vial holds 10 doses. You can read more about it here. (This is NOT a sponsored link. I'm just sharing so you'll have information.) It's not a good idea to hold it over from one year to the next, but within the course of a year, you can safely refrigerate it and use it for boosters in young kids. We follow a routine when giving this vaccination that is as follows:
Wipe the top of the vial with alcohol.
Wipe the injection area on the goat with alcohol.
Insert the needle fully into the vial through the rubber tip and pull the plunger back to get the dose needed. (Do not push air into the vial as this introduces bacteria.)
Inject it into the goat in a place where you can pull the loose skin away from muscle and bone. This is a subcutaneous vaccine so it goes under the skin.
Wipe the injection site with alcohol again.
We put the injection in the loose skin right behind the front leg. It's easy to access and not too tough. For the adult goats, this is an annual vaccine. For baby goats, we give the vaccine at about 4 weeks old, then again at about 8 weeks old. Then they are set until next year.
Since we did get a paddock built, we decided the other day to take one of the goats over to the new homestead and see how it worked out. We took our older doe, that we fondly just call Mama Goat.
Now let me tell you, she wasn't at all keen about her traveling accommodations. We had to tie a heavy rope across the bed of the truck, make a couple of large knots in it, then fasten her collar in between the knots with a collar clip. The knots kept the clip from going more than a couple of inches either way. We also opened the sliding back glass in the truck so I could keep my hand ready to grab her, just in case something didn't work like we thought it would. But, it all worked just fine.
Mama Goat, though, wasn't happy with it. She was pretty nervous. See, we've had these goats for a few years now and got them when they were about 6 months old. They haven't been anywhere else beside on our little homestead since we brought them home in the back end of the Explorer I used to have.
Mama Goat is behind the others, with the skinny horns.
Once we got her over to the new homestead and put her out in the new paddock, she was still uneasy but did start eating the tall weeds and grass that are there. We made sure she had a bucket of water nearby, and, though she occasionally would cry (these goats hate to be separated), she ate till she got her tummy full, then laid down to chew her cud.
Next time, we'll take all the goats with us, since we now have a huge carrier for the back of the truck that we can put them in.
Here's a little video of Mama Goat in the new paddock.
It's not a huge area, but we did get a small paddock fenced in to put goats into. I figure we'll need to put the buck out on a tether, and he does well with that. The does can go in the paddock.
We still need to put up some kind of shelters for all the animals, and the first ones of those will be simple lean-to structures made from pallets. Just something fast and easy to construct until we can get better barns built.
We used a technique for securing the gate post that we saw on another YouTube video, and it's working very well.
For a quick look, here's a video for you to watch. Be sure and let me know in comments what you think about the fence. Just be nice! lol
Years ago, I had a family cow. She was a lovely milking shorthorn who produced lots of rich, creamy milk, enough for her calf and for us to drink. We even had surplus milk we could feed to pigs and chickens! Her calves came out very beefy looking and were good candidates for butchering.
We usually had her bred to a friend's Santa Gertrudis bull or another friend's Hereford bull, since we were very interested in a butcher calf. Her calves were beautiful and nearly always solid red or mostly solid red.
Well, that was then and this is now. Feed back then only cost about $3.50 for a hundred pounds of sweet feed. Today, it's almost $14 for 50 pounds of sweet feed. That's a huge price increase and it makes it not economical to keep a cow now. At least, not for us. Even with good pasture, the cow needs a bit of grain so she'll stand while being milked, and that can be up to 5 pounds at a time!
So, now, I've opted for goats for the homestead. They are small enough to handle if they get rowdy. They eat grasses, shrubs, bushes, and vines that a cow will turn her nose up at, and today's dairy goats produce quite a lot of milk. Sometimes a few gallons a day.
A dairy or dairy cross doe will eat perhaps 1 pound or less of feed while she's being milked. That's the only time she receives any kind of grain. Her mainstay is what she forages in the field, and that's the way nature designed goats. I like to have a more meaty type buck for breeding just so that we can choose to butcher the bucklings when it's time, or have the option of raising does that will be dual purpose on our homestead. Good looking bucklings and doelings fetch a pretty good price around here, too.
I'm not pointing to specific goat breeds here because choosing a breed is up to the individual. You need to look around in your area to see which breeds thrive the best and which ones will be the type you really want on your own homestead.
It's important, of course, to have a good look at the field where you will be keeping goats. Some plants are toxic to them, such as cherry trees, poke weed, buckeye, and ferns. But, they will happily mow down all the poison ivy, saw brier, wild blackberry, and Virginia creeper you have that is growing wild and in an invasive manner. Because we don't know exactly what minerals are in all the plants in our field, we also mix goat specific supplements into their feed. We also give our goats black oil sunflower seeds to boost their fat and protein intake. We also like to keep, in a sheltered place, a goat specific feed block. They can lick or munch on this as it suits them throughout the day. We buy our feed and supplements at Tractor Supply.
Housing for goats is pretty simple. They hate being rained on, so build or buy a shelter where they can stay dry. We put our shelters facing south or southwest. If the shelter will block the wind on three or three and a half sides, and you have good, warm bedding inside for them, they can stay warm during the winter and dry during the summer. The shelter doesn't have to be much taller than the goats, unless it's one you'll be going into from time to time. In that case, make it tall enough for a person to walk in without bending over. You can build several small goat shelters out of pallets and put tin roofs on them. During the summer, the pallets will help them stay cooler. During the winter, you can put siding on them to block the cold wind.
I've even seen goat shelters made from the ever-popular IBC tanks. Make sure if you use them, that they didn't contain any dangerous chemicals. Find ones that had food ingredients in them. They may cost you $75 to $100 each, but that's really not a bad price for a water-tight, wind-proof goat shelter. All you'll have to do is use a jigsaw or reciprocating saw to cut away the galvanized bars and plastic to create an entrance. They are also pretty lightweight, which means when it comes time to clean them out, you really only have to tip them over and rake the muck out the door, then spread it on your garden or add it to your compost. A quick spray with a water hose finishes the job. I'd suggest also cutting or drilling holes into the floor of the tank so that liquids can pass on through and out to the ground.
We made a cage type carrier that we can put our goats in when we need to haul them somewhere. We used the cage from an IBC tank, cut out a doorway, wrapped 2”X4”X5' welded wire all around it, including the top, and built a gate for it from the welded wire and 1”X4” scrap lumber.
For now, we are just using baling wire to hold the door on. We will put hinges on it a bit later. We're using a short piece of chain and a carabineer to fasten the gate shut on it.
This cage will also hold our pigs, once we get the gate on more securely, but our primary interest is being able to haul goats to the new homestead, or fetch other goats if we buy them. We'll need to build a loading ramp/chute to load pigs in there. Goats will just jump in. If they seem to have any problems getting up to it in the back of the truck, then we'll proceed even sooner on a ramp/chute for all the livestock.
I hope some of this helped you. Please, feel free to add your comments, suggestions, and questions in the comment section! I love feedback!
We actually finished the cabin floor a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t very hard to do, but I will say I’m disappointed with the black linoleum tiles for the bathroom area. They just don’t want to stay stuck down! Looks like we’ll have to go back and glue them with something soon.
These are all peel-n-stick tiles we got from a local discount store. The price was about the same as similar ones at a big box hardware store, but they didn’t have any patterns or colors we liked. Selection was surprisingly limited there! So, we shopped the discount store and found some we liked a lot.
It took us about a half a day to lay the first tiles, then we went back the next day and spent a couple of hours placing the ones that go around the edges. Those had to be cut to fit, except for the bathroom tiles, which were exactly the square footage needed for that area.
We have a few tiles left which might work for under the kitchen counter on those shelves, when we get that part built. Desperately needing more lumber and 3 inch deck screws!
We’ve been taking a goat or two with us every time we go work on the cabin so they can get in some extra grazing and become familiar with the place. After all, they’ll be living there, too!
After milking either a goat or your family cow, the milk needs to be strained. No matter how careful you are when milking, small particles of dirt or hair from the animal are bound to get into the milk.
I use paper coffee filters to strain the milk into a clean jar. Coffee filters don't let the milk run through very fast but you should just be patient and let it drip anyway. If you're impatient, you may wind up either collapsing the filter and having to start the straining all over again or you may cause the milk to spill out over the edge of the jar, thus wasting it and making a mess.
In the video, I show how I strain my goat's milk and, as you can see, I also made a mess! This just shows how easy it is to spill the milk and then need to do some cleaning up. Thankfully, this doesn't happen every time, and as long as I don't get in a hurry, it doesn't happen at all.
Our goat is not a high producer, as you can see. She really just produces enough milk to feed her baby, which we are bottle feeding. My hope is to acquire one more doe for milking. One that's specially bred to be a dairy goat and will provide us with all the milk we need for drinking and cooking. Two more does would be even better since I could plan their breeding dates so that when one is going dry, getting ready to freshen, the other is in peak milk production. (Freshen is the term used for an animal has a new baby and begins producing fresh milk again.
Straining Goat Milk Video
Having an excess of goat's milk means I can also make goat's milk cheese, which we love so much, and also mozzarella, which is an easy cheese for the homesteader to make. I will share recipes for these in future posts.
One of my daily chores is milking my goat twice a day. If she had been a proper mama, the buckling would be doing that for me. It's not that I mind milking so much, but she just doesn't have any sense when it comes to raising her own babies, and this would be one less chore I'd need to do while we are preparing to move. I am bottle feeding the buckling, too.
Anyway, I don't know how many of you have ever milked a goat or a cow, or even saw it being done, so I created a video where I'm milking the mama goat to help folks understand how it goes. It's not difficult. You just pinch the teat at the top with your thumb and forefinger, next to the udder, then squeeze the milk out with the rest of your fingers. It is very important to use a clean jar or bucket, and to strain and chill the milk quickly to prevent bacteria growth. Even though all this milk is going to bottle feeding the buckling, I take the same precautions.
Goats are creatures of routine. They love to do the same things at the same times every day. My mama goat wasn't raised with a lot of hands-on contact (I bought her when she was about 6 months old), but she is good about getting on the stanchion and standing still while I milk her, just because it's now a routine for her. She's still not a pet and it's hard for us to get our hands on her unless we put feed in the tray on the stanchion.
So, enjoy this video and let me know here or on YouTube what you think!
Our bigger mama goat gave birth on April 26, 2016! She had a buckling, and I was hoping for a doeling, but you take what you get.
It happened around midnight, or close to it. I heard a high pitched noise coming from that direction and really thought it sounded like a rabbit getting caught by a fox or something. A rabbit will squeal loudly when caught by a predator, and that's what it sounded like. It was pretty loud and even made Molly Dog bark. We went out with a light to see if we could figure out what was going on, followed the sound to the goat yard where the does are right now till we get them moved to the new homestead, and found a pure white baby goat, already cleaned up by mama.
The doe was up and doing fine but not interested in the baby. She did the same thing last year and we didn't act soon enough to save the baby. We assume last year, it didn't get the colostrum it needed. This year, we were ready. We had a kid nipple and a water bottle for bottle feeding. We did put mama in the stanchion and feed her while holding the buckling up on the stanchion so he could drink some colostrum. When we knew he had gotten a few ounces, we milked the doe out and brought the milk and the baby inside with us.
That first night I was up about every 2 hours to feed the baby. He took only a couple of ounces at a time, and by morning I was exhausted. Still, since he was doing so well I upped what he was taking but stretched the time in between feedings for about the next 12 hours into 4 hours each. That gave me time in between to nap and try to make up for my sleepless night.
I've been milking the doe twice a day and her milk has just about gone to straight milk instead of colostrum now. I wound up needing to get a half gallon of goat milk out of the freezer to supplement his feedings with (it was also the same mama's milk from about 8 months ago) so I'll mix that with the newly milked portions until the previously frozen milk is used up. Then we'll use surplus milk for ourselves.
I follow the advice of a website called FiasCo Farm. They seem to have the best, most common sense goat rearing advice around.
Anyway, here's a picture of the little guy when we took him outside to play and we fed him out there.
Isn't he cute??
And, here's some video I took when we had him outside.
It was hard work, but we got 90% of the field fencing down. There are sections here and there that need to stay in place till we get the animals moved, which could be in the next few days. It seems like everything needs to be done at one time. Well still retreat to this house for sleeping and showering a bit longer till everything is in place over at the new homestead.
We'll get what fencing we have put back up at the new homestead. I think we figured a field about 46 by 46 feet would be what we will have to make to start with, then as we go along, we'll add on to it, creating more paddocks so we can move the goats around.
We'll use the livestock panels to create an area for the pigs that we can move around. I plan to use them to till up garden areas and get rid of grass, grass roots, and tree roots, plus turn over and fertilize the soil. Their area will be 16 by 16 feet but with that being moved to new locations as we go, it should be just fine.
We'll also have the welded wire to build chicken runs from, instead of chicken wire. It's taller and it's sturdier than chicken wire. We'll put bird netting or something like that over the top of the chicken run, and they'll have opportunities to free range, as well, so they won't need a huge run.
Pallets will suffice to make shelters for the goats and pigs as well as for the chickens. When colder weather is coming, we'll find other things, even feed sacks, we can staple to the inside walls to help against the cold wind. We'll make sure all shelters are south facing, which was hard to do in our current location.
We talked to the cabin dealership and it looks like we could be getting the cabin on this coming Monday, April 25, 2016. I'm pretty excited but there's still a lot to be done! My son suggested using pallet boards for paneling inside the cabin, which means we need a sander to smooth them out a bit while retaining a rustic look.
I went out a bit ago to take pictures and videos of the progress and the animals, so I'll share a picture here and link to my video on YouTube.
I think we drove to every corner of the county on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. I was so tired when we finally got home, and we still had to feed and move a couple of goats.
So, the long day of running errands started around 11 AM. We headed into town, which is about 12 miles away, to go to the post office to mail a letter (needed a stamped envelope) and to the bank to go to the ATM. On the way, we stopped by the new homestead and set out a few storage totes we'd filled the day before so there'd be more room in the back for some fencing we were going to get. While in town, we stopped by the place where we ordered the little cabin and paid that person.
Stopped by Burger King in the next town to get a couple of burgers and fries. Got beverages at Tractor Supply after we picked up some goat wormer, Then, we sat in the truck in the parking lot there and ate our lunch.
Then, we headed to another town to visit with a friend and get some chain link fencing she's giving us. We also took her 4 pots of Jerusalem artichokes that I dug up yesterday in preparation for our move. I had dug 8 altogether and promised her half of them for her generosity. She lives about 25 miles from us. She thought she had one or two rolls of the fencing, but it turned out to be four rolls, plus she had posts, long top rails, and a gate. This fencing is all very tall (probably over 6 feet) and so is the gate. The exception is one roll which is probably about 4 feet tall. Three of the top rails are about 15 feet long, maybe longer, and one is around 10 feet long. Anyway, we'll be able to make good use of all this fencing and plan to use some for our two dogs until the pup gets big enough that she can't go through the field fencing. At that point, both mama and pup will go out to live with the goats. Mama dog (Molly) was raised with the goats and chickens so we want the pup (Lucy) to be raised with them as well.
Here's a picture of Molly. I took it through the fencing we had her in, but you can see how pretty she is. She's a great dog. Part airedale and part who-knows. She loves all the livestock we have and guards them the best she can. I don't yet have a picture of Lucy.
Well, I'm so glad my son came with me to get the fencing because it was crazy heavy. We'll have to go back in a few days to get the top rails, gate, and a couple more posts. I'll get pictures of all of it the next trip over to the new homestead, since that's where we dropped it off on our way home.
Then we went over to Harbor Freight to pick up work gloves they had on sale with a coupon, and a free 25 foot tape measure with any purchase there. Looked around a bit at things like 12 volt water pumps and a few other things. Should have stopped there before we went to get the fencing. Son sure could have used the gloves for handling it!
Stopped on the way home and got some raw milk, then headed to the new homestead to unload the truck. We still had cinder blocks on it from getting them over the weekend for the cabin foundation, so we set those out approximately where the guys will deliver it and they will put them in place. Got the fencing out and piled near the well house, and set out the rest of the Jerusalem artichokes in the pots over next to the well house, too. Our big tote that we keep in the back of the truck had a lot of ceramic tiles, large ones and little bitty ones, that I got from Sis on Easter Sunday, so we set those out next to the well house.
At home, we fed the livestock and moved two goats. One is a doe who looks thin and is the main reason we picked up the goat wormer. She's also the kind of goat that gets pushed away from the feed at feeding time. So, we put her and her now-grown doeling daughter in the isolation pen together. Gave her some hay, fresh water, and feed with the wormer in it. Neither goat liked being away from the others. They have always been together, but this one doe needs extra attention for now.
I had originally planned to use my phone to video a lot of our activities today, but just never did. Don't even know why! I will take some video at the new homestead, though, of the things we have taken over there so far and any purchases we make for it. I also plan to video the guys delivering the cabin. That will be very exciting!
I really shouldn't get my hopes up, I know, but I came across a parcel of land on Craigslist and the land isn't far from where I live now. It is 5 acres with pond, some fencing (probably barbed wire - no good for goats), and a seasonal creek. Open areas and some woods.
I heard back by email from the man who's selling it as owner financed. The terms are well within my budget. I'm hoping we can go take an in-person look at it in just a day or two. If it really does seem right, then I'll sign for it and we can get started soon on setting up our new homestead. This time it's all ours!
Please pray I'll have discernment where this is concerned, and that if it's not right, I'll know. If this is "our" place on this earth, then we've really got a lot of work to do to get ready to move, including tearing down fences here and putting them up there, selecting a spot for our tiny house, solar panels, barn, chicken coop, and whatever else we'll be needing before winter comes. I'm sure it will be a summer-long job to get ready for winter!
Here's an edited picture of the Craigslist ad, so no one's info is revealed.
