I raise pygmies back in 99-01 had a baby and it was on formula, so i needed an alternate and some for the other kids also. They will usually throw twins, the second time brithings.
Only had two deaths, i was the first female i bought, the buck jumped the fence and bred her too early, she and the baby died in child birth. The other was a buck, he got into the grain bin (55 gallon trash can) and it twisted his guts inside, had to put him down.
About the only plant in my area that will hurt them is wild cherry, so i removed them they will eat about everything else.
The only trouble i had out of them was keeping them in, i needed 5 foot fence to keep the does in and a 6 foot fence to keep the buck in. There wll be a Alpha female and she will run the others, not the bucks.
They love to show off, they were a lot of fun when we had them. I gave them all the shots, which was a great reason to keep that stuff on hand.
I will look for pictures. I never tethered mine, but people i know did when they had particular areas they needed to clean out.
-
Anyone raise goats?
Anyone else on the board raise goats?
We got a couple of nannies last year at probably 3 months old, Pygmys. They were teeeeenny!
Like the wife said "they are like big cats right now."
Pygmys are a smaller breed of goats and we have been very fortunate because it's made them very easy to handle. Also since they have maybe only reached maybe 60 lbs. in weight they still remain very manageable. Their size and a good temperament has helped my son bond with them also.
This spring we got a male also. He was younger and slightly smaller than "the gals" so this wasn't a problem. If anything, one of them bossed him around.
Lately one or both of the nannies have come into heat. Some of the mating rituals are pretty weird to say the least..... The buck pees on himself quite a bit and if he can manage it, tries to get it on his face for a better "scent" for the gals. YUCK!!!
On the softer side, he coos to them, sticks his tongue out a lot and pulls his upper lip up in the same way a horse does sometimes.
We are hoping for some kids in 4-5 months.
They have been helpful in the garden as well. We rotate pasture areas for them to include moving them into the individual garden areas once the main harvest is over. They go in, eat the weeds, trim the grapes on the fence in the south garden and poop everywhere. To me this is easier and better than penning them, providing ALL of their feed and then having a nasty pen to clean out and manure to spread every week.
Why not let the animal do the work for you?? I'm considering raising a cow for this purpose also. Here once it hits about mid June most of the gardening is over till the fall. It's that hot. So having goats and possibly a cow in the garden areas from mid June till Sept (about the time we start fall gardens) would bring a lot of manure in that we have been paying for.
We have chickens and rabbits also, but they don't produce the kind of manure necessary to cover a large enough area that we need to grow food in. So far we have been using most of their manure in a 50'x50' area we call the north garden. The soil is good there, but it's taken years of putting in almost all the manure we get, plus the normal work in cover crops, liming and other soil amendments.
The goats have been a lot of fun and another learning experience for us. We look forward to some kids, some milk and eventually some meat also.
Leave a comment: