Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Joined: Oct 16, 2005 Posts: 47 Location: Far and away.
Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:43 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Dairy goats
OK, here's a question and a response to two different things. First the question. I have a milk allergy and was told a long time ago that goat's milk might do for me. Recently, wife and boys were gone for a few days so I bought a litre of goat's milk to try. I liked the first mouthful, but the aftertaste was similar to cooked lamb. I like cooked lamb, just not on my Cheerios or Corn Flakes. Makes good biscuits though. Is there any solution to this? Is it just in the store bought stuff? I was thinking of getting goats, but if the milk will taste like this regardless of what I do, then I think it'll be a tough sell around here.
Now the response, to Kathy, regarding getting rid of flies. If you have chickens, ducks or a fish pond this might work. Get a plastic bucket and drill several 3/8" holes in the bottom and lower 1/3 of the sides. Put a 1/2" hardware cloth over the top that you can remove fairly easily but is fastened securely. Suspend this over your chicken yard or fish pond. Place roadkill or other animal parts in there. The flies will be attracted to it and lay eggs. The eggs will become maggots and eat the offal. The maggots when full will naturally migrate downwards to try to bury themselves in the soil, but will fall out the holes instead. Your chickens will have a feast that they will thank you for. All natural protein for your birds or fish. As the chickens eat the maggots, less flies are born each season. Only real consideration is predators. The bucket must be protected from whatever predators might be stalking your section of the planet.
FWIW, I hope that helps! _________________ "Hm hmmm, uh yeah, hm hmmm, sure, well, good luck with all that!"
Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:52 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Dairy goats
skateari wrote:
Just a few quick questions on goats: have any of you grown your own goat food? If a pasture is grassed and has been used for cattle grazing would it be safe to say it would be suitable for goat grazing? Can you include grass from the pasture in a milking-goats diet?
Skateari,
I have not yet tried to grow my own goat food, since I have only had goats for less than a year, but it is something that I would like to try in the future. My goats currently eat a mixture of oats, corn, dairy pellets, sunflower seeds, and dehydrated beet pulp. I can grow all but the dairy pellets so in the future I may grow some. I should add that I did grow some sunflowers this year, and they enjoyed them, but it was not enough that I can actually say it supplemented their diet to any degree.
Goats will do some grazing, but grass is not their first choice. They're more browsers than grazers, like deer. Mine love tree leaves, for example. Anytime we trim branches, cut wood, or have limbs blow out of trees from storms, I throw the limbs in the goat pen. They strip all the leaves, and then start on the bark. After they've sufficiently used up what we throw in, I'll take it out of the pen. My goats do not have full run of a large pasture (fencing is too expensive at this point). Their pen is about 30 x 80 feet. Enough for them to still have grass and such to munch on (they haven't depeleted it yet), but not enough space for tree sprouts to make much headyway before the goats get them.
Just be careful that they don't have access to plants that are poisonous to them. There are lists on line that you can find, but some that come to mind are mountain laurel and azalea.
Sammyboltead,
Store bought canned milk will have an off flavor. I personally wouldn't touch the stuff. Running a buck with your milking does can also give the milk an off flavor, since bucks have the same scent glands that deer have - giving the milk a musky taste. If you keep your buck separate from your does, or don't have one on site, your milk will be very tasty. I've never had any complaints about my milk, and it is sweet and delicious. We do not, however, have a buck on site.
That may very well change next year. I'm considering buying a buck because it has been such a challenge to get my doe bred this fall. In spring, I'll be looking for a little buck, most likely, and another milking doe. But that means I'll have to set up a separate pen and stall to keep him away from the does. Bucks are notoriously much harder to keep in a pen than does as well, so that'll be another challenge.
Thanks for the tips on flies. I may try that as warmer weather approaches next year. It won't help much with the flies in the goat barn, since my chickens are not in there, but it will help keep the flies down in the chicken and duck yard - which is where most come from who migrate to the house. Their yard is out my back door, and every fly in the county tries to get in the back door every time it's opened.
As an update - long overdue - on my goats...
Rocky is now big as a horse:) - well, not quite, but he is far bigger than his mother now, and he's a roly poly little fat guy, too. Cinnamon is doing fine. We're still milking her, though her production has dropped some in the last couple months. Where we were getting about 3 qts a day from her, we now get closer to 2. That's okay, though. She still keeps us in milk and cheese, and now butter as well, since I finally figured out how to make it .
The goat barn we started building a couple months ago is now finished, and Rocky and Cinnamon have a much nicer, and more roomy place to sleep. I'm glad we got it finished. Since the weather has turned colder, they spend far more time inside. They don't like cold, and they HATE rain. I think one day this week I actually saw them outside. That being said, they are eating a lot more hay, since grazing is limited. Grass isn't growing, of course, and we have already had one decent snowfall this year. I just hope we planned well enough and have enough hay to get them through to spring. I think we do.
The goats' feet have been worrying me. Since I'm new with goats, and learning everything from experience, I'm afraid my feet trimming skills arent up to par. They are not overgrown length-wise, but I'm afraid I have let them get too thick, mostly because I was so worried about trimming too far and making them bleed. Now I'm having to spend more time correcting mistakes and getting it right. Both of the goats like to try and lay down when their feet are being trimmed, so trimming is a major exercise that requires both me and Carlin to be on hand. Working around Carlin's work schedule is also a challenge.
All in all, though, they seem to be very happy, healthy goats. I need to put Rocky on a diet, though. The little piggy eats all his food and then finds Cinnamon's and gets into it....
Kathy
Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:25 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Dairy goats
CD
If you have the option get the 'cracked' corn it'll digest better. If you want to have a pasture without great expense, use a low voltage electric fence. This is of course assuming you have electricity available. If not, more bother but doeable, there used to be units that you could power off a deep cycle car battery.
Remember: What you feed your goats is what the milk will tast like!
Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:52 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Dairy goats
rehoppe,
I should have specified. I do feed cracked corn. Thanks for pointing out the omission. I have thought about electric fencing - but just haven't gotten around to it yet. We only got our goats in May of this year. A larger pasture area, probably including some electric fencing, is on my perpetual to-do list .
Kathy
Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2256 Location: Arkansas
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
My nannies are starting to deliver. I've had three nannies out of 9 pregnant deliver. Two had twins (all okay). One had triplets that died, apparently of the cold, during the artic cold blast that rolled through. So, now I'm checking on them through the night about every 2 hours.
I'm having my entire 20 acres fenced so that they can be free range goats, less work for me, hopefully they will be happier too.
At two days old, these little ones are already head butting each other. They're pretty funny.
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:58 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
All pregnant nannies have now all delivered. The last two kids came at 3:45 a.m. this morning. Of the 8 nannies, four had triplets. All told, I now have 19 kids (not counting three triplets that were lost in the cold). I, or I should say my wife, is bottle feeding 4 kids. Three were triplets and one was just a puny one that we took inside. Since goats only have hardware for two, every time we had triplets, we would take in the one which was the runt or least aggressive. I think goats are a lot like rabbits.
Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:11 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
mmmm, runt soup.
My bro. had two types of kids come in at once...human and goat kind...Most all his goats have cocidiosis(sp?) just what is considered acceptable overseas... Last year almost all the kids died from save those tha were allowed to naturaly feed on the mothers milk vs. a replacer....
good to see your doing things more naturaly.... _________________ With Love to all, and Malice to none.
"A people is conquered not when they lose a war, but when they adopt the song and customs of the enemy"
-Chacham S
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:50 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
Seahorse,
Glad to hear your does and kids are doing well. Sounds like a nice herd you're building for yourself. Are you planning to sell any of the kids?
Kathy
Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:09 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
Hi Carlinsdarlin,
I will sell some eventually. My goal is to see how many goats the 20 acres I have can support. After I find that magic number, I will start selling some. What I have learned is the importance of good, strong, nannies. Just like people, a good mom makes or breaks the house. Its been interesting watching. Some of the goats which were my favorites are no longer my favorites, bc their babies weren't as big or healthy, and they are the best moms.
The 20 acres was completely finished, finally, early this month. So, my goats have been free range since that time. I'm hoping they will be healthier bc of it. We'll see.
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:56 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
I lost two kids recently to the neighbors dog - one of which is now dead. On a side note, I also live trapped a bobcat but let him go.
I wormed and trimmed all goat hooves about two weeks ago, and castrated all young billies (3). I had the vet help with the castration bc I've never done it. We didn't use bands, we did the old fashion snip, no anesthetic,worked fine. He also gave all the goats a CDT vaccine and recommends that once every 6 months. I kept one young billy for a future stud. Now that the goats are free range, I don't plan on worming them unless they need it (show signs).
I only grain feed them maybe once every two weeks, and only to keep them from going wild. I've noticed two have abscesses, so Sunday my wife and I will lance those. This is my own Special Forces goat lab minor surgery kind of thing. I actually drained a wound on my neighbors cat that healed up just fine. The vet later complimented the job. Its hard to hold a cat down and do anything, a lot harder than a goat.
Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2256 Location: Arkansas
Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:16 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
Ticks are real bad here in Arkansas, so I put some dog tick/flea collars on my goats and, two weeks later, seem to be working.
My unscientific opinion is that my goats are far healthier now that they are free range than before when I was grain feeding them - just from the looks.
I have 20 acres, about 15 fenced for the goats, includes a hill, trees and roughly 10 acres of pasture on the hill. The 27 goats I have are not enough to make a dent in all the vegetation.
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13179 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:01 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
I'm planning to rotate my sheep through several small pastures. These are Jacob sheep, a primitive breed, and not prone to parasites. They like to browse, so I'll be getting them to help clear brush on the land and enlarge our pastures. I'm hopin gto use natural deworming methods but need to do some research. They haven't been wormed yet. _________________ "...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy
Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:26 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Production - Goats & Sheep
I just got an undivided quarter of an island and am thinking of putting some sheep out there. What kind of sheep are best for offshore islands? This one is about 6 acres and has no trees. Some suggestions so far were St. Croix and Barbados Black Bellies. I know I can sell wool that is black or brown to some people who make blankets. I don't really expect to make money off of this, but it could be a cool way to learn about sheep raising.
No fences needed out there either. They say that the sheep eat a lot of seaweed as well as the grass. There were some sheep out there about 30 years ago, so it can be done.
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so in the future I may grow some. I should add that I did grow some sunflowers this year, and they enjoyed them, but it was not enough that I can actually say it supplemented their diet to any degree.
Last year almost all the kids died from save those tha were allowed to naturaly feed on the mothers milk vs. a replacer....
