[Food] Production - Goats & Sheep

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1420

Shanny,
I also have maggidan's site marked. I'm planning to get one of them as well - let me know how it works for you. Of course, I'll have to get the larger sized cup for the full-size goats, but I'm hoping it will make milking easier on my wrist. My right wrist, from years of computer work, I guess, is trying to get a bit of carpal tunnel in it. Just milking Sugar each morning gets it aching by the time I'm done. I know my wrist won't hold up when I'm milking all 3 girls this summer. The milker's on my list of things to buy - hopefully - this Friday. I planned to get it last week, but the bills took priority...

K

wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 3217

More drama on the Cur farm.

Went out to do the chores this morning and found one of the pregnate does with a kid stuck. The first born was extremely chilled... I do not know how long the one had been stuck or the chilled one on the ground. Prob not too long since the chilled one was still alive (barely) and it was a cold morning.

Took the chilled kid in the house and then ran back outside. The stuck kid's head was out but both front legs were bent down inside of mama. Took a lot of work and drama but I worked the kid free. In the meantime (I was home alone) the chilled kid died.

My doe looked terrible for a couple of hours. I gave her a snack and let her rest some... I thought she was going to die. Eventually I just grabbed her by the collar, jerked her to her feet. Then she passed the after birth and started to look better. I returned the kid to her then and the kid immedietly tried to nurse.

I never saw the kid nurse but more than 12 hours later he was still up and moving so I figure he must be getting some food.

The surviving kid is a doe.

The other doe is also due any day now.
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“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1420

Cur,
So sad you had to lose the one kid, but I'm glad the other is doing okay. And you got a lovely little doe! Smile

I love my little bucklings, but I sure wish one of them had been a girl Smile

. Poor mama, though. I know the birth was hard on her. I hope she continues to do okay. Keep us updated.
Kathy

Shannymara

Cur, I hope your luck improves. I know that fire has been hard on your family.
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"Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young

skyemoor

roccman · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject: New goat milk stand...

Ang and I pounded this out last night...

Does it need a leg strap?

The black thing is a PVC 4" cap as a food dish to keep missy happy.

The white pole is sch. 40 PVC 1" with a bungy at the top to hold in place...about 22" tall x 2 feet x 4 feet.
_________________
"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins

"... hope is a rotten-thighed whore" Niko Kazantzakis

We are going back to roccland - me

Shannymara · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject: Re: New goat milk stand...

I don't have a leg strap (assuming you mean a hobble?) on mine, but my goats are small and easy to control. The food will definitely help, especially if she learns she gets especially tasty treats only on the stanchion. We have a shelf where we set the bowl of food instead of a fixed dish.

Our is designed so the neck hole is a uniform width top to bottom. With your design it looks like she might be able to get squeezed? Otherwise it looks perfectly functional to me.
_________________
"Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young

roccman · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject: Re: New goat milk stand...

Thanks Shanny...I think we will modify the design a bit.

Here are the two newest members to the tribe.

Molly (mom) and Lucy

_________________
"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins

"... hope is a rotten-thighed whore" Niko Kazantzakis

We are going back to roccland - me

Shannymara · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:10 pm Post subject: Re: New goat milk stand...

OMG you already got goats? Awesome! I've got a 5 day old doe kid following me around the house and running errands with me. What kind of goats did you get?
_________________
"Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young

roccman · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:37 pm Post subject: Re: New goat milk stand...

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1420

roccman,
very cool Smile

I love to see more goats around the forums Smile

. I was going to post last night and show you a picture our our milking stand - which is a little different from yours, but Carlin also built it. I'll post a picture when the sun comes up and I go out for milking. It might give you an idea or two, anyway, of some different ways to do the headgate.

As for Molly's bloat. Be careful. Bloat can be dangerous. You might try giving her a little olive oil - not mineral oil, as it's tasteless and she might aspirate it. The oil can help bind the gasses and help get her through the bloat. There's also a product called Bloat Release you can get from feed stores that carry goat products. It helps. I would also recommend getting a tube of ProBios. It's basically super pumped up yogurt, with all the healthy bugs that ruminants need to keep their rumen's working. I keep the ProBios on hand, and give the girls a dose whenever it looks like they might have a tummy ache of any kind.

Goats are little piggies and will eat way too much grain if you let them. I've had one case of bloat since I started getting goats. Ours happened during the transition of changing diets from what they were fed when we bought them, to what we feed (they got more fresh grass than they were used to). Any changes in food have to be done very very slowly and gradually to give their systems time to adjust. I probably overcompensate for that these days whenever I'm making changes, simply because I got scared to death when my doe was sick.

Good luck with your goats! I look forward to hearing more about them in future posts...

btw, should this thread be merged with the "goats and sheep" thread?

Kathy

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1420

roccman,
Here's our milk stand. One of the metal tubing sides is fixed in place with a bolt at the top and bottom. The other side is fixed at the bottom, but pulls closed to keep the doe's head in place. I simply put a dog collar over both tubes while she's there. I have a square hanging feed bucket the fits in front of the tubes at the bottom, which I can remove once I'm done milking.

The only design difference I would make if we were building it all over again, would be to make the tubes a little longer, so the younger goats could be put on the stand as well, and a little taller so my buck would fit. Kids are too short to be able to use it. That makes for fun foot trimming with kids. Once they're a couple months old, though, they can go in it just fine.

For my buck, Ringo, I'm just going to have to build another head gate. He's so much bigger than the girls that he'd have to duck to get his head in this one.

Anyway, hope it gives you another idea or two.
Kathy

FoolYap · Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:55 am Post subject: Re: New goat milk stand...

roccman · Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject: Re: New goat milk stand...

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1420