Road work with goat
Sorry
to leave you all hanging without a post last night. What was
supposed to be a six-hour round trip to pick up goat #2 turned into a
nine-hour marathon due to road work in both directions on the highway
and an excellent hour of goat training at Newland Nubians.
What's with the excessively long drive to pick up a goat? Well, our first goat
nearly fell into our laps, but I hit a lot of snags trying to find an
appropriate companion for Abigail. We didn't want a large goat,
and the only small goats for sale nearby were being bred for looks and
were going for about $300 a pop. We figured if we were going to
have to pay top dollar for a goat, she might as well have traits we
wanted (pasture potential and milking genetics), so we looked further
afield.
The photo above shows the parents of our new doeling (name yet to be determined). In the foreground, you can see Aowen,
who is ten years old and pretty skinny at the moment, but who has
proven herself over the years and has been the mother of quite a lot of
Newland Nubians' current herd. Aowen is a purebred Nubian who
typically milks through (meaning that you don't have to breed her every
year to get milk) and she's still giving a quart a day at her advanced
age. The father, in the background, is Hunting with Emmet from Tiny Town Goats, whose mother was the champion Jingle and who brings small size to the equation.
Our new doeling is
four months old and has charisma in spades. She kept nuzzling us
on the ride home, and when I carried her up our swampy floodplain, she
was unworried enough to grab bites of leaves as we passed by.
Here's hoping she and Abigail get along well and turn into BFFs.
More seriously, our doeling is also a prime pastured animal since she and her cohorts have been raised on browse (and milk) alone since birth. That should result in a well-developed rumen that will serve them well during their pasturing career. A few other doelings (and, I believe a wether) are currently available from the same breeder if you're looking for small pastured milk goats and are willing to drive to the Roanoke/Blacksburg area. The links up above in the post will lead you to the breeder's facebook page and website for more details. Tell her I sent you and she'll give you the $300 price on the Aowen's granddaughter!
More seriously, our doeling is also a prime pastured animal since she and her cohorts have been raised on browse (and milk) alone since birth. That should result in a well-developed rumen that will serve them well during their pasturing career. A few other doelings (and, I believe a wether) are currently available from the same breeder if you're looking for small pastured milk goats and are willing to drive to the Roanoke/Blacksburg area. The links up above in the post will lead you to the breeder's facebook page and website for more details. Tell her I sent you and she'll give you the $300 price on the Aowen's granddaughter!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I loved your bread recipe and thought I wrote it down. Wrong I can't find it!!!! Would you please tell me when you posted it so I can look it up. My Granny and GA GA grew up in Appalachia Virginia. I have been there a lot of years ago They married And moved to Gate City Virginia. Love following your blog. We have purchased you chicken waterer . Sincerely Candy