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Thread: Reclaiming my farm

  1. #21
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    Well, putting information in my head doesn’t have much direct effect on the farm. I have to actually use it. And twins and the breeding arrangements I was discussing just make more work. I did watch a demo of some new clippers that I am now coveting for when I get fiber goats again. They are expensive, but what a difference in time and effort! (Wasn’t even an ad for the clippers, it was a shearing demo by a 15 y.o. girl - accidental product placement)

    dh cleared some brush and moved some dirt while I was gone. - visible progress. Today it is supposed to rain all day.

  2. #22
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    I LOVE visible progress. I just went out to plant some sweet peas before it rains. I worked on the hardest flower bed yesterday and it looks significantly better. We have lots of blown corn husks to remove from every flower bed. Only every other year is there corn from the field across the street. I love soybean years! I'd buy that shearer if I were you. Time is worth a LOT.

  3. #23
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    I definitely want the clippers, but I have to save up for them. They are more than my car payment. They will cost me three days of substituting pay - so there is a very clear time trade off. And with three goats (my 2 year plan), it will take 4 years of shearings to recover the time spent subbing. - after 4 years, the time spent driving to and from work and subbing to buy them = the time saved on shearing three goats.

  4. #24
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    CL, what do you do with the bucklings? This has given me pause when I think of having goats or sheep. Can you sell them to others? I was horrified to read the Melissa Coleman (thank you, Catherine) biography of her family life when she said Eliot Coleman drowned the bucklings.
    and yes, I know this is the central problem for any vegetarian farmer, but I am curious. I wonder how to get around this problem, although it may not be a problem for you, I am the one using the word problem here.

  5. #25
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    It is a problem. It is stressful every year. Ugly truth - bucklings are far more fragile than doelings and more prone to genetic illness. The first sign of a parasite problem is often a sick buckling (and on the list of initial presentation symptoms of parasites in young kids yesterday, one was “death” as in, the first sign that you have a problem can be a six week old kid who drops dead for no apparent reason) so, some of them just die. 4 this year. 3 of them within 24 hours of birth.

    but I do sell the ones that live. So far, I have been lucky and never had to sell one for meat. I have promised dh that I will take the extras to the livestock auction if the herd gets too big. But so far I am supplying 4h human kids with goat kids for pack and cart classes. I did keep one last year as a companion for my buck, but my herd was under 16 - which is a good winter limit. I am going to try to sell him after fair this year since I will have a second buck to keep the first company, and my count is currently 21, with two fiber goats waiting to move in whenever I am ready.

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chicken lady View Post
    It is a problem. It is stressful every year. Ugly truth - bucklings are far more fragile than doelings and more prone to genetic illness. The first sign of a parasite problem is often a sick buckling (and on the list of initial presentation symptoms of parasites in young kids yesterday, one was “death” as in, the first sign that you have a problem can be a six week old kid who drops dead for no apparent reason) so, some of them just die. 4 this year. 3 of them within 24 hours of birth.

    but I do sell the ones that live. So far, I have been lucky and never had to sell one for meat. I have promised dh that I will take the extras to the livestock auction if the herd gets too big. But so far I am supplying 4h human kids with goat kids for pack and cart classes. I did keep one last year as a companion for my buck, but my herd was under 16 - which is a good winter limit. I am going to try to sell him after fair this year since I will have a second buck to keep the first company, and my count is currently 21, with two fiber goats waiting to move in whenever I am ready.
    this is encouraging--we want to try sheep, thank you!

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