We sold our kids last Saturday. The market lines up a buyer for us then tells us when to have them there. I think the same person has been buying them for the last several years.
So the day before, J and I walked 3-4 miles getting them all gathered up.
They had split up into 6 different groups all over the farm.
That really makes it hard for the dogs to keep up with.
At least the goats are easy to handle. Once you get them going in a direction they pretty much stay the course.
Gathering was successful, and they all spent the night in the field behind the house.
V and M came the next morning to help with the sorting.
It wasn't near as much walking to get them to the barn as it was the day before.
It's a lot of goats when you get them all together.
Once in the barn, we sorted out the nannies. M was a big help here, snatching up two at a time. Once the nannies were out, we kept out 16 doelings, 1 because she was tiny, 7 as our replacements, and 8 for someone in the Sheep and Goat Club that came to the tour here last year, liked how we did things and wanted to start a herd of their own. That left 84 kids to take to the market, our largest group ever. We finally made it to 100 kids at weaning.
We picked up a billy goat on Friday and turned him out Saturday after the kids left.
Should be starting all over in about 5 months.
2 comments:
Interesting that you don't gather the goats on horseback. Looks like the dogs were a great help!
That is a lot of goats.
So just 5 more months for baby goat time
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