Pyper

Our friends brought their 18 month old daughter Pyper over yesterday to play with the baby goats.

 The kids have been hanging out in the barn while the nannies go graze. I love the pony tail.

 "Hold still, I just want to hug you."

 "One baby goat..."

 "Goats butt heads, right?"

 "Peek-a-boo."

Pyper was adorable.  What a nice visit.
Kid count:  28 (not counting Pyper)

Judging Results

V and E competed in the State 4-H Horse Judging Contest Saturday in Lexington.  There was a big Quarter Horse show going on at the same time.  The weather was cold and misty.  They were suppose to judge in an outdoor arena but it was too wet.  Therefore, they had to crowd into an indoor warm up arena.

I could always spot E in her orange sweatshirt.  (This was a class of hunter ponies)

 V was a little harder to keep up with.

 They were able to use the outdoor arena for the performance classes.  I listened to reasons for the FFA contest, 80 sets of Arabian Gelding reasons.

Apparently, there were not 10 full  4-H teams because our 2 won some team ribbons. (a team is made up of 3-4 with the top 3 scores to count) They were 9th in halter and reasons and 10th in performance.  E place individually with a 10th in reasons and 10th overall.  This puts her in running for the state judging team.  They take the top 8 but because of the schedule some usually turn the opportunity down, so we have our fingers crossed.

Chocolate

V's pet bottle goat Chocolate had a set of twins today.

 Because there are still cattle in the field, we moved them to the lot we made with the electric netting out from the barn.

 Goats are funny (funny peculiar not funny ha ha).  We you pick up a baby goat it disappears as far as the nanny goat is concerned.

 Therefore, you can only go a few yards with them at a time.  As soon as you set the kids down it's like they magically reappeared and the nanny comes running.  If you go too far then the nanny runs back to where you started to look for them there.

 They fell into a bit of a heap when J set them down here.  Bumble is always good about being submissive to the goats.

That way she can get up close.  V says shes not naming these because she doesn't want to get attached in case they don't make it.  I think they look strong, Chocolate is taking good care of them, and with the guard dogs there should be an increased survival rate.  I'm thinking Coco and Mocha.  Happy Birthday (a day late) V.
Kid Count:  23

Denial

One of the cows that calved today won't let her calf nurse.  She moos to it and licks it then kicks it when it tries to nurse. 

 This meant a trip to the head gate for J to help the calf get started.

 One problem is her udder, the back half hangs down so far the calf has a hard time ducking low enough.  That front one is so easy to get to right at eye level.

 With a little help she was able to nurse 3 of the 4 quarters.

We had to repeat the process this evening because the cow was still kicking at her calf.  Maybe tomorrow some hormones will kick in and she'll decide to accept the situation.

Greener Pastures

J was able to rent 40 more acres this spring.  We worked the replacement heifers today and hauled them to the new boundary.

 They were glad to get out on green grass.

 They all went right to grazing.

 One problem will be all of the obstacles they will have to contend with.

 Some people just can't seem to throw away junk.

 The property is split into 3 different fields so J will be able to do some rotating.

I'm a little worried about getting them back to the house this coming winter.  These pens don't look to sound.

Beauty and More

V decided to enter her school beauty pageant yesterday.  Now, I can fit a horse, steer, heifer and sheep but a girl is a whole different ballgame. I spent an hour curling her hair only to have her burst into tears, wash it out and redo it herself.  I was then banished from the prep room and had to wait in the auditorium for an hour before the contest started.  I didn't get to see the practice the day before so I couldn't help coach the pattern.  This was nothing like a horse show.  V was pretty much on her own.

 There were two categories, casual wear,

 and formal wear.

Despite obviously being the most beautiful one out there, she didn't make it into the top five.  But now that I have actually seen a pageant I'm sure if I can do some training we can win.

 Now on a different tack,  Charlie, the baby goat that spent the night in the laundry room, is back with his mom.  She is somewhat accepting of him which in goat terms means she's not pounding the crud out of him with her horns.  He's pretty smart and has learned to nurse from behind while she is busy eating.

 This set of twins was born yesterday and they are doing well,

 as is this set that were born just a few hours after the first set.  There has been one more set of twins that were very small.  One was born dead and the other had to come to the house for a few hours.  She has since been reunited with her mother also.

And not to be left out, E help us work some cattle yesterday so they could get turned out on pasture.  Looks like J and I will have to finish the rest from that lot tomorrow.
Kid count:  7

Kidding Has Begun

I moved the goats to the field behind the barn a couple of days ago because they were due to start kidding on April 1st.  I looked out the window this morning and saw a cluster of cattle.  This is usually not a good thing because they typically cluster around anything different in order to inspect it closely.

 Well, in this case the something different was a set of twins.

 At least Bumble was there trying to take care of the little ones.

 This is a yearling doe so not a proven mom yet.  They were fairly wet and she wasn't licking them as much as I would have liked to see.

 With the wind and snow blowing and temperatures in the low 30's, the kids can get chilled quickly.

 We brought them to the barn and set up a pen but one was pretty weak already.

I tried to warm it up at the barn with the hair drier and tubed it twice with colostrum but I just couldn't get him warm enough.

He's now in the laundry room on a heating pad and under a heat lamp.  He'll probably make it but I doubt the nanny takes him back.