Goodbye to the Kids (Goat Kids that Is)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

It's inevitable. It's farm life. The day finally came that we had to say goodbye to some of our goat kids from this spring. I know it's the reason we are raising them, because after all, the farm doesn't run for free. But it wasn't just the kids who were sad to see them go. Why, oh why, do I fall in love with them all? Good old Craigslist proved faithful once again as shortly after we listed them we received a couple of emails of interested parties. A nice gentleman and his family came out and were so tickled by the farm and the "cute" Nubians. Not only did they buy all three that we had for sale, but were interested in some of the others as well and would have even bought a pig or two if we had any left to sell. It's good to know that there definitely is a market for small time goat farmers. We said goodbye to our sweet little doeling Pixie. I could have been just as happy if she had not sold, but being she was bought as somebodies birthday present made me happy as well. Our little whether Elvis also went home with them. And lucky little Wild Fire has 5 new girlfriends to meet this fall. Our spotted little Asha, the last of the kids, will be staying on the farm. That still leaves me with 6 Nubian does to breed this fall, with only 1 being a first timer. And with this handsome guy as my herd sire I am hoping for lots of spotted babies next spring. Some of them will even have papers. Yippee!
That leaves me with 2 does to milk for the rest of summer. The other young does will be dried off. I have started feeding them heavy (flushing) in anticipation of breeding season coming up in a couple of short months. Our dream of raising a good quality line of registered, spotted, Nubian goats has really happened.