No farm should be without some goats. They are much different than sheep, more comical and much more mischievous and adventurous.  They get into trouble somewhat, like today when Bonnie thought the caraganas were greener on the other side of the fence, so she jumped over it. She had already climbed on it and stretched the wire down, so it was an easy jump. Fortunately, I was there watching the whole time and quickly came to the rescue, shooed her back in where she belonged and fixed the fence temporarily. I watched as she tried to pull the wire down again so she could jump out, but it held that time, so she lost interest.

I have tried Kiko meat goats, Nubian dairy goats, Cashmere, which is basically a Spanish goat that grows a heavy down coat in the winter, Angora goats and my favourites, Nigerian Dwarfs. 

Here is what I have to say about the breeds. 

If you like soft mohair, Angora goats are very dual purpose, however; I found that the mothering instincts and a few others, like where to forage for food, were bred out of them in favour of fibre. One of my Angoras was a good mother though, so I kept her and she is better at following the herd to eat with them. The kids take a long time to gain confidence to go with the herd though, so she does not go far for the first two months. Angoras need to be shorn twice yearly or the fibre will mat into a terrible useless mess and have to be cut off anyhow. They do not shed. Angora goat meat is considered a delicacy in the Middle East and is quite sought after. The animals do flesh out very well and have lots of milk. The meat, I must say, is fabulous. 

Cashmere goats are basically good hardy dual purpose goats, good mothers, have great instincts and will naturally shed the cashmere if it is not brushed or combed from them. I have not eaten cashmere goat meat, only Angora, so I cannot comment on that. 

Kiko goats are big sturdy goats originating from New Zealand. If my Kiko buck does not sell, I have a mind to breed him to the Angora to see what sort of goat is produced. It should have fibre like Pygora  (Pygmy/Angora) or Nigora (NIgerian/Angora) crosses which is very spinnable, yet sheds naturally if not harvested. There are 3 grads to the cross fibre, A, B and C according to the curl and guard hairs present. The Kiko and the Angora have good milk and the Kikos are great mothers. That cross might be worth looking into . The Kiko doe I have was sold to me as a breeding doe but she has fish teats or nipples teats that split into two nipples, which at first confused the kids, but in no time they got the hang of nursing. It is a hereditary trait and the bucklings should be sold as meat goats only. 

I did have only two Boer goats and did not find them particularly appealing for some reason. The buck was big and pushy and the doe was not very friendly having come from a commercial herd. 

The Nubians are good mothers, gentle, personable and excellent milkers, but hard for me to keep healthy. I am not sure it is just these two Nubians or all Nubians or because I live where winter is very cold. That is the time they seem to go downhill fast, though they do pick up on pasture in the summer. I would try them again if I lived somewhere warmer just for their sweet natures. 

But, my favourites are the Nigerians. They are smaller, smarter, more playful, have triplets or quads and can raise them all with their copious amounts of rich milk. My does consistently have quads and although they can raise them all, I usually sell two as bottle babies, because it is too hard on the mother to manufacture milk for four babies and it takes her body condition down. One of my does, Daphne, can easily raise 3 kids though, without losing condition. They are easy to keep, small to handle, friendly and come with blue eyes sometimes. The true Nigerian Dwarf has a long lean body that is well proportioned so that if you looked at a picture of the goat without surrounding to verify the size, you could imagine the goat to be regualar sized, unlike true Pygmy goats, which to me look like tanks on short legs. I love them too, but they are hard to find. What people call Pygmy goats are nowhere near what they really are. To the uneducated, any small goat is a Pygmy. 

I am trying to sell all the goats except the Nigerian Dwarfs to cut down my workload and feed costs. Because they are smaller, they eat less of course. They do grow a double coat for winter too, which keeps them warmer, so they eat less than a single coated animal who must eat to stay warm. The Angora may be the last to leave or maybe she will stay. Bred to a Nigerian Dwarf, her offspring may be blue eyed, but always will be white and fluffy since those genes are stronger. I also have two Nigerian/Nubian cross girls coming and I am hoping they will do better than the Nubians with the input of Nigerian Dwarf genes. 

If you are starting out and don't know which to try, Nigerians are easier to keep in because of their smaller size, and they eat less for the same reason, plus they are a true dairy goat and provide rich milk, though of course less than a large dairy goat does. Besides, they are just so darn cute! My choice for sure...maybe they will be yours too!

Goats are the worst wasters of hay of all the animals on the farm, hands down. They even beat the cows and the cows are bad. At least the cows will continue to clean up the hay they have stepped on, but for goats, once it is on the ground, they will not touch it, especially if it has been walked on. Goats are like deer in their eating habits, that is, they browse from the top down. It is nature's way of keeping the worms at bay and worms are the goat's number one worst enemy, especially barber pole worms which suck the blood out of the lining of the stomach. They are hard to eradicate completely and some goats are far more affected by them than others. If I was starting all over, now knowing what I know, I would build a parasite resistant goat herd by only keeping and breeding those that naturally resist worms without having to be treated. Those goats are out there, but the problem is that most people blanket treat the herd and do not check individuals. 

The goats like to eat from the hay nets actually. It is more natural for them to eat through the net from the top down, while sheep will eat from bottom up or find the sweet spot and dig in. But goats have sharp sharp strong teeth and they have bitten holes in the nets. The little goats crawled right inside, after all that is the best place to eat. Lily, the horned Kiko, put her head in but a horn got caught on the way out. When I fed them, I noticed Lily at the net and did not think much of it, except she always comes to eat and she didn't. Then I noticed the two little ones inside the net, Stevie Wonder and Nix! They could not get out with Lily's big head stuck in there. I had to help both of them out. The hole was actually pretty tight! Once out they  were all fine. Then I fixed that hole and another smaller one and all was well in the goat pen - for a while that is. Goats always get into mischief. 

There are 4 and possibly 5 goats ready to give birth so far. Some of the younger ones will likely not have caught until the next year, which is fine, because they are young. The older girls, though,  are very ready. Lily, the Kiko has a very developed udder but it looks like it might be a week or even two yet for her. Both Nubians were bred to the Red Boer goat. Maddy, an old girl and her grand daughter Dori, two generations younger, were bred to the Red Boer, Richie Rich and both are looking quite ready. I don't think that billy goat wasted any time. 
Daphne, my best goat, usually has quads. She is very thin now, despite all my efforts this winter to keep weight on her. She is a NIgerian Dwarf and has tons of milk for such a little girl. I have never milked my goats before, but I think this year, I will see if I can sell the Nubian/Boer kids and several of Daphne's kids, depending on the number she has, so the moms do not have to put out so much milk. The other option would be to separate the kids, milk the moms and bottle feed the babies. That is a lot of work! I do have a milking stand and am prepared to do that if I feel like taking the task on. I am debating. 

So, Lily Kiko, Daphne Nigerian Dwarf, Maddy and Dori Nubians are ready to go. I check on them many times a day just in case problems arise, though they are all experienced mothers. 

There are still a couple of other goats that are bred but are not looking as though they will deliver for a few more weeks.Bonnie Cashmere is lying down a lot, but there does not seem to be any reason for that. She is a first timer and may not understand what is happening to her. Sofi is Nygora, Angora and Nigerian Dwarf and 13 is a pure Angora. It is harder to tell with the Angoras unless they are shorn and she is not. The shearer was supposed to have come, but the weather did not cooperate and we had snow instead. 

Usually the goat kids sell exceptionally well. I have only kept back the best of the best, so the kids are always beautiful. The buck this year is blue eyed too, for the Nigerian Dwarf and though he is little, I think he got the job done. The kids should be amazing. Stay tuned for baby pictures. 

The sheep and goat have been in rut for a month now. The male goats pee on themselves and the hormones they produce seem to attract the female goats. The girls rub up against those stinky boys and love every minute of it. 

Little Stevie Wonder got to go visit the majority of the girls today. He is very young to breed and some of those goats are likely too large for him. The cashmere goat will be a first time mother and I will remove her to have the Angora buckling breed her and have Cashgora babies, babies with curly cashmere. They must be so cute. Stevie and Timmy, the Angora, oh and the Kiko, Ari, have not bred before, so it might take them a little time to figure it all out. They will stay with their group for 6 weeks, then I will switch the bucks around in case they have not done their jobs. Hopefully the girls will all be bred for delivery 5 months from now, which will be April, when our winter weather is finally saying goodbye. 

Ari is with Lily, just the two of them. They are both pure bred Kiko goats. 

Matty and Dori are with the new buck, Ritchie, who is supposed to be a Kalahari Red, though I don't know of anyone who has those around here. Ritchie and Lily had they hooves trimmed today, but I could not catch Ari. I plan to trim two or three animals per day until they are all done. The goats I did today were done standing up. I haltered them and tied them tight to the fence post, then body checked them to the fence and brought the foot back at the knee. It was more comfortable for me than flipping them and trimming while on the ground and I think it was more comfortable for the goats too. 

The goats were out of their pen twice today and headed straight for the grain that was out for the pigs and birds. It is a good thing I was home and caught them. Wilbur, the pot belly boar liberated them both times, but then I chained the gate so he could not dislodge it and all is well. Bonnie, the cashmere goat, is very bonded to the Nubians, who were sort of like surrogate mothers to her when she was little. She is calling for them all day, though they are happy with Ritchie in the pen far on the other side. 

Over the next week or two, the sheep will be divided for breeding too. I had to drag Lily the entire way across the barnyard to get her to the pen where she needed to be. She basically dug her four feet in and it was a drag the goat fest from there on. She weighs probably 125 pounds, so it was not a simple task dragging her all the way through the mud. I hope the sheep are more cooperative. I have an idea of how to separate them. I plan to feed them some grain in the corral set up in their pen and grab those I want and send them out of the coral. Then I will lure them with a bucket of grain to their new digs. They are not fed grain normally, but this year's hay is not up to par, so they will get a little to supplement them over the winter. 

I have not seen any keds, wingless biting flies that live on the sheep only, so far. In the dead of winter is when they multiply and become visible. I will treat them immediately with pour on Ivermectin this time. They ruined some of the fleeces last year and I don't want it to go that far again, now that I know what to do. The sheep will be checked for parasites (worms) and treated if necessary using the FAMACHA system, which looks at the bottom of the eyelid for anemia. Pale pink to white eyelids mean a high worm count, pink to red means that the sheep is managing its parasite load on its own. Tapeworms are the one thing that the FAMACHA test does not account for, so the droppings must be observed for tape segments, the telltale sign of the worms. Then the groups will be busy until the new year, when the rams can go back home and the ewes can again join one another preparing for their babies. At that time they will need good food and warm shelter so they can support their pregnancies the very best. 

And so, with the short days, there are events to be anticipated and little hooves to be watched for in the new year. Spring on the farm is such a wonderful time of the year with the new babies and the outpouring of emergent life everywhere. I am grateful for my farm and my stewardship of the animals. What a blessing they are to me. And so, the breeding begins.         

Alright, alright, already! I know I am supposed to be downsizing, not acquiring new animals. But I don't have a breeding buck for the goats this fall. The little guy I bought is too small to breed the big Nubians. I will give him a chance, however; I don't think he can get up there. He is only up to their shins! That does not mean that he doesn't have any interest. So, tomorrow he has to be removed in case he breeds the little girls. They are too young to be bred and need a whole year to grow first. The buckling of Daphne's from her quads is sold, along with the Angora  and Nigerian Dwarf doeling and they are being picked up tomorrow. 

The goats I bought are Kiko. The doe is a mom, a couple of years old, and was raising twins this year. She and the buckling, came from 2 hours away and were kindly delivered by Flat Lake Goats, a wonderful young couple with a very young sweet baby. The Kiko breed is from New Zealand and is a little hardier than Boer goats, which come from South Africa. The New Zealanders crossed a dairy goat breed wtih the feral goats, which were as plentiful as deer, since they had no natural predators on the island. The resultant cross was a strong, hardy, adaptable goat that is primarily bred for meat, though the does have ample udders and produce large quantities of milk, though for shorter periods of time than dairy breeds. 

The Kiko goats are horned and are most usually white, though there are spotted and coloured ones as well. The buckling that is now a member of the Fat Ewe Farm reminds me of the Damascus goats. I wonder if way back there is any reason for that? The Damascus or Damascene goats are huge and have odd shaped faced wtih very large Roman noses and are adulterated to look even uglier for contests there. Weird, I know. But the buckling does look a bit like that. 

He is tamer than the little Jacob ram by far. Even after all this time, that little ram runs to the other side of the pen whenever any humans are in sight. Now with Timmy, the Angora buckling and the new boy, who are both quite friendly, I hope the ram lamb learns to be more trusting. 

Welcome to the Fat Ewe Farm. Now, I have to think of a name most fitting for this Kiwi from down under. I looked up popular Maori boys names and I think I have settled on ARI, because it is easy to say and remember. What do you think?