Thursday, August 6, 2015

New Arrivals

New arrivals to the farm yesterday!


Five young does, born in late April this year. They are 'mixed dairy breeds' type.

To begin with, they have a small yard off one side of the barn, and a large pen just inside the adjacent barn door. They have a common fence with my Shetland ram and wethers. In the evening when the flock comes in, they have another common fence.

Sheep and Bonnie and the goats will sniff each other out for a time. Once the goats are settled in they will join the sheep flock.

I've enjoyed making sheep cheese over the years, but some years they have little or no extra milk to give me. Not that I'm complaining - its usually from a ewe who's lambs died that extra milk presents itself.

I've always wished for a dairy 'family' cow, but even with my extended family I'm sure we couldn't use anywhere near that amount of milk. Perhaps a few goats - heavier milkers than sheep but much less than a cow might be worth a try.

Of course if I don't find a Billy by fall there won't be any goat milk come spring!

Here are the new girls:


Of course Jonah is going nuts with these new sounds coming from the barn. Something else to steal attention from him!

So he doesn't get too jealous, here's a picture of him standing by the lavender garden:

2 comments:

  1. Looks like Jonah might have some lovely fiber to spin! Do you have to "shear" him periodically? Good looking goats! Blogless Mary Lou

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jonah goes for a trim about every 3 months. His coat is very soft but I've never had his (or Jesse's) spun.

    ReplyDelete