Yesterday I spent a lot of time going through some Vet books I have & pondering on just how the results of recent soil & plant tissue tests have impacted on the livestock.
As most goatie people probably know, copper excess causes liver damage. This bit of knowledge makes one very wary when feeding products containing copper. We put out salt/mineral lick blocks for our sheep & goats. The ingredients differ depending on the time of year & what the stock are grazing on.
We run a mixed farming enterprise, sheep, goats & some broad acre cereal cropping... wheat, barley, oats. In this part of Australia our climate consists of hot dry summers & late Autumn/Winter rain. We plant crop late in Autumn & harvest late November/early December. The weeds come usually when it's warm, after the early Spring rains.
Some of these weeds are known to cause liver damage, so stock is rotated around the farm to help offset the 'damage' & lick blocks containing a micro mineral which helps minimise the uptake of copper are put out with the stock when these weeds are growing.
It is the general opinion of the local farmers & vets that this area has high copper levels, and as such the use of copper containing products is not recommended.
When a friend of ours wanted to get soil & plant tests done, neither the Bloke or myself could see the value. These tests are expensive, and besides that we do get soil testing done to work out what fertilizer to apply at sowing time.
Since moving from my little patch of paradise on the outskirts of suburbia, the goats have presented with a 'few' problems I hadn't previously encounted, in particular problems related to newborn kids & survival rates.
In my previous life to lose one kid at birth was a disaster. Out here the percentages of life & death increased to around 10% losses. These 'lost' kids were weak at birth, some 'floppy' (unable to stand) & some could not suckle because they could not lift their head. The kids that did survive were bright & alert but all needed 'help' in some form or another.
We tried Iodine. Gave the recommended doses, by mouth, at the recommended times during pregnancy. But that didn't alter the percentages, the losses remained constant. The last iodine drench was given at shearing along with a worm drench. I do think the iodine helped the goats off shears. This country is notoriously low in iodine so this may not be useful to others in areas where iodine deficiency is not a problem.
The kids that were born with the droppy heads required the most help. When you lifted their head they went 'sway back'. Several of these I bottle reared. The swayback didn't right itself & they didn't live past 12 months of age.
Swayback or Enzootic Ataxia is a sign of copper deficiency. All my books told me that! ...the Vets could offer no enlightenment as to why I was getting these kids. It has to be said in the defence of the Vets - they were used to seeing liver damage on autopsy due to plant poisonings so obviously they did not see how we could have a copper deficiency problem.
Animal testing requires the animal to be dead to collect liver samples. These tests are also expensive & not totally reliable particularly if they don't target the specific problem.
This is where the big picture comes in, and I thank our friend for his insistence on getting the soil & plant tissue sampling done. The tests showed the soil was indeed low in copper, and likewise the plants (wheat & barley samples) grown in this soil. Given that the goats are fed on grain & hay that we grow on farm, as well as grazing crops planted for their munching it stands to reason that they do not have enough copper in their diet.
A subclinical deficiency of copper also affects growth rates, fleece growth & fertility.
Now ~ I know! My 'gut' feeling was correct.
I am not a bad goat mother after all.
Happy 'old goatie' ...maaaa... signing off from 'the middle of nowhere!
Friday 23 November 2012
Friday 16 November 2012
Boys & their Toys ~ Preparing Goats for a Show
Just thought I'd share some snippets of Farm Life Down Under from the "middle of nowhere"
Disclaimer: This was not my idea!
I could just tell you the story ...but you've got to see it to believe it!
We were taking some Lovelies to a Goat Show, they needed to be dipped beforehand, the blokes came up with this method 'cause it was easy. They love the Bobcat & use it for just about everything around the farm... from moving hay bales & feeders & rubbish & digging dirt & bashing in fence post & ...ah, the list is too long but no doubt you get the general idea!
They picked the oldest goat on the farm to test out their dip idea. She was duly loaded into the crate & carried from the race to the dip, where she was lower into the water. Once they were satisfied with the job, she was unloaded into a patch of green nettles.
The next "victim" was waiting in the race for her turn to be loaded & dipped.
They dipped 9 Lovelies including the old girl.
We left them outside in the sun for as long as we could, then they went into there shearing to dry.
It was the middle of winter, they took three days to dry.
Did we win?
Nope - the fleece dried hard & sticky, but they did look good. We would have done better had we not dipped them. The Judge told me later, he wanted to put a blue ribbon on one of the girls because of her excellent conformation & size but when he felt the hard sticky fibre ...he just couldn't do it.
The is an upside to the story ... the Judge was impressed with the animals but said the preparation had let them down. He selected a buck for me to use over the Lovelies when he visited another breeder's farm after the Show.
And the End Note: The Super Duper Goat Dip was never used again. Cheers!
Thursday 15 November 2012
HOME on my OWNSOME & Murphy's Law
Coming to you earlier than usual - I'm finding I end up getting to bed far too late if I start the blog in the evening.
I have just come in from a big ride on my trusty quad bike. I needed to check on the fence repairs & on the goats that are running with the sheep & cattle in the big paddocks after we had the escape last week. I took my camera & my phone, although if I had gotten into trouble out there I don't know who I could have called to rescue me.
Home alone at the moment. Contingency plans... like getting the feeders filled & putting out hay are one thing but as we all know the Law of Murphy usually kicks in when you think you have everything sorted.
Yesterday, I went to the other town - 45 minutes drive from home and got back about half five so I'd have plenty of daylight left for stock checks. Not really sure how this happened ...I have no recollection of putting the headlights on BUT they were ON when I went to use the ute 2 hours later. Needless to say the battery was flat... trusty bike to the rescue.
Then I finds a dead kid ...about 5 weeks old near the water trough in the yard at the shed. Not happy about that and no sure of the reason why! It is somewhat concerning to say the least that the blokes decided to use the area out front of the goat shed to store hay. There is grain in it, grain attracts mice and mice attract other things. Digressing slightly, when we had the mouse plague, the foxes were catching mice on the hay bales. The other 'thing' that mice attract is snakes. We have seen them going across the road from the hay bales, have had them in the goat shed so that is a possible cause of dead kid.
That is not a good start to my time alone. The agenda for today was the stock check. I prefer to use the bike as I'm closer to the ground & can see the rocks & stumps in the long grass... so away I go.
And again, my friend Murphy has been busy. The fence fix was holding OK but the stock numbers don't look right. I had far more ground to cover to find animals, there were some goats running with the sheep but I needed to find more so further afield I rode. Then I found 3 boys in the neighbour's paddock. They are close to water, but naturally no gate in the near vicinity. I'll have to contact him later when he gets in from harvesting to work out how I can get them back. They may have to stay there until I have another person to help me.
Also I didn't find all the cattle that we have on agistment, only saw half of them ...they did the big escape a few weeks back into the neighbour's & out onto the road. The fences are not really good and the kangaroos test them. The terrain is rough & rocky in places, and the vegetation is thick in parts. I decided to abandon any further riding around today. Murphy will no doubt make more mischief come tomorrow... so I'll be out on the bike again, just to check what he's been up to!
I have just come in from a big ride on my trusty quad bike. I needed to check on the fence repairs & on the goats that are running with the sheep & cattle in the big paddocks after we had the escape last week. I took my camera & my phone, although if I had gotten into trouble out there I don't know who I could have called to rescue me.
Home alone at the moment. Contingency plans... like getting the feeders filled & putting out hay are one thing but as we all know the Law of Murphy usually kicks in when you think you have everything sorted.
Yesterday, I went to the other town - 45 minutes drive from home and got back about half five so I'd have plenty of daylight left for stock checks. Not really sure how this happened ...I have no recollection of putting the headlights on BUT they were ON when I went to use the ute 2 hours later. Needless to say the battery was flat... trusty bike to the rescue.
Then I finds a dead kid ...about 5 weeks old near the water trough in the yard at the shed. Not happy about that and no sure of the reason why! It is somewhat concerning to say the least that the blokes decided to use the area out front of the goat shed to store hay. There is grain in it, grain attracts mice and mice attract other things. Digressing slightly, when we had the mouse plague, the foxes were catching mice on the hay bales. The other 'thing' that mice attract is snakes. We have seen them going across the road from the hay bales, have had them in the goat shed so that is a possible cause of dead kid.
That is not a good start to my time alone. The agenda for today was the stock check. I prefer to use the bike as I'm closer to the ground & can see the rocks & stumps in the long grass... so away I go.
And again, my friend Murphy has been busy. The fence fix was holding OK but the stock numbers don't look right. I had far more ground to cover to find animals, there were some goats running with the sheep but I needed to find more so further afield I rode. Then I found 3 boys in the neighbour's paddock. They are close to water, but naturally no gate in the near vicinity. I'll have to contact him later when he gets in from harvesting to work out how I can get them back. They may have to stay there until I have another person to help me.
Also I didn't find all the cattle that we have on agistment, only saw half of them ...they did the big escape a few weeks back into the neighbour's & out onto the road. The fences are not really good and the kangaroos test them. The terrain is rough & rocky in places, and the vegetation is thick in parts. I decided to abandon any further riding around today. Murphy will no doubt make more mischief come tomorrow... so I'll be out on the bike again, just to check what he's been up to!
Before I got out of the house paddock I found this fella looking at me.
This is a 'roo' hole we patched the other day. While it's a common sight to see kangaroos jumping over fences, they only do that when pushed ...like when they are in an all fired hurry to get away. Their prefered method of dealing with fences is to go 'under'. Once they've made a hole, they keep going back to it. We have lots of 'roos on the property, so we have lots of holes in the fences, making it difficult to keep small stock, like sheep & goats (in particular) in a paddock with mesh fences.
Nice bit of beef? I don't eat meat!
This is malley scrub. No riding through this stuff.
Open grazing country, rising up to a rocky hill with native pine vegetation.
And so ends my first 24 hours of Home on my Ownsome! I do enjoy the peace & quiet but I would rather be doing my 'thing' than having to keep an eye on my friend Murphy. Now, I'm off the get the jumper leads & try getting the ute going!
Cheers from "the middle of nowhere"
P.S. If you click on the photos they will enlarge.
NOW I'M TALKING MOHAIR... Shearing & Beyond
I thought maybe it was time to talk mohair ...nothing technical, just wanted to show how we do shearing on a commercial scale. And thought I'd finish with a few pics that might help justify my madness... my addiction... whatever you want to call it.
I have far too many Angora goats to even contemplate shearing them myself. I employ a team of professional shearers to do the job. The shearers work in 'runs'. A run is 2 hours. We start in the shed at 7.30 a.m. and stop for morning 'smoko' at 9.30. Back to work at 10 until midday with an hour off for lunch, the next run is from 1 o'clock until 3 p.m. The last run is 3.30 to 5 o'clock. The guys each manage to shear around 100 goats per day.
The goats are penned in the shearing shed overnight ready for the shearers to start when they arrive in the morning. Once the goats are shorn, they slide down a chute into the count out pens. The Rousabout picks up the fleece, sweeps the floor clean while the shearer goes into the catching pen to get another goat to shear. All very fast & efficient!
These photos are from several shearings - the chaos remains the same once the mohair comes off.
The boys are hard at it ...there were 4 shearers for this - the spring shearing of 2011.
Many of the Lovelies had already kidded so rather than seperate mums & bubs overnight, they were penned together. The lass helping me picked up the kids & quietly slipped them down the shute.
In between snavelling the babies, her job was to pick the fleeces off the floor & put them onto the classing table for the "crazy woman" to sort. We had a fantastic time, I really loved working with her, it was great to have another female in the shed for a change.
This is the mohair 'harvest' from the March 2012 shearing.
Another view of the shed - looking even more chaotic from this angle. The old shed had suffered a bit of damage from a 'willie willie' (sort of like a tiny tornado type twister) and lost part of the roof before shearing. It has since been re-roofed with steel trusses replacing the original roofing timbers so it has lost some of the rustic charm. The shed was built around 1930 from timber milled on the property.
The kid mohair from this shearing was overlong but still luscious. The mohair looks good because the goats got rained on rather severely a few weeks before this shearing - we had major flooding. We got 8 inches of rain over a couple of days, and that folks is half our average rainfall for the year.
I couldn't help myself - the devil made me do it... I just had to roll in all that gorgeous kid mohair.
And... this is one of the reasons why I have mohair. I like to play with it. I love the pretty colours when it's dyed. I love to tease the locks open and put them through my carder to make yummy mohair batts. Then I can spin it and make lovely things ...all from the hair of my Lovelies.
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These batts are 100% mohair, carded from the 'fluff' above.
The last batts are a blend of 60% kid mohair, 30% merino top & 10% tussah silk
So... to finish the story, I keep about 50 or 60 fleeces, some for my own use & for processing into batts. I sell some of these fleeces & batts to other hand spinners. The rest of the mohair is baled & sent to South Africa where it is sorted & sold. And just in case you are wondering how much mohair is in the shed... 1.7 tonne (or 3800 lbs for those of you who are still using imperial weights & measures) was baled and shipped.
Again... it's late here 'in the middle of nowhere' & it's just started raining (the goaties will not be amused) so until next time...Cheers from the crazy Old Goatie!
Tuesday 13 November 2012
LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY & A CHANGE OF PACE!
It has been a busy few days... the 'Bloke' is leaving to spend a week in Sydney, all the goat feeders needed to be filled, big bales of hay put out. There was a time when I did these jobs on my own ...but the tractor broke & was replaced with a BobCat. The 'tucker trolley' aka Feed Cart was designed to be little old lady friendly ...it has a battery start but the battery went flat yonks ago & this little old lady can't work the pull start on the motor. I must confess - pull start motors & I do not get along ...that's OK ...push lawn mowers & chain saws also have pull start motors so that lets me 'off' mowing & cutting wood.
When I began my magnificent affair with Angora goats & mohair, I started with 2 little goats so I could have some mohair for hand spinning... then I got serious & bought a buck. Then I bought more goats, sent does out for 'service' & quickly outgrew the land area I was running them on. It doesn't take too many years to fill a 5 acre plot with goats... so we moved.
The move was huge, an 8 hour drive from all that was familiar, from where I had spent 50 plus years of my life, from my family, my sons, my home! The move was a culture shock also - town & surrounding area has a population of around 110 people. Town consists of a handful of houses, a Hotel, a Club, a Produce Store, a Motor Repair Shop, Post Office & a Cafe. A little school & 2 churches with a monthly service. Oh, and the big Grain Silo on the now defunct rail line at the edge of town.
The farm was huge ... November 15th 2002 we took possession of 8072 acres and about 1500 Merino sheep. We moved the goats ..all 100 of them & two alpacas in 4 loads, filling up a little stock crate & towing trailers in trips that took over 10 hours, arriving at the farm in the dark of night. We chose to do it this way and didn't have any deaths from the move.
Then it was time to do more fencing, buy in hay, buy more goats, put the bucks in, build the goat shed and become a serious goat breeder. The shed was finished just days before kidding commenced. That first year I kidded 110 does in my new 'big' shed. The electricity wasn't connected, all the work & dramas that happened in the dark of night was done by torchlight.
Three weeks before the goats were due to start kidding that first year, I had a fall and broke my wrist. Home alone, the Bloke was in Sydney, I phoned the Hotel & the publican's son came to the rescue, drove me to the hospital, 45 minutes away. They could only provide the Xray, so we had another hour and a half to the nearest 'proper' hospital where I was admitted & plastered. The lady who ran the Hotel aka 'Pub' picked me up from hospital the next day. My son made a mad dash from Sydney & arrived just on dark to look after his silly old mother & her goats.
My friend MamaSheri in Texas, wrote just the other day how things happen in life that change our attitude without us really being aware of the changes. It made me think of my journey out here 'in the middle of nowhere'.
When I was running a small number of goats on that 5 acre farm, the goats all had names, I spent a fortune on Vet bills & feed bills, fussed over every kid that hit the ground. What we really had was a little paddock, with little yards, little sheds & everything was done the hard way. We'd travel 3 hours each way to buy loads of bagged feed especially formulated for Angora goats. We would feed that out into little tubs, mobbed by goats. We used little bales of hay, carted them around in a wheel barrow at feeding time. Shearing was a nightmare ...I did manage to engage a professional shearer but without a proper shearing shed ..it was chaos. Drenching without a holding yard or race was crazy. Kidding was hard work, although there were not a lot of kids ...mothers & kids had to be locked up every night to keep them safe from the resident foxes. Foxes that I could not shoot or bait because our semi-rural patch of paradise was on the edge of surburbia.
So what's changed? Well ...isolation has meant I've had to become more self reliant, the shops, Doctor & Vet aren't just 5 minutes down the road any more. Going shopping is a major event, takes so long to get there that there is no time to waste 'window shopping'. I miss my family, my friends & chatting with people I know, people who know me & understand my passions. I've become somewhat reclusive... my goats & my mohair fill my days!
My goats ...yeah, there are attitude changes there, too. There are a few 'specials' that have names, some of those will get buried when they die. The nameless ones go to 'Boot Hill'. And, Life & Death ...well, there's a major shift! Once I would do what ever I thought it took to save every goat, even when in my heart I knew the battle was lost before it began. Don't mean that to sound like I don't care - it's now I know when it's time to let go. My goats have taught me that!
We had 8 years of drought to contend with followed by two very wet years ...that was a big learning curve, I got to learn a lot about what can kill a goat when you aren't really trying! There were a few post mortems to sort out some of the dramas as well as some intensive testing done. I'm sure there's still a few curves we haven't encountered, yet ...just hope they stay away.
So, now I have lots of goats & do things differently. We no longer buy special mixes ...the goats get fed grain (that we grow on farm) in a Feeder that we fill with the Tucker Trolley, the hay bales are deposited in the paddocks with the Bobcat, we have a shearing shed & proper yards to work the stock in. The goat shed is big enough to house 500 goats (very handy when they are off shears). Kidding is much less labour intensive, although most of the goats do make it into the shed at kidding. They go in one end, spend a few days in the pens & go out the other end. While the kids are really small, the kids & doe mob goes back into the shed at night, then it's off down the paddock with the Maremma dogs. No running around catching individual kids to pen up with their mum at the end of the day. I have an old kettle full of stones that makes a great rattle... if the goats won't go into the shed when I use the rattle I get the Kelpie dog to push them in. Job done in 3 minutes! And I never wanted to work the goats with a dog ..that's been a major attitude shift!
This is the glorious goat shed. It's 18 meters wide x 24 meters long (approx. 60 x 80 ft). The 27 pens take up 1/6 th of the shed, there is a partitioned off section of the same size next to pens. The front & back sections are full width of the shed, with a big sliding door at each. At the side of the shed is the entry door & a store/feed room, plus a "sick bay' & the hot box with heat lamp.
When I began my magnificent affair with Angora goats & mohair, I started with 2 little goats so I could have some mohair for hand spinning... then I got serious & bought a buck. Then I bought more goats, sent does out for 'service' & quickly outgrew the land area I was running them on. It doesn't take too many years to fill a 5 acre plot with goats... so we moved.
The move was huge, an 8 hour drive from all that was familiar, from where I had spent 50 plus years of my life, from my family, my sons, my home! The move was a culture shock also - town & surrounding area has a population of around 110 people. Town consists of a handful of houses, a Hotel, a Club, a Produce Store, a Motor Repair Shop, Post Office & a Cafe. A little school & 2 churches with a monthly service. Oh, and the big Grain Silo on the now defunct rail line at the edge of town.
The farm was huge ... November 15th 2002 we took possession of 8072 acres and about 1500 Merino sheep. We moved the goats ..all 100 of them & two alpacas in 4 loads, filling up a little stock crate & towing trailers in trips that took over 10 hours, arriving at the farm in the dark of night. We chose to do it this way and didn't have any deaths from the move.
Then it was time to do more fencing, buy in hay, buy more goats, put the bucks in, build the goat shed and become a serious goat breeder. The shed was finished just days before kidding commenced. That first year I kidded 110 does in my new 'big' shed. The electricity wasn't connected, all the work & dramas that happened in the dark of night was done by torchlight.
Three weeks before the goats were due to start kidding that first year, I had a fall and broke my wrist. Home alone, the Bloke was in Sydney, I phoned the Hotel & the publican's son came to the rescue, drove me to the hospital, 45 minutes away. They could only provide the Xray, so we had another hour and a half to the nearest 'proper' hospital where I was admitted & plastered. The lady who ran the Hotel aka 'Pub' picked me up from hospital the next day. My son made a mad dash from Sydney & arrived just on dark to look after his silly old mother & her goats.
My friend MamaSheri in Texas, wrote just the other day how things happen in life that change our attitude without us really being aware of the changes. It made me think of my journey out here 'in the middle of nowhere'.
When I was running a small number of goats on that 5 acre farm, the goats all had names, I spent a fortune on Vet bills & feed bills, fussed over every kid that hit the ground. What we really had was a little paddock, with little yards, little sheds & everything was done the hard way. We'd travel 3 hours each way to buy loads of bagged feed especially formulated for Angora goats. We would feed that out into little tubs, mobbed by goats. We used little bales of hay, carted them around in a wheel barrow at feeding time. Shearing was a nightmare ...I did manage to engage a professional shearer but without a proper shearing shed ..it was chaos. Drenching without a holding yard or race was crazy. Kidding was hard work, although there were not a lot of kids ...mothers & kids had to be locked up every night to keep them safe from the resident foxes. Foxes that I could not shoot or bait because our semi-rural patch of paradise was on the edge of surburbia.
So what's changed? Well ...isolation has meant I've had to become more self reliant, the shops, Doctor & Vet aren't just 5 minutes down the road any more. Going shopping is a major event, takes so long to get there that there is no time to waste 'window shopping'. I miss my family, my friends & chatting with people I know, people who know me & understand my passions. I've become somewhat reclusive... my goats & my mohair fill my days!
My goats ...yeah, there are attitude changes there, too. There are a few 'specials' that have names, some of those will get buried when they die. The nameless ones go to 'Boot Hill'. And, Life & Death ...well, there's a major shift! Once I would do what ever I thought it took to save every goat, even when in my heart I knew the battle was lost before it began. Don't mean that to sound like I don't care - it's now I know when it's time to let go. My goats have taught me that!
We had 8 years of drought to contend with followed by two very wet years ...that was a big learning curve, I got to learn a lot about what can kill a goat when you aren't really trying! There were a few post mortems to sort out some of the dramas as well as some intensive testing done. I'm sure there's still a few curves we haven't encountered, yet ...just hope they stay away.
So, now I have lots of goats & do things differently. We no longer buy special mixes ...the goats get fed grain (that we grow on farm) in a Feeder that we fill with the Tucker Trolley, the hay bales are deposited in the paddocks with the Bobcat, we have a shearing shed & proper yards to work the stock in. The goat shed is big enough to house 500 goats (very handy when they are off shears). Kidding is much less labour intensive, although most of the goats do make it into the shed at kidding. They go in one end, spend a few days in the pens & go out the other end. While the kids are really small, the kids & doe mob goes back into the shed at night, then it's off down the paddock with the Maremma dogs. No running around catching individual kids to pen up with their mum at the end of the day. I have an old kettle full of stones that makes a great rattle... if the goats won't go into the shed when I use the rattle I get the Kelpie dog to push them in. Job done in 3 minutes! And I never wanted to work the goats with a dog ..that's been a major attitude shift!
The pens were done with metal star posts, corrugated iron along the back walls & mesh dividers. They were a temporary fix ...10 years later they are still in situ. The mesh isn't the smartest idea, kids can get through it, nasty old mother goats will take a dislike to the kid next door & chew an ear. Should the lovelies get too hostile, I wire a piece of plywood onto the mesh divider ..kinda like outta sight, outta mind ..that usually settles things down.
And this is my Kelpie boy Benny 'The Wonder Dog'
I tried to upload the Tucker Trolley but it was taking forever & it is now after 3 in the morning. I also wanted to put in some shearing pictures ...ah, well ...that will be something for another day.
I'm looking forward to my little break of 'home alone' time ..just need to remember to keep the mobile phone charged & take it with me when I wander out the door...I have a habit of doing myself injury when left alone! Well, it's now 4 a.m. ...I'm calling it a night!
Cheers from 'the middle of nowhere'
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