One more month until kidding season starts!   Alexandra, who is bred to Midnight, is due on April 2nd.   She doesn't look very large, but she is a long bodied doe so could be hiding quite a few babies.  Her udder is developing nicely and it looks like she is going to have very nice teat length.

Alexandra's dam and Midnight's dam are half-sisters on their sire's side as both are granddaughters of Tupemce Buckshot Blues.  Midnights sire was a son of Buckshot Blues so this is about as tight of a line breeding as I will ever do.  Really, really hoping for a doe kid out of this pairing.

A week later Midnight's dam, Maple is due.  She is looking quite large compared to past years and we are hoping she will NOT have a repeat of quints.  (She is the dark colored doe in the lower right corner of the above picture.)  She will be having the first kids here from our newest buck Finnius and we are really looking forward to seeing his babies.

I took Levana and Bristol over to OSU for ultrasounds this morning.  The good news is that Levana is definitely bred and is carrying at least twins possible triplets.  She is only 27 days bred so they were just little spots and the instructor couldn't say definitively that the third spot was, in fact, another baby.

Sadly on the ride over somehow Levana scratched her cornea.   Fortunately, the vet students and their instructor were more than happy to figure out what was wrong and to treat it for me at no charge.

Bristol was bred  within 12 hours of  Levana, but how long after I have no way of knowing since we ended up just leaving her overnight with Mr. Incredible since he had worn himself out with Levana.   Bristol showed a bit of fluid build up in the uterus, but there was no sign of any spots that could be babies.   There is a slim chance that she is in fact bred, and she has missed a heat so I'm praying hard for a miracle.   Not sure yet if I will draw blood and send it in for a pregnancy test or not.  I can't do it until she is past 30 days bred so I have a few days yet to decide.

Beautiful sunny afternoon that had everyone outside enjoying it.   We even let the bucks out to do a little "mowing" of the lawn.   Less than 30 minutes after I took these pictures the fog rolled back in and you couldn't even see the pasture fence line.

As I mentioned previously I made a kidding schedule and the does laughed.  They weren't coming into noticeable heats, refused the buck I picked out for them, or didn't take when they were bred.  In short, they were upholding the doe code of honor even before kidding season! 

Thankfully they seem to have finally settled down and while it will be a while before we know for certain that the breedings that occurred this past week took, I am prayerfully  optimistic.  I have committed my herd for Linear Appraisal this year and it is going to be cutting it close for Levana and Bristol to have kidded in time.   If this breeding with Mr. Incredible didn't take they will both be pregnant does come LA time.

I have updated the kidding schedule page and have opted to note Day 147 since that is my herds average gestation.   Although like always I will start kidding watch on day 142.  This year we have 5 does due to kid in May, so even if the does let me off the hook for the "Doe Code of Honor" I will still spend the month of May looking like I haven't slept in years!

Looking forward to seeing the kids of 2015!

According to the Chinese calendar  this is the "Year of the Goat".  So Happy Year of the Goat!  May your bucks make you proud and your does be abundant producers!

It isn't very often that I post about the little flock of chickens we have here on the ranch.  But today I expanded Junior's harem by two and thought I'd share some pictures of our current flock.   Junior is our very handsome rooster.   He is good with the hens and  has not caused us any trouble either, other than he likes to hang out in the doe barn during bad weather and at night.

They are all free range and this flock seems to be more adverse than previous flocks for staying in the coop at night, preferring to roost in the trees or the doe barn, which we do our best to discourage.  They are a mix of breeds, including Anericaunas, Orpingtons, Wyondote and Rhode Island Red because, just like with my goats, I enjoy a variety of color in my pastures.   We should start seeing some eggs from them pretty soon, if of course we can find them.  

I have been practicing grass based dairying since I first got into goats in 2007.   I do provide my goats with minerals, and alfalfa pellets and during bad weather a bit of grass hay.   Today I came across an article that really goes into depth on the benefits to everyone involved with goats are given the opportunity to browse.

The younger the goat the greater the success in transitioning them from a life of leisure to a life of having to rustle up their own grub.  And a pampered goat isn't going to get out there unless they don't have an alternative.   Also the younger the goat the more likely they will develop the rumen necessary to process that forage into tasty and healthier milk.  

So take a moment to read up on this at the Goat Dairy Library.

I have always used Bio-Tracking for my CAE testing in the past, and have tested later in the year so that I didn't have to worry about shipping while keeping the contents cool.   Since I did the testing earlier this year  I decided to try the labs at OSU.   Friendly and prompt service when I dropped the vials off and they had the results back to  me in less than 6 hours!   Oh and the results - all NEGATIVE as usual.  :) 

On Sunday, Sept 14th at 2pm we will be hosting a blood drawing clinic for anyone that would like to learn how to draw blood for testing.   The clinic will be held at Wags Ranch and will involve drawing every goat over six months of age in my entire herd for their annual testing through BioTracking.   Sarah McCraw of Mac's Rainbow will be doing the drawing and I will be doing the holding.   While it is possible to do the blood draw as a single person operation we have found that is much easier to have two people involved.  If you are interested in attending please let me know ahead of time.