Herd Reduction

Shane has taken 2 loads of cows to the stockyard this week. Monday he took 5 cows and 5 calves and Wednesday he took 12 cows and our bull Mojo. It was sad to see them go, but we do not have enough hay to carry them through until it starts to green up around here. Shane had already purchased 40 rolls of hay on top of what he had stored. It has been unusually cold and wet this winter; and those cows and goats have went through the hay. As I mentioned before, our rye grass hasn't produced anything due to the snow and hard freezes. We'll have to see what we'll do when warm weather comes. We are looking at cleaning the fences of the back 40 acres,and running a strand of hot wire around it to start a commercial herd. Who knows what our future will hold for us....To be continued......

This is an updated photo of Jael's pup. We still haven't come up with a name for her. We wanted to go with a name that is biblical, due to Jael's name. Jael was a Kenite woman who killed the Canaanite general, Sisera, with a tent stake. If anyone has any ideas on names for the new pup, please share them with us....


With all of the abnormal freezing and snow, our rye grass has been unproductive, to say the least. This patch hasn't been grazed yet, and this is as high as it has gotten. With the prediction of snow tommorrow, it will probably not do anything else. Shane has already bought hay once this winter, on top of what we had stored in the barn. We are so ready for Spring!


This is what it looks like around here....MUDDY! Our kids are enjoying the mud, when we have to go to the back forty to check on the cows, they get excited. "We get to go mud bogging!" is what I hear from them. I guess I should make the best of the situation and enjoy mud bogging.....

Snow Again!!????

I just watched the weather this morning to see if they were still predicting snow as they were last night. The forecast is for snow late Thursday night or early Friday. It was predicted for Hattiesburg (about 30 miles from here) to possibly receive up to 5 inches. This has been a CRAZY winter for us here in the Deep South. We are usually wearing shorts most of the winter; not this year though. And of course we decided to try to kid in the winter this year, because we usually don't have snow to worry with. We've had snow once, sleet once, and now possibly snow again since our goats have kidded. Aarrgghh!

A new man!!!!

This buck was leased out to a local commercial producer. When the man brought him home, he said that he was the most aggressive breeder he had ever seen. That was his first time to be with the ladies, and he came home with a strut in his step! He walks around now like he is a new man!! He is one of the bucks that was in the Oklahoma Buck Test. He is doing really well.... Even more so now than ever!

Jael's pup

Jael's pup will be a month old on the 19th of this month. She has started coming out of the box to be with Jael and the goats a little. One night I went to check on them, when the temps were in the teens, and she let out such a big bark for her age. We are looking for great things out of her. Both parents, Kimba and Jael, are our best LGD's. I think we are planning on keeping her here to add to our group. Now we'll have to come up with another name.

Photos!

Here are the photos I promised! It has been one crazy kidding season! You'll have to read our December 2009 link on the website @ www.deepsouthkikos.com to get the whole story. Many lessons learned. Hypothermia with kids, tube feeding, overprotective guardian, etc........

Our kidding has begun!

Our December 2009 kidding started yesterday with a doe having triplets! We will have to see what today will hold for us! We have had a lot of rain this past few weeks, and the ground is terribly soggy. Hopefully we will have a break today. Although, the doe kidded right out there in the rain and she and her kids were doing fine last night in the pasture. I will be posting pictures soon of our newest arrivals!

Link to our updated photo page...

I thought I would share the a link to our newest farm photo page on our website.  I created it a few months ago, but I think the placement of the link on the webpage has caused people not to realize it exists.

                                FARM PHOTOS  (click on this link)

Last month's happenings...

I wanted to update our news page with other happenings from last month. We got our bucks back from the Buck Test in Oklahoma. They look rough!!! We're planning on keeping them until they are a year old to see how they do. We've learned a few things from this years test and can't wait to put those new lessons learned to work for next years test.

Shane has been extremely busy renovating the pasture getting it ready to plant rye grass for the winter. He is also planting 40 more acres this year with ball clover. We really had a lot of success with it last year. Who knows, maybe we will not require as much hay for our cattle and goats this year. We are planning to graze year round with minimal haying.

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Click on pedigree for larger view

Year to date FAMACHA score average: ( 1.5 )

We are also proud that Deep South Kikos made the  quarterly AKGA newsletter.  If you are interested in checking it out, click on this link  October 2009 AKGA Newsletter. 

Goat Travels

We have traveled this past month to Santa Anna, TX and Corydon, IN to add more genetics to our herd. We purchased these 5 doelings in TX at Cowpony Ranch Kikos.

These are the 4 does purchased at the Cream of the Crop sale in Corydon, IN. Three of them are 100% NZ daughters of Raiz'n'Kane (son of Loverboy) and a Purebred daughter out of ECR Oreo Blast (son of Nick).

This is CPK Rooster Cogburn. We are going to try him out on the does we purchased at the Cream of the Crop Sale. All of our other does are bred to our herdsire, Pistol Pete.

Don't forget to please give us your feedback on our "new" news page, whether it be good or bad.