Small Ruminant Field Day 2012

Mr. Nic Girgenti sent emailed me this flyer for the Small Ruminant Field Day that will be held this weekend at LSU's AgCenter. I was asked to share it with fellow goat producers or those that may be interested in goats.

Looking Back

Recently, I was asked if I could share some photos of our goats to be put on display at a convention. I got on the computer and looked through all of my photos from past and present and chose some to send. While I was going through all of the photos they just took me back to some wonderful memories. I'm very much a picture person. If I were to walk into your home (invited of course) I wouldn't be able to resist looking at all photographs that are on display. It doesn't even matter if I know who's in them or not. I absolutely love looking at pictures. So if there are any of you out there like me, I decided to share some of those that I have been looking through. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

kiko buckling

kiko doe

Chopper; one of our first and greatest LGD's.  His time here was short, but he was amazing. His story can be found here

flashy little buckling

The memories of Shane and I "making hay."

Dillon's first "responsibility" at 4 yrs.  Sprocket, a twin calf.  What a lesson for all of us.

Mal wanting to keep every kid goat born on this place.

Her own horse for Christmas.  Love at first sight.

His first attempt at getting over his fear of horses.

I am so blessed to live on a farm out in the country with my beautiful family.  God has blessed me richly!!!

What's Happening

Please accept my apologies for my absence here in blogger world. I've been mentally unavailable lately. My mother has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks due to a complication from gallbladder surgery. She had a perforated bowel and it went untreated for several days, which in turn made her one sick lady. She has gotten better over the last several days.....so thankful to God for answered prayers!

Baseball is still in full swing. I feel like we have practically lived in Hattiesburg this whole past month. This girl below here doesn't really enjoy watching the game so much, but she really loves all of the snacks that I pack for her to munch on during the game.

Trying to be a supportive fan

This baseball boy is actually getting a break this week from baseball due to this week being the "BIG state tests" week.  This morning he said he was so nervous about taking the test.  They have literally been preparing and teaching them for this test since last year.  It's seems like he has the weight of the world on his little shoulders.  The school has really stressed how important these test scores are to them, and he feels the pressure.  I tried to tell him this morning that it's all going to be okay and that all I ask of him is to give it his best. 

The clover is blooming and filling the air with such a sweet fragrance.  The bees are busy buzzing all over the place in a frenzy.  It's amazing how many bees are in our pastures.

I wish you could scratch and sniff!

We've gotten some rain lately which caused the clover to sprout up pretty tall, so we've turned out the cows and goats into one particular pasture to get it knocked down before it kills off our summer grass by smothering it out.  They have done a pretty good job of getting that done. It's amazing how well the cows and goats can work together ;)

In the middle of all the craziness, we managed to go pick up our cabinets for our kitchen at Hood's Discount Home Center in Gulfport.  They have some really nice and helpful folks that went above and beyond to help us.  Hopefully I will be getting some pictures of our kitchen progress soon.  

Hope yall have a great week!

Southeast Graziers Pasture Walk May 2012

On May 12, 2012 the Southeast Graziers will be having a pasture walk hosted by Nic Girgenti. We received these flyers and I have posted them here for those that may be interested in attending.  Nic's farm is located in Southeast Louisiana.

Farm Visitors

We absolutely love to have folks stop by our farm to visit with us and hear us talk about our animals. We have had the opportunity to meet some amazing people and made some lifelong friendships because of farming.  A couple of weekends ago, we had 3 different families stop by in one day.  We decided to take pictures earlier that day to share.  

First thing that morning we had the Templet family come over from Louisiana.  Our kids had a blast catching frogs by the pond with their daughter.  Before it was all said and done, the three kiddos decided to take a little dip in the pond.  And yes........the cows ended chasing them out.  They said they didn't want any of that fresh poo on them.  I wished I had kept my camera on me to document that.  

 

Next we had a visit from our dear sweet friends, the Shows'.  They came to pick up two kid goats that were bottle babies to deliver to a friend.  We also gave them a tour of our remodeling progress.   Shane, Dillon, and Mallory also got in the photo.  We have known the Shows' for a few years now, and consider them to be like family to us.  They are precious folks.

 

Our last visitors were the Hanberry's.  By that time in the day, my mind left me and I forgot to get a picture of their family.  Ms. Hanberry was nice enough to email me a picture of their son holding a kid goat to share on the blog.  They are new to goats and extremely excited to get started in their "goating" endeavor. 

Anytime you'd like to come by for a visit, let us know, and we'd be happy to have you!

Small Ruminant Field Day in Baton Rouge, LA

We received this notice by email the other day and I thought I would post it for those that may be interested in attending. You can find more information at LSUagcenter's website here.

 

Give That Photo A Name!

Here we go again with one of those photos that just deserve to be given a caption. Go ahead and give it a try......Just leave it in the comment section below.

This photo below earned the caption:  "Snot good"  the last time thanks to AWS.  I thought that one was pretty clever!

"Snot good"

He's Back...

Gold Digger is now back at Deep South Kikos. He had been "working" for the past few months at a farm near the George/Greene county line. Of course the usual pecking order rituals took place after he arrived to the buck pasture. He only has one horn due to this same pecking order ritual that occurred a while back. You can read about that here.

Gold Digger

He had a small "scur" that had started growing in the place of the horn that had been broken off.  That scur  has also been knocked off due to the head butting that ensued when he arrived yesterday.  Of course, now everyone has found their order out of 7 fellas.  They are all getting along now.  Thank goodness!

FAMACHA Eye Scoring

The other day I noticed a link online to a video that Purdue University has done about using the FAMACHA eye scoring system for goats.  This is the same method that we use on our goat herd.  Each month we gather up the goats and check their eye scores and record it for our records.  We are able to look back at the records of those particular goats that have to be wormed to see if they have had to be wormed previously.  We select for goats that do not have issues with parasites.  Those that do have problems are culled.  Our climate here in the southeast is a breeding ground for internal parasites, so it is imperative for us to have animals that can survive and thrive under these  conditions with little to no intervention.  That is the best thing about kiko goats.  They are so much hardier than any of the other breed of goats we have owned in the past.  They are parasite resistant, super mothers, and their kids are very aggressive just minutes after being born.  They jump up, not long after hitting the ground, looking for a meal.  It's amazing, if you've never seen it.  Now I will be the first to tell you that as wonderful as the kiko breed is, there are some kikos that don't perform....shall I say..... up to par.   That is why we have chosen not to sell any of our goats until they have "performed" here on our farm.  We want to make sure that if you get a Deep South Kiko goat that it will live up to our standards and meet the expectations for you.  

OK.  So I've kinda gotten off track about the video.  I wanted to post it here on our blog for those that may have never heard of it and are interested.  Shane and I have talked to a lot of people around here, and many were not aware of  FAMACHA.  I'm not sure of any FAMACHA clinics being held locally at this time, but if you are aware of any, please leave a comment in section below of location, date, and time.  

Here is the video. 

      

Ahhh.....The Fun of Growing up in the Country!

I came across this photo I had taken earlier in the year. I planned on sharing it and telling how great our border collies are to our operation here. They round up the cattle and goats with just a command from Shane. He trained the oldest one several years ago. Now her daughter is mature enough that she gets to participate on the herding excursions. She is learning and catching on pretty quickly.

Can't you just see the devotion of those border collies towards Shane.  It's such a nice moment to capture, but my favorite part of this photo is beyond the dogs with their master.  If you'll notice the two little figures in the distance......that is my favorite part.  Can you guess what they're doing?  Look closely........Do you have any ideas yet?

Well my friends, they are kicking cow patties that have dried up a little.  Yep.  That's what our kids do out in the pasture for fun.  Crazy isn't it.  If you could have only heard the laughter coming from their direction, one would've thought they were playing a game like soccer, or maybe even tag.  Not our two though.  They prefer to kick over as many cow patties as possible.  Every now and again one of them accidentally gets a hold of a "fresher" one and I hear, "Oh, man!".  Don't you envy doing the laundry and such at my house?