Swimming Sally and Shaggy

Sally and Shaggy decided to take a dip in the pond today to keep cool in this 90 degree fall weather!  I noticed she was soaking wet the other day, but couldn't figure out how she got that wet.  Now I know how, she rolled around in the pond even getting her head wet.  The other horses decided to stand back and watch them from a distance.....I guess they thought those two were being childish.  It looked fun to me.  I'm glad I was able to see it.  Sorry for the picture quality.  I was pretty far from them, but this is as close as my camera would zoom. 

Saturday's work

So this is what we've been up to today. We had some land cleared in our back 40 last year. It was around 12 acres in the bottom of our pasture. Well it has grown up this summer and Shane has wanted to see some goats out in the back 40 for a while. This week he has worked on getting the perimeter trimmed back to run hotwire around it. This is a panoramic shot of what it looks like from on top of the hill.


You can see how thick the weeds and brush are behind Shane. He took his machete after we ran the wire and knocked down the weeds that were in the way. We are using a portable solar fence charger, and weeds will pull down the charge pretty quick.




We loaded our bucklings and some of our yearling bucks into our cattle trailer after we checked FAMACHA scores on them. Shane hooked the trailer to the tractor and off we went. We had to drive through our 15 acre pasture that our main doe herd is in. I wanted to get some pictures of them when the fellas passed by....I wondered what they would do when they smelled the older guys cologne. (We have had some come in heat and they have had many attempts made at getting in with our bucks. We are trying to wait a couple more weeks so we will have a later kidding.)

Here they are before they realize what is in the trailer coming through.

And this is after they realized what was in that trailer. I drove ahead of Shane to open the gate and I looked back to see the girls making a mad dash to get to that trailer. I just did get the gate shut. Those are some persistent ladies!

They stood at the gate and waited for us to come back through, I guess to see if we might throw a fella out for them!

This is the bucklings getting unloaded in their new home. We have 2 guardians with them. We are going to let them stay here and see how they do with all of this brush. This field is surrounded by the National Forrest and we have seen fox, coyotes, turkey, deer, and even some wild hogs out there. The LGD's will have to really sleep with one eye open back there.

Heading out to enjoy some good eatin'. There's plenty of it, that's for sure!

Oklahoma Buck Test

We have 4 of our bucks consigned to the OK buck test at the Kerr Center. I wanted to mention that we had to have one of ours pulled from the test due to tapeworms. That kind of puzzled me why they would remove our goat because of tapeworms, but they use Valbazen as a dewormer for tapworms, so technically he can't qualify because of it. Mary Penick from the buck test called Shane and told them that they had a buck die at the test. When they did the necropsy, it show he was loaded down with tapeworms. That was what they considered his cause of death. I've always been told that tapeworms were not really anything major to worry about, but I find it kind of interesting that it was the cause of death for one of the bucks. It just may be something to worry about. If you are interested in following along with the OK buck test and their results, they have a blog here: http://kerrosubucktest.blogspot.com/.

DSK News Page

As of now, I am not planning to do anymore "news pages" on our website www.deepsouthkikos.com. I am able to keep things updated here on the blog more often than once a month. It seems to be easier to put it out there as things happen. We will see how this goes...If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know, I'm open for any suggestions.

Since Shane has started his day job, he has time in the afternoon just to enjoy the farm. Everyday we let our our bucklings around the barn and sit and watch them do some "weed eating." Now isn't this the life or what!?

It's getting time to round up all of the cows that we purchased earlier in the year to sell at the yard. The "crazy cow" is still just as crazy. This is as close as I was going to get for her picture. Mr. Shows asked Shane how she was doing....she's had a calf and has filled out a good bit. Just wish us luck when it comes time to load her up. I am not looking forward to what tricks she will pull.

We have decided to sell 2 of our LGD's. We have 6 as of right now, 2 in each pasture with their own herd. We will be combining 2 herds later on and figured it was time to let two of them go.

This is Xena. She is a daughter out of Kimba and Jael that is 8 months old. We are asking $400 for her and she will be sold registered through the AKC.

This is AZ. He is 13 months old and we are asking $250 and he will be unregistered.

Pups

I tried to take some photos of the pups today, but none of them seemed to be in the photogenic mood. They are now around 9 weeks old. They have been eating out of the dog feeder along with Jael. I gave them their shots last week and they were wormed as well. Hopefully I'll be able to get some individual photo of them soon.

I did have to share this one... Look at those puppy dog eyes!!!

Coccidia, toxic plants, and did I mention Coccidia?

It has been a battle with coccidiosis around here for what seems like forever! It started out with a few of our bucklings, and spread throughout the whole herd of bucklings. We decided to treat them and move them into the field with our other bucks, and wouldn't you know coccidia decided to show its ugly face again. We have been drenching them individually if they have the symptoms....runny runny runny diarrhea. We did fecals on those that had stool firm enough to run the sample, and it was overwhelming how many of those coccidia oocysts were seen in some of the samples. Shane called every feed store from here to Timbucktoo to see if they carried the rumensin blocks made by Sweetlix. NO ONE had any! He finally talked with a woman at a nearby feed store and she said she could order them, but they would have to be made and shipped to the warehouse, then deliver to her store when the representative came by. At this point, we were ready for anything...Two LOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG weeks later, they arrived.



Shane had put them out in an old tub with no cover, but of course the goats had to jump on top of the blocks.....So they are now stuffed into one of our homeade mineral feeders with a rubber flap on top for protection from the hooves. I hope it works at preventing us from having this issue again. Shane has about come to the conclusion, that the coccidia may have come from our pond. Wherever it came from, we DO NOT want to see it again!!
On another note, we have our does in a new pasture with an "unsecure" fence on the backside that joins the National Forrest. They began slipping through the fence and nibbling on all of that wonderful browse. We then began to notice a few does with the scours. First though was OH NO, coccidiosis! Then we came to realize that the does were eating a plant that has been told to us is toxic to goats. We now have a strand of hot wire on that side to keep them exclusively in the pasture. No more roaming around the forrest! Since then, no scours! A local goat farmer pointed out the plant to Shane and told him that it would make the goats sick; and called it purple mint. Their parents must have forgotten to mention to them about not eating this plant, because I would catch them out and most always this plant was being attacked. Here are some pictures of the "purple mint"

***UPDATE*** (2012) a reader has informed me that this plant is called beauty berry.  Click here for more information on beauty berry.

Here is a picture of another plant growing around here that is supposedly toxic to goats. It grows some sort of fruit looking thing on it. They are everywhere on one side of our property. I was told that these trees were used to produce some kind of chemical, but I have honestly went blank on what it was! The goats aren't interested one bit in this plant though.

***UPDATE (2012) *** The photos below are of a "tung oil tree" Click here for an interesting article on the history of tung oil.

This is Sweetie Pie (Mallory named her) She is one of the most curious goats we have. She will come up and check us out so closely, but if we try to reach our hand out to pet her she runs. Mallory is the only one who can pet her, so Mallory thinks this goat belongs to her.

I tried again to get another shot of the new guy on the block. I think his name is going to be Gold Digger. He was too interested in the goats on the other side of the gate to pose for any pictures. We will be ready for the bucks to be put in with the does in the middle of September for hopefully a later kidding than last year. But as you can see by his coloring he and all of the fellas are ready to go right now.

PEEEE------UUUUUUU

Any ideas on how to get the smell of stinky bucks in rut off of your hands??? I've read that you can use lemon or lime and that didn't seem to do the trick.



Even washed my hands with good ole' soap and water and still have that stinky smell. Just wondering if anyone out there has any good recommendations.....

Good-bye donkeys

Shane has just decided to sell the donkeys. We first started out with donkeys to be guardians to our cattle before we goats. It was kind of a learning experience. Our first donkey came from the local sale barn for $20 ( you get what you pay for!) He seemed to be ok to begin with, but we had a cow that had a calf one day and he decided he was going to get his teeth on him and get rid of him. That was such a scary day for me, Shane wasn't home and all I could think was that this poor confused newborn calf is about to get killed because of that crazy donkey! We were told stories about them killing calves, so Shane had prepared me with instructions to shoot him with the 12 gauge if I caught him doing it. ( I really never thought I would have to ) So there I am, telling the kids to stay in our yard, grab the shot gun and run (yes I know, very dangerous; I didn't want the donkey to get the calf OK?) When I finally got a clear shot of him without hitting any other animal around, I pulled the trigger. Not really thinking about what distance I was from him. ( He made me run and get out of breath and I was MAD!! ) I ended up shooting him in the back end with bird shot about 6-8 feet away...Needless to say, he stopped and quit chasing that calf. I don't think he knew what hit him! We led him to the catch pen and shut him up for the night. The next day, he had to go....

We learned our lesson, just because donkeys are great guardians, doesn't mean that they all are. We ended up purchasing these 2 from a man in Ovett, MS. He had around 10 jacks and jennies with his herd of cows. Since we have owned them, we haven't had a loss to any predators. (before the donkeys came along, we lost 3 calves to coyotes the year before) It is getting difficult to keep them seperate from the cows when we want the cows to graze along with the goats at different times. It is deeply ingrained in donekys to hate dogs, so we can't have them out there with our LGD's. I wouldn't want them getting used to dogs anyway.... We just have no choice, but to let them go.

Jenny with her colt she had this year.



Jack, father of the colt above



I just love baby donkeys, they are so fluffy!

what's happening

I've been waiting to get some time to make some posts on this blog and my family blog, but it seems as though that isn't going to happen. Soooo here it is, midnight and I am going to get this post finished and go. to. bed.

Jael and her pups trying to stay cool under the pecan tree out in the pasture.


Xena cooling off in what is left of our stream running through one of the pastures.

Now for the good stuff........We have ended up purchasing 18 %kiko does and doelings. Some are 1/2 and up to 3/4. Mr. Sonny told Shane he was getting out of the goat business, that he was just getting to old to keep up with cutting hay and having to come in every afternoon to check on the goats. Shane jumped at the opportunity to get some of his does. They are very nice goats, and it is good to know and trust the owner too.

Here they are meeting our does for the first time. Those poor girls don't stand a chance though without their horns. They have been disbubbed and will be on the lower end of the goat heirarchy around here because of that. Mr. Sonny said he despised getting a goats head out of a fence, so he fixes the problem before they begin.

The same day we purchased the does, we originally were making a trip to Petal to a commercial producers home to purchase his Purebred kiko herdsire. Mr. Shows called Shane about an ad in the market bulletin.....and here we are.....the VERY PROUD owners of this amazing buck. A friend of Shane's came over to see him and ended up helping him get this buck on our livestock scales. He weighed 220 lbs. I have been trying very hard to get a good photo of him, but he will not be still long enough for it to be halfway clear. All of the bucks and bucklings are in a field together, so the introduction of new testosterone has caused things to be very antsy in that field. No one is just standing around long enough for me to get a picture. So here is the best I can get for now. I can't wait any longer to share this with you guys.. I promise to get a better photo of him along with the other bucks hopefully very soon.

Here's the story on this buck. The guy who owned him had never trimmed his hooves since he owned him. He has had him for several years, and had some of his daughters out in the pasture with him. I can't even put into words how impressed I was with his daughters. Come to find out that he had started with some boers and this buck has been breeding everything out there for years. Basically his daughters out there with him have been linebred. And boy did they look AWESOME. The only way I could describe them is that I told Shane they looked like steers running around out there. They were so meaty. He also had told Shane that the herd he has now is what has survived. He gives no special treatment, shelter, or grain. Survival of the fittest seemed to be his motto. On the way up his drive to his house, there his goats were in a torrential rainstorm like nothing was going on. Now that was the first sign to myself that these were some kind of goats. We will be putting him in with all of our purebred does as well as the % does coming up the first of Sept. I am very excited to see what he will produce.

OK....Gone to bed now....Good night......

Getting started young!

Yesterday was FEC day. I walked around the farm with my cooler and collected samples in ziploc bags. We had battled the scours about 1 month ago around here, which ended up being coccidiosis. We have a few young bucklings that have started again, so there's only one way to find out the culprit....Look at it under the microscope. I guess it's a blessing that I absolutely loved any form of science in high school and college. ( My nursing experience has come in quite handy for the farm as well.) Most people just look at me cross-eyed when I tell them that I look at goat "poop" under the microscope. Personally, I think it is the best tool here on our farm. No guessing...

Training them young....Dillon appears to be as interested in scientific things as myself. He said, "Mom are there any eggs in there?" Wonder what he'll be teaching the kids at school now.

Ended up finding quite a few of coccidia in several samples. I'm beginning to wonder if those nice cement water pads are a good thing for the goats. We've not had this sort of issue until they were installed. The verdict is still out on that one.

Yesterday a pup followed Jael way out into the pasture and ended up getting caught in the middle of all of the goats. I noticed it was missing from the rest of the litter. When I got out into the field, it was just hanging out there with the goats by itself. Jael went back to her other pups. It has started taking it's job very seriously at such a young age :) I thought it was pretty neat to see it out there in the middle of the goats, like that is where it belonged.

See if you can spot the little LGD in the picture below.... The grass almost swallows it up completely.