Jumpin' Goats!

The goats are coming! The goats are coming!!!!

That's the feeling I had over this past weekend: Underprepared with a large learning curve. We were awaiting 7 exposed Boer does and 4 doelings on Monday (8/24). But the State Fair was taking place on Saturday (8/22) and Sunday (8/23) and the goat shows were taking place. My father-in-law, Wendell, spent both days there and by the time I showed up things had already started to unfold.

As one of the shows was winding up, Dad says to me: "Wanna see the buck I just bought?" Huh!?! I didn't see that coming. Of course I did but I had no idea he planned to buy a buck. We were standing at the pen talking when the previous owners, Diemer Hilltop Boer Goats (I hope I got that right) from Hawkeye, Iowa. The goat, "Tom," took 2nd in a show the previous night and was about to be shown again for Grand Champion and Rsrv Grand Champion. So Katie Diemer took "Tom" to the ring and, to my wonderment, "Tom" took 2nd place and competed closely for Rsrv Grand Champion!!!!!



A quick note about the Diemer family: class act people, one and all!!! It was truly a fantastic opportunity to meet them and to get to know them in such a small moment in time. I do hope to do business with them again in the future, but, more importantly, I hope that the collegial kinship that developed as we entered into the goat market with one of their fine goats, will extend through the years.

So after this wonderful surprise in the ring, we knew that after doing homework for over a year on the subject and trying to learn all we could before jumping in, Wendell had definitely landed a winner. But now what?

I asked if Dad's friend was going to keep "Tom" until we were ready to house him? Nope! He's coming home! Huh!?!



Wendell and I frantically started setting things up. "Tom" was going in the barn and eventually will transition to prairie. But since he would be on his own we wanted to make sure he felt safe. So bedding, food, water all had to be in place. Panels had to be set up. And just as we were feeling pretty good, this approximately 150 pound (probably more) goat takes three steps back and runs toward a gate in the barn and nearly clears it. He gets over, but clips his leg on the way. Lesson #1: that gate ain't high enough!



As you can see from the photo we added a panel for height after "Tom" scaled the gate a 2nd time. He snapped the halter we had on him so I pushed and pulled and gently lead him towards the barn the second time. He tested the side boards and the gates for the next couple hours but eventually calmed. After 5 hours of frenetic work, "Tom" settled in. And though I woke up with horrors throughout the night that somehow one of our gates failed and either "Tom" was wandering around the fields or a predator had simply walked in and did what predators do to goats, I found "Tom" raring to go first thing in the morning when I went in to feed the chicks.

Warmth

Unseasonably cool temps worried me with my new chicks. It dropped into the 50s overnight 2 nights ago and even cooler last night. I didn't do much the first night, but the chicks were obviously cold. The 2nd night I added a tarp for part of the brooder, another lamp, and a round tin cover trying to trap as much heat as possible. Though the birds were still cool, they didn't seem too bad.

This morning I left all these items on after their morning feeding/watering. This afternoon I came back and they were nicely scattered around the brooder. I picked one up and it was warm to the touch, so they're definitely warmer, but maybe too warm. I left the tarp off and will put it back on tonight.

My New Peeps

Like an anxious father pacing the floor at the hospital I've been awaiting the arrival of my chicks. Finally, the doctor...er postmaster called me at just before 6 AM and told me of their arrival. I was instantly awake and thinking what do I do now? Not unlike my first foray into fatherhood, I guess.

After getting the brooder warmed up and the watering items (apple cider vinegar and sugar) set up, I traveled to the post office where my chicks were awaiting my arrival. The postmaster said she left them in the back part of the post office because they started chirping at 5:45 and they were too loud to keep in the main area. Indeed, they were singing up a storm!!!



I first checked for mortality when I got the box o' birds home. Only 1 had died in transit. I had read to expect a few deaths so I was pleased to see only one had not survived the journey. It wasn't until later that I realized the box had been separated boys from girls, so I was able to determine we'd lost one of our ladies. And I forgot to start counting each one as I took them out of the box. So I think there's about 50 total, but I don't know with absolute certainty. Counting chicks as they run around a brooder just can't be done!


I took each peep out the box and dipped their nose in the water/vinegar/sugar concoction and made sure I saw them swallow the water before letting them go. They immediately ran under the light, then quickly figured out where the food was, and then started running in circles like a bunch of drunk racehorses let loose on the track. Maybe less sugar next time.


Then I just watched...and watched...and watched some more. Studying. Learning. Enjoying. It was really quite relaxing watching these chick run all over the place while chirping and pecking at things and each other. Eventually they quieted from their sugar rush and would periodically drift off to sleep wherever the stood. Some fell asleep inside the feeder. Others fell asleep right where they stood.







You talkin' to me?


My primary concern was warmth for the chicks. The light was too hot so I went to raise it and the cord popped free of the drop cord and the light fell down, right on a handful of chicks. I quickly went to work lifting the lamp from the brooder floor and the dazed chick at ground zero stood up and sped off. I started rearranging the whole brooder after that and eventually added a box that acts a little like a "hover" so the chicks could get out of the draft and, between their body heat and the heat lamp, I think they should be fine during this unseasonably cool week predicted.




The kids, of course, were jazzed to hold the chicks.




The shipment came with a "surprise" chick. Can you guess which one it is (if you've seen the above pics you probably have already noticed one of these things doesn't look like the others)? I'll have to do a search to find out the breed of our "surprise."



The girls named it "Surprise" despite my discouragement. They also named this one "Egghead" because a tiny piece of its shell was still stuck to its head.

Chicken Brooder

So here's the quick update on our prep for baby chicks. I've finished the chicken brooder...well sort of. As I think you can see from the picture, I've now laid down the bedding on the floor and placed feeders (red) and waterers (white) inside. I'll use the waterers for the first week and then move to a bigger size. Apparently baby chicks can get into the bigger bowls and poop in the water. Nobody likes poop in the water!

The chicken wire is in 2 sheets. I overlapped the sheets between two 2x4s which I screwed together. After wiring the loose ends of the sheets I used bungee cords to hold it all down weighted with tires. Oh yeah, my redneck roots were really working during that moment. But I've already re-thought this and will likely just place wood posts along the edges so predators, such as raccoons, coyotes, rats, and even cats, can't get into the brooder.

The brooder lamp, I hope, will be enough warmth. I've looked up "brooder hovers" and think this would be a great idea, but maybe more for winter conditions instead of August in Iowa. I will know soon enough...the chick should be delivered at the post office as early as tomorrow!

Never Trust a Pile of Poo

When we bought our home on top of a hill in the middle of a field, we had a lot of landscape work to do. There were no trees. There was no grass for the yard. There was just a house. And there was a driveway that was filled with gravel the size of small boulders, which we had not requested but the contractor did so anyway. Since we were on the top of the hill, every time it rained, enormous ruts would develop in our "yard." I later learned that we should have put up retaining tarps until grass was able to get started so the ruts wouldn't develop...too late!

Finally, grass did grow and it looks like we have a yard after about 4 summers. The ruts are still there and it makes for pretty rough mowing. In fact I've broken steel sway braces on the mower deck of my lawn tractor 5 times and had to replace the entire engine after year 1 due to the dirt clogging up the pistons and freezing the whole thing. It was under warranty!

During the past 2 summers I, along with my wife and father-in-law, have taken on the challenge of DIY retaining wall. Yes, 2 summers. I couldn't complete it all in the first summer. But this summer we did get the walls done. But because of the slope there wasn't enough dirt to level. So I literally shoveled a hole in my backyard and over the course of 3 laborious evenings after work, I filled the retaining wall with dirt to level. Then started filling with landscape rock, which is very expensive.

Then, while taking inventory of the farm, I came across this (right). Upon closer look you'll discover it's a pile of landscape rock. But the rock isn't piled on dirt...it's pig poo! A big compost heap of it. Now why it was dumped here, I don't know. But what I did know was that if I had the nerve, I could get landscape rock without having to pay for it.



What I discovered as I shoveled scat to get to the rocks was that there were some really good sized rocks in there! So I gently stepped on the pile and found it solid. I tried to reach this one rock in particular, but it was just out of reach. So I stepped up a little further and that's when my foot sank all the way to the bottom. Nauseating fumes seared my nose. My eyes watered and my confidence had taken a mighty blow! I failed to take a picture of my shoe but here's a shot of the disturbed poo pile.




Upon my return home I told my wife and sister-in-law what had happened. Between snorts and guffaws, I heard my sister-in-law say: "Never trust a pile of poo!" and something about a classic mistake. Yeah, I'm a rookie around poo piles, but you, my friends, will know better if ever facing this ominous task or a heap of dung that might appear safe after initial review.

Undaunted, I returned to the poo pile for the next couple days and slowly worked my way through the stench. I returned home with bucket s full of stones, which I promptly washed off with a hose.

Then, within shovel reach, was my target. I leaned forward and scooped and pried. The rock, she moved. With one final twist of the shovel, the rock rolled off the poo pile and onto concrete. I've placed regular landscape rocks beside her for size comparison.




And here are my poor daughters, trusting their father with a photo while unwittingly standing in front of a pile of pig poo. Rest assured this will haunt them around graduation, dating, weddings, etc.

o!

Chicken Prep

Earlier this week I placed an order for 25 female and 25 male Barred Rock/Plymouth Rock chicks. They will arrive at the post office sometime the week of the 18th. The plan is for this initial investment to be the largest for the chicken operation as my plan is to use as much of what already exists on the farm as is possible.

As I understand it, a straight-run order is a 'you get what you get' proposition, so you won't know how many of each gender we would receive. The straight-run of 50 chicks at the hatchery I selected was about $91 + shipping (approx $10). But if I selected 25 males and 25 females it only cost $77 + shipping. Since I was hoping for such an even distribution anyway, I went with the cheaper option.


Why the Barred Rock? We decided dual
purpose chicken was best for our operation. Great eggs and good meat. Ours will look something like the one posted here. Delicious!

We'll use the 25 males for broilers, for cookin'. The hens we'll raise for egg production. After about 3 years of egg production, we'll cull the hens for meat. As a friend told me, broilers are for chicken breasts and the older chickens are for chicken and noodles. I'll buy that.





We're going to use this old water trough for a brooder. We'll hang a brooder light, bedding for the floor, waterers, and feeders. This will be the chicks first real home.




The chickens will start in this area of the barn for warmth this winter. We'll be working on creating extra access to the outdoors but they'll have plenty of room to roam and be chickens. First priority is their health, however, so warmth this winter is key. Oh, and sunlight! They won't lay good eggs without it.




Found this little gem hanging on the wall of a shed being used for storage of various items: (antique wrench, rusted blades, and no-longer-usable oil containers). It's an old laying box with 6 beds allowing room for up to 24-25 chickens to lay eggs! With a little adjustment it should work great. My current concern is if the boxes will be big enough for the size of the chickens we've purchased.

The New Beginning: Aug 8, 2009

Every good story has a beginning. Ours starts with an idea; the idea that a small family farm can re-invent itself into something special. I married into a family of farmers and have, over time, fancied an opportunity to join the family business in some capacity.

For years the farm was a dairy farm, but the Holsteins and the dairy operation was sold in the 1990's, just before I became a family member. Since then the land has been rented and the buildings were rented for hogs. The hog operation was quite busy, but that ceased to be part of the business model a couple years ago. So, the question was, "what next."

Over the past year or so my father-in-law and I have started talking about farming/ranching ideas. Seeds of these ideas started to grow. And then we thought maybe there were some ideas that we could pursue on a relatively small scale. So what would be the answer to a farm that had not had a lot of building use over the past couple years and plenty of opportunity? Goats and chickens. Meat goats in particular. Dual purpose chickens, eggs and meat, was the other. All of which would be free range and, eventually, organic. We might add a cow or two to the mix, but the focus, right now, is goats and chickens.

This past week my father-in-law, Wendell, purchased Percentage Boer goats, which means they're not 100% pure, but mixed with other goat breeds in their bloodline. I thought he was getting four. He ended up with 7 does who were exposed to a pure-bred buck and 4 kids doelings. So we are starting with 11 female goats for our small operation which will grow, if each exposed doe has the typical twins, by 14 come January/February 2010. That's what you call a starter herd: 25 goats!



This shed (above) is where the goats will stay. A tree fell on the shed so there is a bit of work to do and we'll be adding panels to the gates for predator protection and Houdini protection of the kids...they might be able to wrangle their way out of the gates. A side door to the shed will let the goats out into the pasture.

The above photo shows the buildings from which the goats will come/go and the photo to the right shows the pasture. The ladies will have a lot of work to do eating the tremendous amount of weeds and grass that have come up in this pasture. It is perfect feed for them!







We have a few fence panels to put in place, a gate that will be added to the pasture in the above picture, and a waterer for the pasture, then we will be ready for the does to come to their new home in about 2 weeks.