Tuesday had a rough start
Today started off sad on our little suburban ranch. I went out to do my morning chores with the goats and chickens around 6:30 and found the remnants of our Easter Egger hen everwhere. It looks like a coyote got her. What scares me is that this also where my goats are. I hate loosing chickens to predators but I would hate loosing any of my precious Nubians even more! So I spent a few hours online this morning looking at Livestock Guardian Dogs. There may be one in Lil' Toad Ranch's future :)
I should be bringing our newest doe home the weekend of Thanksgiving. She should be bred and if so we'll have 4 does kidding in the spring. The first of December I'll send blood tests to confirm pregnancy. If any of them are not pregnant we'll get them bred again and have a little bit of a later kidding in late spring.
Noah Goddard, from Goddard Farm in Kansas responded to an email I sent him this morning regarding our buck Duke. Duke's sire is Goddard Farm Rusty. I wanted to hear his thoughts on Rusty as far as lineage. It was really nice to hear back from him. I have so much to learn. The whole lineage thing is very interesting. Learning about which goats to keep which to sell or cull and which to breed is more extensive than I realized. After looking more into Duke's lineage and talking to my husband we have decided to put Duke up for sale. As much as we would like to keep him, our small Nubian ranching operation here doesn't need to have it's own sire. We hope to find him a good home that will use his great lineage as part of their breeding.
Ryland, my 9 year old, and I are planning to show 1 goat each in 2015. That too is a learning curve. So much to learn. And I'm lovin' it!
