March 2009

March 9th weaned all kids from the mother . There will be a lot of bellowing for the next few days.  It’s so dry hope our bore holds up as it supplys water to troughs in all the paddocks. Put around bale of hay in each paddock for the weaned kids, and put builders reo around them so the kids can pick through the squares and not climb all over them, other wise the bale just disapears in a couple of days.

February 2009

Well today is a cool day it has been 38/41c all week but on Saturday the 7th it got to 45c with winds that nearly bent the trees in half. A day to stay inside with the air conditioning,  hoping the power did not go off.  Not everyone stayed in out of the heat,there have been unbeliveble bush fires in Victoria,  hundred of lives lost and whole towns burn to the ground some of the fires started by people.

The heat did not worry the goats not even bothering to sit in the shade but a koala came into our house yard looking very distresses I thought he may have been looking for water I put some water in a container but he did’nt drink any. He sat himself in a low fork of a Melaleuca tree so I put the garden sprinker on,he sat there with the water spraying on him licking this paws and also licking the bark on the tree. After a while he would move up the tree and sleep then come down to the lower fork and I would put the sprinker back on, he did this for two day but now that it is cooler 25c  he must be feeling better as he has gone back up the top of a very big gum tree.  Had to keep the two dogs shut in their yard as they did not like the koala  intruding on their territory.

kidding

Kidding started on the 23/08/08 without much trouble finished 9/10/08 . Lost one set of twins, doe had them one freezing and wet night they where very small brought them inside to keep warm but could not save them. Another doe, (she was kidding for the first time) I watched her all day wondering all over the paddock probably looking for the worst place to kid which she found in among a fullen tree. When I found her she had one big doe kid, it was dead I think it may have suffocated as the bag was tight around it nose and mouth  but about 1 hour later she had a very nice buck kid.      49 kids from 33 does 23 doe kids and 26 buck kids averaging 3.5k.  Still not enough rain  and the hill are yellow with capweed flowers.

July 24

Last week Peter noticed one of the does(edna) had a very large bag  I thought this is not good she must be going to abort,but next morning she had twins no trouble, next day another doe (susann) had one doe kid. I went back through my diary to see if anything had happened five month ago  February 15th…   goat out on road again  ed out with them  not out long enough to do any damage. I was wrong   he was a quick worker. I remember coaxing edward back with a white bucket of pellet and Peter trying to get the herd of does to go the other way back to the paddock they were in. Anyway three nice kid six weeks earlier than the rest. 80mls rain so far this month.

May/June

Edward has been removed from the does back to his smaller paddock and romeo is with him. We have had some steady rain about 135 ml hope there will be alot more. Sold half of the 2007 does and we are keeping  the rest for Romeo.

July 5  We went to a APGM ( australia preimium goat meat) confrence.This was very interesting and informative I must be very careful about what is a saleable meat goat, not only look and weigh right its got to and proberly most important   feel right.