Catch up!

I have a new junior herd sire. He is a son of *B White Haven Bundaberg and out of a doe that is linebred on Willow Run Sir Wil Hassida, 3X national champion, 92EEEE and top ten. Her picture is here on the blog. Haven't bred him to any does yet but he's eager to get the chance. He's available for outside breedings. Just let me know.

Last weekend we shipped in 8 purebred Oberhasli doe kids from Rivards Farm in Texas. Along with them came a polled PB buck kid. So I'm in the PB Oberhasli ranks now. Still have the Americans but I'm sure excited about the purebreds. On the way back Bob stopped in Tenn and picked up another PB buck who is out of Milk-n-More lines. He's a big beautiful buck kid and if these little girls get busy and grow we'll hopefully get a few PB kids in the spring.

*B Heaven's Hollow Pistol Pete is scheduled for collection again in Oct. Then in December he will be collected again. Semen is for sale by contacting me any time. It will probably also be on Come to the Farm Auction for benefit of the OBA in late Oct.

*B Heaven's Hollow Stetson This is Pistol Pete's full brother, born in 2010. He's been selected to be in the Spotlight Sale at the ADGA national convention in October. Their dam Shotsi is milking very well and racking up a great lactation record for this year that will no doubt put her into the top 10 once again.

My friend Katie Morgan is out in California until December and is learning to collect and process semen for A.I. She'll be back in December and then we'll have a lot of practicing to do. I was chatting with Katie on Facebook and it came on the news that there was that huge explosion which leveled 50 houses and killed some people. Katie was not too far away from it. Terrible tragedy.

Well, let's see I think that's all the goat news.

Breeding Season or The Joy of Hormones

I have a pen of 9 sweet little 50# PB does. Right along side is a pen of 3 kid bucks. they're fighting and butting heads and mounting each other, blubbering at the girls. Then my big buck gets out and he's been blubbering around the little girls for 2 days. By that I mean, he was running around the pen on the outside, fighting with the little bucks in their pen throught the fencing and trying desperately to get to the girls. Knowing I was going to drag him back to his own barn, he wasn't about to let me catch him.

I go down yesterday to feed. Horror! Here's the 3 buck kids running amuck! the old buck was so upset and running around the outside, pushing the gate and sticking his head in. He just couldn't get over it. Just couldn't figure a way to get in.

The little girls are running around and around in the doe pen trying to get away from them. But there's no way to get away from 3 horny little bucks. One of the larger ones seems to be in heat but wasn't standing. And a couple of the other little girls had managed to get into the buck side. They were too spooked to let me catch them.

One person can only do so much.

I managed to get the three buck kids back on their side but the does wouldn't cooperate so I had to leave them in on the buck side, too. Poor things. They were jumped and mobbed and molested continuously until someone could go down and help me separate them.

Yeah, it's crazy all right. I don't really think anything got bred, but you know goats! It'll be over in a month or two. TG.

Pistol Pete semen is available at Naitonals.

Since Pete collected particularly well this winter and we are well stocked for 2009 semen we are offering it for sale with delivery to the National Show in Louisville. Please get in touch with me so I can reserve the straws you want. Pete's semen was used this past winter and he has AI kids on the ground.

I have two beautiful buck kids out of Pete. One buck's gr-dam was a once in a lifetime milker. See this blog for an old post about Cherokee. It was our first modern oberhasli and we didn't know that she was special. She milked almost 2 gal 2X a day and even in the fall was over a gallon. That certainly would have put her in the top ten and maybe even a bigger record. We weren't on test. The dau doesn't milk anyway near that but has a beautiful round udder and small teats. Her name is Lindisfarme Fred's Cherry. Price is $350.

Second buck is out of a taller doe. Again very prestigious pedigree. West coast genetics. Great udder, good milker. If I can get her into the show ring should be a winner. Price is $400.

Looking for some young stock to add to my herd. Let me know if you want to trade or sell.

Horses and Goats from YouTube

These aren't my horses or goats but I still enjoyed this. The goats are well behaved and very good looking. Enjoy.

Funny Song-I Kissed a Goat and I liked it

Glycerol to Replace some corn in rations

Some one asked about this very topic today on one of my lists. I can't find the post to reply personally. This research is on dairy cows, but since both dairy cows and goats are ruminants, I feel it is valuable information

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Feeding value of glycerol as a replacement for corn grain in rations fed to lactating dairy cows
S. S. Donkin*,1, S. L. Koser*, H. M. White*, P. H. Doane{dagger} and M. J. Cecava{dagger}

* Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
{dagger} Archer Daniels Midland Company, Decatur, IL 62521

1 Corresponding author: sdonkin@purdue.edu

Growth of the corn ethanol industry has created a need for alternatives to corn for lactating dairy cows. Concurrent expansion in soydiesel production is expected to increase availability and promote favorable pricing for glycerol, a primary co-product material. The objective of this study was to determine the feeding value of glycerol as a replacement for corn in diets fed to lactating dairy cattle. Sixty lactating Holstein cows housed in individual tie stalls were fed a base diet consisting of corn silage, legume forages, corn grain, soyhulls, roasted soybeans, and protein supplements. After a 2-wk acclimation period, cows were fed diets containing 0, 5, 10, or 15% refined glycerol for 56 d. Cows were milked twice daily and weekly milk samples were collected. Milk production was 36.3, 37.2, 37.9, and 36.2 ± 1.6 kg/d and feed intake was 23.8, 24.6, 24.8, and 24.0 ± 0.7 kg/d for 0, 5, 10, and 15% glycerol treatments, respectively, and did not differ except for a modest reduction in feed intake during the first 7 d of the trial for 15% glycerol (treatment x time effect). Milk composition was not altered by glycerol feeding except that milk urea nitrogen was decreased from 12.5 ± 0.4 to 10.2 ± 0.4 mg/dL with glycerol addition. Cows fed diets containing 10 and 15% glycerol gained more weight than those fed rations containing 0 or 5% glycerol but body condition scores did not differ with glycerol feeding. The data indicate that glycerol is a suitable replacement for corn grain in diets for lactating dairy cattle and that it may be included in rations to a level of at least 15% of dry matter without adverse effects on milk production or milk composition.

http://jds.fass.org/cgi/content/abstract/92/10/5111?etoc

Key Words: glycerol • energy • biofuel

Oh No!! Don't Go into the Woods today!

Without tucking your pants in your socks, that is. Just what we need, another tick-bourne disease!


Researchers have found that up to 15% of ticks collected carry Anaplasma phagocytophilum part of the same group of bacterium that cause Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Fifty cases have been identified in humans in the past three years. Ticks in the western part of the United States, yes, the same ones who carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, the deer tick is the culprit.

There are antibody tests in place to diagnose Anaplasmosis.The antibiotic doxycycline is the treatment. Use precautions against tick bites that are in place for prevention of Lyme’s disease.


Read more at: http://www.examiner.com/x-7707-Infectious-Disease-Examiner~y2009m9d12-An-emerging-tickborne-disease-seen-in-parts-of-the-United-States-What-is-anaplasmosis?cid=examiner-email