Wednesday, August 3, 2011

new goats, breeding season & dry weather


It's been kind of busy around the ranch here! I have some small news, and some big news... I'll save the big news for last ;).
We got some rain a few days ago but everything is still very dry, except for a few flowers :).



All the animals seem to be fairing pretty well in the heat, although we have lost a few chickens and I think one meat rabbit. But, considering how many animals are on this ranch - that is not too bad.

We have been having to feed a LOT more hay. Typically this time of year we are really not feeding any hay out. But, we've been feeding twice a day and are going to get a few round bales for the sheep. The does will be allowed to munch on them some, but will still get their normal feedings of alfalfa/orchard grass. That's how we fed last winter and everyone did well.

One of the things that has happened on the ranch - breeding season has officially started!! Sunday morning I bred Capering-Valley P Rhia to our "new" Nubian buck, Hershey.

The BIGGEST news on the ranch though is Sunday afternoon, me and a few of my family members headed 4 hours south to Texas to pick up 24 dairy goats (12 does [5 in milk], 7 bucklings, 5 doelings) and 10 sheep. Why, you ask? Because we are crazy :)! Not really though. Long story short, it was a good deal. They are all registered and are very nice goats. The adult does are all Alpines, except for 1 Nubian. The bucklings are Alpines, LaManchas and Saanens. The doelings are Saanens and LaManchas. A few of the kids were still pretty young (8 wks), so we put them back on bottles.

our ranch has been flooded with up-eared Alpine goats :)!




So that's pretty much it for now! The high today is 112 - ouch!


Stay cool!


Suriyah

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