It's that time of the year again, and really a little earlier than I would have liked. Had my first set of twins in a number of years. Just wish the dang rain would let up, as we're having an extremely wet winter. I moved them into a pasture with plenty of cover in the hopes that the cows will use it to keep the calves as dry as possible.

Nice looking calves, and cows James.

I'm glad we are not due to calve till late April, It's about 1 degree, and snowing here.

That time of year!



Have some heifers to calve out too. I'd rather not, but sometimes ya just have to.

Wabi, I'd prefer to wait until the first of March, as these are about a month earlier than I like them to be. We were reworking some other pasture fields, and had no place to move the bull to, so he ended up being there when he shouldn't have been.

So far, our weather hasn't been too bad, just too wet.

I too am glad we don't get started till mid March. It is supposed to be below zero a few more days and our first day above 20 is forecast for Feb. 21.

Love some veal cutlets!

That has always struck me as waste Mike. When that calf can grow to 1500 pounds!

We had a cold spell a couple of weeks ago so kids started hitting the ground. For a goat kid to be born, at least one of the following are required:

1. Extreme cold
2. Extreme rain

It's a pretty safe bet they'll start dropping on the coldest, wettest, darkest night of the year. But....I can't complain. Since mixing in Kiko stock over the past 10+ years it's very rare to lose one.

Snapped a few pics putting hay out yesterday. Take note of the expansive, high efficiency shelter provided....

People here that have goats all complain that their goats don't like hay. Must be the hay, because I'd think they'd really like alfalfa. My son's goats won't touch grass hay, but instead have eaten the bark off every thing they can reach.

Good hay makes a difference. Ours is just plain old bermuda but it's good quality. They eat it fine, along with the cattle and horses. Once they walk/climb on hay they won't eat much of it...if it gets crap or piss on it they won't touch it. We hang it in cut/bent/formed feedlot panels from corral panels so they can't climb in it. Keeps it clean and less is wasted. Being above the ground reduces the ingestion of worms. Round bales will result in a lot of waste... Hanging the hay like this helps a lot. I'll try to get a pic of the hangers tomorrow.

I use a hay ring when feeding round bales.

Very little waste. They eat it all, too.

They like the leaves
Goats are browsers-- just like deer.
They love blackberry bushes--

They are THE coolest baby animals-- ever!

Are you talking about goats or cattle with the round bales? I was referring to goats on hanging the square bales to keep them from climbing on it. I've seen folks here feed round bales to goats and it's a massive waste....cattle are completely different, especially with hay rings.

Yeah, I was referring to cows.

I've seen the round bale feeders for sheep and goats used too. The big operations use those.

Barry, our bulls would play croquet with those.

Yeah they are sheep and goat operations...

My bulls would too...

Had a bale on the rear of the big tractor the other day, and went to get out of the tractor to put out a bag of cubes so I could situate the hay... About the time I started to climb down... Wham!!

I looked back and my polled Hereford had head butted that big round bale.. Rocked the whole tractor.

I've not see one of those but have thought a lot about making one. I'd planned on using an old trampoline frame as the starting point. Thanks for posting the pic, gives me a good reference!

If you good folks have the right weather for lambing, calving, or the baby goats, good for you.

My father thought I should raise lambs, they came in January, I don't miss that a bit.


Plan is for us to calve in late April, if all goes well, I'll try to post some pictures then.

New Highland calf this morning....

Nice!

Those Highlands have the hair for it this morning!