Our wonderful friend and neighbors loaned us a purebred Angus bull during Spring Break last year. Look what we got!!
Mouse had a beautiful heifer calf. Herd expansion!
Cornbread had a big bull calf...... cash flow!!!
We ended up with six calves total-- four heifers and two bulls. Even my old friend/enemy, Brindle had a heifer! She is just as high-headed and flighty as her mother and there is no way that I am going to get a picture of those two for at least a while. We are not expecting any more calves until June but that's ok because the goats are keeping me busy now.
First Alpine kids of the year.... bucks, of course! You might remember that I had a surprise doe kid born back in July...... this is the same doe! Pretty good since Tango is just now two years old. Unfortunately, she is not much of a milker but I am not sure if that is because of her ultra-fertility or just her nature. Time will tell.....
Beginnings of our meat goat herd.... Amos was very fertile--- at the neighbor's farm! Her goats all had twins, triplets, and even a set of quads all sired by Amos. So far, our girls have had two singles and a set of twins. Two bucks and two does. I am expecting four more young does to have his kids very late in the year.... June or July.
A set of twin does from a very nice Alpine doe named Ariel and my new buck.
All this birthing plus four more does went on between snow storms. We really only had one big problem from these storms:
The ice and the wind took down our dilapidated pole barn. There really wasn't much holding it up but we had hoped to repair and salvage what we could. Mother Nature decided that we should just rebuild!
On the far left, the only thing keeping that end up is the chicken pen. We had moved the tractor out and covered it with a tarp so that the milk cows could shelter in there if they wanted to. I was coming across the pond when I heard it collapse and nearly had heart failure before I got around the big barn to see what had happened. Luckily, the Bambi and Bertha were already waiting at the door to the milking area when it went.The sheep must have been under there visiting the Alpine buck because they came wandering out from under the rubble only slightly shell shocked. The buck pen off to the back escaped damage, too. He was a bit upset for the rest of the day, though........
Right now, I am getting a breather. Next week, should have about four more to kid.
The snow is melting but very slowly. The ponds, creeks and ditches are all flowing. Some people are complaining about the mud---- but not ME!!
