No Problem Penny

After receiving several comments on the picture of the pretty newborn goat kid yesterday I thought I would share some pictures of that kid today as a three year old goat. This is a picture of Penny resting in the sun while her mother Dym takes a nap with her head on Penny's shoulder.
Oops, we woke Dym up! She must have been pretty tired because she went right back to napping after this picture was taken. Dym is a much happier goat these days thanks to her daughter Penny. About four years ago or so I wanted a dairy goat to add to our herd of meat goats so we would have the extra goat milk for making goat milk soap, cheese and for extra real goat milk for any Boer kids that might have to be raised on a bottle for one reason or another.

I would find that dairy goat in a purebred Nubian named Dymphna, we call her Dym for short. The problem was Dym did not fit into our rather cliquish herd of Boer goats very well. She was much more passive and way more sensitive than the Boers were. The Boers would say she was a drama queen. I would have to feed her hay separately from the rest of the herd just to make sure she got her share without somebody constantly chasing her away. I did everything I could to make sure Dym was happy, but being the bottom goat on the totem pole is never an ideal place to be.

After a date with the Boer buck one fall day our Nubian girl Dym went on to have triplets in the Spring of 2006, two doelings and a buckling. The buckling grew so fast and so big he impressed one fellow enough to take him home as a commercial herd sire. I knew right away I was going to keep both of her doelings. One was a beautiful deep mahogany red with striking black points on her lower legs, face and a black stripe down her back; I named her Red Rose. The other was a little, mousy tan doeling that I thought was as pretty and sweet as could be, even if it was in a sort of plain Jane way according to my husband. We often do have differing opinions on some goats. I named this doeling Penny. Plain or not, I knew she was special, but I did not know she would grow up to be such an important goat for her little family and for herd compatibility.

Dym was a wonderful mother and she doted on her two girls. She raised them well, all three have always been inseparable. They eat and sleep together always. It did not take long to see Rose had grown into Dym's shadow, she had her mother's sensitive, too passive nature and was going to have the same problems in the herd. They were both destined to be bossed around and chased off the best sleeping spots by the top Boer girls on the farm. Little Penny was growing too, the mousy little doeling was getting big and her horns were getting even bigger.

Penny was not too old when I noticed she started standing up to even the top of the Boer ranks and most of them started backing down from her. One by one they stopped challenging Penny. She has not become the herd Queen yet, as that title is now held by Emma, but nobody messes with Penny either and she lives quite comfortably in the top half of the herd pecking order. Penny didn't forget where she came from though and remarkably she brought her mother and her sister up with her. The herd dynamic has changed because now that Penny is around acting as her family's protector, nobody picks on Dym or Rose anymore. I have seen Penny stand up for her mother many times to other goats, eventually the other goats quit picking on Dym and Rose all together. Dym and Rose are happier and more confident these days, they have even started to stand up for themselves now. The whole herd gets along better now thanks to Penny. Not bad for a mousy, little plain Jane of a goat.

This is a picture of our Nubian family. Mother Dym is the black goat in the middle with daughters Penny and Rose on each side. (Penny and Rose are actually Boer/Nubian crosses.)

Penny and her sister Rose. I really like the Boer / Nubian crosses. Penny is a great dual purpose goat. Her offspring are fast growing and she produced a quite fair amount of milk last year. She took to the milk stand and to being milked just as quick and easy as could be, no fuss, no drama. In fact she did so well the first time she was milked the hardest part was just getting her big horns through the head piece of the stand. She also learned to lead in one very short lesson. I call her "No Problem Penny" because she is good at everything and she took care of the problems.

Goat Due Date Calculator

Since kidding season is in full swing for many goat owners, I wanted to help out by putting the goat due date calculator on this blog, however blogger is not cooperating with me today so if you follow this link you will find it on our farm website. This is a handy tool for people that know what day their doe was bred and want to know what due date to prepare for. This Goat Due Date Calculator is based on a typical 150 day gestation. Since a goats normal due date may range from 145 to 155 days of pregnancy this calculator is just a useful guide that can give you a pretty good idea about when your doe might kid so you will know well in advance when to have your goat kidding kit ready. In my experience, 90% of our Boer and Boer cross goats kid between day 148 and 152 of their pregnancy, with a very high percentage kidding right on day 150 each year, but I have had them kid as early as day 145 and as late as day 153. This calculator can be found on our farm website at www.kansasboergoats.com all year round.

The picture is of "Penny", one of our Boer/Nubian cross does a few hours after she was born. If you are using the calculator for does whose bred dates and due dates fall in the same year the calculator may show day 149 instead of 150.

A Weird Goat and Other Random Things

Lacey is a weird goat, she likes to stand up on the fence or on the side of the shed and roll her head around. There is not anything wrong with her, she is perfectly healthy. In fact this behavior is typically followed by her taking off happily hopping and kicking in play. I can only assume she does this because she thinks it is fun, maybe in the same way my sister and I used to roll down hills as children. There was no point to it but we would stand up at the bottom of the hill covered in leaves, dizzy and laughing just for the fun of it, or maybe Lacey is doing neck exercises because she is worried about getting a double chin....who knows, she is a weird goat.

In other news, the corner hay meadow has been burned off, we will see a quick green up of the field after a rain. Hopefully we will put up some good hay for our goats and horse from this meadow and the other hay fields later in the summer.

In other more annoying news I am still waiting on the seeds I ordered from Park Seed. My order was placed back on February 23rd, but for some reason that was never explained to me they waited until March 4th to send them, or in other words over a week for them to get around to even mailing them and charging my credit card despite that I got an order conformation that these seeds would ship "now" in my email the day I ordered them. I was never sent a follow-up email or any kind of communication from them to let me know. I only found out when I called them on the 4th after the seeds did not arrive. The person I talked to did not seem to know much of what was going on and he offered no apologies or explanations other than to say "they usually ship out in 24 to 48 hours". I am hoping they did get mailed out this time and will be here soon since some of them need to be started indoors some time before the last frost and I am anxious to start planting!

Animals on the Farm

Becky asked what animals we have on the farm, so here is a quick run down of them. We have 24 goats right now on the farm, but 14 are bred and due to kid in the next month. We also have 4 Great Pyrenees dogs, 2 lazy, no mice catching cats, and a horse. We have plans to add chickens to the farm this year as well. I will manage to refrain from boring you with a list of all their names, though it isn't easy. (Yes, they do all have names) Thank you for your question Becky.

The goats are unhappy with me today since it was vaccination day and they all had to get shots. If they are unhappy with me today, just wait until tomorrow when the rest of them get their hooves trimmed.

The Last Snow - Farm Photo of the Week

My horse, Lakota in the falling snow. This picture was taken earlier in the week and was likely the last snow we will see here until next winter. I have owned Lakota since she was born and she will be 18 years old this month. Shiloh Prairie Farm was named after her mother Shiloh.