Saturday was a beautiful sunny, warm, almost 60* February day in Minnesota….perfect for spending time in the barn waiting for a doe to kid. While the rest of the girls were lounging in the sun, poor Chloe was locking in a birthing stall inside. But I like to think she was too preoccupied to notice. 🙂
Chloe delivered an adorable set of triplets on Saturday, February 18 at 3:15 pm. She delivered all the babies easily and the whole family is doing well.
Dolly delivered buck/doe twins on Saturday, January 28th. She had a easy delivery and both kids were up and about very quickly. We’ve been waiting 3 years to keep a doeling out of Dolly so this little girl will be retained. Her brother is a very sharp, dairy buckling that will be sold as a herd sire. He’s just a ball of fluff here in the baby photos but he’s looking fancier every day. I might be tempted to keep him myself if I hadn’t already retained a buckling from Dolly last year.
Hurricane delivered twin bucklings on Saturday, January 28th. Unfortunately, one of the boys was a very tiny 1.2 pounds and despite our best efforts he didn’t survive. But big brother is doing well and Hurricane is showering him with plenty of love and devoted attention, much to his frustration at times.
It’s often hard to balance raising livestock with working a full time job and never more so than during birthing season. It’s always best to be nearby in case a doe needs help delivering or a baby needs help getting started, especially when it’s January in Minnesota. So this year we are inducing our does to deliver a day or two early so that we can be there to attend the births. We induced Stormstruck one day early and I’m so thankful we did because she gave us our first set of quintuplets on Friday January 27th about 5:30 p.m. when we could all be there to help.
When there are that many babies, it’s not unusual for them to be tangled up and for the doe to need assistance. We helped pull a couple babies and spent a lot of time helping to get everyone dried off and warmed up. The babies were all a good size ranging from 2.7 – 3.7 pounds with four boys and a girl.
So far Stormstruck has been nursing them all with no problem although we will be teaching them to take a bottle so that we can supplement any that seem to be lagging behind as they grow.
It’s looking a lot like kidding season! Stormstruck should be the first to deliver, followed closely by Dolly and Hurricane. I thought I’d share a couple photos of a very pregnant Stormstruck with those of you who are eagerly waiting with us…
A special thank you to Tractor Supply and NorthernLite Photography for the Santa photo!
I am delighted to share the news that both Glory and Nibbles earned a Superior Genetics designation this year!
The Superior Genetics designation indicates that the animal is in the top 15% (85th percentile ranking or higher) of their breed according to the Production/Type Index (PTI) ranking. There are two separate PTI ranking lists: PTI 2:1 which emphasizes milk production and PTI 1:2 which emphasizes type/conformation. I’m especially thrilled that both Glory and Nibbles qualified on both lists with Nibbles coming in at an astounding 94th percentile (top 6%) on production.
And while we’re celebrating the achievements of these special does, I’d like to note that we now have two bucks out of SG does: Sweet William out of Glory and Xylo out of SG Pocket Sized TB Xara from Honey Meadows farm in New Jersey. We are expecting great things from these boys as we seek to improve our herd with every new generation.
To learn more about the ADGA Superior Genetics program and how the scores are calculated, visit Superior Genetics FAQs.
I’ve been reading about “bale grazing” as a method of feeding hay to cattle in the winter and have wanted to try it. In bale grazing, you unroll your hay onto the ground rather than feeding it out of a hay feeder. This spreads the manure around the field rather than concentrating it around the bale feeder, adds carbon from the waste hay and helps seed the pasture. People claim there is also very little wasted hay feeding this way.
Sometimes fate has a way of pushing you down the path. The cattle were out of hay this morning and needed a new bale but the tractor refused to start in the sub-zero weather so it seemed like the perfect time to try out bale grazing since there was no way to get the bale up into the feeder without the tractor.
The boys were away at town so Kati and I used the pickup and a tow strap to haul a bale out into the pasture and then pushed it down the hill to unroll it in true “get it done” farmher style. 🙂 The cows seemed to approve of the results. I’ll watch to see how much waste we have and how long the hay lasts as compared to using the hay feeder.
And for a little sub-zero fun, Kati practiced driving the pickup truck down to the hay shed and then bale-surfed all the way out to the pasture.
Nibbles wrapped up our 2016 kidding season by giving us twins on July 16th. This was during our county fair so I was driving back and forth between the fairgrounds and home to watch the (human) kids show their animals and check in on Nibbles to see how she was doing. This extra driving paid off with my being home when Nibbles was finally ready to deliver.
The babies were very large (both over 4 pounds) and she needed help delivering. The buckling was particularly difficult because he was positioned upside down and backwards and needed to be turned before he could be delivered. By the time he was out safely, both Nibbles and I were exhausted.
Nibbles got a dose of Banamine for pain relief – yep she was sore – and a course of antibiotics to prevent a potential uterine infection from my hand being inside her to re-position the babies. She recovered from her delivery without any complications and has been a great mom, as always.
For their part, the kids were none the worse for wear. They were up and nursing immediately after birth and pestering their poor mother incessantly – completely oblivious to the stress they had caused the poor midwife.
Most births proceed uneventfully, but sometimes a doe needs help. That’s why I try to be present at all the birth of all our babies. (And why I have the vet’s phone number in my cell phone.) Thankfully we got through 2016 vet-free. Hoping for the same for 2017.
It’s been a busy summer and I haven’t found time to post a new blog lately. I guess that’s what happens when kidding season extends into the summer!
Windy kidded the evening of June 6th with 4 tiny chamoisee doelings. We were surprised and delighted by such a large number of kids from a yearling first freshener. Windy was being a very good mother to them but unfortunately the weather was horrible-dipping down to 40* the day after they were born and then climbing into the 90s with high humidity. Sadly, we lost two of the babies to weather-induced pneumonia after an all out battle to save them. It was a heartbreaking loss, but we are thankful that two of the sisters survived and have gone on to thrive.
Windstorm (Windy) is Kati’s goat and Kati is a fan of the youth book series Warriors, about the adventures of clans of feral cats. So Kati picked a Warriors theme for Windy’s kids who will all be named after characters from the books. So without further ado, I introduce Briarlight and Mapleshade…
