Saturday, January 28, 2012

New goat day!

So today we got some goats. I've been waiting to say that for a long time! One of my favorite animals at the farm I worked at was goats, and we've been researching them ever since.

Through our research and discussions, Sarah and I decided that the best thing for us is Pygmy goats. Since goats are herd animals, it only makes sense to get smaller ones that make less milk, so we can still have several goats. If we had larger, more traditional milk goats, we'd still need to get 2 or 3, but we'd have more milk than we'd ever know what to do with. Plus, if we ever need more with Pygmies, we just get more Pygmies!

So a few days ago we found a local farmer who was selling most of her flock because she wanted to get meat goats instead. She was selling 2 females and 1 male, and the kicker is that both females are pregnant! So that pretty much takes care of a few things at once. The price wasn't a steal, but they look healthy and well taken care of, so that's worth more to me.

We haven't named them all yet, but Sarah picked Roy for the billy (it's a name she's wanted for a goat for a long time) and I'm letting each daughter pick out a name for each of the nannies. I get to name the first baby, though. Depending on how well everything goes, we may keep the first few babies, if they're female.

So far they seem happy in the pasture, but it may take a while for them to get comfortable around us after what I imagine was a fairly stressful truck ride to our house over those bumpy country roads.

So without further delay, I present to you, Roy and the girls:

(I'll get better pics soon!)

1 comment:

  1. Good luck milking those little things... I am sure there could be a youtube Fail video of the first few times you try to work those little teats.

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