Milk!

 

 

 Babies are here which means surplus milk season is just around the corner. If you would like more information please see our Milk Reservations page.

http://westcreekfarm.blogspot.com/p/milk-reservations.html

2024 Kidding Schedule!

 

 

Our new Kidding Schedule is finally up! So excited to see these babies!

http://westcreekfarm.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_19.html

 

 

Farm Helpers

 

 

 Today I put the yearlings to work trimming the grass in the baby pens. Pinwheel, our tiniest doe, had quints and two of them weighed only a pound at birth! And Blossom's quads are pretty tiny too. Although they will all stay in their kidding stalls for another day or two, when I move the families into the baby pens I don't want the grass to be twice as tall as the babies.

Winter Pen For the Nigerian Does

Even though it is still under construction, I let the girls play in the winter pen for a while this morning while I was working. It hasn't started raining yet so the pen they spend most of the year in hasn't started to get muddy, but a huge olive tree keeps it shady for most of the morning this time of year. They loved playing and lounging in the upper pen in the sun!

Juliette figured out how to reach a few more leaves off the oak tree.

My little Wallaby was the only one brave enough to try out the new platform swing and she was delighted to have it all to herself.










The winter pen is a bit smaller than the one they are used to so I plan to only move them up there for the really soggy months. The winter pen has better drainage and a variety of structures where they can get up off of the ground. I am also hoping to get some good plant growth going in their larger pen while they are on Winter Holiday.

Tree Fort for the Buck Pen

Our buck pen is about 50% hill and for months now I have wanted to build a deck of some sort on the hill for the bucks to lounge on, and to provide an extra shelter for them to go under when it rains. I kept putting it off because dealing with pier blocks on the hill and working around the large bay tree was a significant deterrent. And then I came up with this idea! It is 8 foot square and built on a frame I attached to the tree trunk with 4" TimberLOK screws. On the uphill side the platform is only one foot off the ground and on the downhill side it is about five feet high. As soon as it was finished it became the favorite hangout spot.

New Fences

When we first purchased our ranch property we knew we had much to learn about raising animals in a rural setting. For four years prior we had been practicing "small space farming", keeping chickens, bees, rabbits and even a dairy goat on our tiny suburban lot. Our experience with predators had been limited to raccoons, opossums, skunks, hawks, and neighborhood cats. Now suddenly we had to learn how to keep our animals safe from coyotes, loose dogs, and mountain lions as well. We also knew it would be wise to learn about the land (drainage, wind patterns, etc.) before investing time and money into permanent fencing and structures. So we bought two alpacas as herd guardians, put up about an acre of goat fencing with T posts, built a mobile run-in shelter out of  2x4s and corrugated metal... and our learning process began.

We learned two things pretty quickly. First, our alpacas turned out to be extraordinary herd guardians. We saw evidence of coyotes all over our property, but never around the goat pen. The second thing we learned is that goat fencing, stretched by hand, and secured with T posts DOES NOT HOLD UP TO GOATS. It was beyond frustrating to work so hard putting in a fence only to see it look sloppy in a matter of weeks. It still kept the goats and alpacas in but it made the whole area look trashy. Unfortunately we did not have an immediate solution.

Over the course of the next few years we continued to add to our goat herd, add fencing, change fencing configurations, build a few more temporary shelters, and learn, learn, learn. Even our milking area was just a chain link dog kennel with a metal roof.

Although there were more than a few unpleasant aspects to our temporary farming methods, I am incredibly thankful that we waited so long to "go permanent". When we started building our permanent fencing and shelters we knew exactly what we wanted. We knew what configuration of pens would meet the needs of our herd, what type of shelters would be best for our needs, and exactly where to build them. And we had a tractor to help with post hole digging and fence stretching!

I had long admired this fence surrounding the gardens at Heather Farm park in Walnut Creek. I love the way it almost has an invisible look. Although our posts have to be closer together, and our wire has to have 4 inch holes rather than 6 inch in order to hold up to goats, we chose to use lodge poles to go for a similar look.

 This is the front fence line of the Boer pen. We still need to finish adding the strands of barbed wire for added security. We are making four large pens with gates between: Boer Pen, Nigerian Summer Pen,Nigerian Winter Pen, and Buck Pen/ Back Field (more pictures to come). Each of the Nigerian pens have the option of splitting off smaller pens- for new families, separating babies from mamas, etc. We have found that hog panels work great for this purpose. They are super easy to put in with T posts and move around as needed and they are the perfect height to step over!

Fun With Color Genetics

One of the things I have come to love about goat breeding is color genetics. With our Nigerians I am rarely surprised by colors and patterns in the kids that are born; once you understand the rules of the color pattern genetics and know the genotypes of the goats you are breeding it all becomes quite predictable. The moonspotting gene, however, has a mind of its own! Moonspotting is a dominant trait (like polled or blue eyes) but there is great variation in how it is expressed. This breeding season I began playing around with coat color in our Boer goats. My first babies from my color genetics experiment were born this weekend- what fun! I crossed a mostly black doe with a solid gold moonspotted buck and got two beautiful doelings. One is solid red-gold with a light moonspot over her face and darker moonspots scattered on her sides. The second little girl is solid red as well but is so heavily moonspotted she is nearly one huge moonspot! in pictures she looks white but it is actually a beautiful pearl color.