This blog is offered from my heart as a teacher. As we learn about our first experience with goats, we hope to pass on our “wish-we-wouldas and will-do-next-times”.
Our blog starts 7 weeks after we decided to find a companion for our Palomino Quarter Horse, Rio who lost his buddy about that time. Quickly, the plan to buy an old wether (neutered male) to 2 young wethers because they need company to maybe goat milk is good to …..why not have babies (not us, the goats). With both of us working full time in our real estate business, those first 7 weeks were a might full. Everything we learned was either from experts or online. A blog with resources will follow. And everything we undertook was more than twice as time consuming as we thought.
We learned about shelter, goat escape proofing, predator proofing, accident prevention, feeding and watering systems, sleeping quarters, how to milk, how to build milking stands, and how to smorgasbord other plants from our 37 acre ranch for them to see what rings their dinner bell. We even learned how to secure a gate properly. After living with horses for years, the technique is quite different….swing the gate into the goat area, dash in with a not so graceful slow swing of your foot as a barrier, then swing the gate closed and secure tightly before they jump against it in pure glee.
Are we ready to rest? No. Our next sprint will be learning about breeding, buck quarters, and pregnancy. Stud service is not an option for us since we live hours from other good breeders. So…. we purchased on top of the line buckling and a wether to keep him company. No rush. We pick both up the the Colorado Dairy Goat Association Harvest Show in Longmont CO in 1 week.
Learn and create and hopefully replicate is our mantra. We start creating quarters and infrastructure for our 6 week old buckling Shelby and his wether companion, Jasper today.
Come join us on our journey.. follow our blog, on Colorado Life with Nigerian Dwarf Goats.