The things we do for love...

Today was an interesting day. A long interesting day. Today we took the does to a farm 85 miles away to be bred. They hated every minute of it. However, it's a necessary step in the life cycle of a dairy goat. Doe meets buck, buck impregnates doe, doe has kids, owners get fresh goat milk.

My ingenious father built a cover for his F-150 truck so that we could transport the goats without the need for expensive and slow trailers. They luckily followed me right in since I was carrying a bowl of grain and they're pretty greedy when it comes to grain. After they loaded up and we began to move they started crying. I mean full-blown belting their discontent. I couldn't take it and rolled the windows up.

On our drive we encountered 30 mile per hour winds, rain, a 20 degree temperature change and a double rainbow.  When we arrived they were shivering and frightened. We got them settled into a stall, attempted to introduce Rosie to her mate and left. They cried and cried as we walked out the barn. That is, of course, until they realized they had fresh alfalfa in their pen.

Weights

Finally got a chance to weigh the goats yesterday.  They're supposed to be 80 lbs when we breed them and I hope to do that in the next 6 weeks.
Rosie = 61 lbs
Clover = 71 lbs

Just like everything else. Clover is perfect and Rosie is not. I've got less than two months to get her fattened up and ready to be pimped out. Too bad she doesn't like anything other than hay and dates. Although grain is supposed to be amazing from the goat's perspective, my little girl could care less.

Educating the massess

I recently made a batch of goat cheese (you can find the recipe here) and everyone that tried it--friends, family co-workers--asked the same question, "Is it from your goats?"

Pardon my frankness but, "Of course it isn't!"

My doe kids are 3 months old, so no, they're not milking at the moment. It seems absurd that highly educated people (including other lawyers) cannot grasp the basic anatomy and life cycle of other mammals. Do women produce milk without giving birth? Honestly, my goat kids aren't even old enough to be bred, let alone old enough to have given birth already.

So, for everyone out there who is woefully uneducated about goats this is for you:

Life Cycle of a Dairy Goat 101:
When goats are born they're called "kids";
Female goats are called "does" and male goats are called "bucks" if they are not castrated and "wethers" if they are;
Goats can be bred at around 8 months of age or when they reach 75lbs;
The gestation period is 150 days;
After kidding (giving birth to baby goats) a doe will produce milk;
Does will continually go into heat for the rest of their lives and if continually bred will live until 11-12 years.

Searching for Goats

Apparently finding potential dairy goats in the desert is rather difficult.   Although we have a large farm/agricultural population this doesn't include my potential Nubian ladies.

I have almost ruled out the traditional route of going to a licensed/documented/award bragging breeder. They are supremely expensive and since they're so focused on bloodlines, are they really paying any attention to the quality of the milk?

My husband suggested I try local schools and see if their agriculture department has any animals for sale. This morning I thought I had a lead when we passed by a high school that had a sign, "Goats for Sale." Fantastic. I called the operator of the school who gave me the cell phone number to the caretaker of the farm. Then I called the caretaker. This was our exchange:

"Yeah, I've got one goat left."
"Great. Is it a dairy goat?"
"Oh no. It's a BBQ goat."
"A BBQ goat?"
"Yeah. A BBQ goat."

Now, in all my research for dairy goats I have come to know a little bit about meat goats. However, in no article or book or journal are goats ever referred to as a method of cooking.  Albeit slightly uncouth, I guess it makes the transition from farmyard to dinner table a lot easier when you're always referring to the goat as "Daisy, the star of our next neighborhood cookout."

So, the school thing didn't quite work out.

My search continues.