Yesterday morning marked the official end of kidding season for us with the birth of twins out of our Nubian doe Grace. She was the last to kid. A beautiful carmel colored buck and a carmel spotted doe. They were born at a very hectic time here, but they are healthy and Grace is excellent on the milk stand and is turning into a good milker. We’re very happy with her, although her babies are loud mouths! LOL
I got my dairy mix just about where I want it and it’s showing in the milk buckets as well. We’re feeding a mix of whole oats, flaked barley, a little crimed corn, BOSS, shredded beet pulp, Calf Manna and yeast. They’re doing very well on it and I’m pleased. We copper bolused all the girls here last weekend and are getting ready to give their Bo-Se shots. About time to worm again too and the older group of kids need to be wormed too. Everyone is doing very well and growing like weeds. This weekend all the bucks in the older group will be banded. We’re saving out 1 or 2 and the rest all go to the freezer in the fall.
Sweetie is due to calve in about 2 months. We’re getting ready to build a milking stall for her as she’s not “quite” as tame as our last milk cow, but I’ll think she’ll be fine. We still have not decided if we’re going to bottle feed the calf or milk share. I believe it will really depend on the sex of the calf. If it’s a heifer calf, we really want her as friendly as possible, but with the way calves get scours, leaving her on mama may prove to be best. We’ll play it be ear when the time comes.
