Sallygardens Smallholding

Launch of the Sallygardens Goat Keeping eBooklet

'Keeping Goats for Smallholders, A Beginners Guide' is an eBooklet that I have been working on for some time now. It's finally finished and ready for sale. The success of the first Sallygardens eBooklet on pigs,  'Rearing Weaners for the Table, A Beginners Guide' has encouraged me to continue with more. This goat guide is aimed at those who wish to keep goats on a flexible small non-commercial scale, perhaps to provide milk and cheese for their family. It draws together from many sources all the nuggets of information that took me months of research to gather before I felt ready to buy our first goats. Sources include books, websites, blogs, forums and friends. Also included is the practical experience we have gained during keeping our goats and advice from other veteran goat keepers. The booklet covers where to buy a goat, how to ensure you buy a quality animal, which breed will suit your needs, housing, feeding, fencing, milking, set-up and running costs, breeding and more.

Goats get a lot of bad press but by following a little bit of advice you can easily avoid the stereotypical nightmare scenario* and find yourselves a lovely couple of well natured and productive goats that will bring you many hours of delight and provide you with milk, cheese and meat. The eBooklet costs €8.

*goats breaking into vegetable gardens, destroying rose bushes, billies chasing their owners across fields, nannies flipping the milk bucket over your head etc.

Welcoming Our Newborn Kid Goats

The arrival of our two new kid goats didn't run quite as smoothly as it could have. In fact the whole thing was a bit of a trauma as a number of events took the wrong turn at every possible opportunity. It all started five months ago when the goats visited the billy, our first mistake was not writing the expected due date on the calendar immediately. A couple of months later we accepted a very special invitation to attend a baby welcoming ceremony for my best friends child. This event was to be very special as her arrival  into the world six months ago had put both herself and her mother at serious risk. With mother and child now thriving, celebrations were truly in order.  A couple of months later I counted up the days and realised that the goats due date was three days before the baby welcoming ceremony date. Pants.

I was certain that fate would be kind to us and that the goats would kid several days before we were due to leave, meaning we could be confident that both the mothers and kids were safe to be left with a carer to keep an eye on them. But, this was not to be the case! The morning we were due to leave one goat went into labour. Against our better judgement we set off with a great sense of trepidation. Their carer was great and she texted us five hours later to say two kids had been born with no complications and they were both up on their feet.

After seven hours of driving we reached our destination, the beautiful town of Kenmare in Co Kerry. We checked into the Hostel and found a great little pub for dinner. We chatted excitedly about the ceremony planned for the following day, and how we would then take a boat trip out to the Skellig Islands the day after, and before heading home we would stay in An Daingean (Dingle) to swim with Fungi the Dolphin. Spirits were high.

Then my mobile rang and it seemed that all was not well. The kids weren't yet suckling and they must do so within six hours of birth in order to ingest antibody rich colostrum. After six hours the ability to absorb the colostrum through the stomach and gut lining is lost and the kids then have no defence against illness. Their chances of survival would be minimal. She tried all the tricks in the book, including bottle feeding, but as the six hour deadline loomed and darkness fell their carer milked out some colostrum from Esme, loaded the kids into her car and took them to the vet for a tube feed.

At this stage Dan and I knew that we had made the wrong decision to leave our goats at such a crucial stage, so following a tearful phone call to my best friend to explain what was happening, we packed up and left Kenmare after only two hours! We arrived home at 2.30am and stayed up till 4am looking after the goats. At 8am I got up to check them and was delighted to witness the smaller doe suckling but the larger doe was still not managing it. Although she licked the udder she seemed to have no sucking reflex. I tube fed her again.  Tube feeding can get the vital colostrum into their system, but it's only an emergency solution. For a weak kid it can give them enough energy to get going and suckling, but having a full tummy also inhibits the sucking reflex ... vicious circle.

Happily a few hours later hunger kicked in again, and before the fine line of exhaustion took hold she finally managed to suckle. Exhausted we all breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed a good nights sleep.

You've Got To Be Kidding

Five months ago (151 days to be precise) our goats were covered by a billy. Yesterday was their due date but it's not unusual for a goat to go a few days before or after that. This week I've been out to the field every couple of hours to try and spot any signs of impending labour but as yet, nothing. I'm still not entirely sure if they are both in kid. I'm pretty sure I felt kids kicking in the belly of Esme but then again ruminants tend to have massive belly gurgling events as a matter of course, in fact it's a sign of good digestive health. The same goat is definitely 'bagging up' which means her udders are filling out, a sure sign that something is afoot.

Their shelter is ready with clean fresh hay, baby bottles just in case, some lubrication jelly, a pair of long plastic gloves and antiseptic for the umbilical cord wound ... with any luck I won't need most of it! I'm hoping to milk out a small jar of milk in the first few hours after the kids have had a feed. It contains antibody rich colostrum which is vital for their survival and must be ingested within hours of birth or the kids won't survive. Having a small amount in the freezer for emergencies is an indispensable  and wonderful insurance policy.

Right, I'm off out to check the goats again!

Making Cheese

This summer I really want to try my hand at cheese making. Last year I made some soft yogurt cheese but I'm ready to move to the next level and try a complicated hard cheese. This involves the use of rennet and a starter culture, and following a recipe to the letter. Unlike the soft cheese I won't taste the results of my efforts immediately, it will be a tantalising few months before I first cut into my cheese.

I've been reading up on cheesemaking for over a year now and I am sooo impatient to get stuck in. I keep looking at my two goats for signs of pregnancy and I'm hoping at least one of them is in kid.  We will know one way or the other when they reach their due date in roughly three weeks time. Unless they give birth I won't have a milk supply this year.

Being ever optimistic I have just ordered a few bits and pieces from a cheese making supplier in the UK and I'm waiting for the delivery like a child anticipating Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve. So assuming the delivery arrives safely, one of the goats has a successful birth and my cheese making skills are up to scratch we will be consuming our own home made cheddar and blue cheese by the end of summer.

I'm always thinking ahead for my next project and at the moment I'm toying with the idea of home made wine. Cheese and wine, the perfect combination!

Frisky Goats

When our goats were in season last month they were taken to spend an evening of romance with their gentleman friend Igor. There are no pregnancy test sticks for goats available from the chemist so how can we tell if there has been success? Well the first thing to do is to watch the ladies closely after 19 days to see if theres any sign of them coming back into season. Their normal cycle is 21 days at this time of year, so I marked on the calendar four days from day 19 to 22. I always see my goats once or twice a day anyway and spend some time saying hello, having a chat, and just observing them sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes I sit with them for a while on warm days and chew the cud, they then often rub cheeks with me and sniff my ear.

There were no telltale signs ... no loud bleating (to unashamedly entice any potential billy from miles around), their tails weren't wagging with excitement, and they just generally didn't look frisky! I can't quite put into words how a goat looks frisky, but when you spend time observing your animals, after a while you can read them like a book.  I suppose their movements are a bit more speedy, they seem to glance very often around the countryside and they are a little lighter on their toes ... skipping about as compared to their usual heavier plod. When they do show signs of this 'friskyness' a pat on the base of the back where the tail emerges can result in frantic tail wagging, another sign when put with the other observations gives you the clues that you need. In our case none of these signs have reappeared since their blind date, which bodes well but isn't at 100% guarantee. If we are wrong then we have missed the boat for this year, as they won't be back in season again until next autumn and that would mean no milk and no meat ie an expensive mistake.

Well Igors guardian texted on his behalf on day 19 to enquire as to whether or not Esme or Willow would be interested in another visit. Alas, unfortunately for Igor, I had to reply and explain that both ladies seemed very content and not quite up for adventure.

The other thing we can do to decipher whether or not they are in kid is to wait and see if any kids are born in 5 months time. It's not until quite near the due date that they get big, and if you look closely you may see some kicking around their abdomen area.

Tune back end of April to see if we are blessed with any new arrivals ... best case scenario four healthy kids.

Breeding Goats

In the Northern Hemisphere the shortening days bring goats into season this time of year.  From roughly September to December they have a 48 hour fertile window every 21 days. We don't keep a billy goat for a variety of reasons .... the ability to keep him fenced in is an insurmountable challenge I don't wish to get involved with! Also the amount of extra feed rations he would require would leave a serious dent in my wallet. There's of course also the safety aspect ... I have no desire to be the guardian, or indeed be in the vicinity of a creature seriously stronger than myself and with a lust that eradicates any hope of cooperation between (wo)man and beast! Last but not least theres the overpowering odour that a male goat exudes, an odour that seems to be able to penetrate all organic and inorganic matter within a half mile radius of his whereabouts and with the ability to last indefinitely!

When our goats come into season we take them off for a romantic weekend to a friends farm who own the lovely docile Igor, a fine specimen of the laid back Boer billy goat. I gave Esme and Willow a pedicure (hoof clipping) and blue nail varnish (foot rot spray) so they looked their best. Their fleeces are at their peak ... very glossy, long white ringlets of Angora ... if you were a billy, they'd look pretty good to you.

I was away when the goats came into season, a day earlier than predicted, so I missed their trip to meet Igor, their chosen suiter.  However my children gave me a blow by blow account of Igors advances,  the first mating of Esme, his consequent interest in Willow, and how Esme then became jelous and tried to head butt him off her competition!  Living on a smallholding children naturally know about the birds and the bees, and the circle of life and death, its happening around them every day.

So how do you know when a goat is in season? Different goats display different behaviours, but in general she may begin bleating far more than usual, wag her tail a lot, and you may notice a clear discharge from her vagina. If you have a billy rag (a piece of cloth thats been rubbed on a billy and imbibed with his odour - store it in an airtight container!), offer it to the female goat and watch for interest! Only one of my goats displays one of these traits ... she bleats incessantly for 2 days. When she does that we take both of them to the billy, hoping their cycles are synchronised. We will be watching out for her coming into season again in 19 to 21 days, and if there are no signs then hopefully there will be successful births in five months time.

Goats and Fencing

Whenever somebody wonders about whether or not a goat is an animal they might like to get, the issue that will require considerable thought, is fencing. Fencing is expensive, and is often the main factor that puts people off getting goats. You may need something about a metre and a half high, with heavy duty stock fence wiring, round posts at very frequent intervals, and an electric wire along the top. Jumping and climbing are a goats favourite pastime, and of course, the term 'the grass is always greener on the other side' is at the forefront of a goats brain.

The are a few things you can do to help deter the goat from indulging in the great escape. Always make sure they have ample food .... fresh water, ad lib hay, the odd branch. Give them things to scramble and climb on. Ours have steps up the back of their shelter, and we give them tree stumps and planks.

Some goats are more prone to climbing and jumping than others. A determined billy can jump over just about anything if theres a female within range. Dairy breeds and goats with close feral relations are taller and more likely to climb, meat goats are heavier and more docile. Its said that angora are also more docile and less likely to climb. My goats have angora in them, and I'm lucky so far that a 4 strand electric fence seems to do the trick. Most of the time.

Grass must be kept in check in order to prevent an electric fence from earthing, and thus losing its charge and becoming useless. It doesn't take long for a goat to find out a fence is not working! For us, this means bringing the lawn mower into the field and mowing along the fence line. We use the grass clippings as a mulch under the fence to slow down the grass growth.

We also rotate our goats paddock every six weeks or so. During the summer, the whole family is recruited to help!

The other thing little ones like to help with is the milking. Theres a fine balance in deciding when to let the smalls have a go towards the end of the procedure, and then calling a halt to it before the goat gets peeved off and puts her foot in the jug!

Lathered Up

One of my children has very sensitive skin and has suffered from eczema over the years. Some of the things we have tried to help her includes eliminating the use of washing detergents by using ecoballs, going dairy free, minimising wheat in her diet, using a Crystal Ball Bath Dechlorinator and using the most simple of soaps with the least amount of harsh ingredients.

All these things add up in cost and so began my latest quest (as if I hadn't enough things on the go!!! ). I decided I could try to make our own soap, and so after an awful lot of web based research and the use of a wonderful book called The Handmade Soap Book (The Handmade Series). I eventually donned my husbands face mask and respirator from his workshop, this coupled with my own pink rubber gloves, was not exactly a fetching look! However, fashion aside, the end result of the soap was excellent.

I'm delighted we now have a soap which I've made with natural ingredients, and some of those from my own smallholding. I used my goats milk, added some herbs from my garden, and used oils sourced with the least amount of air miles. That mean't that coconut and palm oils were out as possible ingredients. I also made an animal fat based soap which turned out wonderful. My local butcher who raises his own animals, donated the fat, which would otherwise have been thrown out. In return I'll give him a few bars of soap.

Before you shudder at the thought of using animal fat in a bar of soap ... unless you specifically buy vegetarian soap, it will be a major ingredient. It may be listed as tallow. Personally I think that unless I have chosen to be a vegetarian, then I should try to waste as little as possible of an animal which has lost its life for the sole purpose of providing people with food. 

Making Goats Milk Yogurt

I have to extend gratitude to the wise Hedgewizard who has bestowed many a useful tip to Dan and I on our new polytunnel adventures. As Dan says when I post anything to do with the tunnel 'lets see what Hedgewizard says, because he always turns out to be right', and he is. Besides that, if you enjoy a humorous read, head over to his blog for a visit, you won't come away without laughing out loud.

So on this occasion I'm saying thank you because he posted this all about a new yogurt maker on the market. Since our goat kids were weaned a couple of weeks ago we have had a good 3 litres of milk a day, and at some point, you begin to realise you can't drink any more of it than you are, and that there is a backlog beginning to build up in the fridge! For some reason I thought making yogurt would be difficult and so I hadn't embarked on a research expedition yet, but seeing Hedgewizards post got me off my arse, reading my Home Cheese Making book by Ricki Carroll,  and Googling for more information. So, you can either buy the EasiYo, or you can make it as easy as pie if you have these things in your cupboards, as I did.

1. A cooking thermometer. I have both a mercury jam making thermometer, and a digital one, I prefer the latter
2. A thermos flask, or a plastic cool box
3. A litre of milk from your own animals or bought from your local shop. I use my own goats milk.
4. A small tub of live natural yogurt from your local shop.
5. Honey, nuts or fruit to flavour as desired.

Note : All your equipment should be scrupulously clean, and preferably disinfected

• Let your small pot of yogurt come to room temperature
• In a heavy bottomed pan slowly heat the milk to 180F/82C
• Turn off the heat and stand the pan in some cold water to cool
• When the milk reaches 128F/53C stir in the pot of yogurt
• Heat your flask by rinsing it out with boiled water
• Pour the milk into the flask, put the lid on and leave it for 12 hours...
• .. or if using the cool box method pour the milk into clean jars with tight lids. Place these in the cool box. Fill the cool box with hot tap water, close it and leave for 12 hours.
• After 12 hours pour the yogurt from the thermos into a clean jar and leave in the fridge, don't be disheartened if it seems a little runny. Or if using a cool box, simply remove the jars, dry them off and place them in the fridge
• Once chilled it will have thickened more. Yogurt made in the cool box may thicken better as it is not disturbed by pouring.
• Keep refrigerated and eat within a week
• Use a couple of tablespoons of your yogurt to start the next batch

If you find your yogurt is too runny you can experiment with various methods of thickening it which include adding a tablespoon of pectin (apple derived - used to thicken jam), agar flakes, milk powder or tapioca.

Before I thought of using a thermos flask or cool box I also had reasonable success by putting the pot of milk in the polytunnel on a hot day for 8 hours, and on another occasion I put it in the passenger seat of the car on a black plastic bag.  Both worked, just remember to remove the concoction before driving, or you could live with a stinky reminder for a very long time to come!

Once you have mastered making yogurt, its time to try a simple cheese. More on that to come soon.

Note : apologies to those who tried, but were unable, to leave messages on this and the previous two posts, there has been a problem with Typepad, who assure me that this bug has now been resolved. Thanks for your patience, please keep commenting, I LOVE IT, and it brings the blog alive.

Goat Keeping Course

This Saturday sees the first of our goat keeping courses. I'm busy finalising my notes and handouts, which is quite a pleasurable activity as I revisit my scribbles and find lovely nuggets of goaty information that I'd forgotten (short term memory non existent!). I love reading about the natural behaviour of feral goats, it really helps to understand where some of my girls behaviour stems from, and can assist me in how I approach keeping my own goats bearing these things in mind. For example a wild herd will have a dominant male king billy, but did you know theres also a queen? Infact, she is very important, and often takes decisions on when and where to forage, and urges the king to act on her que ... he invariably does, and the herd follow his command. Even if you only have two goats, it helps to observe them, and before long you'll figure out which is your queen. Treat her with the according respect and your girls will be happier! Give her a feed ration first, take her for milking first ... taking a goat from further down the pecking order will cause disgruntlement and a little argy bargy amongst the ladies will ensue, just so queen can reiterate her importance. Goat Husbandry, by David MacKenzie has a great chapter on goat behaviour.

I like to keep the courses small, informal and personal. Theres a maximum of four participants, and I will gladly run the course for just two. That way I can talk to each person beforehand and find out just what aspects they are most interested in, and I will tailor the course to suit them. So if you wanted to attend this course, and couldn't make the date, please do drop me an email and we can sort out a date to suit you.