Time Flys.....

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. Everything is in such full swing here on the farm. Here are some updates:
The Angus calf, April, that came to live with me when she was 2 days old is growing and full of herself. I taught her to nurse one of my dairy goats and everyone immediately adopted the routine of me bringing the feed bucket, the goat jumping up on the milk stand, and the calf snuggling up to the "dairy bar" so to speak. Once the calf was six weeks old (around June 1) I started only facilitating this process once a day. I needed to share the goat milk with the lambs that I was bottle raising, born early May. Well, April seemed to adapt, was happily grazing with the goat herd, and continued to do well. The lambs were happy to get the fresh milk over their milk replacer and everyone was happy. Well, two weeks ago I had some major dental surgery so shifted things a bit to no locking up the goats at night. Usually I would walk out in the evenings and open their hut for them to go in but the weather was warm and they were just fine sleeping against the side of the shed rather than inside. Interestingly though, when I went out in the AM to let the lambs nurse, the goat was "empty" which was very odd. I found my answer to this riddle later when I spied Miss April helping herself and the goat not only standing for her to nurse but also fussing over the calf as if she were a goat kid. Now you have to understand that this calf is literally twice the size of the goat - an odd couple. The lambs came out on the short end of the stick but are grazing well and also just about two months old so I knew they would be okay until one of the two goats that are due to deliver kids any day freshened. These dairy goats are like Holstein cows in that their milk production far exceeds the needs of their offspring.
Sure enough, a goat freshened last Saturday but that is a really long story and will be the next blog.