Thursday, May 26, 2011

Ways to make my farm feed our family

I have been looking for ways for our farm to feed our family.  I recently got 2 min-milk goats.  They are nigerian dwarfs.  They are two pregnant does.  They are due June 17th.  I am so excited!  Their names are Nessie (the brown one) and Oreo (black and white-duh).  They are very friendly, alot like dogs.  They want their food and attention, in that order.  I have a steep learning curve to go from no goats to pregnant ones, but I can't wait!

 These pics are not very good because they wouldn't get back far enough to take them!  They were all over me and wondering what the camera was! LOL  We hope to milk them after the babies are weaned.  I plan to make goat cheese and butter, if possible.  Milk products are so expensive these days!

Then I had the idea to raise lamb for meat.  I have heard they are relatively easy to raise.  You just put them on pasture and of course, give them water, then they grow and in the fall you butcher them.  So I bought 3 little lambs.  They are all girls and all black.  They will grow horns.  They are in a small temporary pen right now until we fence off the pasture for the goats and sheep to share.  Hopefully they will provide about 50 lbs of meat each in the fall.
Of course there are some chickens in with them too. =}  It was quite the experience bringing them home in my van.  The goats just laid down and stayed calm, but the lambs were climbing on seats, bouncing off of the sides etc.  They were wild and crazy!  Next time they will be hog tied or something. te he

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