Here's Onyx who was born last year at the Blueberry Goat Farm. The milking goats at the farm are all Saanen breed, known for being excellent milkers. Their coats are normally white.
Onyx presents in browns and blacks, the normal colorations of alpine goats, because of a recessive gene. Both her dam and her buck were Saanen and white.
Onyx is friendly, affectionate, and healthy. I don't know if the owners of the goat farm will breed her in a year or two. If they do, I look forward to seeing what her kids will look like.
The Blueberry Goat Farm milkers are disbudded/dehorned a few days after birth for their safety and ours.
Onyx does not have wattles, as some of the other doelets on the farm do.
Sweet little Onyx prettily posing for a photo.
This year's group of kids was named with the letter "P."
I started volunteering during the letter "I" year.
So far, we have three little doelings: Prima, Poppy, and Penelope. And three little bucklings, Peter, Paul, and Patrick.
Penelope and her mother, Naomi
We are waiting for two more does to give birth.
What happens to the boys... they obviously can't be milked. Are they raised and sold as "beef" cattle would be (after they reach market weight)? One of my uncles used to have dairy cows, but my other uncle raised beef cows. We used to saddle horses every few days and move the beef cattle to different pastures for more even grazing purposes
ReplyDeleteGood question. Bucklings are good for only one thing. When they've done their duty, they're either sent to Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School, sold to other goat farms, or "sent to market."
DeleteThe Blueberry Goat Farm currently has two bucks/billy goats that are mature. I don't know what they'll do with them now that they have three (so far) new bucklings. The males mature quickly and can mate as early as 4 months old!
Four months is quick. With beef cows, they'd more likely be castrated (become steers) and then sold when they reach around 1500 pounds, which takes about 18 months...
DeleteLiving in a Portuguese community I occasionally have goat at a Portuguese restaurant when they have it on the menu. Usually on holidays, like Easter.
ReplyDeleteVery tasty.
I've never tried it. And there are plenty of ethnic restaurants in Boston and Cambridge where it is served.
DeleteGOAT - Greatest Of All Time? Goat, antelope, sheep - a bit stronger than beef, ham, buffalo. Worked with a Battle of the Bulge guy who spent some months in British hospital with frozen feet. Fed him lamb every day. The thought or smell of the dish made him queasy. Another buddy shot an antelope in WY. Wife hated it. So did his dog!
ReplyDeleteI've tried antelope. It's a tricky dish to prepare correctly. Everything I tried was tough, oh so tough. Could have been the cook though.
ReplyDeleteLove goat, in moderation. There is a Mexican buffet across town from me that makes goat every so often. Also make sauteed cactus. Oh for yummy. Mixed in with a mole sauce and I'm in heaven.
The older I get the closer to vegetarian and vegan my diet gets. And it's a body choice because while I adore a good steak my body (and lack of teeth) make the eating and digesting problematic. So I enjoy videos of cows dancing and playing as they go into their fields after cooped up in the barn and I don't have to have those pesky "how can you eat those big clumsy doggo cows?" conversations.
I read up on disbudded techniques. Seems to be the most humane. The goat rescues I've watched put pool noodles on the horns of their goats. There is still a risk of injury but the noodles seem to take away some of their fluff and stuff. Hard to look tough with pool noodles springing out of your head.
The disbudding article mentioned the trouble with fencing, equipment, all sorts of things I hadn't thought of as issues for horned creatures. Much easier for the critters and the humans if horns aren't even in the equation, cute pool noodles pix not withstanding.