Goat Farming Guide: Growing a Production Herd at Tanglefoot Farm
Tanglefoot Welcomes Baby Goats!
This year, Tanglefoot Farm welcomed two baby goats to our herd; Lavender, a doeling, and Broccolini (Brock), a buckling. The proud mama is Whimsy’s Sugar Snap, one of the three siblings we bought last Spring.
Because our original three were not handled a lot before we bought them, they took a long time to warm up to us. So we’ve made it a point to give these babies lots of love and attention, and they give it right back to us.
Lavender is a lap goat, and loves nothing better to climb up into a lap and just curl up and be loved on. Brock is a bit more adventurous and likes to play. They are both stinkin’ adorable.
Both these gorgeous kids have their mom’s roaning, and Brock has a full white belt, and funny little topknot that parts down the middle. He really is a gorgeous little buckling, and I’m hopeful he lives up to his promise.
Grand Goat Plans
Keeping a buck here on the farm wasn’t really in the original plan, but it seems those plans have changed. The Reluctant Farmer says we need to keep them both since they were the first goats to be born on the farm, making them part of the OGs (original goats.) I don’t know about that, but we will hang on to him for a while, I guess.
Lavender is built just like her mom, and I look for her to have the same deep body and conformation. I do hope her udder is an improvement over her mom’s; her sire has amazing udders in his line!
I plan to breed Brock to Belle this year, and Lavender will be bred off-farm at Renickade Ranch in Norman. Jess there has some gorgeous bucks with strong milk lines and beautiful udders behind them. Her buck Oscar is the sire of our two new babies.
The Last Addition to the Herd
The last little doeling we brought to Tanglefoot Farm this year came all the way from Ca Blackberry Farm in California. She is a Nigerian Dwarf, and I hope to use her to bring down the size of my goats. I feel like the OG goats are all a bit large to meet the “mini” standard. So Blackberry’s Guava Blossom, who we call “Baby” will help us do that.
I am breeding her to a buck from The Tyny Goat Farm, and hopefully she will throw a buck that I can use to cover my does next year. Ultimately the goal is to have a good production herd that is also show-worthy. Now if I ever actually get around to showing them is another matter, for another day!
In the meantime, I am just really enjoying having the goats on the farm. They can be a challenge sometimes, and they are awfully ornery when they want to be, but they are so much fun.
