What a wonderful farm! Kay sent us your website and I know all heer goats will be happy there. Can’t wait to hear from her about her trip to you.
Happy and fruitful New Year to you and yours!
Best wishes,
Joan Taplin
our goats
One of the most special days on the Ffarm so far,
16th July 2006 finally saw the arrival of our foundation herd of 20 pedigree British Toggenburg goats, all the way from Monach Farm in Cambridgeshire. Delicate & elegant as deer, in a variety of shades of chocolate, 7 were goatlings (aged 12+ months) with the remaining 13 kids born earlier that year (some still being fed a bottle of milk per day).
In September, they were joined by a young stud male of the same breed, Hetherton Merson, a wide-eyed innocent who was very much bossed around by the goatlings when he first met them as they were considerably bigger than he was! However, undeterred, he successfully wooed them - with the result of 8 lovely, healthy kids, born in March 2007.
Our first kids were born at 7pm on 1st March 2007 - our fourth Wedding Anniversary and St David’s Day, a very special moment. Over the next couple of weeks, the six Mums gave birth to a total of eight healthy kids - four boys, & four girls - although we made the mistake of not taking the kids off their mums, early enough; leading to the unfortunate ‘double whammy’ of not only some teat damage from sharp little teeth; but also to reduced milk yields from the Mums, who were only producing enough milk to ’supply on demand’ & so not realising their full milking potential.
We’ve since had a further five kids, born to four more new Mums, in mid-July. They’re now bottle feeding, with the Mums having joined the ‘milkforce’ next door. And we learned our lesson from the first batch, & didn’t make the same initial mistakes again; to the benefit of all concerned.
Responses
By: joan taplin on December 31, 2007
at 1:46 pm
Croeso, Joan -
& a very Happy New Year to You, too. We certainly found it amusing that just after the goats arrived safely, Channel Four saw fit to broadcast a training video, especially for us…..Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’! Ha ha!! Needless to say, we watched it avidly…..not sure I was any the wiser about caprine behaviour as a result though. But at least we “always look on the bright side of life!”
Best wishes,
Jo.
By: LittleFfarm Dairy on January 1, 2008
at 2:41 pm
Hi Jo,
Still finding my way around your site, what pretty goats you have.
Susie from Carrick Farm
By: susie6 on July 8, 2008
at 5:57 am
