Cleo's Cottage Mini-milkers

Our love affair with Australian Miniature Goats happened thanks to our rubbish bin.  We were in the process of 'greening' our life and were trying to lesson our load on he planet by gradually reducing the amount of rubbish and recycling we put out each week.  Milk bottles were driving me crazy and so, logically, I turned to goats.  All of my research said that I needed more than one goat, and at the time, we only had a 1/4 acre house block, so they needed to be little goats.  Hence, we discovered Australian MinIature goats.  

Our first mini, Harrison Park Miss Jorgie, kindly produced twin kids a few months after we took her home.  We decided to keep the doeling as a companion and future milker, and so, from the time Tilly was a couple of weeks old, once daily milkings began.  It's been a huge learning curve ever since, but we've now been milking our goats for the most part of three years.  

We loooooove the milk and everyone who tries it agrees that it is the cleanest, freshest milk that you've ever tasted.  It is absolutely perfect for a cuppa or baking or on your cereal (or just drinking!), but also makes yoghurt, cheese or soap when you have enough.  Interestingly, goats cheese lovers have found our goats cheese a bit lacking in that 'goaty' flavour, but we love it's cleaner palate.  Cream and butter aren't really a possibility as the fat globules in all goats milk are smaller than in cows milk so it is naturally homogenised.  You could buy a (very expensive!) seperator, but for the amount of milk we're talking about, it's not worth it.

So how much do we get?  We've so far milked Jorgie (53cm tall, longer body, now 5 year old) and Tilly (49cm petite little girl, not quite 3yo) and have found that Jorgie produces slightly more than Tilly, but that the quantities are highly variable based on how we're milking (as in how often and whether they also have kids on them during the day), feed intake and their mood/part of their cycle.  But generally speaking we can expect 400-500 ml in a milking (though at peak times Jorgie has produced 750ml, and some milkings a goat will produce only 200-300ml).  So if you're able to milk twice a day, you can expect about a litre from a well fed and healthy goat.  We find this to be hugely favourable when compared to a milking breed full size goat who may give you more than twice this - who needs that much milk??

We have found that about 6 months after kidding, the milk levels drop a little, so have always stopped milking our goats at around this time.  Our plan, now that Cleo's cottage has moved to bigger premises, is to have four does on a rotation of growing babies and milking so that we can have milk for most of the year.  Selling kids as bottle babies allows us to keep milking, and helps to make this a sensible financial option - pregnancy and lactation mean that our goats go through a decent amount of feed!  I'm sure it's still cheaper than buying milk, but it's certainly not free.

We use a 'custom built' (ie. Made from whatever we could find) stanchion for milking the goats and they (mostly) happily stand to be milked if fed well while it happens.  We use a simple suction milking machine for most milking and care for udders with homemade herbal teat spray and balms.  

I love milking my goats.  It keeps us close to our animals and able to know them extremely well.  Would I change away from minis now we have more space?  No way!  We love our minis for the size and ease of handling and the fact that there is so much less waste.  Will I keep milking?  Definitely!  We've just kept one of Tilly's kids so that we now have three generations of milkers to see us into the future, and expect that when we start milking Miss Daisy, it will be getting close to retirement time for Jorgie.

This article was first published in the July 2017 newsletter of 'Miniature Goats Australia'. We are proudly registered breeders with MGA and encourage anyone interested in getting miniature goats to check out our association http://www.miniaturegoatsaustralia.com.  MGA is proudly the only association to be exclusively promoting and breeding the AUSTRALIAN miniature goat - go Aussie goats!!

Weaning

It's weaning day today. 

 

The girls - together this morning before they were separated.

I'm listening to Jorgie call across the yard to her baby. It's a different cry to any I've heard from her before- loud, desperate and so, so, sad. She isn't herself this evening. Her favourite food remains unfinished. 

 

Tilly is in with the chooks. Her call sounds so much like 'muuuuuuum' that I wonder whether that's where people came up with the word. 

 

My mind wonders back to the first times I was separated from my babies. My heart breaks for my goats a little.  

 

Our little buckling was wethered and sold before Christmas. The girls were sad, but nothing like this. Storm had always been a bit different and separate to the girls. 

 



Jorgie and a tiny Tilly, even before Storm left, they were the dynamic duo.



Jorgie and Tilly are so alike and so close. I would love to keep them together always. And hopefully, in 6 weeks or so, Tilly will be weaned and they can be together again to grow old and each have babies and be companions to each other. 

 

But practicality rules today. We got the goats to be milked. Tilly is sucking out a lot of milk each day. Tilly is four and a half months old, fat and very healthy. There is no way they would wean if I left them together. 

 

It was time. 

 

I can be practical, but that doesn't make that any less sad. 



Making me smile right now

1. The vertical garden that my mum made me from recycled materials for Christmas.  Growing beautifully in the courtyard, filled with herbs and a few flowers.
2. My amazingly pretty garden clogs that Stu and the boys gave me for Christmas.  Comfy, practical and bright!
3. Our bee box, the cat who naps there and the beautiful buzzy creatures who quietly go about their work throughout the garden (and the thought of honey.....)
4. Huge sunflowers that sowed from chook food in my veggie garden that make great food sources for my bees.
5. They also make fabulous supports and provide some sun shelter for the climbing beans that are in the garden with them.
6. Goats who love to eat the sun damaged apples - even though they are way too big for her to chew!
7. These kids, who love their homemade knight gear and wooden swords so much.
8. Little kisses from Tilly who is now 4 months old.

Hoping our sunshiney, smiley things make you smile too xx

News from our mini-farm

It's been ages... I know.... But we're still here!  I thought I'd write today as I've had a typically crazy day and it seemed worth sharing. 

My morning started before 7, out in the yard, milking the goat. It's been a steep learning curve over the last month for Jorgie and me, but we're getting there. What started four weeks ago as a hand milking of about a shot glass full of milk has become a hand vacuum pump milking machine and about 400ml a day. It's not enough milk for cheese and yoghurt and baking, but its enough for drinking and it tastes a-mazing!  

After breaky, there was sourdough to start and some odds and ends with the boys. They turned 9 last week, you know? My baby boys are growing up way too fast!  They had a pupil free day today and spent most of it playing with birthday presents, but they did come and help collect a bucket full of willow for the goats. 

At about 10, I had to walk the goats. We wander up the road a bit and I let them munch on various weeds along the way. Our baby goats are growing quickly too. They're seven weeks old now and growing so fast!  They were disbudded at two weeks old, and we wethered Storm this week (poor little guy). We've found lovely local buyers for him too which is both fantastic and terribly sad. We always knew we couldn't keep him, but we'll miss him terribly when he goes. 

My afternoon was filled with baking, tutoring my 17 year old brother and belly dance work. I've been back teaching kids classes this term and absolutely loving it, and I've also recently been lucky enough to perform a few times, including once at our local Ishka store - so much fun!

I cooked us a yummy dinner, which, like every meal at the moment, featured broad beans - our massively glut crop at the moment!  After tea, I geared up and visited a friends place with Lachie to undertake our first duties as new beekeepers!

We've bought a hive and are 'rescuing' a beehive each from walls of buildings. The bees would have had to be killed if they didn't have a home, and Sharon and I are both very excited to turn our hand at apiary. Sadly, we can't find a local teacher, so it's down to lots of research, some common sense and a lot of making it up as we go along. All went well tonight and we have one hive in a box with no stings and only a few dead bees. 

And now, I'm chilling out with a glass of home brew, taking the evening off. 

So life is good here!  How are you?

A baby update

It has been cold and blustery here the last few days. Not the ideal weather for premmie kids to be born into. 

We had hot water bottles and old towels to keep them warm last night and we visited every few hours to stand them up on their shaky little legs to get a much needed drink of colostrum from Jorgie. 

I kept that up all day today and they're starting to be much more mobile and have both put on weight - hooray!  Jorgie is being a great mum, cleaning them, feeding well and laying near them (except when she is off scoffing food - I remember how hungry one gets feeding tiny twins). 

Now that they're more mobile, we need a better way to keep them warm. Sock jumper are the answer. Too cute!

Kids!!!

A quicky post for you today to announce the safe (though early) arrival of our kids!

Jorgie was screaming out to me before lunchtime today, so I went out to take her for a grazing walk only to find her laying in her stall with a baby partly born! Not what I was expecting yet!

I stayed with her and helped a little as she delivered, not one, but THREE kids!  Sadly, the third one was too little and never lived, but he was a tan colour and the children named him Nugget. The first two, though tiny, are doing well. Storm (named for the weather and his colour) is a little jet black boy, and Matilda 'Tilly' is a white doe with a few black flecks. They've both walked and fed and are doing well. And Jorgie is doing well too - though I think she is in shock!

So pleased it all happened on a day when I was home, and doubly pleased that it is school holidays and that the boys were able to see the birth too. Awesome!

More photos to come, but here are a few quick iPod shots....



Look how tiny they are compared to my hands!

Baby Matilda "Tilly"

Little Storm

Being born is very tiring work....

Jorgie is already a good mum to her wobbly little pair.

Hey there Jorgie girl....

We've had our Jorgie girl for just over six weeks now, and I've got to say, I'm loving being a goat owner!

The first week was a big tricky - Jorgie was noisy and stubborn. She missed her goat herd and wasn't sure about us. We hadn't learnt how to handle her well and doing anything with her was difficult. Then I had my hand surgery and had to take a week off of handling her altogether. I still fed her, patted her and spent time chatting to her, but with stitches in my palm, it wasn't worth risking taking a pig-headed goat out on her lead. 

I was concerned about not handling her as much for a week, but as it turned out, I think it was good for her. By the end of that week she had settled into her home. She still bleats when we go out or leave her, but for the most part, she is settled and content to sit on her seat in the sun and chew her cud. Happy goat!

Now, I spend time with Jorgie every day, and it is amongst the most peaceful and enjoyable times. I've been wanting to share them for a while, so I took the camera out and here it is.... A day with Jorgie. 

At about 7am (sometimes earlier) Jorgie starts calling out to us to let us know its breakfast time. I toss some clothes over my PJ's and head outside. She's usually by the gate waiting for me. 

"Goodmorning! I'm ready for my breakfast."

We finished building the stanchion and milking table last weekend, so Jorgie now has her breakfast up there as 'training' for being our little milking goat. She's not keen on getting in there, but she's getting better at it, and once she's in, she relaxes and is fine. She eats her chaff and completo breakfast while I brush her, run my hands over her belly and udder, and generally get her comfortable with being handled and reducing her udder shyness. 

Eating breakfast on our homemade (all recycled) milking table.

After breaky, Jorgie goes back to her yard while I finish my morning chores and have some breakfast myself!  If the weather is bad, Jorgie likes to lay on the table in her stall and look out of her 'window'. Lachlan's cat, Pouncy, can often be found in her stall too, curled up on the warm straw. Our dog, cats and ducks all love Jorgie and like to get close to her. She is grateful for their company, but if they come too close, she head butts them away :)
 

Looking out of her stall "window" while standing on her table/platform.

In bad weather, or if I'm away from home all day, I give Jorgie fresh hay in her feeder. We don't leave hay there all the time as she won't eat it after a while and it just goes to waste. 

Fresh hay in the hay feeder that I made for her.

When I'm out and about in the garden, I like to stop by and give Jorgie 'treats'. She loves geranium leaves, mallow leaves, pittosporum branches and beetroot leaves, but roses are her favourite by far!  I've read a lot about goats eating habits and have heard that they love banana skins and citrus peel - Jorgie doesn't. But she does like most weeds and carrots (though she'll only eat carrot tops that are still connected to carrots in the ground, and not the ones I've broken off the carrots *sigh*). She doesn't eat everything, and is quite fussy about what she chooses. And, with relief, we have found that she isn't interested in eating the washing off the line. 



Jorgie likes celery leaves and I like the stems - perfect for sharing a snack straight from the vegie garden.

If I'm weeding, I often take Jorgie with me. Her favourite grazing spot is along the driveway (near her friends the ducks). I leave her lead on and let her browse while I work close by. Mostly, she just mosies along eating happily, but if I see her try to eat something I don't want eaten, I can grab her lead and steer her away. 

Most afternoons, Jorgie has tethering time. I have a few places I like to tether her, and the next door neighbour said I'm welcome to tether on their nature strip too. She gets a couple of hours out there to fill her belly. 



Lots of luscious weeds along the fenceline to eat while tethered.

On sunny days, Jorgie can often be found sunbathing on her bench in her yard. We built this bench for us originally, but she adopted it and loves sitting up there watching the world go by or snoozing. She can see a lot of our yard from there, and also into the school, where there is often someone happy to say hello to her. 

I spy a sunbathing goat.

Sometimes we take Jorgie for a walk around town. We have to be careful of our route as there are a few dogs that are happy to chase her. But mostly, walking her is a lot of fun and she happily laps up the attention of people who stop for a chat. 

Stu has taken on the job of grooming Jorgie and she loves to stand in the sun and have a good brush. Hoof care is my job though and it's not so much fun as I tentatively follow the guidelines I was taught by her breeder and hope I'm doing it all right. 

I'm looking forward to Jorgie having her kid/s. Unfortunately, we don't have a good due date as no one saw her mated and she was in with the buck about 6 weeks!  But the earliest she'll be due is mid October, and she is just beginning to develop her udder this week, so I'm anticipating the birth sometime in about a month. 

After her grazing time, Jorgie goes back to her pen for the night. She has a little more chaff to convince her to go to bed (we divided up her daily rations so we could do this), and eventually, she settles down in her stall for the night. 

A goat anchor

We didn't get our goat, Jorgie, with the intention of tethering her. I've read some horror stories of goats hanging themselves from their tether, of getting themselves tangled, spilling their water etc. It is just not an ideal way to keep a goat - or any animal for that matter.

So when we decided to buy ourselves a miniature goat, we built a suitable enclosure and shelter for her, and that is where she spends most of her time. 

Her enclosure is small though - big enough for moving around, sleeping and playing for a couple of goats, but not big enough for her to browse. 

We often take Jorgie for a walk to browse along the way, but you can only spend a certain amount of time doing that, and we have a few areas of our garden that grow beautiful browse that she could eat (that is, our lawns). We could let her free range in those areas, but as she is partial to roses, apple trees herbs and vegetable plants, I'm not sure she'd spend her time eating the grass and weeds!

So I did some research and some thinking and came up with a method of tethering her in those areas of the garden that I would normally have to mow. My tethering system reduces tangling risk, allows her to always access water, is portable and adaptable so that I can control where she has access to. 

And here it is:

It's an old car tyre (free from any tyre shop) that we have half filled with rapid set concrete. We lined the bottom of the tyre with a feed bag first, then poured in the concrete (and a few scraps of old concrete to make up more volume). While the concrete was wet, we inserted an eye bolt with a long stem and the washer and nut attached (they help to anchor the eye bolt so the goat can't pull it out of the concrete). We also pushed the base of a bucket into the concrete to make an indentation to support a bowl (or half bucket) of water. 

To tether the goat, we put the tyre on the middle of the area we want her to browse in (using a trolley or two people to move it because its really heavy!) then add a bowl of water (it needs to sit in the indentation and be shorter than the top of the tyre so it doesn't catch the chain) and attach the goat to the eyebolt using a d-shackle and a chain. You can adjust the length of the chain to meet your needs - that is, make it long for a big area, or short for a small area. 

The anchor has a really low centre of gravity, so the goat can't knock/pull it over. The water can't be knocked over as it is secure inside the tyre and in the unlikely event that the goats chain gets tangled on the anchor, she'll always have access to the water. 

It's a good system, but to be safe, always use it carefully. Make sure there aren't obstacles your goat can get tangled on; Check for plants you don't want your goat to eat within the goat's reach (plants you want or poisonous plants); make sure your goat has some shade, especially on hot days; make sure dogs or other animals (strange people?) can't get at your goat; And check your goat is ok regularly - ie. don't tether her when you're not home!

This isn't a long term tethering system, but is a great way to mow the lawns without using petrol and give our goat lovely fresh (and free!) browse. And the anchor cost less than $15 to build - bargain!

Goat people - if you see any problems with my design, please let me know, I'm hoping I've covered everything, but am open to suggestions!

When springtime came calling

The days are getting slowly longer here. No longer do we get up in the dark, and it is still light when Stu comes home from work. Jonquils are popping their heads up everywhere and my baby almond tree is the first to blossom in our garden this year. My chooks finally noticed the days lengthening and started laying again. Yes, it's still winter, but we hear springtime just around the corner.

This weekend, spring paid an early visit, the sun shone, the skies were blue and we wanted to be outside. 

Outside was a good place to be here as we welcomed new animal friends this weekend. 

On Friday, my mum's lamb came here. He came to be a friend for our goat. He stayed two nights and had to go home. Our goat didn't really like him and he was fretting for the calf he had been reared with. 

On Saturday, our goat, Jorgie, came home. Having bashed up the lamb, told the dog whose boss and decided that we're all her family now, she settled in. 

She is extremely affectionate and prefers us to be nearby. This was easy on the weekend when the kids wanted to play outside, Stu wanted to catch some of the suns warmth and I made the most of the springtime visit to pot up some seedlings and scratch around in the garden. Today it's harder. 

Today winter has come back with a vengeance. Swirly, gusty, cold winds. Rain and hail. It's not nice here today. And I can here Jorgie calling to me. Or maybe she's calling spring back. 

It won't be long now Jorgie girl. Springtime will be here very soon and with it, hopefully, will come a kid or two for you.

 

Getting to know Jorgie

Over the weekend, we took a trip to visit our goat. Jorgie is still living on the farm with the other goats as we are going away for a couple of weeks soon and don't want to leave her in someone else's care so soon after getting her. We're also still waiting to confirm that she is pregnant before we take her away from her boyfriend.



Here comes Jorgie!

 It was lovely to spend some time with her though. The boys love her!  Stu aptly described her personality as cat-like. She comes straight to us when you go to the paddock, has a pat and a cuddle with everyone, and then, when she's had enough, she wanders off, tail in air. If you call her back, she raises an ear to tell you she heard you, but keeps walking. If you follow her, she's OK with that, but she won't let you just catch her, much to the children's frustration. 



"I've had enough now"

She has a beautiful cashmere through her goat at the moment and feels like a soft minke blanket, only better.  

Kisses through the fence

Oscar is the buck that she's in with at the moment. He's super friendly, and had a lovely time rubbing his bucky smell onto all of us. 

Oscar the buck

We visited some of the other goats too. Itty Bitty and Shadow are more like dogs than cats - you can't get rid of them!  This pleased the boys, but I'm quite pleased that we're getting a more independent goat. In the paddock with Itty and Shadow are a range of other ladies. Young ones and a few retired girls. Mini goats can live to around 20 years, but the breeders we're buying from, stop breeding their girls at about 10-13.  There are also a small group of adorable alpacas. Very cute!

Goats and alpacas galore!

The kids on the farm amused us with their antics. An 11 month old kid sprinted sideways across a paddock towards us and  then leaped around madly which was very funny. Our boys were quite disturbed by the feeding methods of a pair of six week old buckling kids who were butting their mum very hard - I explained to them that having boy twins is the hardest thing in the world for a mum ;)

Goodbye for now Jorgie.

All in all a fun and informative visit. Can't wait to have our own goats here!