Here at Good News Farm, our goats are feed all the Alfalfa Hay they can eat that is grown here on our land. We are always working to find new ways to build the mangers so that our creative critters can eat what they want without wasting twice what they consume. We think we have found a great way and it is working so far. Part of each of the goat pens is a horse panel that the goats can reach through. We then put a plywood pallet up against the horse panel on the outside of the pen. The 135lb. bales of hay are then stacked two high so that the goats reach over the plywood and eat the top bale. Very little hay falls into the pen so there is almost no waste and the goats are always eating clean feed and that reduces the spreading of worms.
You might have noticed in the photos that none of our goats have horns. Let me tell you some of the reasons why. Back in the 70’s, the mother part of this team raised Saanens and Nubians because those were the two breeds that her two daughters liked the most. All the kids were disbudded as a matter of course. When we got our first Boers, they came out of Texas and of course had horns. I, the daughter part of this team, had spent several months in Texas prior to us getting our stock and I had seen on several occasions carcasses hanging in the fences. The goats had gotten their heads stuck and had either hung there and died or had been killed by a predator. We knew that the horns were going to be a problem and sure enough they were. We were on a constant look out for someone being stuck because here in the Desert Southwest, 2-4 hours of being stuck in the full sun during the summer can mean certain death to any critter. We gave everyone enough time to settle in and get over the stress of being weaned, going to auction and then traveling 1200 miles to their new home. There were 13 goats dehorned in one day and all of them made it through with flying colors. They ranged in age from five months to two years. The two year old Nubian cross was the easiest and cleanest one to do because the only blood came from the skin at the base of her horns. After the dehorning, everyone wore bonnets to keep their heads clean. We were curious as to how our de-horned does would stack up to the horned animals at the shows and have found that we had nothing to worry about. Two of the does done that day have gone on to become Permanent Grand Champions. We disbud all the kids at 3-5 days old and have not had any more problems with our hands getting hurt as they did in the first couple of months. The does do not have kids with sharp little horns slamming into their udders and nobody gets stuck. Below are some photos of a doe, Nette showing us again why we wanted to remove the horns and how she looked afterwards. The buck with the contraption on his head is Sackett. We knew that this handsome fella would be returning to Texas where he would once again be with horned animals so he needed to retain his crown. Sackett was very good at showing us how ingenious goats can be at getting stuck and at removing unwanted items from their head. We also were educated on how many bruises could be gotten by simply leading a buck around who wanted us to know how much he LOVED us. He would try to rub his head on us and invariably his horn would catch us on the leg or hands. We enjoy our horn free herd and hope you leave this page with a better understanding of us and our Farm.
Here in Arizona we are blessed with a goat association that provides us a chance to show under four different judges in one weekend. These shows are over Memorial Day in Casa Grande, AZ. It is great to be able to get together with fellow breeders and enjoy the weekend even if everything does get a bit hectic. Breeders of Boers and Dairy goats come from all over the state and a few even come in from CA. and N.M... We get very excited about this show and generally take ten to fifteen does. Unfortunately, there is not a buck show that we can get to, a common problem for a lot of breeders. Here is a photo of the awards that came home with us from the 2003 Arizona State Dairy Goat Association Memorial Day Show. The Boers are sanctioned by USBGA.
