Harvey reports: We had a great grazing season. The goats were kept busy for 5 months on projects in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Once we got home, Craig had to sort the goats to separate the young does from the mature does so he could turn in the bucks. Do not want any of the young does getting bred too young which could lead to serious problems at kidding time. The new sorting pen worked great. I ran the goats into the small pen and Craig pushed them into the sorting chute. Sue Lani recorded weights and gender. The mature does went into one pen and the young does into another.The wethers went into the pen with the does since they were going to the big meadow which had the most feed.
Once the goats were separated it was time to bring the bucks up from the meadow. It was Nessie’s turn to work.
Nessie reports: Instead of using the big trailer to move the goats, Craig thought it would be easier to run the eight goats from the meadow to the house, about a quarter of a mile. Craig got the goats started up the road and Sue Lani let me go behind the goats. It was working well until the goats decide the willow tree was quite tasty. Craig kept telling me to get the goats out from under the willow tree. It was taking some time for me to get the goats to move. Craig sent Sue Lani to get Harvey for backup. But before Sue Lani got back with Harvey, Craig and I had the 8 goats into the buck pen. Craig and Sue Lani were able to separate the two mature bucks and the two does from the four young bucks. Craig opened the gate and Sue Lani led them to the doe pen with some hay. Once the bucks were with the does I helped load them all in the big trailer and Craig hauled them down to the Big Meadow. Craig decided not to risk the running of the big herd to the meadow. It was almost dark.
Next it was time for Craig to get about 80 cubic yards of gravel spread on the floor of the Big Top. He rented a skid steer and that work was done in one weekend. Then it was time to start hauling hay. Craig will need to buy about 50 tons of hay to go with the 10 ton left over from last year. In 4 days Craig was able to get 26 tons in the barn. Craig added 16 tons last week and hopes to finish hauling the rest this week. Hopefully, the snow will hold off. The cold arrived today but no significant snow as of yet.
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