Halfway through kidding and the Shepherd is hanging in there

Craig came into my office tonight at just past 11pm with an update from the barn. To date 59 does have given birth to 111 kids and we’ve only lost 2 - a blessing indeed! We have a few more “smallest-of-triplets” we are supplementing with a bottle, but no bottle babies living in the mud room this season.

Folks often ask when do goats give birth, and the answer is five months after we put the bucks into the pasture with the does. In past years we timed fall breeding for kidding to start in mid-March because the kids needed to be ready to travel with their mothers over the mountains on vegetation management projects by May. Now that the Healing Hooves herd is staying close to home, we can take advantage of warmer late spring weather for kidding season.

There are perhaps 50 does left to kid which means we should be half way through. A tired Craig declined to be photographed as he headed out to the barn for a pre-midnight check for any does in labor. That’s a picture that would have illustrated a real slice of life on the farm – it doesn’t matter how tired you feel when you’re the rancher responsible for the well-being of your livestock, you do what has to be done. He’s warming up the bottles to take out to the barn now.

No grubby shepherd pic to share, but these pictures from last week’s visit by the local 5th grade class are more attractive anyway :-)

5th grade kids meet the kids, with Luna hanging around for the affection

Miss Larsen enjoys the annual visit as much as the students :-)

Looking forward to welcoming guests to enjoy time at the ranch and goat watching at our Just Kidding Open Barn event on May 9th