Em Nau Farm BLOG

Hatching, Matching, Dispatching

In the past month, we have had two of our goats pass, both suddenly, both prized milkers and both sadly missed.  The first one who died was Scarlett, our only goat that was still in milk, who went from being fit and healthy one day to passing less than 24 hours later.  We believe that it was either something she ate or something had bitten her, either way she went quickly and didn’t seem in to much pain when she died.  Heather first noticed that she was scouring when she went to feed her one morning and she seemed a little lethargic and off her normal “weetbix” that morning.  As is normal protocol Heather placed Scarlett in the sick bay/come kidding pen/ come isolation enclosure so we could keep an eye on her.  That afternoon, when I was doing the feed round, Scarlett was eating grass and, although still seemed a little “slow” in her movements, walking around the pen and drinking.  The next morning at about 4AM when I was heading off to work I went up to the pens to have a look at how Scarlett was doing and found her dead. 

The other doe to pass away was Sierra about a fortnight later.  Sierra was one of the original two does we purchased when starting out.  Once again she was fine one day and had died the next.  In the evening Sierra had eaten along with the other goats and all seemed to be OK, the next morning when I went to feed them I didn’t notice her missing until there was a loud scream from behind the sheds.  I went around to see what the commotion was and found Sierra entangled in one of the ramps we have for the goats to play on.  She was having trouble breathing and was very bloated.  From the look of her both Heather and I knew she was not long for this earth but we tried our best anyway to make her comfortable.  In the space of about 10 minutes from when I found her she was dead.  Once again from the rapidity from health to death we assume either something she ate or something had bitten her.  The other sad thing about her death was she was in kid and was due to give birth in about a month/month-and-a half’s time.

Also over the past moth we have learnt how to dispatch, pluck and gut a duck, in fact eight ducks.  One of our neighbours kindly showed us the procedure and to say it was a lot simpler than I thought is an understatement.  It was tedious though, pulling the feathers, getting them everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, ensuring that the quills were pulled out was a real pain in the bum.  Now we know how it is all done it will be good going forward if we decide that we want duck for tea.  On saying this the night we did the first eight we had roast duck and let me tell you it was the nicest tasting moistest duck I have eaten.  Also to know that less than 12 hours earlier it was running around happy and that it was well cared for was an added bonus. I suppose it all comes down to knowing where your food comes from.

We have also started our own pig breeding this month, well sort of.  We purchased another two pigs with the plan that in 6 months we would dispatch them in the same way as we did for the last two.  This all changed when we (sort of) decided that if we kept these two as breeders we could use their offspring as “freezer” animals or to on sell to others who wanted pigs.  Time will only tell if this comes to fruition but in the mean time we have George and Mildred free-ranging in the pig enclosure.

The final bit of news for the past month, as hinted at in my last blog “young animals” is we have had twin lambs (a ram and ewe) born to “Dot”.  Both lambs were born late in the afternoon (I know this because when I went down to have a look to see if we had any new ones these two were still wet and the cords were still fresh) and were still wobbly on their legs.  These two, as with the last two born, are destined for the freezer. 

All in all we have had a good month in July – we have had births and deaths, we have learnt new skills and most importantly we have had fun.  We are both looking forward to August and September as coming up in the next month or two we will be welcoming a few new calves to some of our girls, will be expecting a couple our does to kid and, if all the stars align, will finally get some much needed rain.  We also have the Royal Queensland Show (the Ekka) on in August and I will get to catch-up with friends at both the goat and dairy cattle areas.