Kinder Goat Breeders Association

KGBA

Covenant Ranch

Letting our goats graze

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Hello everyone!
We like to let our goats, sheep and other animals graze freely every day.
Here are some important things to check for before, during and after your animals are grazing.

  • Check pasture for poisonous plants. http://goat-link.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,51/ We leave baking soda in their pens and pastures along with their minerals just in case they eat something bad for them. Normally the baking soda will fix the problem.
  • Make sure the waters don’t have holes and are clean and full. They will not drink the water if it is dirty or has a dead mouse.
  • Check your goats. Make sure they are not limping, standing alone, or not eating. It is important to know your goats and know what they are normally acting like so when they start to get sick you can fix the problem quickly.

Knowing the basic first aid for your goats is also helpful. I worked with our vet and bought some books about goat first aid and it has helped us a lot! 🙂
Here is a link to a website that talks a little bit about it. http://www.napga.org/downloads/firstaid.pdf

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Until the whole world hears,
Beth Joy Wood

Feed mix

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Hello Everyone!
As with our other feed for the animals, we have enjoyed the benefits of creating our own mix. The goats love to enjoy the fresh food the we cut up for them in the mornings. Such as: Parsley (high in iron), carrots, garlic and Kale. The animals enjoy going for walks and eat from our pastures. We also feed them alfalfa that a friend of ours grows nearby.

We have a mineral mix available at all times for the goats as well as a tray of Kelp.

Our does are getting the same “new momma” herbal mixture and red raspberry leaves that I mentioned last week. They also get their cereal mix which consists of the following:

100lbs oats
100lbs wheat bran
100lbs corn
100lbs shredded beet pulp
100lbs barley
100lbs of sunflowers
100lbs 40%protein
30lbs of molasses
Soy oil or linseed oil

Protein: 14.58
Fat: 2.15
Fiber: 5.10

This is just the recipe I could find right now. Momma is always learning and changing it ever so slightly as we get access to other products or learn more.
I hope you all are enjoying the recipes I have given you all! =)
Until the whole world hears,
Beth Joy

~Vinigar Of The Four Thieves~

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Hello everybody!

Our family has started using the Vinigar of the four thieves. It is quite simple to make and works great for keeping away mites, ticks and flees just to name a few. It does help with flys but I have found for my horses it doesn’t help as much. The horses sweat quite a bit more than the goats so I think that is the only reason it doesn’t work as well on them. 🙂
Once we are done making it we dilute it half strength with water for using on our animals and ourselfs.
Note: Do NOT use internally!
First, take your herbal mixture of Lavender, Peppermint, Rosemary, Sage and Wormwood, There are quite a few different recipes out there but most say to use equal parts and some add a few other herbs like rue, hyssop, and lemon balm. We purchase our herbs from the Bulk Herb Store and in their recipe for the Vinigar of the four thieves they only use the five herbs I have listed. Once mixed well measure out 12 tablespoons and place in your 2 quart jar of Raw apple cider vinigar.

Shake then store in a cool dry place for 2 weeks.

After the 2 weeks is over, drain off all the herbs. Chop 2 Tbs. into the liqiud and put in a pot and steep for 3 days. Do NOT boil. If you cook it to fast it will make your house stink.

Once the 3 days are over strain off the garlic and store in your fridge until you need it.
I hope you all have a blessed day!
Until the whole world hears,
Bethany Joy Wood

Feed Your Goats Naturally- Momma Mixture

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Hello Everybody!

I thought I would share with you this week how we feed our goats. We like to feed them with natural foods.

We dry a lot of our own fruits, herbs and veggies. I just love to go out to the garden and pick fresh food and the prepare it for our animals or save it for a later date.

My momma made our own grain recipe and a “Momma mixture” that we give to the goats after they have kidded.

This is the Momma Mixture recipe that we came up with.
Momma Mixture
One part Chamomile flowers
One part Tyme
One part Peppermint
Two part Red Raspberry leaves

You just take each of these ingredients, dry, and mix them together in a coffee can, cocoa can or a glass jar. We normally mix it in a hot cocoa can because then we can put it out in the barn and we don’t have to worry about a glass jar braking or anything like that. You can mix this with their grain or feed it to them plain. We give them 1Tbs morning and night (two Tbs daily) for about two weeks before they kid and two weeks after the kid.

If any of you try this out please let me know how it worked for you! 🙂

Until the whole world hears,
Beth Joy Wood

Our Herb Cabinet

Last year we gathered nettles, dried them and then fed to our goats. Nettles help the doe produce more milk.

This is a photo of one of our bucks last year, Cookie.

Bottle feeding kids

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Hello again everybody!
I so enjoy bottle feeding our Kinder kids!
We once had one kid that was raised on her mother. She is now a sweetie but then she was a little wild.
She would get all the goats worked up and running around the pen just because she felt like it, she would never let us touch her and didn’t even come when we had a bottle.
I remind myself of having to go through training her when I had to stay up most of the night to feed the kids. I enjoy feeding our kids much more now that they sleep through the night and drink less milk.

If you havn’t bottle fed your kids before here are some basic tips.

  • Hold the baby the first few time you try to bottle feed. This way the baby can’t move around when you and the baby are first trying this.
  • Hold the kid’s neck up and as straight as possible.
  • Make sure the milk is not all dripping out of its mouth or it won’t get good nutrition.

And have LOTS of fun!!! 🙂

I hope you have a blessed evening.

Until the whole world hears,
Beth Joy Wood

Building pens

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(Elisha working on the birthing pens)

Hello everyone!
My papa and brothers Elisha, Josiah, and Zeke all have been working on remodeling our barn.
Elisha is in charge of making sure everything gets done right while my papa is at work. Elisha is the ranch foreman and I am the ranch manager. Elisha and I really enjoy working together and thinking of better ways to manage the ranch. Josiah takes Elisha’s place of overseeing all the jobs when Elisha is gone working with papa on something else.
The first thing the boys built this year were the birthing pens for the does. They made a special place above the birthing pens for all the alfalfa to be stored. They really did a awesome job!
This is a picture of the boys hard work!