Just a quick intro: I'm currently residing in Missouri, smack dab in the middle of Amish country. I have a small farmstead with goats, sheep, poultry, and dogs. I've been making lots of cheese since my first goat freshened in August. Mostly semi-lactic types. I've also learned a bunch by lurking here for the past month or two.
Waves frantically!
About time you popped your head up!!! >:D
Glad you've been hanging around ;D
waves back and jumps up and down
Glad to be here! You didn't think you could escape me on a board full of cheese, did you? ;)
Welcome to the forum Propercocker.
So when do we see the pictures of your farm, goats and cheeses?
Are you growing a beard to blend in ;D
I'm trying to avoid the beard, since I'm a woman ;)
And be careful what you wish for, I love pictures!
Oh, and cheeses:
Excuse my gender ignorance :P
Wow balanced number of dogs and goats. Nice pictures Propercocker.
I read somewhere that growing alfalfa in partitions and cycling the goats from one partition to another helps with the quality of the milk. How do you feed them?
Welcome Proper! Great looking dogs, the 5th one is my favourite, have fun here!
No worries Gurkan! Its hard to tell gender over the internet!!
I am working on getting my rotational grazing set up. As you can see from the pictures, we have a lot of grass mixed with woods, and the land is very hilly. I'm trying to avoid plowing anything to minimize the erosion--there is already quite a bit of it from previous owners. So the goats get all the grass/clover/multiflora roses/poison ivy/brush they want to eat. I supplement them with a bit of alfalfa pellets, oats, and BOSS (more treats with the grain than an actual ration). They also love ragweed and goldenrod, which we have in abundance. We've been at this property for 3 years now, and I'm still figuring out fencing/rotations etc. Fortunately, I'm friends with the wife of one of the bigtime holistic/rotational graziers in the country, so I get a few tips that way. I'm pretty happy with the milk so far, but this is the first freshening for both the goat and me, so we are still trying to get things ironed out.