Friday, 18 August 2023

Our Goat Keeping Days Part 2

Continued from yesterday more about our goats at the smallholding in Knodishall near the Suffolk coast.

Four of our goats enjoying some fresh grass on the campsite - winter 1998. 

Below are 3 of the girls trimming the new willow hedge around the campsite in 2001. Goats are really browsers rather than grazers although they do eat grass and need hay all the time they'd much prefer a nice hedge or tree!
 That is Molly in the middle - we didn't keep her long she was the nastiest little goat we ever owned. I'd spotted an ad in the newspaper for someone giving away goats and as it was local we went to look. We really should have turned round and headed home as soon as we arrived because the place was a tip. There were goats and rubbish everywhere and a very elderly man hobbling around using 2 muck forks as walking sticks. The goats had obviously been fed and watered but left to run wild and breed any old how but little Molly was a Tog and I'd missed having Toggenbergs since Daisy "left us" due to old age a few years previously, so we took her home. I'm afraid she went off to be put down not long after she'd nearly knocked me over several times.

I think almost the last goats we bought was another Saanen called Rose and her kid Tilly. We travelled up to Norfolk to collect them. Rose had been mated with a Golden Guernsey so little Tilly was a lovely   Golden Guernsey/Saanen cross. 

A very strange coincidence happened  two years later when someone we'd never met - who I'd been writing to as a penfriend for a year - came to stay on the campsite. We'd become penfriends through a small magazine called The Penny Pincher Paper. I knew she'd got a goat but after she looked hard at Tilly and asked where we'd got her it turned out that her goat Milly was Tilly's twin who had already been sold when we collected Rose and Tilly from Norfolk. My penfriend and her family had been up to Norfolk from Essex to collect Milly just a few days before we collected our girls. - Very odd coincidence. 

Below is Tilly with her kid in 2003- we'd used a friends Boer goat billy for this mating because they had room to keep Tilly for 5 days.  Back at the beginning it was easy to move goats for mating - that was before movement books and ear tags and Much Hassle. You could  spot her being in season, load her into a trailer, take her to a billy and a hour or so later take her home again. It gradually got more difficult after foot and mouth disease  as moving an animal on and off the holding on the same day wasn't allowed. 

A few  years later we were able to mate Tilly with a decent male goat and I registered her kid with the British Goat Society  - Noddishall Izzy. Something I'd always wanted to do - just so I could have a herd name and see a goat listed in the BGS yearbook!  We were never interested in showing goats or milk recording so didn't really need to have them registered.

Why did we give up in 2010?
There were several reasons. Around then we were thinking about moving to Wales, our neighbour who milked for us when we were on holiday had started to get arthritis in her hands and with the children moved out we didn't need as much milk. 
Goats are a real tie, it's easy to ask someone to feed chickens and collect eggs but not so simple to find a goat milker. Even a long day out needed someone to come and check them.

We advertised the goats in the Suffolk Smallholders Newsletter but the first person who planned to buy our goats then backed out. We gave up the moving plan when we searched for a house and found that everyone selling was English, moving back to England, had bought when prices were high, and wanted daft amounts for their houses,  and then to cap it all I wasn't well for a while and as Colin had never been able to milk - his thumbs were double jointed and would never bend the right way for milking so I had to carry on milking even when quite poorly. By the time I was better  a new enthusiastic buyer had appeared on the scene. So we went ahead and sold the two girls we still had - an elderly Tilly and the younger Izzy. 

It was a sensible decision but a sad one. They are such lovely animals to keep, loads of character and it was good having fresh milk everyday without needing to go the the shop. For nearly 20 years we rarely bought milk, I taught lots of people how to milk and care for goats and surprised dozens of people when they tasted what fresh clean goats milk should taste like. Happy memories.

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I found this little framed print on line, sorry it won't enlarge enough to see the breeds - I would have loved to have had this when I was goat keeping


Someone asked if they were pets or livestock. On our smallholding everything had to have a purpose so although they were much loved and enjoyed we never had a problem sending them off when they got too old or sending the billy kids for meat. I met lots of smallholders who wouldn't have dreamed of doing either but it was the same for us for our sheep and laying hens and the pigs we raised for meat. They were all looked after properly and had a good life on the holding  and the breeding adults given names but lambs and pigs had a purpose and chickens too old for egg laying were soon dispatched.

I quite expect follow numbers to suddenly drop after saying that! but on a farm things that don't pay their way can't be kept. 


Back Tomorrow
Sue

33 comments:

  1. I think one has to be realistic about livestock and, personally, I think it is better to make the best use of everything - and that includes meat! I know opinions differ though and I'm not speaking from practical experience. xx

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    1. We just couldn't afford to keep animals that were not productive. It is a difficult subject for many people.

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  2. Goats are such strange creatures with their crazy eyes. Lovely history of your time keeping goats. When we worked at Castle Acre Priory, we rented a cottage for a couple of months. Along the driveway the owners had tethered two goats and every day as we drove down the goats would be in the middle of the drive, so I would get out, throw my arms round the goat's neck and move them.
    Do male goats smell by the way, I remember in France seeing some goats with a male and there was a very distinct cheesy smell.

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    1. Billy goats STINK they pee on themselves to make them more attractive!

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  3. My husband cannot eat anything goaty due to that stink. I think he had a bad experience as a young lad on holiday in France! I have enjoyed reading your matter of fact reporting on goat-keeping, thank you. Sarah in Sussex

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    1. Good clean milking conditions and quickly cooling the milk is the secret to good milk - goats milk and cheese should never small 'goaty'

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  4. It's hard work looking after livestock - they don't take holidays and they require daily attention, so hats off to you and all other farmers, large or small (in terms of acreage, you understand;-))

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    1. I milked twice a day for years and then slowed down to once a day when it was just the two of us and we didn't need so much milk. The udder cream I used on my goats kept my hands lovely and soft!

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  5. When we went to purchase our first goats I was in the early stages of pregnancy. The breeder who also kept Billys gave us a cuppa and the stench emanating from the mug was unimaginable. You can guess the result!
    Sorrel and Sage were an Alpine and a Toggenburg and over the years bred many kids which we ate or sold. ( the meat makes really good pasties)
    The milk was absolutely fine as we were careful about feeding etc. except when they had been away to the Billy when the stench of them was unbelievable . Nanny goats must have a really compromised sense of smell.
    PS I love your posts

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    1. Billy goats taint everything with their smell - glad we never kept one

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  6. I love goats. I'm not surprised that you remember all their names.
    As for losing followers (unlikely, I think), people should get real about the countryside.
    We once went to a West Indian restaurant and had Curry Goat. Delicious!

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    1. We used to have sausages and mince made from the billy kids at first but later it was more economical for a butcher to buy them from us

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  7. I've missed a couple of days blog reading, but enjoyed this post very much.
    Animal husbandry is hard work and your matter of fact approach is the best one in my opinion, when we kept hens I was hopelessly sentimental about them so we don't keep them anymore but miss the wonderful eggs dreadfully.
    Alison in Wales x



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    1. People used to come from miles to buy our eggs - they were so good and fresh, but we had up to 180 chickens at a time so there was no getting sentimental or naming that lot!!

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  8. Many years ago, when my neighbours were away, I used to feed and milk their two goats. It was very relaxing, milking, to the backdrop of the goats rhythmically chewing the cud.With regards to killing animals, i used to fatten half a dozen Cobb cockerels at christmas time for ourselves and wider family.The flavour of those birds was unsurpassed. Ahh those were the days....

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    1. I enjoyed milking too, especially on winter mornings at 6.30 when leaning against a goat to milk was nice and warm

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  9. There is a right time to give things up, and it sounds like you picked it well, even with regrets. I like the print.

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    1. Keeping goats when we didn't need much milk was just too expensive and things got so complicated with rules and regulations. The lady we sold to was still keeping goats up to a couple of years ago so we started her off on a lovely hobby.

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  10. I often wonder where people think their food comes from and how it gets to their plate. Good animal husbandry is vital and I have so enjoyed reading about your goat rearing as a means to a good health supply of milk and meat. Do your family still drink goats’ milk ? Catriona

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    1. No, no one uses goats milk now. The shop stuff is nowhere as nice as fresh

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  11. Interesting insights into keeping animals. They're so labor intensive, but if you're really into it, very good. The milk and cheese sound great but only if you're a really good animal keeper, willing to do it right. As you were.

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  12. You had a wonderful and very productive operation, raising and breeding goats. It was lots of work but all worth the effort for the experience and success gained. Your goat photos are lovely and must bring back good memories from the past. The poster is excellent and could even be framed and hung. This is a great post; thank you.

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  13. I very much enjoyed reading about your goats! With the size of our property I'd never be able to have anything more than hens (and even that is a pain when you want to go away). I think now, vet bills would keep me from having a "hobby farm". I loved seeing the pictures of your goats over the years, especially with their kids. -Jenn

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  14. My sister and brother-in-law have cows, and it is the same. Every year the herd is culled. Two or three are hauled to the butcher. One cow is traded with another small holder who raises pigs. He gives them the meat from one of his pigs in exchange. When you eat at their house, the joke is that they know their meat's name.

    Tim and I are different. We are downsizing with a mind to be doing less work. We will have our chickens, but having cattle is a year around job.

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  15. I don't actually eat meat, but I have several friends who have kept sheep, goats, etc over the years. Surely it's better to know your meat comes from well-looked after animals who have had a good life rather than the factory-farmed stuff usually in the supermarkets! Love goats but not their cheese or milk, too much of a tang.

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  16. I agree with you regarding the animals. We had, over the years, pigs, sheep, chickens, geese and cattle though we were a dairy farm. The mothers, breeding stock had names and were pets but not the offsprings unless we were keeping them. I like to think they had a short but very happy life, often free range! Su





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  17. A couple of really interesting posts. I have some goats yoghurt in the fridge - am going to make labneh with it. Basically drain it through muslin.

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  18. Loved hearing about the goats.

    BTW as a fellow church crawler if you haven’t been to Rushbrooke put it on your list. A little bit south of Bury - the most unusual church I have been to in Suffolk.

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  19. I don't know why but goats make me smile. They seem to have such character and personality! Funny about Molly being the nastiest goat you ever owned!

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  20. Tiny baby goats are the cutest things ever.

    God bless.

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  21. We were right on the verge of buying goats a few times, I don't know why we didn't. Or maybe it was when both chicken and pig numbers went over 50 each we decided that we had enough on the land. They are real characters aren't they.

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  22. Marianne Richardson0128726 August 2023 at 20:42

    We kept goats for many years, I made curd cheese and junket etc. Our children loved them, especially the kids which would jump and climb wherever they could. My foster son wanted to watch kids being born, he was as quiet as a mouse and went very pale....and then he whispered...this is the best day of my life!
    I lost count of the number of people who would tell me that they could never drink goats milk because of the smell and taste..I loved their faces when I told them they were drinking it in their tea or coffee. As you say hygiene is important.Love your blog xx

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