The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: Farm

  • What to ask when purchasing a goat

    If you haven’t already, now is the time of year to reserve your 2016 kids. Early reservation places you higher on the list and gives you the first pick once kids become available. We still have reservations available. Please feel free to email us if you are interested.

    The Freckled Farm Soap Company - Goat

    In the meantime, as you are planning for your new additions to your herd, I have compiled a list of questions to ask your breeder when purchasing a goat.

    1. At what age do they allow goat kids to leave their farm and go to their new homes? Generally this is will be between 8-12 weeks. I personally would not trust a breeder that would allow a goat to be sold earlier than 8 weeks. Knowing the timeline will help you plan, so you will be able to have everything together for your new goat before he/she arrives.
    2. What vaccinations will he/she have received at the time of pick-up? Some farms do not vaccinate kids, while others do. It is good to know what you may need to do, vaccination wise, once you get your new goat back to your farm.
    3. When was the last time the goat was dewormed and what were they dewormed with? It is suggested that you deworm a goat within the first week of having them on your farm (we have always done it between 5-7 days) because they are being exposed to a bunch of new parasites at once, even if you have never had goats on the property. I have heard several stories from other breeder friends of ours where people have taken a goat kid home, never dewormed them, and they died within a few weeks. If your breeder dewormed the goat soon before pick up you are going to want to wait until a safe period has passed before you deworm them again.
    4. Will the goat kid be disbudded? We only have disbudded goats on our farm. I wrote a blog post about it here.
    5. Have the goats been tested for things like CAE and have any of the goats tested positive. Our farm vet does a round a blood tests on all of our goats every year. This way people can purchase goats from us with confidence. Be wary of a farm where the goats have not been tested. Do not blindly trust people simply because they have been keeping goats for a long time. I have heard too many stories of people who ended up with diseased goats because the farmer had been keeping goats for decades and they assumed that they would be aware if there was an issue within their herd.
    6. Ask about the milk production of their does. How much milk have they given in the past? How does the milk taste (ask to taste if possible)?
    7. Are the goats registered? If you plan to show or breed you will want to purchase registered animals.
    8. Have there been any health issues within the herd or has a goat died of an unknown disease within the last few years? People can easily lie, so finding a farmer you trust is key. If they have had a heath problem it’s imperative to know in case it is something that can come back and effect the rest of your herd.
    9. What is their feeding regiment? If they use a different feed than you, you will need to purchase some of the feed that they are used to so you can slowly wean them off of it and onto the their new feed.
    10. Has there been a history of abortions in their herd? 
    11. Are the kids bottle raised? We have bottle raised babies on our farm. In fact, I am not aware of a dairy goat farm in this area that doesn’t bottle feed.
    12. If you are purchasing an older goat… Why is the goat for sale? You may be inheriting someone else’s problem. They could be selling the goat because they don’t throw ideal kids or produce enough milk, or maybe because they have had health issues. On the other hand they could be selling in order to reduce their herd to a more manageable size. Make sure you ask!

    Inspect the goats before you take them home. Check that their eyes are clear and the eyelids are within the acceptable red/pink range. Check to make sure their hooves are in good shape and there isn’t any hoof rot present. Make sure their coat looks healthy and shiny.

    Some more Dos and Don’ts

    • Do visit the farm where your goats are coming from.
    • Do shop around
    • Don’t buy just one goat. You need at least two.
    • Don’t purchase your breeding stock from auctions
    • Do quarantine your new goats from the rest of your herd.

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday – October 30th

    Have you ever heard people talking about farm animals and been confused about the terminology they were using? With this week’s farm fact I’m here to help! Below you will find several terms used when describing the farm animals that we have. These are terms that you might see pop up from time to time on our blog.

    Goats:

    • Kid – Baby goat
    • Doe – Female goat
    • Doeling – A young female goat, generally under a year
    • Buck – Male goat
    • Buckling – Baby male goat, generally under a year
    • Wether – Castrated male
    • Billy – Older intact male
    • Dam – Mother goat
    • Sire – Father goat

    Chickens:

    • Chick – Baby chicken
    • Pullet – Female chicken until they are old enough to lay eggs
    • Hen – Female chicken of laying age
    • Rooster – Male chicken (also called cock or cockerel)

    Llamas:

    • Cria – Baby llama
    • Maiden – Female llama who has not been bred yet
    • Yearling – One year old llama
    • Dam – Mother goat
    • Sire – Father goat

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday – October 23rd

    Many people think that it is necessary to have a rooster with your hens in order to get eggs, but this isn’t true. Hens will lay with or without a rooster. Chickens lay eggs the same way humans ovulate, however instead of releasing one egg a month like humans do they release an egg daily to every few days.

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday – October 16th

    A few months ago I posted a fact about the 5 month gestation of goats. Well, this gestation is incredibly short compared to llamas. The length of a llama’s pregnancy is 11.5 months and ends with a single baby!! I can’t even imagine a pregnancy this long!

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday October 9th

    Have you ever been on a goat farm during breeding season? If so, then you are familiar with the smell of a buck in rut… It’s a unique and distinct smell.

    During breeding season the male goats (bucks) go into rut. During this period the buck’s hormones are surging. They tend to act more aggressively and will eat very little if at all. In order to “attract” the does to them they will urinate all over themselves giving them a pungent odor. The girls love it, but let me tell you, it’s quite gross and it can be smelled from quite a distance. Being that it is breeding season here on the farm we are dealing with it right now!

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday October 2nd

    When you hear facts about when to breed goats you will likely get different answers from different farmers. Some farms like to breed their goats right when they reach sexual maturity, while others, like us, like to wait until they are 18 months old. The general rule of thumb is not to breed before 7 months and 77 pounds. This is the baseline for when it is safe to breed. Breeding a goat any smaller than this could cause serious complications for the dam. Some farmers decide to breed their goats right when they reach this size and age limit… and they have success doing it. However there are a few downsides to doing this. Some say that it stunts the goat’s growth. The farmers who breed early will insist this isn’t true, while others claim they have seen it first hand. I’m not sure there is any scientific proof to this. The reason most wait to breed is that it allows the goat to get some size on her and reduces the likelihood of potential compilations during kidding.

  • Fun Farm Facts Friday… September 25th

    With all of these facts about goat breeding I thought it would be nice to have a fact about llama breeding… even though both of our llamas are gelded (castrated) males.

    Llamas do not have cycles. They are induced ovulators! Ovulation usually occurs 24-36 hours after they are bred! Generally females are first bred at 14-18 months of age.

  • How the rest of our animals eat

    Back in May I wrote a post about what we feed our goats (here). Since the products that come off of our farm come from the milk that our goats supply we felt that it was important that our customers have an insight to the quality of our milk. The health of our animals is #1 to us so I thought our readers might also be interested in how the rest of the animals on The Freckled Farm are fed.

    Llamas

    Our llamas are strictly grass fed. They spend their days eating grass from the two pastures, munching on blackberry brambles and evergreen trees, and eating mountains of hay. During the winter we are literally stuffing the hay feeders all day. Because we do not give our llamas grain the quality of the hay is incredibly important. It is what keeps the weight on them, so the hay has to be nutrient rich. I have talked about the quality of our hay before. It’s something that we take very seriously. Most farmers that grow hay are small and only produce it for a small number of farms, so they do not want to go through the process and cost to be certified organic. The hay we use, however, is as close to organic as we can get! It’s chemical free and the farmer never uses drying agents. Good quality hay is one of the most important (and largest) purchases we make each year for our farm.

    Chickens

    Chickens eat everything. I’ve said it time and time again… chickens are not vegetarians like many big name chicken farmers would like you to believe. We feed our chickens a wide diet filled with proteins, veggies and greens, and grains. Our Chickens get a non-gmo grain and whatever food scraps that come out of our kitchen or garden. Our chickens also pick up lots of greens and bugs while they free range around the farm. You can tell if your chicken is getting a balanced diet by the color of their yolk, and our girls have bright orange yolks. I wrote an article about that as well (here).

    On The Freckled Farm the health of our animals is incredibly important to us. We do everything we can to make sure all of our animals have a well-rounded, nutrient-rich diet.

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… September 11th

    Given that it is breeding season it’s time for another goat breeding fact!

    Goats generally have 21 day cycles, although this can vary depending on breed and the individual goat. They are in heat for 24-36 hours with only about 12 of those hours being considered optimal. If you are not allowing your bucks to run with the does you have to watch your herd closely for signs of heat.

  • Stop worrying about labels… Get to know your farmer!

    I love organic. Most of the food we purchase from the store is organic, but when it comes to purchasing locally you might not see the word “organic” as much as you would like. I strongly believe it’s important for us avoid ingesting chemicals unnecessarily and it’s incredibly important for the environment and beneficial bugs, but becoming certified to sell organic is very expensive to get into and then maintain, so for small farms, ones that aren’t producing on a very large scale, this might not be possible or economical and you can’t use the word “organic” unless you have been certified or sell under $5,000 worth of product a year. Does this mean that you should pass them up because they don’t have that “organic” label? Does this mean their product isn’t as good? Of course not!!

    In stores these labels are the only way farmers or producers can communicate with their customers, but with farmers markets we have the unique opportunity to speak directly to the farmers or producer. Our family basically lives at farmer’s markets. We sell at 5 a week through the busy season! We, ourselves are farmers, and we spend most of our time around other farmers, and I think one of the things I have learned the most from my experience is trusting and knowing your farmers is so much more important than a label. We have all become too reliant on a seal/word. When you buy locally you have the chance to interact directly with the person growing and making your food, your soap, your knitted items, etc. You can ask them about their practices. You can even visit their farm and see where their product is coming from! You can see how the animals are raised, you can see the condition of the gardens or fields, you can see where things are stored… There is transparency. Isn’t that what we are screaming for with our labels – no gmo, organic, free range, etc? We want to know about the farming practices. We want transparency.

    We are a small dairy goat farm. It would not make sense for us to go through the process of becoming organic at this point in time, but we run our farm as organically as possible. We do not use chemicals on our garden or pasture. We use natural fertilizers (compost and manure). Our feed comes from a small local farm who makes all natural non-GMO feed, our hay is chemical free. We use medications only when it is 100% necessary for the health of the animal and then we go through a longer than suggested milk withdrawal period. Our goats are spoiled and loved. We welcome customers to our farm (many of our customers know our goats by name) and love showing off our hard work. We talk about our processes and the materials that go into our soaps. We do whatever we can to provide the best product possible. When we are working directly with our customers that extra expense seems so unnecessary. Especially since that expense would just be passed on to those customers.

    We have many farm friends who are producing “organic” produce (organic in every way but not certified). They are on their hands and knees in the fields fighting bad bugs and doing what they can to attract good bugs. They know their soil and only use natural fertilizers. They work hard to give their customers healthy, chemical free produce.

    We have friends who raise meat animals that spend their days on pastures, in green grass, and under the sun. That eat non-gmo feeds. They also spoil their animals and love them. They also want to provide their customers with the best product they possibly can.

    Are any of these farmers “less than” because they don’t come with a label on their products? Are they not trustworthy? No… I believe the organic movement is incredibly important, its good for us as humans and our environment, but the local movement is what needs our focus. Transparency is important and transparency can be achieved without labels. Shop local… Know your farmer!