The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: Goats

  • Keeping predators out of your fencing

    Here at The Freckled Farm we have a tendency to go a little overboard in our planning of new projects. One example of this is our fencing. Most farms we have been to or visited use a pretty standard field fence for their pastures and their pens and smaller areas meant to separate kids, etc, are frequently made from wood or cattle panels. While we were researching what type of fencing we were using we were concerned with two things, predators and escapees. Goats are notorious escape artists so we wanted to make sure they would stay IN our fence, and stay safe.

    We chose a 5’ no-climb horse fence. This pretty much guarantees that our goats are staying put. Of course we still have to be careful not to put anything they could climb close to the fence. So that takes care of one of our two things, now on to the predators.

    In our area we have several predators to worry about when it comes to our goats. Coyotes, Bears, and more commonly, wandering dogs, can all be dangerous to your herd. On top of that we recently learned there is a mountain lion nearby.

    With 5-foot fencing we have a good deterrent. It is a high-tensile fence with posts every 8-10 feet so it would also be pretty tough to push or pull down. This should stop most dogs. Bears are unlikely to be motivated enough to do much here, etc. A fence though is not enough to protect your herd. Coyotes especially can jump a 5-foot fence with ease. I’m sure a mountain lion could do the same, if not scale the posts. So the best thing the fence really does is keep the herd in place, and keep predators from casually wandering into a meal.

    Electric fencing in addition to a good high-tensile barrier fence can go a long way to stop any would be attackers. You want to make sure you have an electric wire low, to prevent digging, but also one high to prevent jumping over the fence.

    After your fencing is in place you should really have a good guard animal. A guard can not only warn the herd of danger, they can fight off an attacker. Many people use dogs to achieve this, we use llamas. They are highly territorial and have the added benefit of eating what the goats do, which saves us money.

    Ultimately the best defense is a good offense. Take the steps necessary not to attract predators to your area. Make sure your animals have a guard animal. Keep them from wandering with a good strong fence that they cannot climb. In the end you should have at least a two-stage system. Keep predators out, but if they get in make sure they meet up with an aggressive foe standing between them an a free meal.

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… July 3rd

    Goat’s ears come in all shapes and sizes. Some stand straight up, like in the case of Alpines. Some are so small it looks like they have no ears at all, like in the case of Lamanchas. Nubians have large pendulum ears. It’s one of the features that attracts people to them the most! Beyond being cute these ears serve a purpose. Much like elephant ears do for elephants, the Nubian’s ears keep them cool in hot climates.

    Eleanor from The Freckled Farm

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday – June 26th

    In last week’s Fun Farm Fact I told you that Nubians are the most common dairy goat breed in the US. Many people ask us why we picked Nubians as the goats for our farm. After all, there are several to choose from. Well after today’s fact you might understand.

    While Nubians give less milk than the other standard breed goats their milk has the highest butterfat content! Their milk is creamier, richer, and is ideal for making cheeses, yogurts, other diary products…. and of course soaps!

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… June 19th

    On The Freckled Farm we have Nubian goats. While researching for interesting facts for this series I found out that Nubians are the most common dairy goat in the US. It makes sense to me… they are the cutest goats out there

    Chelsea from The Freckled Farm

  • Vaccinating Our Goats

    When it comes to vaccinating goats the debates are almost as heated as the debates about vaccinating human children… and my view about vaccinating our goats is the same as my view about vaccinating our children.

    Vaccinating our Goats

    This has always been something I have struggled with. I do not like the idea of putting chemicals into our goats. It feels unnatural and scary. The decision to vaccinate is not something that I have taken lightly and the amount of research that I have done is sickening. You can find horror stories for both sides of the argument. My final decision however was to vaccinate. Like with my children I do whatever I can to ensure our goats are healthy and that means making hard decisions. Yes, there are risks associated with some vaccines, and yes, there are risks associated with not vaccinating. It came down to one simple thought… If something went wrong because I vaccinated (side effect, etc) it would be truly awful but at least I was trying to do whatever I could to avoid something bad happening. If something went wrong because I didn’t vaccinate it would be so much worse and I could have very easily done something to avoid it. Losing a goat, who we love, to something that could have been very easily avoided would be unbearable.

    There are no where near as many vaccinations for goats as there are for children. The main vaccinations that our goats get are the CD-T, and rabies. Both prevent fatal illnesses. The importance of the rabies vaccination goes without saying, but you can read more about the CD-T vaccination here.

    When it comes any other medication for our goats we use them as needed. So far we have never had to use antibiotics. We take great measures to make sure our herd is healthy so we can continue to avoid them. We deworm the girls twice a year, once before they are bred to make sure they are in the best condition possible at the time of breeding, then again right after they kid because they are very susceptible to parasites at that time. During the rest of the year we only deworm if it is absolutely necessary.

    Finally comes the need for milk withdrawal. We never ever use milk from animals that have just been medicated. We often double the manufacturer’s suggested withdrawal time (meaning we dump the milk after the milking) because it is incredibly important to us that our milk is safe. Like I have said before, we give this milk to our children and use it in all of our products. We feel a great responsibility to make sure our milk is safe and comes from healthy animals.

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… June 5th

    Goats are social animals and should never be kept alone. A single goat will become depressed and will be far more vocal. So, it’s incredibly important to their heath that they have a companion. Most farms, included us, will not allow you to purchase a single goat unless you already have a companion animal set up, preferably another goat. Goats can also be put in with other social farm animals like llamas, alpacas, donkeys, or horses.

    I have had several people tell me that they have heard that a dog can be kept with a goat as a companion… there are several issues with this. People have a tendency to bring dogs inside and a goat’s companion should never be taken away from them. You would have to be ok with leaving the dog with the goat at all times. The other issue is that there are only a few breeds of dogs that are recommended to be with goats. Great Pyrenees is the breed that is most commonly used as a guard dog for goats. It’s important that any dog with a goat have a guard mentality and not a herding mentality. Herders can become more aggressive with goats, especially when they don’t do what the dogs what them to do. Goats are not herding animals and will fight being led. It wouldn’t take much for a dog to kill a goat. So if someone wants to use a dog as a companion for a goat it’s going to require finding the right dog, with the right personality, lots of training, and a wiliness to leave the dog out with the goat at all times… Quite frankly a livestock animal would be easier and more cost effective.

  • What’s up Wednesday – June 3rd

    I’m sorry I missed last week’s What’s up Wednesday. The busy season for the soap business, photography business, farm, and garden are all in full gear… at the same time. We are so incredibly grateful to be this busy. I hope it stays like this!

    So much has happened on the farm in the last two weeks. Four of the eight goat kids have gone to their new homes. They all went to good homes and we couldn’t be more thrilled. We still have 3 bucks that we are trying to sell. Selling bucks is no easy task. Farms only need one or two to breed to their entire goat herd and from what I am hearing from other farms there have been an unusually large number of bucks born this year. We were lucky to only have had fifty percent bucks… not many in this area have been so lucky. I am hoping these sweet boys at least go as pets to someone. They are all so gentle and have amazing personalities.

    We moved the the bantam chicks outside into their new coop! They were getting tight in their brooder and we were getting tired of having the clean it twice a day… chicks create a lot of dust and dirt. We purchased a coop last year to use for our free range chickens to sleep and lay their eggs. It ended up being a really poor quality, even though we paid a pretty penny for it, so we decided to move the free rangers back into the sturdy coop where they were safe. The “free ranger” coop sat empty for a long time. We weren’t sure what to do with it. It would be a waste to just throw it out, but we were pretty sure it would just fall apart should a dog or other predictor decide to jump up against it. When our friend Rachel brought us the bantam chicks we knew we needed to find them a home once they were done with their brooder, so we decide to reinforce the coop and make it into a tractor, allowing the chickens to help us with pest control around the farm. We removed the entire bottom of the coop… meaning we pulled it away because it had basically wasted away and had already fallen through twice from the weight of the chickens (see… piece of junk). We sat the coop directly on the ground and used the run area the coop once sat on as a run for the front of the coop. It was just the right size considering they are only bantams and will be moved daily. We totally removed one set of nesting boxes because they too had fallen apart (we had half the number of chickens in this coop than it called for by the way). Kevin reenforced or replaced all the areas that were falling apart or felt weak. It has made a cute little chicken tractor! I am so glad we were able to use it and it won’t go to waste… I hate waste.

    Chicken Tractor - The Freckled Farm - The Freckled Farm Soap Company

    In soap news, our Summer Goat Milk Soap is on the curing racks! I am so ready for this soap to be done! It is so wonderful for summer skin. I used it all last summer and I’ve missed it so much. It’s made with green tea and aloe, so it’s soothing for skin that has had a lot of sun exposure. It will debut on the first day of summer later this month!

  • Fun Farm Fact Friday… May 29th

    Today is a goat fact that we get asked about often… Disbudding.

    Disbudding is when a baby goat’s horn buds are burned off to prevent them from growing a full set of horns. Kids are generally disbudded within the first week of their life. This may sound cruel, but it is important to the goat’s health, as well as the health of it’s herd mates and caretakers. Goats with horns will run into many problems. They can easily get stuck in fencing, which can strangle them or leave them open to predators. They can also hurt or even kill their herd mates or caretaker. It is quite dangerous to have a goat with horns around (I have heard many stories). Especially on dairy goat farms where goats are handled so much on a daily basis.

    Our farm vet disbuds our kids for us. This was not a procedure that I wanted to do on my own. She does it under anesthesia. The goats wake up about 30 minutes after the procedure acting totally normal. I have never had a problem with the goats acting like they were in pain or even phased by being disbudded.

    So while this isn’t a procedure that we look forward to it’s important to the health of our herd that it is done.

    Fias Co Farm has done an amazing job explaining the importance of disbudding – Check out THIS article.

  • What we Feed our Goats

    Every single ingredient that goes into our Goat Milk Soap is carefully chosen for the highest quality and best result for our customers and our environment. That process all starts with our goats. What we feed our goats is incredibly important. It not only affects the health of the goat but the quality of the milk that we feed our children and use in our products. So when it came to what we were going to feed them, I did a great deal of research.

    Pasture and Forage

    Our pasture, and the forage throughout it, is the most important part of our goats’ diets. Goats are foragers, not grazers. They need the roughage and they like to eat foliage that is off the ground. During the spring, summer, and most of the fall our pasture provides the goats most of their sustenance. They have pine trees, blackberry brambles, honeysuckle, and more.

    Hay

    Hay is the next largest portion of our goats’ diets, especially during the winter when there is not a lot of forage and essentially no grass to eat. So our hay is not something we skimp on. The hay we purchase is chemical free, although as a small farm they do not have an organic certification. The bales are kept out of the weather and have never been rained on, which is extremely important. Being in the weather destroys the nutrients of the hay and encourages the growth of mold, which can be deadly. Our goats maintain weight on a lot less since the quality of the hay is so high. Good hay goes a long way.

    Grain

    At first we were feeding our girls grain from a large corporate feed company. It was fine, but I knew we could do better. They didn’t have an organic or non-gmo product and I like to support local farms whenever possible. We have a local feed company that offers organic feed, but the price per 50# bag was nearly double what we were spending and that just wasn’t in the budget. Years ago, a farmer friend of ours turned us on to Sunrise Farms Feed. They offer all-natural non-gmo feed. The grain for their feed comes from small local farms. It looks and smells amazing. It’s not over processed, you can actually see all the individual ingredients. The quality is outstanding and it made a difference you could actually see! Their coats which were already healthy and beautiful looking became even more so. Our girls have such wonderful energy. I attribute at least some of that to the grain.

    Grain is fed to the goats on the milk stand while they are being milked. This helps them with their milk production and keeps them occupied while we work with them. Our goats who are not in milk, the ones who are too young or the bucks, only get a very small amount of grain. It’s just enough to keep them “friendly,” as our vet would say.

    Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

    Black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) have many benefits for goats. Many goat farmers use BOSS as a supplement since the seeds are rich in fiber and protein. BOSS is also said to improve milk production and increase butterfat. It also helps improve their coat. We mix a small handful of BOSS in with everyone’s grain at feeding time.

    Loose Minerals

    Loose minerals round off our goats diets. It provides them with things that our soil/plants might be lacking, like copper and selenium (this is a very selenium deficient area) as well as salt.

    We will continue to do whatever we can to provide our animals with the best feed possible. We want our animals to be healthy and the milk we use to be high quality!

    Try out our Goat’s Milk Soap to see the end result of this healthy diet. 

  • Purchasing Goats from The Freckled Farm

    The first round of 2015 kids will be ready to go to new homes in the coming weeks. Any goats that are available for sale can be found here. If you are interested in coming to see our available kids or purchasing a goat please feel free to contact us.

    Goat Pricing:

    • Pure Bred Nubian Does – $250
    • American Nubian Does – $200
    • Pure Bred Nubian Bucks – $250
    • American Nubian Bucks – $150

    All goats come with papers and can be registered through the ADGA. Our American Does are phenomenal milkers. Our Pure Bred Does come from outstanding milking lines, but are first fresheners, so we can not speak to their milking habits as of yet, however they are currently producing well above average. Ruth is giving us over a gallon a day, and Sonia is giving us about 3/4 of a gallon…. both as first fresheners.

    If you do not already have a goat or at the very least another companion farm animal like a donkey, horse, llama, or alpaca we require that you purchase two goats. This can be two does, a doe and a wether (a castrated male), or two bucks. Goats are social animals and do not do well alone.

    The kids will have received one dose of BoSe, both doses of CDT, and a coccidiosis and worm prevention treatment. The kids will also be disbudded their first week of life and tattooed before pick up. We send all kids home with a week of feed. If you do not plan to use the same feed that we do (Sunrise Farms Goat Feed) this should be enough to help you transition them to their new feed. We will also give all purchasers a list of suggested suppliers and suggestions of how to care for their kids the first few months in their new home.