You thought I meant the hotel, right?Actually I'm referring to the goat-world 'Four Seasons'. As mentioned in another post, the calendar of goatiness is divided into four periods/seasons. First is one of my favorites. Kidding Season (Spring)You can see why right? Just look at that widdle face! And da widdle fwoppy e-uhs! And da teeny widdle nose! Ahem. Kidding season is one of the busiest seasons. Especially for those with a lot of freshening does. Not to mention, everything on the farm starts up again in Spring. Fresh eggs (I can hear the Hallelujah chorus), chicks, the garden, and milking. A lot of milking. Ten months of milking. Plus having to friendly up all those fluffeh babies. We need to give dam-raised kids a good name, right? Once I'm done all the gardening, milking, and egg collecting (Hallelujah!), I love watching the mamas care for their little ones. I just love how each mother has her own parenting style. Even littermates have different technics. For example: Ella's style: (Baby bleats) "Oh baby! Are you okay? Do I need to come beat someone up? Here, let me help you stand up! You! STEP AWAY FROM MY BABY! Oh, darling, do you need nursies to make it feel better?" Blossom's style: (Baby bleats) "What's going on over here? There's no attacker, I just fed you, it's warm out, no one's bleeding, you're fine. Go play." I would have to say Kidding Season is our busiest, but is closely followed by our next busiest season. Show Season (Summer)Show season can get crazy, especially if you hit a lot of shows, do Linear Appraisal with ADGA, and do DHIA testing. And hold down a job? Oh yeah, are we going to be busy come 2018. Wish us luck and survival. I think Glenda will do well in the ring next year. Her Dam is a triple-finished champion, and her Sire is from the well-know Sara line from Castle Rock Farm. She is a great milker, and I am positive she will make her 2*D 1*M, and I'm pretty confident about her two yearling daughters. Show season is also filled with other performance programs, DHIA testing is in full swing, and most Linear Appraisal sessions (ADGA) are held May-September. The host herd list for LA was released on the ADGA website just a few days ago, here's the list. Last year since we didn't have enough to ensure a stop, we brought our herd over to Unfinished Acres. Our session was so Interesting and chock-full of knowledge. Thank you so much, Becky, for letting us come along! As you can see, our ladies did pretty good. Blossom and Ella scored average for their age, and Glenda did really well. Everything was a 'V' or higher, except rump. Ooooh that rump! She has decent width, but that angle! I have been told multiple times that, for the linear scores, there is no 'good' number. Just what the breeder wants. Well, what I want is somewhere in the 30's but hey, what can I do about Glenda's? All I can do is breed for kids with nice rumps. And speaking of breeding.......... Breeding Season (Fall) Ahhh breeding season, I can smell love in the air. Stinky buck love. Alright, all I can smell is bucks. I personally don't find it that offensive but others in our household with the 'Super Smeller' can detect it quite easily. This time of year is when you get out all of your pedigree books, linear appraisal scoresheets, go take a peek and everybody outside, and pull up the ADGA planning site up. And you need to figure out exactly how many does you can handle freshening, while keeping your sanity. When figuring out how many kids, just multiply your does by 3. Last year we had 4 does freshen, and ended up with 11 babies. Although this method isn't the most accurate, it works pretty good for approximates. While the bucks are in rut, you can go outside with a fold-up chair, and a bag of popcorn and have a whole hour or two of intertainment. Adult bucks are funny, but baby bucks? Adorable. Here is one of our baby bucklings practicing this spring. Waiting (Winter)This is my least favorite season. We kid February-April, so the months of December and January are pretty slow. We make sure everyone has the right diet for their stage in pregnancy. This year I'm measuring Glenda's girth, and at the moment, her wideness is 47.5" and she is due February 8th. Can you say Quads or Quints? =D
Well, that about covers it. Which is your favorite season?
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