Brecon Show 6th August 2011

This was to be our second year showing at Brecon. It is a nice country show with lots to see & do & with quite alot of livestock to look at. There were quite a few goats but unfortunately not as many as last year. We had entered two kids & a goatling so we missed out on the pressure of milking!
We arrived on the Friday evening just as it was getting dark which was not helpful as there were no lights in the tent! We managed to fumble about & get the goats into their pens & settled them down for the night; the two kids were a little nervous as this was their first outing but they soon went to sleep. We did not have to be up quite as early as those with milkers in the show so we could stay up a bit later, which was good as it took us a while to prepare the Landrover for sleeping in. The matresses work very well but there is no room for changing or storing anything.

The morning came & fortunately the weather was to be kind to us. The British Alpine goatling was our first goat to show which fell to me; i am still nervous about showing & find it confusing trying to follow the correct format. Bramwell did very well & received good comments & infact went on to win Best Alpine in the show & so we took home the trophy for the second year. Bronte, the BA kid did not do so well as there was stronger competiton. The Anglo-nubian kid, led in by Nigel, was unfortunately the only AN in the show. She did receive 1st place & Best AN with another trophy. We were pleased with our goats & we had a good day.

Manuka.....Best Anglo- nubian!

Bronte did not do so well!

Madelaines kids

Well, she went & had three boys! They are lovely kids but i cannot help but be dissappointed that she did not have a nanny. I am pleased with the size; bringing in Dexter who is a small billy has worked with regard to the size of the kids.....i think they will make the perfect pets. They have already been castrated so that they are now "wethers" & they have been de-horned so that they will be safe with children. All three will be sold as soon as they are weaned from their mum.

This is the kids a few days old......

.....and this is two of the kids at 3 weeks old!



.....and this is Dad enjoying the sun!

WAITING!

Madelaine, the pygmy nannie is due to kid but seems to be holding on as long as possible....she is very large! I would just like to get it over with as it is getting late to be having kids. We will have to take them from her after 4 days & bottle feed them which is alot of extra work,but if we didnt they would be wild as Madelaine would not let us near them! Fortunately, she does get bored with her kids quite quickly anyway & will not be too bothered.
The other kids are growing well.....two Nubians & one Alpine; the two billys were killed last week as i could not manage to sell them. It is really sad but unfortunately there is only one other option & that is to kill them at birth which i find too difficult; atleast this way they have a few months of life & are very well looked after during that time. I always hope someone will want to buy one but then you can never be sure if they will look after it.

Madelaine with her kids last year!

Looking forward to a couple of shows soon: Brecon in August & Usk in September; Talybont is a farely local show at the end of August so we will probably go there with goats & poultry.

The Show

Sorry for the delay in writing this....no excuses!
The Tregaron Goat Show went very well with 35 goats entered, 16 of which were milkers. The competition was very high so it was quite suprising that we came away with anything!! The best bit for me was that our eight year old 1st kidder who we rescued last year along with her sister, won Best British Alpine against our own 4 year old milker & also Best Veteran which we were really pleased with as we have worked hard to get her back to health. Mabel or rather Garlin Efa,as she is registered as, is a really lovely girl; it was her first show & she behaved impeccably. Her kid was 1st in her class with some good comments from the judge; our other Alpine won a rossette for the highest yeild milking through. We enjoyed the show which is the main thing.
Madelaine, the pygmy nannie is due to kid any day; not quite sure of the date as we just had to leave Dexter the billy with her....he was having a problem with reaching as he was only 7mths old at the time!Really looking forward to the kids being born; hope she has nannies.
Looking forward now to getting the goats in season early if possible so that we can have better grown kids for next years shows. We do need to find an Alpine billy at stud to go across Bramwell as we only have her dad at present.

This is Mabel with her sister Dilys ( Garlin Eurem) in the background.

Benji has settled well & enjoys going out on the field with the girls.

SHOW

Making the final preparations for Tregaron Goat Show this week. It is held on Sat/Sun & includes a milking competition. We are not expecting to do very well as the competition is quite high from exhibitors who have been showing for many years & have goats of a very high standard......but we all have to start somewhere!
We are showing two milkers, a goatling & a kid. We arrive at the show on Saturday & have to milk the goats empty at about  6pm & then bed them down for the night. We then start very early the next day with an udder inspection & then milking which is recorded & samples taken to be analysed. The other goats are then shown for the various classes & prizes awarded. About 6pm the goats are milked & recorded again & the winners are announced. This is quite a simplified version of events but it give an idea of what happens. During the rest of the day we admire everyone elses goats & wonder why ours dont have udders that big!!

It is good to keep these shows going in order to promote the breeds if nothing else; too many shows have folded & there does not seem to be the interest in goats any longer which is a real shame. I am fully aware that alot of keepers are put off by the ever-increasing price of feed along with all of the regulations controlling disease, but all hobbies are expensive & come with a list of rules & still have support. Goat keeping aswell as being a pleasure can provide quite a degree of self sufficiency & you do not need lots of land to keep a pair of goats. I think it will be a great loss if goat keeping declines any further. Trying to encourage young people is really important.

NEWS!

Both of the crossbred nannie kids have gone to a new home which is really good; the billy however is still with us if anyone is interested in him....he is a really nice,easy to handle boy. The little British Alpine kid has now been registered with the British Goat Society as: Tangarn Bronte & will be off to some shows this year, the first of which being Tregaron Goat Show on May 28/29th. I have also entered her mum in the milking competition, Bramwell who is a goatling now, and  Anglo-nubian milker( Patch or Guneryhite Bhangra!). Hopefully we will do well! The kid will have to be worked with to get her to walk & stand correctly but she is very sweet natured so i do not think she will be too much trouble.
All the goats were tested for CAE last week which is Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis & they are all Negative which is really good news. CAE is a virus which is highly contagious & kids can catch it from older goats.It becomes evident in kids in the form of paralysis but in older goats as arthritis which obviously will cause a lot of pain & usually death. All goats have to have this test done before they can be shown at a BGS recognised show & also most other shows will put non-tested goats in seperate areas so that goats do not come into contact with infected ones.
We are really keeping our fingers crossed that Danaa kids on the 20th May or close to as we have had disasters with two of the goats not turning out to be in kid! It was quite difficult to tell with Annie who is a goatling,which means that she has never had a kid yet; she has always had quite a round stomach which was deceptive.She did not return to service after her mating so we hoped she would have kids....better luck next time! Snowdrop, who is an 8 year old milker, also should have been in kid & wasnt. Alot of goat keepers have their goats scanned but this is just another expense in an ever increasing invoice!!
I really have high hopes for Danaa as she really is a very well grown goatling who did quite well last year the couple of times we did show her. She has got a very good pedigree & hopefully will produce good stock.
I shall post again when she has kidded!
Please take a look at this link for some further information on goat keeping http://www.allgoats.com/

This is Strudel who was rehomed by us; she had once been savaged by a dog which ripped her throat & left her with bad scaring. She is a Saanen x boar goat which is why she is so chunky! 

Hernia

On Tuesday,our one kid who i have called "Bat ears" as she is an Anglo nubian x Alpine,had to have an operation as she had a hernia. It was an umbilical hernia as the naval had not closed properly after birth. She will be left with a bit of a lump but otherwise will be fine in the long term.
We are waiting for Snowdrop,our Anglo-nubian nannie to kid. She is 8 years old & is a really sweet girl. She was due today which is 150 days since service but can go another 5 without a problem.
We also have Annie due on the 10th.
The kids from Kenya who we lost with mastitis are doing really well; they like to go outside on the yard now for a run around.
Madelaine, the pygmy is huge & she is not due to kid for a long time. She does look really funny with two great saddles on her sides! She never has any problems kidding but quickly loses interest in the kids; i think she has had so many she gets bored!

This is Madelaine with one of her kids last year.