FOOD CORNER > Farming, Gardening, and Raising Your Own Food

So, I bought this goat and then.....

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Farmer Jon:
So earlier this spring my buddy and I are sitting around in his garage drinking beer and got some pork bellies on the smoker. We get to talking about how the goat and sheep market is starting to boom around here with all the new immigrants moving in. Neither of us had ever eaten goat before so we decided (against my wife's better judgement) to go buy a goat and fatten him up. Problem was he had a name before we got home. So now Bob is our pet. He is castrated so he's no good to breed. Hes just there. All alone.

A couple months go by and this other friend of mine has this young sheep. I see on Facebook she looking to get rid of her. I shoot her a message. She says $50 and I will have the kid drop her off.  Within a couple hours her son is here with a trailer. I didn't tell my wife until he got there that I bought Bob a friend. She was not thrilled but OK because our beloved Bob has someone to play with.

Tulip the sheep is of breeding age now so I thought if I'm going to breed 1 I just as well have 2. I loaded up the family yesterday and wet to the exotic animal auction. I passed up a couple real nice young sheep but ended up with a nice older ewe already bread and ready to pop for $75. I threw some bedding down in the trailer and off we go. It was dark when we got home last night so I left her in the trailer. I didn't want her in a new place in the dark. She already had a stressful day. Got her some grain and water. As I am sitting here typing this I am waiting for the sun to come up so I can check on her and get her put away.

The only thing I know about sheep is they give wool and say Baa. Looking at the paperwork last night it turns out I bought a different breed of sheep. This one is a Katahdin sheep. I guess you don't have to sheer these. They are only raised for meat. Tulip is a Hampshire. The typical white body black face type sheep you think of when someone says sheep.

We will see how this plays out. New mamma is really big. She has at least 2 in her if not triplets. I have a decent barn but its not real big. If it don't work out sharing a barn with Bob and Tulip I will evict the ducks and she can have their house.

This is Bob and Tulip. Don't have any pics of the new girl yet. Nor does she have a name. I'm thinking Hetty. From NCIS Los Angles. Shes a spunky old girl.

Flyin6:
Hmmm, an interesting drama is going to play out on these pages. Shouldn't you add a nice pot belly pig to the mix?? Ya know just to keep everything interesting?

Do that, and next spring I'll rustle you up a fawn. They just lay in the pasture when you're bush-hogging so all you need to do is to spot them first, then climb down and pick em up. Assumin' it's a female, you could name her "Kentucky girl" or "Tuck" for short.

Just an idea...

stlaser:
True story, my Dad and Grandfather raised Columbia breed of sheep. They were numbers guys meaning gifted at math (unfortunately I didn’t get that gift for the record). I can recall my Dad multiplying 4 digit numbers faster in his head than I could punch them in a calculator as a kid. Anyhow both of them never graduated college but they were running breeding numbers back in the day before it was the complex science it is today. They spoke at several colleges on this system they had at the time. They also owned the largest Columbia Ram and Ewe in the country at one point.

For the record I know nothing of sheep other than as a kid I got too close to a lamb and the mother ewe butted me before I could make it over the fence. Guessing I was 5 or so at the time.....

By the time I was 8 my grandfather had retired and both him and Dad sold out of that business. Dad always claimed there was no money in it and it was more of a hobby. 

Farmer Jon:
Actually I do have a couple pot belly pigs coming. My brother has a bunch for sale for $10 apiece. He's saving me 2 males. We are going to cut them than fatten em up. I have to make a separate pen for them first.


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Farmer Jon:
I don't know what happened exactly. I thought the pregnant sheep was going to have her lambs so I called the vet. He said she didn't have any in her. We couldn't find any laying anywhere. They must have died inside her and she absorbed them. Unfortunately she didn't make it either. Zane was pretty upset. He claimed her as his own. He named her Maria.

It's always hard watching our little ones learn these life lessons.

Once this weather straightens out I will find a couple bottle lambs for him. For him to raise.

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