Pedicure time for the Goats
2nd & 3rd MAY 2023
At least four times a year we give the goats a pedicure.
Angora goats’ hooves grow quickly; if we don’t trim them, they can split, curl, or just get uncomfortable. Mario built a ramp and stand for the goats to walk up (treats are on offer for encouragement) and then we can trim their hooves without so much backache. It’s also a good time for checking them over, eyes, ears, teeth, etc.
The only one who doesn’t have his feet trimmed on the stand is Maousse. He came from a breeder in the north of France who doesn’t handle the bucks as much as we do ours. So, it’s taken us a while to get him used to being touched; he’s much better than when he arrived, but he digs his heels in when we try to get him up the ramp. We trim his hooves while he’s on the ground so he doesn’t get stressed.
Maousse and Princesse’s son, Sultan, who is going to be a big buck, was born here, and we’ve always handled him a lot, so he’s fine with the ramp. Frankly, he will do anything for treats – I do love a greedy goat!
A Not So Glamorous Job
As well as doing their feet, at the same time, we also trim around the goats’ “bits”. Obviously, this is to keep them clean and comfortable. In the early days, we used surgical scissors (you can imagine how long that took), but I’m thrilled that our in-house shearer (that’s Mario) is now an expert at shearing those sensitive areas. It’s much quicker than scissors and takes all the hair away, almost down to the skin. So we can admire sparkling clean bottoms and bits for longer! The glamour of goat farming is not to be underestimated.
10th & 11TH MAY 2023
The same process applies to the girl Angoras, i.e., hoof trimming and personal grooming. We just have to do the hooves of the rescue goats (i.e., the Girl Goats) and the hooves and “bits” of the Minis.
18TH MAY 2023
Trimmed the Girl Goats’ hooves – it’s incredible how slowly they grow compared to the Angoras’ hooves. We looked at Vicky’s hooves for the first time since she arrived. The three dwarf goats’ hooves (Zola, Pearl and Vicky) are so tiny they’re simply adorable. It’s also a great time to have a cuddle with them!
23RD MAY 2023
Everything’s been going well, and we’re moving on to expanding the storage area above the girls’ stable.
Mini goat James (his official name is Ulysses, but his number is 007, so, naturally, he’s James) is a real escape artist and an adventurer. This evening, I heard a Mini bleating, so I went to check what was going on. Sometimes, babies jump out of the stable and then can’t get back in, which leads to mum and baby shouting for each other. I went in and looked around but couldn’t see anything except Ursula trotting around in the donkey stable. Then I noticed a little face peeking out of the hay bale. Yes, James had got himself stuck and couldn’t reverse out. I returned him to mum, Nouvelle, covered in hay, but clearly, he learnt nothing from his experience as he was out again just before bedtime.
5TH JUNE 2023
Today was our annual audit with Ecocert. Unlike our surprise audit this past March, this is a scheduled event, so I had our files (mostly) ready. The audit involves a review of our invoices to see that everything we’ve bought is bio and that the quantities are appropriate for our farm. They also visit our animals and check their accommodations inside and outside, check our stock of supplies to review the records we keep for each animal, etc. Our auditor also looked at this website to verify that we have represented our bio/organic status correctly, and thankfully, we have (phew!).
A Cause For Celebration!
8th June 2023
Today, we finally finished the storage area expansion above the Angora girls’ stables. No one’s happier than Mario (unless it’s me, who had to assist and listen to a lot of swearing in Swiss German) that this is complete. Even better, we got it done before our fields were cut for hay, so we’ve avoided the issue of finding somewhere to store it all. As a reward, rosé for me and beer for Mario – Cheers!
9th – 12th June 2023
It took a few days to trim the Minis’ hooves, weigh them, and clean up their bottoms and bits.
13th June 2023
Mario and I took a road trip to visit another breeder with whom we have been discussing swapping bucks. Plus, it’s always interesting to see another herd. We are not sure if it will work out, but we’ll stay in touch and see what happens.
17th June 2023
Today, we picked up 40 bales of hay, which should feed our gang of animals for the following year. We have an association with another local farmer who cuts the hay and bales it from the parts of our land that we don’t use for grazing. In return, he leaves us the quantity we need and takes the rest. So today, we brought our bales to the farm and arranged them in the new storage area. It’s pretty hard work as the bales are big, around 1m 60 in diameter and 400 kgs in weight, and we have to roll them into position.
In addition, we have a hectare of vines, and given that we’ve had rain/sun/rain/sun on repeat, the vines are growing beautifully and are loaded with baby grapes. The same farmer who produces the hay also takes care of the vines and uses them for his winery.
24th June 2023
For some reason, some of the Girl Goats, i.e. the non-Angora goats, refuse to stay in the paddock they are in during the day. Since our latest adopted goat, Vicky, arrived, Bianca has established her own sub-herd, and it’s this gang that keeps appearing outside the house.
29th June 2023
Our lovely Marguerite left for duck heaven recently, so poor Emily has been alone for a while. We’ve been looking for some runner-duck friends for her. Today, we found some and went to pick up three babies. Emily is thrilled! They’ve all taken to each other like the proverbial ducks to water. It will be a while until we know whether the new ducks are girls or boys, so we’ll have to wait to name them.
10th July 2023
We have a hive of honeybees, and our neighbour, who has a couple of businesses, including one to eradicate pests, sometimes receives calls from people who have swarms of bees. So today, we headed to a house on the far side of Tournon d’Agenais to collect them. It was so hot; you can only imagine how miserable we were in our bee suits. Plus, I was stung on the hand by a wasp the night before, so my hand was already swollen, red, itching and burning.
Well, we got the combs down and then fixed them into the small hive we’d brought before we vacuumed up the other bees that were there to put them in the hive. We then left the hive there until about 9 pm, by which time the rest of the foraging bees should have come back when we went to pick it up. We left it in the cool basement overnight and then put the hive out in the morning. Fingers crossed they do well. We’ll check regularly and ensure they have sufficient food to keep growing before we put them in a full-size hive.
12th July 2023
Today, we had our annual visit from CapGenes, the French organisation that oversees the genetics of French goats. There is a division for Angora goats, and the specialised technician visits once a year to examine and take samples of some of the goats’ fleeces (the females, the bucks, and the current year’s babies). Thankfully, everyone was well behaved (not always the case), and it all went well.
We now have to wait a few weeks until we get the results of the fleece analyses.
25th July 2023
Today, we started the goats’ grooming routines again. Their hooves have grown so much, and not just the goats that are having supplements. We’re guessing it’s because we’ve had lots of lovely rain this summer, and the pastures are rich. Hopefully this will result in even bigger fleeces.
27th July 2023
Ubie (one of Laridée’s twin boys) went to the vet today for his castration. Usually, we castrate the boys from whom we don’t want to breed when they’re a few days old using a rubber ring (and a painkiller). When Ubie was little, we didn’t manage to fit the ring, so it was best to wait until he was older when he could go to the vet and have an anaesthetic. He was fine when he came home and skipped off into the field; he stayed close to his mum the rest of the day but was active, eating and drinking well.
A Very Exciting Day!
11th August 2023
Today we collected our new buck, Remus, from Aulon in the Pyrenees.
It was a three-and-a-half-hour drive each way, but we had no issues with traffic. We used the national roads rather than the motorway, which would have been a little quicker but far longer. It was lovely to see the mountains; I have missed them since we left Switzerland.
The village of Aulon is on a steep slope, and Mohair d’Aulon is right at the top. We loaded Remus into the van, which we’d prepared with a tarp and lots of straw, and set off for home. He travelled well but was happy to leave the van, as were we.
Once we had a better idea of Remus’s character, we chose Nibizo and Oridé to lodge with him. Just to be on the safe side, he will spend a few weeks in quarantine before he joins the rest of the boys. We set up a fenced paddock for them to graze in, and we included one of the stone buildings for them to sleep in within the paddock.
19th August 2023
Shearing day! Our shearer, Francis, arrived just after 8 am and started with the girls. Everything went well, despite it being a hot day, and by lunchtime, Francis had shorn all the ladies as well as the Minis (this year’s babies). It was the Minis’ first shearing, and they weren’t upset by it.
After lunch, Francis felt ready to tackle some of the boys, and we were most encouraging: the more he shears, the fewer goats there are for Mario to shear afterwards. Francis finally called it a day at about 4 pm after shearing 48 goats, leaving only 12 for us to shear.
21st August 2023
It’s become hotter over the past ten days and was 37C today. We are definitely not fans of this heat; it makes day-to-day tasks, such as stable cleaning, moving fencing, etc., that much harder.
We desperately need it to rain as it’s at least two and a half weeks since we last had some. Every day the next rain that’s been forecast keeps getting pushed back. However, it’s still better this year than the previous summers, when we didn’t have rain for three months and had to irrigate some of the pastures.
8th September 2023
After four weeks of quarantine with Oridé and Nibizo, today, Remus went out with the rest of the boys. Everyone accepted him just fine, and he was happy.
11th September 2023
Today, the vet came to take blood samples from the goats, who have to be tested annually for brucellosis. Everyone stayed in until the blood was drawn; we will get the results in a couple of weeks. Update: All negative.
13th September 2023
Our dear friends Anne-Marie and her husband Bernard came to stay for a night. They live in Bretagne and had been to Castres to drop off their goats’ fleeces at the cooperative, where they would be transformed. Our original ten boys and eleven girls came from their farm, so they are always happy to visit and see how our herd is doing.
21st September 2023
Today, rain was forecast in the afternoon. We put the boys out for the morning but kept everyone in the girls’ stable so that we could do pedicures and clean up bottoms. It’s also a good time to check everyone over.
22nd September 2023
It was a full day of rain, meaning goats stayed in, so it was the boys’ turn for personal grooming. Phenomène has had an issue with one of his back legs. It seems that the tendon is lax, so his foot is rocking back too far.
Mario made a splint, and Phenomène has been wearing that for a month. We take it off regularly to check his skin underneath and to change the bandages. It seems much stronger, but we’ll leave it on for another week or two and then see.
25th & 26th September 2023
Hank (the machine) returned to the farm to assist with the biannual emptying of the stables. Our friends and neighbours were lined up, ready to receive trailer loads of the best organic, free compost around. Our friends Tom and Linda from Le Jardin des Gonies hired a tipper van for two days so that they didn’t have to unload it with shovels once they got it back to their garden. Linda helped me to clean down the sides while, of course, Mario drove Hank and Tom drove the tipper van. If you recall from my post of six months ago, nothing has changed: the boys get all the fun jobs!
28th September 2023
Ten of our goats are going to a new home in Normandie, and need to be tested for certain ailments before they can travel. Today, the vet came again to take blood samples to test for fièvre Q, CAEF, and paratuberculosis. The vet also tested the five girls in the group for scrapie. Update: All tests are negative.
5th October 2023
After picking up the new ducks in June, it’s now clear we have two girls and a boy. We took some time to see their characters emerge and decided to name them Tina, Cher and Norris.
Tina and Cher have impressive voices that they are not shy about sharing with the world, and Norris is, of course, “Norris, Duck Norris” (blame Mario. I had no say in this). Emily is happy with her new family even though she is no longer the boss: that duty seems to fall to Norris. Lately, Emily has been showing them new places, so when out and about on the farm, you never quite know where you’ll run into the four of them.
16th October 2023
Our donkeys, Manon and Fleurette, had their pedicures, and all is well with their feet. The maréchal ferrant even commented on how slim they are looking, which is nice to hear considering that continuing to keep them on a diet makes us very unpopular and that they frequently express their objections to said diet, at considerable volume.
24th October 2023
Today marks the start of even more work for us as we moved the bucks from whom we will breed this year in with their respective ladies. We had to make new pens inside the stable and set up new, separate fencing for their outside paddocks. Stanley is trying to charm Pènombre, Orbitale and Paquerette, which is not an easy task for poor Stanley as these are our feistiest girls.
Our new buck, Mr Remus, is lodging with Perle, Paprika, Stella, Silène, Scarlette, Princesse and Nouvelle. We’re already excited thinking about next Spring’s new babies.
28th October 2023
This year, we’ve had so many Asian hornets carrying off bees from our hives. We’ve been looking into traps, but it seems that many aren’t very effective. So we’ve been checking the hives every time we walk past and swatting any hornets. We’ve killed some 70 Asian hornets, which is good but also scary to think about.
Recently, the weather has been rainy, and the temperature has dropped, so we assumed the hornets wouldn’t be around. Sadly, that’s not the case, and I killed another two today. We must find something for next Spring, or I worry that our bees won’t survive.
4th November 2023
It’s been raining for days! We managed to get the goats out for a few hours on Tuesday, but that was the last time. So today (Saturday) is their fourth day staying in the stables. They have plenty of room inside, and they don’t want to go out when the rain lashes against the barns. Inevitably, this is a lot more work for us each day, cleaning out stables and constantly having to top up their hay.
Joyce the pig is not thrilled either and spends most of the time in her house looking out. The donkeys are not impressed in the slightest and, naturally, make sure that we’re aware of their displeasure. That said, four individuals on the farm love the rain……the ducks. They’re skipping (ok, waddling) about, checking all the big puddles, hoovering up slugs, and showering under the rain spouts. They’re generally having a great time.
11th November 2023
Today, a lovely lady, Marie, and her 6-year-old son, Rudy, visited the farm. Marie is keen to establish her own herd of Angoras, and came to learn about setting up the proper infrastructure and how to choose and care for the goats. Rudy likes all of the animals, not just the Angoras, so we happily spent time with all of them.
With any animal, it’s essential to do a ton of research before you get them. Angoras differ from other goats in many ways and don’t flourish unless you meet their needs (and wants); they’re kind of diva-like!
23rd November 2023
We had a visit today from a group of English people who live in the area and are part of a French conversation group. I did the goat farm tour in English but did use some French words, so hopefully, I helped to expand their vocabulary. I’m not sure the words for fleece, shearing, rotational grazing, spinning, etc. are going to be too useful in their everyday conversations with their neighbours, but everyone seemed to appreciate it!
7th December 2023
Céline and her family in Normandie are buying ten of our young goats, and we have been trying to organise their collection.
This has been complicated by the presence of MHE, a disease that affects cows and is transmitted through flies. Although goats are not affected by it, they can carry it. Current regulations in France mean that any animal moving out of a zone where MHE is already present into a non-affected area must be treated with a topical insecticide and then tested for the disease.
The vet came today to take blood samples from the ten goats.
25th December 2023
We had a quiet Christmas, which was exactly what we wanted. As you might have seen on our Instagram account, Remus and Sultan were feeling particularly festive this year.
29th December 2023
Following the samples collected on the 7th, we’re now told the post office lost them—argh!! Anyway, today, the vet came again to repeat the process.
Let’s hope it all works out well in 2024!
That’s all for 2023
Come back soon to stay up to date with goat farming at Domaine Le Pouzatel and Magnifique Mohair.