Showing posts with label Boer Goats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boer Goats. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Farewells...

Last week was full of sad moments. I was happy to be back home and see WBP, but my trip was marred by receiving a call on my birthday to say that my horse, Rawdon, had dropped dead of a heart attack, aged 18. 

He had been away at a riding camp for the past eight weeks and from reports had been having a great time. During one of the treks he just dropped to his knees and within a minute was dead. I guess it was not a horribly bad way to go, but he was still fairly young and it was a terrible shock.

We also said goodbye to the last of our boer goats. We sold the remainder of our herd in order to focus on our other rare breeds, which have been more rewarding and less time consuming.



Friday, December 28, 2012

Our herd doubles...


Just before Christmas we doubled our Boer goat herd, with an additional 6 Does. They came from a lovely couple who had bred boer goats for years and had won several breed shows with their goats. They however wanted to spend more time with their family, and so were looking for a good home for their last few goats and someone had mentioned us. And we were delighted to have them.

We had got some large wooden cable drums from a friend, for them to play on...


And we have kitted  out every paddock with a new shelter in the corner, which can accommodate up to 25 small animals of most varieties...



Sunday, February 5, 2012

Day out to a Goat Farm...


A couple of weekends ago we took a little trip up to Hunua to expand our breeding stock of Boer Goats and Suffolk Sheep. Here are some photos from the day...


Above: A very contented doe.
Below: Ngairie and the rest of the herd.



Below: The two does we chose, following us to the trailer.



Ngairie also showed us some Angora goats. Maybe we will add them to the menagerie next spring (they are very cute, but a little more maintenance than the Boer Goats).





Below: A lone horse nearby. I wonder how our horses are enjoying their holiday on the Costa del Whakamaru? (They are at a horse retreat being looked after while I prepare for my exams - 10 days to go...)


Thursday, December 29, 2011

New Piglets...


In the rush before Christmas we had another sow give birth to a litter of five piglets. Again, there was the obligatory gold and white piglet (as with the last litter).

Our piglets and Boer kids have been a huge success. We quickly sold out of all the piglets and kids from 2011, and have pre-sold sold several piglets and kids for this coming year. If anyone else is interested please contact us directly at farm@willowbrookpark.co.nz

It is always nice when people who have bought our animals stay in touch. One such person is Jacqui, who bought a piglet from our last litter and has named it 'Lady Marmite'.
You can follow 'Farmer Jax' at her blog: Little Acres Cottage

I do need to give a hugh thank you to Peter, for his amazing dedication to the 'pig run' every day (he drives across town and back to two grocers to pick up fruit and vegetables for the pigs - every day after he has finished work). Thank you for so willingly sticking to the mission. The piglets are a tribute to your hard work.

Monday, December 26, 2011

White Wash Only...

It has been a reliably wet festive period in Hamilton. It is almost a dead cert that it will rain on Christmas day (which it did). However, it had bucketed down for 2 weeks before Christmas, and then by the afternoon of, it was bright and sunny. We journeyed out to the farm to find that the goats had been water-blasted brilliant white and were now dry after baking in the afternoon sun...

Peter looking as if he were showing Chestnut at the Royal A&P Show

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Badger and Bailey...

Yesterday Bramble became a proud mother for the second time within 12 months! Last time she had twin girls - Audrey and Arabella. This time she had twin boys - Badger and Bailey...



Above: Badger - named for his white facial markings.

Below: Bailey - named after the whiskey and cream liqueur.



We have been feeding Bramble a high protein, high energy feed to provide all she needs to cope with the strains of motherhood, and to ensure a plentiful supply of milk for making our organic goat cheese.


Addendum (6 August): Barclay and Briar...

Low and behold, the very next day Audrey delivered Barclay (Buck) and Briar (Doe). She gave birth in their play pen during the night, and somehow she and Briar made it out into the paddock, but Barclay was left behind. We arrived to find him half-dead in the morning, probably suffering from hypoglycaemia. We gave him a dose of dextrose, warmed him in blankets in the sun, and bottle fed him every hour for the whole morning, then spent time trying to get him to latch on to Audrey. After a lot of coaxing Audrey started to bond with him (as she had appeared to bond only with Briar) and finally we got him suckling on her (Note - great lactation consultant as I make, the thrill of bottle feeding a goat QID for the next month did not enthrall me).

We penned them into a little pen with lots of hay and feed and today both kids are standing and walking and suckling well. They will go back into the paddock with the rest of the burgeoning herd tomorrow. Arabella also looks set to drop twins within the next few days. We will have gone from 5 to 11 goats in a week! Below is a short clip of Arabella with Barclay and Briar in their pen...




Addendum (11 August):
Barclay and Bailey...

It is with much distress that we share the news that Barclay took sick the day after our last update and despite being bottle feed, housed, warmed and well cared for he died on 10 August.

It is also with intrepidation that I share the precarious position Bailey is in. Bailey, who like his brother Badger had looked so well for the first week, fell prey to a similar illness as Barclay.

However, between the 2 kids getting ill we learnt that this was most likely to have been 'FKS' (Floppy Kid Syndrome). So, with haste we turned our living room into a CICU (Caprine Intensive Care Unit). Bailey has been on a subcut balanced electrolyte infusion. He is also getting a third generation Cefalosporin injection IM BD (twice daily intramuscular powerful antibiotics), as well as Thiamine injections BD with Dextrose and Electrolyte boluses every hour.

He initially improved overnight and went from Death's door to Death's garden gate. We shall see whether this expensive scare (sorry, Intensive Care) wins out. We shall keep you posted. In the meantime he is curled out in front of the fireplace waiting for his next caring ministration...



Final Addendum (15 August): Barathea...

Arabella finally gave birth to a single doe kid yesterday, Barathea, who is now inside due to the freak arctic storm spreading up over the country. She is doing well. Bailey has also made a 90% recovery, and is back with the herd during the day, but is coming in every night until the weather passes. Time to get a new barn built I think.

Above: A new-born Barathea being sniffed by her mother Arabella. She was named after a friend's race horse Barathea Blazer, due to the pronouced blaze on her forehead.

Below: Half of the goat herd on a cold morning. Come Spring they'll get a good wash!


Monday, July 12, 2010

The Circle of Life....

Whilst we are still coming to terms with the loss of our little boy Spencer, a ray of hope has pierced the gloom: Bramble gave birth to 2 live baby goats - the first for the Willowbrook Stud. This was unexpected, for although we knew she was pregnant, from the dates we were given she was not due for another month. Both the kids are girls, and are unrelated to our ram, Bracken, as Bramble was pregnant by another ram when we purchased her, so we now have 3 does for Bracken to cover next year.




We have registered with the NZ Boer Goat Breeders Association and are planning to register our goats and the rest of our animals with the NZ Rare Breeds Conservation Society


The boys were quite jealous of all the attention Bramble and her little kids were getting...


We also had a big planting weekend this weekend gone, planting nearly 2000 trees. I shall post some photos once I have finished drawing the overall park design and layout maps, so that visitors can see which photos belong to which part of the park.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Introducing Bracken and Bramble, and Chestnut...



Yesterday we went to a place called Hunua, east of Auckland to pick up the lastest addtion to the Willowbrook Park Rare Breeds Farm - 3 Boer goats: a Buck - Bracken, a Doe - Bramble, and a little Wether called Chestnut...

Above: Chestnut

Above: Bramble

Below: Bracken

Boer goats developed in South Africa from an indigenous breed with the addition of some European, Angora and Indian breeds. The name comes from the Dutch word “boer” meaning “farmer” and was used to distinguish them from Angora goats which were imported into South Africa during the nineteenth century.

The present day Boer goat appeared in the early 1900s when South African farmers started selecting for a meat type goat.

The Boer goat is a large animal and is a specialized meat-producer. Landcorp first imported embryos of the breed into New Zealand in 1989 but they did not become commercially available until the mid-1990s when they were released from quarantine.


In New Zealand, purebred bucks are often used in grading-up programmes: many dairy goat farmers use a boer buck over some of their dairy goats does to produce kids that reach their goal weight faster than a purebred dairy goat kid would.

Each purebred is tagged, and registered with the NZ Sheep breeders association (previously the NZ Boer Goat Breeders assoc).


We can now start our own Boer Goat Stud, with a Buck and a Doe, but best of all, the Doe is already pregnant, and possibly expecting twins. We will keep you in touch this September. They are very cute animals, very agile, and ever so intelligent. They don't stop following you around the field all day, and aren't aggressive, like many goats are portayed. But, they are challenging our hitherto fine fencing, so before we loose our orchard to a midnight goat rampage, we will have to start doing some reinforcing.


Other species of goats can be very cute as well...







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