Saturday, March 21, 2009

Farm News

Has it really been almost a week since I last posted? The days have flown by! We haven't had any new kids (thank goodness!) but just the everyday work keeps me hopping! I'm planning to post something on my average day on Monday so keep an eye out for that! I thought I'd kinda let you know though what's been new.

A few days ago Nibbles came down with Polio which is caused by rumin problems. She was probably unable to eat enough to make all the milk she was producing. Thankfully we knew how to treat this since she has had a bout of this before and she was up within 24 hours. I am drying her off so she will just be going out to pasture with some of the younger dry stock.

Early this morning Abigail took her steer to weigh-in for fair. Her steer, Zeb weighed in at 816 pounds which is pretty good! When they got home we (Dad, Abigail, Ben and I) loaded up to go to the local auction where they sell animals and "junk". :) We brought 3 Boer goats and Chamomile, a sink that we have had forever and have never used and a tire that we just had laying around. We got there around 10:45 and they pulled the 2 registered Boers (Raggedy Ann and Brynna) in right away since they were selling registered stock first. We don't really know how much they sold for, we'll get the check in a few days. We unloaded the sink/tire and got it registered with the office and then Abigail, Ben and I went to go watch them auction off goats while Dad waited for the sink/tire to sell. We watched for quite a while and then Dad came in and said they still hadn't sold the sink and he was tired of waiting and meanwhile had bought 2 blue spruce trees. He had Abigail go with him to go pick them up. Not even 5 minutes after they left Chamomile came through. I don't know what happened to these people but she (a dry doe, not even bred, not registered) was bid up to.....ready for this?....$230! I believe(though I didn't see the registered stock sell) that this was one of the highest does sold. I called Dad and he was like "WHAT? YOU ARE JOKING!". He later said "well, God can make people temporarily lose their minds....He did it with Nebuchadnezzar"! :) Whatever it was, it was a blessing since we can use $230 right now. :) We also saw Pearl go through but she only pulled $55 which wasn't too bad either IMO. This was a special goat sale so there were lots of buyers for goats which was a HUGE blessing! We sat through the rest of the auction and later bought three bull calves. We pulled out of the auction around 2:30. I'll try to get pictures of the calves soon, they are pretty cute! Two are Holstein and I think one is Holstein/Angus. He looks pretty beefy.

So that has kinda been the biggest news around here. I am going to do a milk test on all of the does tomorrow so I will be posting those results tomorrow with some pictures of udders. I am milking 15 right now but we are planning to sell 3 so that will put me down to 12. I have sold several wethers and hope to sell more soon. We are getting down to a more manageable number. :)

You all have a great evening and rest of the weekend!

In Christ,
~Bethany~

4 comments:

Jenna said...

You finally got some bull calves for all the milk - yeah!!!

How awesome that you fetched that price for the doe kid...wow:)

Glad that you had a great week, and I'm looking forward to seeing the milk test results and pictures!!

Love your friend,
Jenna

Joshua said...

Praise God for the huge blessing of the goat sale! In this economy, times are tough, but God will always provide. God is soooo good. Praise Him always!!!!

Your brother in Christ,
Joshua :)

Josh said...

Wow,busy week! Are the three bull calves for meat?

Josh

Bethany said...

Jenna, I am so thankful to have 3 more calves! Only problem....they have to stay separated from Ellie for a whole 21 days. :(

Joshua, God is AWESOME! He sees the sparrow fall and He sees when we need something. I think that the poor economy could bring people closer to Christ by causing them to have no other option but to trust Him!

Josh, we might sell one or two of the bull calves but one(s) that we keep will be used for meat. Ummmm....steaks.... hamburgers...roasts...lol!