I consider our goats to be livestock rather than pets - but my boys and I love them each dearly!! They provide us with such wonderful food and truly require so little in return. During the summer of 2018, I had three Nigerian Dwarf goats in milk, providing me with seven gallons of milk a week! The health of our herd is paramount to me and something that, at times, brings loads of stress. If my goats are going to provide me and my family delicious and sweet milk (and loads of entertainment and happiness), they deserve to lead happy and healthy lives. For me, this starts with the food they consume. I am not a certified organic farm - nor do I plan to pursue that in the future. However, I believe that the meat my boys and I eat and the milk we drink is only as good as the food going into the animals that produce it. As a result, I invest good money to feed our goats a mostly organic grain ration. This includes Certified Organic Green Mountain Sheep/Goat Pellets, Certified Organic Green Mountain Alfalfa Pellets, and whole black oil sunflower seeds. It is this last ingredient of their grain ration (the sunflower seeds) that I have yet to find a reliable organic source for. When I do, I will buy them organically too! Next, I provide them with second crop hay produced on local fields. Most years, this hay is produced with few fertilizer inputs - mostly wood ash purchased from a local biomass plant. During the summer months, the goats spend every day possible out on our pasture and browse land. I have some steep terrain on the property that would be difficult to maintain and keep clear with machinery. With mobile electric fencing and a solar fence charger, our goats keep it pretty well maintained for me! The bonus is that they get loads of fresh and diverse browse material all spring, summer, and fall. These areas are never sprayed and do not have fertilizer of any kind applied to them. Lastly, my fine goats have free choice organic goat minerals and baking soda available to them every day!

My herd is currently made up of adult does capable of producing milk. I do not maintain a 'no cull' farm. However, my choice to remove goats from our farm is not an easy one. I have sent some to new homes and I have eaten some – however, Nigerian Dwarf goats are considered a dairy breed and they produce so little meat, I avoid this when I can. My goat barn is a converted one-bay garage, and this space limits me to maintaining a four-doe herd for now. I have dreams of a larger barn or perhaps converting my three-car garage to a barn someday (more space means more goats!), but for now, four does works for me. 

I am able to do the majority of health maintenance for our goat herd including vaccinations and disbudding. However, I work with the wonderful team of vets at Wood Pond Veterinary Clinic when I need backup. They help to keep my goat herd healthy! My goal is to avoid antibiotics, but I have used them sparingly over the years. My long-term goal is to learn more about homeopathic livestock treatment, but my full time job, family and farm duties leave little room for research in this department, so I pick away at learning this little-by-little.

 I maintain a flock of laying hens of multiple varieties. My little chicken house can hold eight chickens and I let them outside every day of the year - even in winter as long as it is not below zero or so windy I worry they would blow away! They forage the farm, fields, and hillsides in the spring, summer, and fall and I get an average of three dozen eggs a week year-round.

I raise pasture-based meat chickens using a chicken tractor built by my Father. This tractor can hold 20 birds and I raise this number every other summer. I have found red ranger broilers to be a hardy variety that does well moving about on pasture in the tractor. Although their harvest weight is a bit lower than the cornish-cross and it takes a bit longer to get them to harvest weight (12 weeks for the rangers vs 8 for the cornish cross), I find they stay on their legs better and forage on the pasture more efficiently. 

I also raise pasture-based turkeys alternatively with the meat chickens. Summer 2018 was my first year raising broad-breasted whites on pasture using a mobile turkey shed and electrified poultry netting with a solar fence charger. These birds are incredibly efficient in the field - grazing from the moment they are let out of the turkey shed each morning!