Fruitful Acres

Saturday, January 11, 2025 Selenium and Newborns

This topic comes up often about this time of year. We dealt with a selenium deficiency years ago even though our area is not known for such a problem. Our vet wouldn't believe it even though we our herd was a textbook case until we sent off samples to Texas A&M and the results showed severe selenium deficiency.

Meanwhile a friend and colleague of mine from an area known to be selenium deficient was having some of the

Thursday, January 9, 2025 Worming Shock

I came across this video and this guy lays out the topic of what he's calling 'worming shock' clearly and concisely.

https://youtu.be/Z2Bi3d6pmwo?si=HOwqXgUyqA8e6_7-

Herbal deworming options often tend to act to drive down parasite load without eliminating it right away, so we have often used them initially to help an animal with a heavy parasite lo

Wednesday, January 8, 2025 More new Arrivals!

So while we're waiting on pins and needles for lambing to begin (anticipated within the week), we have twin 50/50 Kiko-Nubian doelings that have put in their appearance. ??

Tuesday, January 7, 2025 Preparing for Cold Weather

I was asked the other day what we were doing to prepare for the cold snap coming in this week.

Animals must be able to stay dry and out of the wind.

To assist with keeping them dry, we make sure they have fresh bedding underneath of them and enough walls and roofing to prevent sideways rain or drifting snow from reaching them.

Monday, December 30, 2024 Disbudding

I'm not sure how many days it'll be before I can put together a video on this topic (I've got a teenager eager to put together videos, but we will see what the new year may bring). This one is exactly what we do as far as the dis

Wednesday, December 25, 2024 Feeding for Daytime Births

My late grandfather was a large animal veterinarian that worked a lot with canines because there are often working dogs on farms and in the military (yes, he was also a veteran). He is the reason that I can hold an intelligent conversation with medical professionals and veterinarians. He taught me how to think and question, which he told me was more important than the other things one might learn in college. Understanding that his father was an inventor (we lost count at over 120 patent

Tuesday, December 24, 2024 Starting Off Kids

People are always asking how we raise litters of kids, so I thought I would take this opportunity to share details in a blog format because for once we have a single litter and no more expected right away.

On Sunday, we had a beautiful litter of quadruplets born to one of our older, experienced does. The 8 year old doe in question is Sapphire and she had a rather long labor because the first kid was coming out breech. Once that

Friday, May 31, 2024 Dual Purpose Goats

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