It never rains but it pours

It's been a month since my last blog entry. There was not much to report for November since the farm and garden is still staggering from the lingering effects of a couple of wicked weather disturbances that visited our area.

After a devastating storm last October, a week-long and non-stop heavy rain poured down during the first few days of November.

The constant rain was not the result of any storm. It was simply due to a weather phenomenon called Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). It is not an unusual weather occurrence, what's unusual was the amount of rain it brought down this time. It flooded much of the low-lying areas of the northeastern part of the country.

The water in the picture is not a river but a flood submerging large swath of farmlands. This was the view from our farm of the town down below.

The rivers swelled and overflowed their banks due to excessive amount of water coming down from the surrounding mountains. As a result, it drowned farmlands and other low-lying areas. Our farm and garden sits on an elevated section of a valley so we were not directly affected by the huge flood even though we have a major river as a next door neighbor.

Indirectly, the flood affected us too. The carpenters we hired to build a new shelter for the sheep were unable to come because their homes were submerged by the flood and so had to attend to their own needs first. As a result our poor sheep were exposed to the elements the whole time the sky was weeping and wailing.

The young Boer/Kalahari Red buck hybrid (right) bought 4 months ago died of pneumonia along with seven other goats.

The sheep, however, are resilient creatures. They were able to survive nature's direct assault. I wish I could say the same for our goats. Eight goats including the young male Boer I asked my parents to buy died of pneumonia. The continuous wet weather, high temperature, high humidity and cramped living conditions may have contributed to their untimely demise.

It is now early December but the strong rain still keeps coming and going, a very sharp contrast from just a year ago.

The farm is still healing from the deep wounds inflicted by the October cyclone. With so many things to do and so few workers (no budget to hire more), the farm is just barely crawling towards normalcy. It's been over a month now since the storm and yet there is still no electricity. They're relying on a 4 Hp. generator which we had to buy because of this long and continuous power outage. It is only used a few hours in the evening and switched off before bedtime to conserve on fuel.

On the brighter side, Mom said it's like spring in the farm, the surviving leafless trees are sprouting new leaves.

Home-made

"A good home must be made, not bought."
Joyce Maynard, "Domestic Affairs"

When Mom and Dad were on a quest to find mates for the Boer doe and the Anglo-Nubian buck, they had the opportunity to go to commercial goat farms and observe the way things are done there. What caught Dad's eyes were the pens housing the goats, how squeaky clean and organized, made of top of the line construction materials. How Dad wished we could have the same set-up in our farm.

A commercial farm's goat house.

Ours is not a commercial animal farm (well, at least not yet) and technically it's just categorized as a "backyard farm". Without access to a solid financing, we must make do with what we have and put to good use whatever available resources we can get hold of.

The structure that houses our goats. Most of the time they're outside grazing.

When the time has come to move the goats out of their current grazing ground to make way for the plants that need to go there, Dad had to build a new house, a better home for the goats. Since the area where they can move about has been drastically reduced in size, the goats' house must be cozy and roomy enough that they won't feel the need to roam out far. Their food must now be brought to them instead of them looking for it.

The new house for our goats, constructed of materials already in the farm.

Taking into consideration what he saw from the commercial farms he had visited, Dad and his crew built our goats' house out of locally available materials. It may be a cheap housing unit, mostly made of wood and bamboo, but when it comes to comfort and function, our goats' new home is certainly at par, if not better than those found in commercial farms.

Inside the goat house.

My impression of the house Dad build for our goats is that it's cute, cozy and warm, unlike the sterile and cold vibe I got when I saw a picture of a commercial farm's housing units.

A room to grow

The rain has been falling more frequently now. It's time to move the plants from the nursery to their permanent location in the upper garden.

Even though there are still lingering days with no precipitation, it's safe to move most of the plants from their cramped space in the nursery to where there is plenty of space to spread their limbs, roots and leaves. And that move is what's keeping our gardeners busy since the rainy days began to arrive.

One of our helpers busy transplanting ornamental plants in the upper garden.

But now that the soil is getting a more constant soaking, the wild grasses too are in a mad rush to grow and reclaim the ground. They are growing so fast that they are towering over some of the already established garden plants which have been transplanted several months ago.

Two other helpers clearing the area around the plants where the wild grass seem to have totally taken over.

Wherever they need to put the garden plants, they need to clear the area first so that the plants would have some space to grow and a better chance of survival. They have to constantly keep the grass at bay, otherwise they will rob the plants of the light and nutrients they need and eventually suffocate them.

A young goat munching on some fresh grass cuttings from the upper garden.

Unsightly as they are, part of the reason why the grasses are allowed to grow tall is so that the goats would have plenty to feed on. The goats are no longer allowed to roam freely in the upper garden to protect the plants from their voracious appetite. Their vast foraging grounds have been reclaimed so their food must now be brought to them manually.

Someday the sea of wild grass will give way to a landscaped and well maintained garden. Someday.

Crazy about the goat

A few months back, I recounted the blooper my parents committed when they unintentionally purchased a different breed of goat from what I asked them to get.

Well, it happened again!

It seems like they can't get the right breed whenever they buy a goat. At first they bought a Boer when I asked them to get an Anglo-Numbian doe. Because of that we now have a female Boer with no mate and a male Anglo-Nubian still with no partner.

So a few months later I asked them to get a Boer buck and an Anglo-Nubian doe. Because juveniles are cheaper than adults, that's what we planned to get to fit in my budget.

The newly bought Anglo-Nubian doe (6 months old) and the hybrid Boer/Kalahari Red buck (4 months old) in a quarantine cage.

Finally they got it right with the Anglo-Nubian doe. But to my surprise they also brought home a mixed Boer and Kalahari Red buck! What the ....? Must I fly home to make sure they do things right?

Ah, my dear parents! I don't know if their goal is to collect all existing breed of goats or maybe they simply find pleasure in driving me crazy. Maybe it's payback for all my mischiefs when I was younger? The last time I checked I was never the black sheep of the family. But that's another story.

Got milk?

The three new Boer kids suckling from Mama goat.

The kids of our very first Boer goat are doing well. The boisterous three are now showing more signs of independence from Mama goat, which makes her very uneasy whenever they wander away from her. Boer does are known for their excellent mothering instinct.

Aside from getting the wrong breed, the reason why I didn't warm up before to our Boer goat is because I thought it's another breed of dairy goat. And I'm not interested in goat milk production. Probably because I'm not a milk drinker? Actually, my goal is the meat. Anyway, I must be high on something that day because I thought Boers are for milk. Well, that's what I got from reading just a few articles in the internet.

Further readings proved that I got my facts wrong. Now that I know that Boers are bred primarily for their quality meat, my dislike for our Boer goat has totally vanished. Does that mean that I don't like the Nubian now? No. We got it almost for free so why hate a gift.

So now I have a new goal, that is to get the female Boer a mate of the same breed. Hmmm... sounds familiar?

'Got Milk?' is a popular advertisement in the US beginning in the 90's to entice more people to drink cow's milk.

It's payback time

This post is way, way overdue. Its been waiting for me to hit the 'Publish post' button for weeks. Finally I did...

Last February, a representative from the Department of Agriculture (DA) called to inform that someone will be coming over to the farm to collect two young female sheep. This is not a surprise since it was part of the deal the farm agreed to when they signed up for the government's livestock program.

True enough, a few days later, two vets from the Agriculture department came to get the two sheep. This serves as partial payment for their sheep-raising starter program. And this is also when the vets confirmed that the female goat we bought is not Anglo-Nubian but rather a Boer goat.

The foraging grounds (which takes up over half of the farm and the site of the 'future' garden) for the goats and sheep have been drastically cut in size. They still have a significant size of grounds to feed on, except that now the sheep and the goats no longer share the same space.

This redistricting is the result of the construction of the dirt road, which is the first stage in the planned gradual conversion of the animals' foraging area into a lush garden space.

Scapegoat

I knew it! Im so frustrated!

The first time I saw a picture of the "Anglo-Nubian" doe they recently bought, I knew there was something amiss. I told them the goat looks more like a Boer, a different breed. But since they bought it from a so-called 'certified' breeder they were confident they got the right breed.

Then a few days later, representatives from the Department of Agriculture came to the farm to collect two female sheep (ewes). They confirmed that the goat is a Boer.

I'm so furious! I feel like I was robbed, with a receipt to remind me. I need to find someone to blame for this mistake.

That opportunistic seller preyed on my parents' lack of full knowledge about goat breeds. He is lucky there's an ocean of a barrier that separates me from him. I feel the need to shove that pregnant Boer down his throat or up his a&%.

So now we have a Boer doe, another goat breed we didn't intentionally plan on breeding. And yet we are still left without an Anglo-Nubian doe, the one we planned on buying.

And all along I thought we got two for the price of one!

Two for the price of one

A month ago, I had a conversation with Mom and Dad about the lone Anglo-Nubian buck that the farm received through a government grant to upgrade the breed of our native goats. My concern was that if anything happens to the buck, then we might lose our one and only pure-bred.

The first Anglo-Nubian doe in our farm. They named her 'Nubian'. Care to guess the name of the buck?

We thought it would be good if we also have a pure-bred female Anglo-Nubian to keep the breed going. They could try to apply for another government grant but that will take several months, and that is if the application is approved.

A very pregnant goat.

So I thought that we should just buy one instead. And so they inquired with some breeders how much it costs to purchase a pure Anglo-Nubian doe. It's quite pricey but the benefits outweigh the cost in the long run so we went ahead and bought one.

For some reason (maybe so he could gain our business that day and perhaps even in the future), the breeder knowingly sold us a pregnant doe for the same price as that of a non-pregnant one. In a few more weeks we may have a first pure-bred kid grazing in the farm. Hopefully, when the time comes, the doe would give birth without any complications.

We are anxiously anticipating the arrival of the kid.

Kidding aside

In my two older entries, "Kids stuff" and "New kids on the block", I wrote about the new additions to the farm, the hybrid kids (or 'upgrade' as the locals call it), offsprings of our native does and a purebred Anglo-Nubian buck. Missing in those entries are pictures of the baby goats.



Finally! After waiting for several weeks, I got hold of some pictures of our very first batch of upgraded/hybrid goat kids.

There are now six kids, four girls and two boys. Although brothers and sisters from different mothers, they all display distinct traits of their father, a bulky body and long, drooping ears.

The kids aren't weaned yet so their moms have to be around to feed, groom and change their diapers while their dad is busy flirting with the other ladies of the flock.

These pictures were taken using Mom's cellphone camera, so the image quality is not very good. But still, aren't they cute?

Kids stuff

Within two consecutive days after the first pregnant doe gave birth to twin female upgrade (hybrid) kids, three more pregnant does added three (2 females, 1 male) more to the population of upgrade kids. Now there are five (4 females, 1 male) upgrade baby goats in the farm.

The three new additions were much bigger than the older twins. The latest arrival was a male and it was way bigger than the rest that it had to be pulled out of the mother goat.

All the kids trace their paternal lineage from our currently one and only purebred Anglo-Nubian buck.

New kids on the block

I just received a text message from my mother bearing good news.

One of the pregnant does carrying a hybrid (Anglo-Nubian/native) has just given birth to twin female kids. As of this writing the kids are only 3 hours old, still struggling to stand on their own feet.

I was told the distinctive characteristics of the Anglo-Nubian breed are very visible. The kids have long, dangling ears and longer necks.

The mother doe had no problem giving birth. Since she was carrying two kids the babies were smaller than if there was only one. Also a female kid is usually smaller than a male kid. Another factor was that this was already her third time to give birth (but first to carry hybrids).

The mother doe that died (see "Big") was carrying a male, big kid and it would have been her first time to give birth.

There are two more pregnant does due to give birth anytime this month. They are also first-time mothers so they are under careful observation.

At least we're happy that now we have our first hybrid (also called 'upgrade') kid. Not just one but two and both are females. Hopefully they grow up to be good mother does also so that their kids will be even closer to the Anglo-Numbian breed.

Big

"I wish I were big..."
- Josh Baskin ("Big" - 1988)

"Ang laki (very big)!" were the words my mom uttered in amazement.

Early last month we lost a pregnant goat. The doe was carrying a hybrid, the result of a successful mating with our lone Anglo-Nubian buck. It was expected to give birth any time soon. This could have been the first offspring between a local and a larger imported breed.

The doe was doing fine during the day but must have gone into labor sometime in the middle of the night. The following morning they found it dead. Upon inspection they found a fully formed kid stuck in its birth canal. It was much, much bigger than the usual kid a local doe produces.

Normally, the does need no extra help giving birth. And it's always a surprise to suddenly discover one or two new additions to the brood. But now that they're carrying hybrids, precautionary procedures must be followed.

There are two more does expecting to give birth this month. This time, they will be segregated and carefully monitored. At the moment they go into labor, someone must be there to help with the birthing process. It's no longer enough for the doe to push and let gravity take over. Someone must be there to coax and pull the kid out of its mother.

Another lesson learned.

Cry for help

"Why don't I see a cry for help
Why don't I feel a cry for help
Why don't I hear her cry for help..."
("Cry For Help" by Rick Astley)

I received a bit of a sad news last Wednesday evening. One of our does (female goat) accidentally died, leaving behind two nursing kids without a mother.

It was Tuesday late evening. Everything was quiet in the farm when suddenly they heard the wail of a goat in distress. They were wary to go out to check what the problem was since it was very dark outside. Erring on the side of caution, they decided to stay put, safely inside the house.

They could hear one goat loudly bleating, crying out for help for over an hour. But thinking that it was just a minor problem, they turned a deaf ear to the sound of an animal in distress.

The following morning they went to check on the goats and found a doe dangling midair on her hind foot. It got stuck in a gap on the elevated wooden platform where they usually sleep. She must have tried to go down to the ground when her hind foot got trapped leaving her hanging between the platform and the ground. Hanging upside-down for the rest of the night, eventually she passed away.

Now they have to hand-feed the two orphaned kids, which are not yet completely weaned.

Knowing the terrain and location of the farm, it being in a remote area where unscrupulous elements could be lurking on some dark corners, I would completely agree with their decision not to go out that night.

Big bucks!

"Big bucks! Big Bucks!"

I remember that phrase shouted like a mantra by all contestants of the gameshow "Press Your Luck" (and years later its reincarnation called "Whammy!") as if the game board will hear them and bring them big money.

In my August 20 blog entry "The buck stops here", I mentioned about an Anglo-Nubian buck that the farm received from the government. Since I didn't have an image of our buck back then, I borrowed one from Wikipedia. Finally, my brother e-mailed me several pictures of our new he-goat.



What a handsome creature indeed, with a dignified posture and a lean body. But they forgot to mention that it's bigger than the local goats that we currently have.



Now that's a big buck indeed.

The buck stops here

I know, this is an idiomatic phrase.

But the buck did indeed stop, albeit not here but at the farm. It's an Anglo-Nubian buck.

NOTE: Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

An Anglo-Nubian is a breed of domesticated goat. Considered a dairy breed, it is known for high quality, high butterfat, milk production. It is of mixed European, Asian and African origin.

Remember my topic about a government bureau lending livestock (see 'Of good governance') to farmers? The bureau has granted our request for another goat (of different breed) to improve the breed of the goats that we have on the farm today. Introducing a new and better breed will not only alleviate the problem of in-breeding that usually happens but also improve the quality of the livestock's gene pool.

After paying all the required fees, the buck was picked up and brought to its new home. When the quarantine period expires, it will then be allowed to mingle with the ladies of its own kind.