Farmer Focus: Kidding kicks off sooner than expected

Autumn kidding started before I expected, with Jess asking if I actually knew the gestation period of a goat.

After pressure washing and disinfecting all the hurdles and kid-rearing shed in a panic, the vet disbudded the first batch.

Jess is training Dimitri to help with the arduous job of bottle feeding the new kids until they learn to suckle the teats on the automatic feeder. We have had a few complications with multiple births and lots of goats deciding to kid when I leave them for a few hours.

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We are planning to artificially inseminate a group of goats for the first time later this month, using sponges to synchronise the does before insemination, although we have been warned to only expect a 40% conception rate.

Our feed supplier organised a Dutch dairy goat consultant to speak about kid rearing during a meeting on a local goat unit recently.

She highlighted the need for good colostrum intake and careful management at weaning, which is just when the immunity from colostrum is wearing off and the kid’s own immune system is just getting started.

We harvested most of the maize on the last day of September. A heavy shower first thing delayed the start. Then the forage harvester broke down on the road en route. We took a quick trip to Frank Sutton’s for a belt and thankfully the machine was chopping by 2pm.

With seven trailers organised for a six-mile haul, I was very grateful to the drivers for carrying on until late on a Friday night to finish the block. 

Although it was only 12ha, it is made up of four of the most awkwardly shaped fields known to man. After ploughing it ourselves, the following Sunday two combination drills made light work of planting winter cereals in dry conditions for once.

The new land we have rented came with some existing muck heaps, while the contractors sat in their air-conditioned cabs spreading it.

I had gloves on to extract the considerable amount of sting, net wrap, black plastic and other rubbish – even the tailboard of a trailer.

Gary and Jess Yeomans run a herd of 700 milking goats across 100ha, which supplies a local cheese factory. They also own a small pedigree Welsh Black suckler herd to graze permanent pasture.