Author Topic: treasure of knowledge (Read 3711 times)

langdon · « **on:** March 16, 2010, 03:04:47 pm »

this topic goes out to all of you experienced guys who keep having to
put novices like me right!!!(and i dont mind one bit)
as stated where did ye gain such knowledge.
were ye born into goat keeping?
or was it all trial by error and books and what ever other resourses you had.
anyway thanks for everthing you all have been a great help to me and beth
and of course milly and molly!

langdon

Wizard · « **Reply #1 on:** March 16, 2010, 03:51:03 pm »

I'm not a goat expert by any means but by all of your observations plus you may be given information that doesn't sound right All ways remember what is good in NE Linc's may not be good in Welsh Wales Sift it try it and if it works do it until you find something better.It's a bit like compooter experts to all intents and purposes there was very few before Clive made some everyone could afford.Bet theres some grand recollections on a ZX wow or was it WOW

Roxy · « **Reply #2 on:** March 16, 2010, 05:02:20 pm »

My dad was a goat keeper many years before me, and when we were youngsters I always remember him having a milking goat, so was brought up with goats, and goat milk of course!!

I got my first kid of my own over 35 years ago!! I did have a few years break from goat keeping, having lost my last goat to old age the year the foot and mouth hit. It frightened me, and I did not want to risk keeping goats and losing them to F & M. But here I am again, with a lot of them.

As to where you get knowledge from ....well, yes, you do pick up stuff as you go along. Remember, even people who have had goats years have problems just like novice goat keepers. Like I said I have kept goats for years, but this year, I have lost two goat kids at birth. As with all livestock, things happen, and all the knowledge in the world would not stop them.

I am one of the old school, who probably relies on old fashioned methods and ideas, rather than the new fangled ones. But, it works for me, so why not.

And you carry on asking questions Langdon, and we will do our best to answer them

Wizard · « **Reply #3 on:** March 16, 2010, 06:26:06 pm »

Roxy I said I wouldn't bring it up again but on flicking on the remote commander It stopped on Kate.What about that milking parlour eh!

langdon · « **Reply #4 on:** March 16, 2010, 07:30:59 pm »

interesting roxy!
im pretty much ol' school in things when it comes to things that i like to take
my hand too.
so i guess ol' school for goat keeping will do me

ballingall · « **Reply #5 on:** March 16, 2010, 10:00:16 pm »

I was born into it really. My mum and dad got a goat in 1968, my dad wanted one, which was interesting given my mum is the more animal minded, and was at that time a vet.

I was born in 1980, and went to my first overnight show at the tender age of 3 weeks old. I had my own goat by the time I was 5 years old, and could milk a goat probably about the same time. I learnt to milk on one of my mum's goats, Pastiche Rebecca (Pastiche was a prefix my mum and her best friend had jointly). A friend of ours swears that my mum was at a show one week pregnant, and was at a show the next week with me there. She did have help, by the time I was born my brother was 14, my sisters 12 and 9, so they were all really useful at helping.

All of my brothers and sister's have had goats at some point, and my sister has some again now (though they live at our place and belong to her and my neices).

With my nieces having their own goats and showing, we are now into the 3rd generation of our family keeping, breeding and showing goats.

Roxy · « **Reply #6 on:** March 16, 2010, 10:14:53 pm »

What I don't understand is why more people do not keep goats ....or hens for that matter. A man in the village used to keep a few goats, and a billy goat too, and a lady had a billy and a couple of nannies. They are old people now, so no longer keep goats. I don't know of anyone within quite a few miles of us who keeps goats any more. And at one time everyone with an allotment or plot of land had goats and chickens, and chickens are thin on the ground here too.

If no one has them, then the young people will not keep them, and goat keeping will be gone ......

ballingall · « **Reply #7 on:** March 16, 2010, 10:20:28 pm »

I know- its exactly the same up here. Time was when nearly every farmer had a couple of nanny goats because they fed his orphan lambs for him. My mum used to get over 100 goats coming to use the males at stud- and so did the other goatkeepers in the area. Now, none of the farmers keep goats, and if you have a male, you better use him yourself, because there's gaurantee anyone else will!

I read through the BGS herdbook (the AN section) yesterday as it came out yesterday, and that depressed me too. I hardly recognise any of the goat's prefixes and the names of the breeders. Most of them are never shown, and there are far far fewer being registered. It seems like the herdbook gets thinner every year!

Beth

woollyval · « **Reply #8 on:** March 16, 2010, 10:52:49 pm »

I had my first goats when I was 20.....having had all sorts of other livestock! There were, as has already been mentioned, lots of older folks who had kept goats for many years, many since before the war, who were very keen to promote goatkeeping. There were huge goat societies all over the country and they had several beginners days with all sorts of advice and help. There was always someone on hand either just down the road or on the phone who would rush to aid you if problems occurred!
Sadly I think its the mountains of beurocracy that have almost killed a way of life that had gone on for a very long time! We kept stud males and had a stream of visitors to them....This would not happen now due to the paperwork! Many goat keepers took their goats around the shows in vans....the goats were very happy with the transport, but these days it would not be allowed!
I think a lot of babes of knowledge have been thrown out with the bathwater of officialdom!

Roxy · « **Reply #9 on:** March 16, 2010, 10:55:01 pm »

I have not been a member of the BGS for a good few years - due to being in that many societies, mainly horse ones, it was getting costly - but the goat handbook used to be thick. Such a shame people are not breeding or registering their stock. Maybe with the recession etc. they are struggling to sell their animals?

I have noticed people breeding pygmy goats more - and am wondering if its because they can get decent money if they sell the kids? The thing is, nowadays they are going for quantity not always quality. Its a shame if they are just being bred to make some quick money. Its seeming that people knowing nothing about goats are just buying them to breed from.......and sell the kids on quickly. With pygmy goats able to breed twice a year I suppose it will happen.

Roxy · « **Reply #10 on:** March 16, 2010, 10:58:51 pm »

Yes, I do agree that the paperwork involved in goat keeping (in fact all livestock) could have an effect on people keeping goats. We used to load our nanny up in the back of the van, go off to the stud billy, have her served and pop her back in the van. No paperwork, no ear tags, nothing. I used to go to the local cattle market and see people buying goats. One man was taking his home on the train, and when I aksed if he was able to milk a goat, his reply was that his wife would have to learn!!! So, in a way, maybe the fact you need CHP numbers etc. has put off that impulse buying, which is a god thing.