Belated welcome to 2025

Enjoying the donated Christmas Trees

So, we are a little late getting into 2025 and posting a blog update here.

After a busy winter, with all the Christmas Markets and long days selling our our natural skincare products, we took a little time to catch up on jobs on the farm!

Goats need regular foot trimming, checking for parasites and given general health check-ups. With our herd of 29 Royal Golden Guernsey Goats, these regular checks take a while, along with all the other jobs on the farm.

So each day, I choose 5 goats, to give a full work over. They love it and fight to get picked because they get extra feed and treats. They just don't realise they will get their turn.

For this check, I trim all four feet (and boy did they need it!), give them a good brush, checking for mites which they seem to get this time each year. If they have mites, we give them a pour on treatment of Pig oil and Sulphur which seems to work well for us. We also give them a vitamin boost and a copper boost, depending on each goat. You can tell, if they're not getting enough vitamins and copper, because their coats begin to look dull and their FAMANCHA is very low. Goats need a good dose of copper in their diet and in Devon the soil is copper deficient. During the winter, where the goats are housed all the time, they are not getting much browse and sometimes need a pick-me-up, because the feed they have is sometimes not quite enough. Also now is the time to take a fecal sample of their poo to check for internal parasites.

With all this done, whilst they are eating on the milking stand, they then are given a couple of cream crackers or ginger nut biscuits as a treat ... which they absolutely love!

Within a week, the whole herd is done, and the results of the fecal samples are in. This time they need treating, so they are given the correct treatment for the parasites. Not always easy because very little is licensed for goats and they need to be given a higher dose than sheep ... always talk to your vet before treating.

I'm out of ginger nut biscuits and cream crackers, ready for a couple of days to recover, the back suffers slightly.

A week later, the goats are looking much better, coats are looking glossy again and the feet look great.

Only another 4 weeks and we have to do it all again! But is worth it and I thoroughly enjoy that one to one time with each goat.

IT WILL SOON BE SPRING AND DURING MARCH WE ARE EXPECTING 12 OF OUR GIRLS TO HAVE KIDS ... WATCH THIS SPACE!!