Now that Sedona is pretty much settled in I figured I should write a post about how we integrated her in with our Ghetto Goats, Bella and Daisy.

Several months ago I got an email from my friend Lynda, who with her husband owns Foggy River Farm in Healdsburg. She was needing to reduce her herd and was wondering if I would like to enter the dark side by taking on a Nigerian Dwarf (for those that are new, we owned African Pygmies) for barter. She couldn’t have asked at a better time because I had been thinking about bringing on a Nigerian to rotate with our pygmies. It was a super duper bonus because it was a Castle Rock Farm doe, which really is the creme d’ la creme of Nigerian Dwarf goats. And to add on to the awesomeness of the offer was that she would come bred to one of her CRF bucks.

We took a trip in mid-December to go pick up Sedona plus interview Lynda and Emmett about their farm. Right when we entered the goat pasture this brown and white goat came walking right up to us. It was Sedona. She was not only the first one to greet us, she came to us immediately. She then followed us around the rest of the time we were there. Our first impression of her was that she was bigger and much sturdier than the Ghetto Goats.

The biggest hurdle we were going to have though was the issue with the horns. Sedona was polled and the Ghetto Goats, well, still have their horns. But we were prepared. I had purchased a bunch of tennis balls from the pet store with the plan to duct tape them on to the ends of the Ghetto Goats’ horns. Easier said than done, of course.

We cut a small X into each tennis ball and then while they were still in the stanchion we pushed them on to their horns and duct taped them. It took a few tries to figure out how to tape them so they stayed on for longer than 5 minutes. In the end we ended up taking longer strips and starting at the base of the horn with one end of the tape we went straight up over the tennis ball and then brought the other end down to the bottom of the horn on the other side. We repeated this perpendicularly to the first strip of tape. Then we wrapped a bunch of tape around the horn and tape to hold it all in place. Daisy’s horns were so close together that we decided to just tape everything together.

I’m pretty confident that if the tennis balls weren’t on their horns the Ghetto Goats could have easily killed Sedona. Introducing goats is not a pleasant task under normal circumstances. The herd queen of any herd will beat unmercifully on new goats and Bella was no exception. The beatings aren’t just for a few hours or even a few days. This went on for weeks. Yes, the Ghetto Goats had to wear tennis balls on their heads for 4 weeks. Because they have horns they don’t simply headbutt, but rather use their horns as spears scooping up hoping to stab their adversary. The tennis balls not only dulled their horns but also provided quite a bit of cushion to the blows.

Bella and Daisy will be our last goats to have horns. It’s just too stressful on everyone to have goats that are horned. They are dangerous not just to other animals but to us and themselves (a broken horn can cause a goat to bleed to death). Plus they are much more destructive than polled goats. In the 2 years that we’ve had them they have systematically punched out every board on the barn. Everything has horn marks on it.

Our biggest concern the first few days was whether Sedona was eating enough. She has a very long body so her rumen doesn’t show but we were still having to keep an eye on her. Because of the stress she was under she started to exhibit scours (diarrhea) almost immediately. I gave her a good dose of Probios Plus (which she ate with enthusiasm) and I wormed her. Her scours cleared up right away but we were still concerned about whether she was eating enough because she seemed very disinterested in food. She wasn’t even interested in grain. The only food she did seem interested in was a few kohlrabi leaves. Once I got her to eat some of those I gave her some fresh orchardgrass that we have growing. That was the turning point. Once she got something in her stomach she seemed to remember that she needed to eat, and eat she did.

A few weeks after Sedona’s arrival, Bella went into heat. Her attitude towards Sedona was like night and day and all of a sudden she was being really affectionate towards her. But as soon as her heat ended so did this new attitude. It did slowly improve and eventually the tennis balls came off. Daisy and Sedona are now buddies and play with each other. Daisy is on the bottom of the pecking order, having voluntarily given up her spot to Sedona who bosses her around. Bella still occasionally chases Sedona but not with the tenacity as before and they can usually be near each other peacefully.

Sedona is finally settled in and seems happy. If she can’t see the other two she gets upset, which is a good sign because she views them as part of her herd.

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Our goat yard is in the shape of an L. This fall, while the chickens were still living with the goats, we had decided to fence off the leg and seed it with pasture seed. I wasn’t sure if we should seed it for the chickens or for the goats. After doing some research we ended up going with a dairy pasture seed which was safe for both the goats and the chickens.

The dairy pasture seed is made up of orchardgrass and various rye grasses and clovers. It’s high in protein, stimulates milk production, and recovers quickly, which is important on such a small area. The plan was to just allow the animals on it for short periods of time as a supplement to their normal diet. They would be able to mow the grass and then we would allow it to replenish

In addition, I also purchased more alfalfa and orchardgrass seed for the orchard area. Last year we planted some to see how it would do. Overall we were happy with it because it didn’t require supplemental irrigation and it’s perennial. This time, though, I went with Paiute Orchardgrass because it’s better adapted to heavier soils like ours and thrives with less water than the standard orchardgrass.

To plant the pasture grass we loosened up the soil and hand seeded the area. We then took pieces of plywood, systematically put them down and walked on them to help tamp down the seed so that there was good seed to soil contact. We then gently watered the area.

After our much overdue rains recently our seeded area took off. Up until then I had been having to hand water it once a week to keep it alive. The majority of the grass had gotten about a foot high so tonight I decided to let the girls have a little treat. Not too much because I didn’t want to upset their rumen with this new forage.

Sedona, our country girl who used to live on pasture knew exactly what to do. She almost immediately started chowing down. Bella and Daisy, our two ghetto goats, took a bit longer to warm up to the idea. Daisy, who is now buddies with Sedona, was more willing to follow Sedona’s lead than Bella was, but eventually even Bella started grazing a bit.

The didn’t get to spend too much time on the grass as we had to get milking, but I was happy to see that they did like the fresh forage.

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