Landrace goats

2/11/26

Last week, we had to say goodbye to one of our goats. The goat, Splitnæs—also known as Splitti—got caught in the electric fences that are strung around one of our tree circles. We assume she strangled herself. Perhaps being trapped in the fence mesh, combined with the mild electric shocks, was too much for her heart. The electric shocks, however, couldn’t have been very strong, since the day before I had watched the little goats trying to crawl through the mesh in the fence to get to the sunflowers and other tasty plants in that very same tree circle.

The little goats don't seem to mind getting a mild electric shock.

Splitnæs had gotten stuck in a fence around a circle of trees once before. But we spotted her early enough back then and were able to free her. This time, unfortunately, we were too late. Splitnæs was one of the four goats I milked every morning and every evening. So she was one of the animals with whom I had a very close bond. When a terrible tragedy like this happens, it can really throw me off balance.

Splitti had gotten stuck in a fence once before.

Since Splitti died, the milk yield has dropped significantly. The day after she died, we had less than a liter of milk in total. With Splitti, it was over two liters, even though she didn’t produce any more milk than the other goats. Only Anna, our „old lady,“ generally produces less. It’s hard to explain why there’s suddenly so little milk. A slight decrease could be due to the fact that the animals are now on a pasture where there isn’t as much clover growing. But perhaps the other goats are still under stress. After all, they witnessed their half-sister’s—or daughter’s—agony up close.

We hadn’t anticipated that our tree circles, with all the delicious plants inside them, could turn into dangerous traps. We’re now considering other ways to protect the tree circles from browsing. In any case, the circles connected to the electric fence circuit should no longer be enclosed by double fences. Until now, we’ve had the tall blue fence with the larger mesh on the inside, facing the trees, and the lower red fence with the tighter mesh on the outside, facing the animals—the same one we use for our daily fencing.

We now want to try out various other options to avoid using the red fence while protecting the trees. One option would be to use a non-electrified boundary fence with very small mesh openings (15 x 15 mm) inside the circles—that is, on the inside of the blue, electrified fence. This would provide some privacy and prevent the animals from getting inside the circles with their hooves and mouths. The risk of getting caught in the blue fence is significantly lower because the netting is stiffer and has larger mesh openings.

Another option we want to try out—especially for individual trees—is using willow mats as a privacy screen.

Last but not least, we also want to try using picket fences around individual trees.

Since the last two options are quite expensive, they are not suitable for our tree circles, some of which have a circumference of 50 meters.

13/8/26

We were very busy over the summer. I lost my mother, who had been with us for five more weeks before that. That is why this blog has been neglected. And not just this one. The weeds are growing, the monitoring has been suspended, and we are just starting to reconsider what is important and what has priority.

Im Juni, als ich mal wieder in Deutschland war, ist unsere gesamte Herde ausgebrochen und hat sich über die Weinstöcke und viele andere Pflanzen von unserem Nachbarn her gemacht. Daher haben wir höhere Zäune gekauft und mittlerweile rings um den zusammenhängenden Teil unserer Weidefläche als Sicherheitszaun zusätzlich zu den bisher genutzten Elektrozäunen aufgebaut. Nun hat die Müllabfuhr festgestellt, dass sie an einigen Zäunen mit den großen ausgeklappten Spiegeln nur schlecht vorbeikommt. Wir dachten eigentlich, das drei Meter ausreichen würden. Das Umsetzen der Zäune hat also heute Priorität, denn morgen werden die Mülltonnen geleert.

There is quite a bit to do on such a small self-sufficient farm. In this difficult time of the last few months, I have come to question whether we will be able to keep the farm going. I think it is important to think about what is essential for one. Otherwise, one can easily become overwhelmed. We also have to limit the number of animals. So far, all healthy female sheep and goats have been able to survive. However, this year the pasture area does not provide as much food, perhaps also due to the drought. The herd is often moving away from the enclosure earlier than in previous years. If we want the herd to get through the winter healthy, we have to slaughter many of the animals. That is also part of holistic management. The sooner one starts slaughtering, the more remains for the rest. But which females are allowed to stay and which have to go? What criteria are important for breeding? Right now, I can hardly keep the lambs apart, let alone say anything about their character. At least, everyone we couldn’t easily identify with their mothers has now been given a colorful collar with a number attached. I hope we’ll get a better overview once we separate the boys from the girls. We’ll do that no later than the beginning of September.

30/3/26

Lambing season has begun. The first lambs were born four days ago, followed by some goats two days ago, and another lamb yesterday. It’s good to know that both the breeding ram and the breeding billy were fertile. The first lambs were born just 145 days after we let the ram join the ewes—that was quick. We’re expecting about 30 more births. At first, there’s always great joy when a live newborn is spotted. Then the worry sets in—will it drink properly from its mother so it gets its dose of colostrum?.

Since we've had problems in the past with both intervening too late and too early, it's difficult to decide when we need to provide support.

The newcomers had all already left the womb when we spotted them. The lambs were already on their feet. With the first two from our sheep Nelli, it quickly looked as though they were drinking. You can tell this, among other things, by the jerky movements at the udder and the wagging tail. Sometimes, however, the tail also wags when the infants are not „docked.“ If the lambs' bellies feel well-filled, and at the latest when orange-colored feces appear, these are also good signs.

The mother sheep has taken very good care of the two of them, encouraging them to drink and keeping others from the flock away. By now, the two of them are running so fast across the pasture that we can no longer catch them.

The two kids from our goat Splitti apparently had been born just shortly before our arrival, at least the placenta was lying right next to them. The smaller of the two seemed very weak, so we were a bit worried.

Mother goat Splitti was quickly back on her feet and even outside the fence, so it wasn't entirely easy to observe how well she was taking care of her kids.

We spent quite a while in the pasture until we were relatively sure that the two of them had had something to drink.

In the evening, we put the little goats on a bed of straw in the small shed so they wouldn't get too cold.

We had not seen the lamb that was born yesterday morning by our sheep Rudolfine drink until the afternoon.
However, it appeared quite mobile, so we only intervened towards evening.

Actually, the little ones are supposed to drink colostrum within the first six hours. We set up a small enclosure into which we lured the ewe with the help of the lamb. Then we checked with clean hands to see if milk was coming out of the udder. Since the lamb is quite large relative to the mother, it might not have been so easy to find the teat. We sat the mother on her rump and guided the lamb's snout directly to the udder and squirted milk on it. After that, we had the impression that it drank a little bit on its own. It is not certain whether the intervention was necessary. But since we have already lost a weakened lamb, we do not want to wait too long.

This morning all five seemed active. Now we can relax a bit until the next births, as long as the newborns don't suddenly change their behavior and become lethargic.

18/3/26

Slowly spring is coming. Two days ago, the sheep and goats completely left the gravel pit and came to a patch of land where a few fresh, green grasses were growing. After being moved, the animals were completely calm there and appeared to graze very contentedly.

By now the tender grasses have been eaten up. Apparently the animals have acquired a taste for it. Today the sheep and goat broke out of their enclosure and feasted in the large field on what was actually supposed to be available for later.

10/3/26

Slowly, the first signs are appearing that our sheep and goats are pregnant. This is especially difficult to tell with the sheep.
Many already look very rounded, but this can also be due to their thick fur.

Last year Schnauzi, our oldest lamb from the year before that, had grown very wide, but did not give birth to a lamb.

In addition, the animals drink significantly more, even though the temperatures this year have not exceeded 14°C so far.
Today we even had frost again. While only 10-20 liters were drunk during the winter months, 60 liters are currently being consumed.

Another sign that may indicate an impending birth is that sheep isolate themselves from the flock.
However, this can also happen for other reasons.

In the case of Splitti, one of our two goats who have been put with a buck for the first time since reaching sexual maturity, you can now clearly see that her udder has enlarged. In this case, we are quite sure that she is pregnant.

There is also the option of confirming pregnancy with an ultrasound examination. However, we have never had this done and fortunately have always had rams or bucks that did their job well. This year we weren't quite sure if everything would go well again because both gentlemen are quite small. But apparently it worked out anyway.

The little white billy goat is named Rumle

Spragle — The little white billy goat is named Rumle

21/2/26

Until recently, the world was completely white. After being moved, the sheep set upon the few blades of grass. In part, they also used their hooves to scrape away a bit of the snow.

The goats ventured into the deep snow because a few blackberry shoots were too tempting to resist.

The less daring goats set upon the branches of the birches. Unfortunately, they later set upon the bark again. The sheep also want to get a share of the branches and try to profit from the goats' actions.

Last night, a thaw set in and today the world looks completely different. There are no trees on the current plot that we need to worry about, but due to the meltwater, the ground is very wet and there is a risk that grazing will cause more severe hoof damage and weaken the vegetation. Therefore, we will move the animals faster than originally planned.

15/2/26

The snowdrifts are causing us a lot of trouble. We kept getting stuck with the wheelbarrow while transporting feed, water, and batteries for the power supply.

Luckily we have the ATV, which makes it across the field so far.

Collecting the fence is not easy either when it is deeply covered in snow.

Some daring goats try to cross the snowfields, while the sheep avoid the deep snow even in the fenced areas. Apparently, they stop searching for something edible when the snow depth reaches 20–30 cm. Perhaps we have simply been providing too much supplemental feed.

13/2/26

Yesterday was the last time I milked. Actually, I had planned to stop five days later. The first two to three streams are not milked into the bottle, as too many germs can collect in them. You can also see the texture of the milk. With Bulette, yesterday a large part of it was a thick, cream-like substance. The udder was also significantly smaller.

With Anna, I milked with the machine for another minute, but only 150 ml came out. The udder wasn't large either. Therefore, I decided not to intervene any further. I think Anna and Bulette will manage to stop milk production. Let's hope that both are pregnant and we'll get kids in about two months.

Anna's milk also has a much thicker consistency. Apparently, the process in which fluid is reabsorbed in the udder has already begun. In the process, the proportion of antibodies is said to increase. I will not use the milk anymore for that reason.

The penultimate time I had milked was four days ago. The milk was quite thick even back then. Maybe I could have stopped at that point already.

30/1/26

The drying off of the goats did not work as well as I had imagined. After omitting the evening milking, the milk production of our two dairy goats dropped from a total of 750 ml daily to 700 ml. There the milk yield stagnated.

My second step to reduce milk production was to milk only with the machine and not to assist by hand. As a result, the milk volume dropped to about 600 ml. At the moment, I am only milking for 1 minute per goat with the machine, and there is a total of about 500 ml of milk for both goats together.

As a final step, I will no longer milk every day and will increase the time intervals between milkings. The supplemental pellets (feed supplement) given during milking are also being reduced effective immediately. At the latest in two weeks, I will stop milking altogether.

16/1/26

We also milk in winter. The goats have been milked continuously twice a day since May 2024 (which is 20 months). Recently, however, it has hardly been worth milking in the evening anymore. There wasn't more than a quarter of a liter. In the morning we get about half a liter.

Today I skipped the evening milking for the first time and am now only milking in the morning. The milk production in the udder should slowly decrease. If all goes well, I can stop milking completely at the beginning of February. We hope that Anna and Bulette, our two dairy goats, are pregnant, so they should be given at least two months to recover a bit and regain their strength.

The goats are Danish Landrace goats and are so hardy that they can be kept outdoors all year round. However, they do not like rain and strong winds very much, and in such weather they hide in the small shelters that we try to position according to the wind direction. The goats also need hay and straw to keep themselves warm. On very cold days, they shiver all over when we bring the food.

The Ertebølle sheep are even hardier than the goats. In freezing weather, they lay scattered across the pasture at night and thawed the frozen grass cover slightly. Four years ago, we had a severe storm and drove the sheep into the open barn. However, they did not like that at all and quickly wanted to go back to their cold pasture.