Category: Landrasseziegen

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

Gestern habe ich zum letzten Mal gemolken. Eigentlich hatte ich vor, erst fünf Tage später aufzuhören. Die ersten zwei bis drei Strahlen melken wir nicht in die Flasche, da sich in denen zu viele Keime sammeln können. Außerdem kann man die Beschaffenheit der Milch sehen. Bei Bulette kam gestern zu großen Teilen eine dicke, sahneartige Substanz heraus. Das Euter war auch deutlich kleiner.

Bei Anna habe ich noch eine Minute mit der Maschine gemolken, es kamen aber nur 150 ml. Das Euter war ebenfalls nicht groß. Deswegen habe ich beschlossen, nicht weiter einzugreifen. Ich denke, Anna und Bulette schaffen es die Milchproduktion einzustellen. Bleibt zu hoffen, dass die beiden trächtig sind und wir in ca. zwei Monaten Zicklein bekommen.

Annas Milch hat auch eine viel dickflüssigere Konsistenz. Anscheinend hat bereits der Prozess begonnen, bei dem Flüssigkeit im Euter resorbiert wird. In dem Zuge soll angeblich der Anteil von Abwehrstoffen ansteigen. Die Milch werde ich deswegen nicht mehr verwerten.

Das vorletzte Mal hatte ich vor vier Tagen gemolken. Da war die Milch auch schon recht dickflüssig. Vielleicht hätte ich schon zu diesem Zeitpunkt stoppen können.

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.