Take some time and tell us about yourself, your animals or your farm!

Edited on April 26, 2008 to add:

Note to New Members:

Now that our forum has grown and we have this whole section of the board to welcome new members, please feel free to start a new Topic to introduce yourself. Instead of using this old welcome thread, but I will keep it posted in case anyone wants to read about some of our current member's and their farms! Thank you and welcome!

I will start, my name is Jennifer and my husband and I live on an 80 acre farm in southeast Kansas. We have lived here for 10 years and I love living in the country! We lived in town before this and this is so much better to me. We raise goats, mostly percentage Boers. We also get prairie and fescue hay off of our farm. We have lots of black walnut trees and if I could figure out a way of effectively harvesting and shelling them we could probably sell walnuts too. I try to plant a garden every year as well but I am afraid I don't have much of a green thumb, I could use some help in that department. We also have a horse, 4 Great Pyrenees dogs, an elderly German Shepherd and 3 cats.

My name is Garoleen Wilson. My husband Joe and I have 80 acres. We both have jobs in town so we can afford to farm for a hobby. We have 60 acres of alfalfa and 15 acres pasture. Normally Joe gets some feeder steers in the fall but this year we decided to get goats. We have 10 crossbred does and 18 kids. Other animals; one horse, one mule, 2 farm dogs, a very spoiled Papillon house dog, a few cats and some chickens.

Dona here, from So. Central KS, right on the KS/OK line. We raise Kiko breeding stock, and have a couple of pet pygmy goats, but also have two "pet" cows (and currently their calves) and a bull, a small assortment of chickens, geese, and guinea hens, three dogs, and the danged supply of barn cats keeps growing!
I'm originally from New England, but have been in KS for about 18 years now, so the culture shock has worn off and I wouldn't trade my life in the country for all the money in the world!

Welcome Garoleen! Glad you are here! I would love to have some of our land planted in alfalfa! It is all native prairie and one small fescue field right now. I have to buy alfalfa off farm from other people. Do you and your husband sell alfalfa hay?

Welcome Dona! I am glad you are here! My husband and I have been thinking about getting a few cattle but we don't have any experience with them I am afraid. We have had goats for the last 5 years and I had horses when I was younger. We don't ride anymore but I do still have my horse from when I was a child. I raised her from a foal and just can't bear to sell her so she is kind of a "pasture pet". It is great to "meet" people that do know about cattle. I may just ask you two some questions about them someday.

Jennifer, this is a great undertaking you have started. I hope it works out well for you. Yes, My husband sells alfalfa. I really can't say what he has available right now. Big rounds because I'm feeding the small squares to the goats right now. Why pitch hay if I don't have too?
Dona, I'll bet KS was a culture shock from New England. I've only been on the East Coast once to a dog show in Boston. No, we didn't win.........
I'm reading everything I can find on goats and sometimes wonder if I've gotten into more than I was ready for. So many of the health issues are different than cattle and horses.
I've been very active with an online pet grooming board for a couple years. I've met quite a few people that are now wonderful friends. I'm looking forward to getting to know some goat people. I plan to joing the Kansas Meat Goat Association.

Thank you! I hope people in KS and near here will benefit from a more "local" board like this.

Thanks for letting me know about the alfalfa you have. We don't have any way of moving the big round bales right now but I will keep you guys in mind when we are able to get a trailer and hay spear for our truck.

I think goats do have a steeper learning curve, I don't remember having to know so much to care for the horses we had when I was a teenager but I do like that goats are smaller and easier to handle and have a shorter pregnancy and more kids, we started just looking for "weed eaters" to clean up the property for our first goats but I quickly found that I just love raising them! If you scroll down to the bottom of this board there is a "links" section where I have compiled quite a few links to helpful & educational websites on goats.

Papsnpaint - Don't let all that info out there boggle your brain! For what it's worth, my opinion is this: There are plenty of wrong was to do it, but no ONE right way! Everyone's situation, goals, resources, etc. are different, and there are more opinions about how to do something with goats than there are goats out there. It can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it.
My suggestion (again...for what it's worth) is to do all the research you are doing on various breeds, opinions, general care, etc. and VISIT as many goat operations as you can. You can learn something from everyone, even if it's how NOT to do something, or how you wouldn't want to do something. Then take all the info and sift through to find what will work the best for YOU!

Hi my friends call me fritzie. i have a small herd of alpines that i show & breed. once in a while i have a milker for sale & usually some babies. i hand raise all my baies on C.A.E. prevention. i use to live in maine & in sept of 2004 my beloved husband passed away suddenly. so not liking the snow i decide to move south. i have a 3 acre farm in Waverly tn. i did go to TX's for a while last year but did not like it down there. so in march this year i packed up all the animals & moved back to my house in tn where we are all very happy again.
i have 10 does,3 bucks.two GR PYR gaud dogs(1 year old female & next week am getting a male pup from KY) for the goats,one 8 yr aussie that protects me & the house,one corgi that just is here for laughs & we just got a house kitten.
when i was younger i us to show at the boston dog show. started doing it in 1954.
what part of new england are you from?

This looks like fun and a good idea Jennifer!
My name is Leah McGregor and my husband and I live in Chanute, Ks SE. We raise Boers and some crosses. We just had 5 FB kids born in this last week, so it's been fun around here. We raised goats for about 3 yrs now just getting into raising more seriously boers. We also have horses, we've been raising horses for about 20 yrs and are retiring from raising them to the goats.......somehow that seemed easier LOL!
Leah McGregor

Hi Leah! Congrats on the new Fullblood Boer babies! I am jealous we won't have any baby goats born here until March! Don't forget to post a link to your website in the area for your farm websites. (below the classifieds). A link to your farm website there counts as an entry in the "sell for soap" contest too!

I had absolutely sworn off having kids in the winter, after last winter and then turned around and bought some FB that were bred I could not pass up. Fortunatley Nov. is not near as bad as Jan/Feb will/can be. Most of the rest of ours will kid starting March. These are really nice girls, a Magnum daughter and Freight Train daughter. I was really pleased to get them. The buck kid born to Freight on Board today is a moose, I had to pull him and he is an agressive nurser, determined to have things his way already.
Here is a link to our goat web page, not very up to date (winter job)
http://leahofstarhaven.googlepages.com/
Leah McGregor

They sound really nice!

Hi everyone, I'm Jama. I live with my better half Jim, on a small farm in MO. Our primary goal is to raise our own food.
We have a variety of animals, which changes frequently. The mainstay of the farm is our goats, though we raise feeder pigs and sheep each spring. Always have chickens for eggs, ducks, geese and turkey are seasonal. We have a flock of peafowl for a hobby and occassionally sell the chicks. This year we hope to raise a bottle calf. Other animals are 7 dogs, 6 barn cats and 1 lone guinea.
We had a commerical meat herd for roughly 7 yrs. Recently downsized and now have small meat, dairy and fiber herds. We are members of MO Meat Goat Producers, ADGA and CAGBA.
Grow a garden every year, make our own dairy products, soaps, breads and I home can. Jim and I both love working and crafting with mohair, he even spins.
Kidding for us just started yesterday, for the meat herd. The dairy herd is due in Feb., the Angoras in April. Never a dull moment here

Jennifer this is a wonderful idea!

Thank you and welcome!