It has been a few days since I posted, not intentionally. Yesterday was my birthday so I had the day off from the barn - well from the animal care portion at least. Thanks Mom! However, cheese waits for no one so there were cheese things to do, such as brining the feta I made the day before and hanging the chevre I set last night to drain. Of course there is always a little affinage to do.
Even at the height of our production we are considered a micro-dairy. Our large vat insert maxes out at 35 gallons and generally during the higher yield milk months I'm making cheese 3-4 times a weeek. However, currently we are a micro, micro-dairy. My recent batches of feta and also my last two of chevre were just under 5 gallons each. And it took me all of my legal holding time to gather that much milk. At this rate we may be done with active cheesemaking within the next 2 weeks.
Done of course until the 50 or so does that are pregnant start kidding in mid to late February. Enter the time of no sleep... Last year our farm produced around 148 kids between February and July 4th weekend, most of them born between mid/late February and April. We're often asked what we do with all those kids. Well, last year some when back to Old Mountain Farm, friends we were leasing goats from (or in some cases had bought does from with kids back conditions) and a couple groups of young wethers went to a friend who raises them and sells them as pets - goats make great pets or companions animals. All the others we have sold, except for 28 or so that we still have here, some still for sale but others bred this year to kid in the spring or the younger ones who we'll grow out this year and make a decision on them for next year.
I'm please to say that this year we had kids travel to Alabama, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, Maine, and other points around the new england area. Some even went to show homes which we are very excited about. We are quite busy with the farm and cheese so while we have the milk testing part in hand, we haven't had any goats in the show ring. This year we have goats on the show circuit in a couple places plus just this week 2 of our young does went to 4-H show homes! I can't wait to see what this next season of kids brings.
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