2013 Yellow Springs Farm Day One -Rosalie

Day 1, April 8: Yellow Springs Farm

We walked into a small room with enough places for five goats to stand so they were able to be milked. This was the milking room and where, five at a time, all 27 of the goats were brought into and milked. The goats pushed and shoved, trying to be the first in to the milk room. They immediately rushed to the buckets of food and then were locked into their places.

Before we could actually milk the goats, we had to clean their teats and strip them. Once that was completed, the milking machines were attached and the goat's milk was pumped out. Five at a time the goats were milked. The milk then went into the cheese room. We cleaned up the milk room and then headed out to the field.

We had to do some of the basic chores for the goats. We had to muck out their stalls, and fill their buckets with fresh water. We then had to clean up around the goats' hay feeder. Over the course of the winter, hay piled up in layers around the feeder and had become wet and soiled. It had gotten pretty thick and the heat caused the smell to be carried around the farm. It was now our job to start cleaning up the pile. It was pretty hard work, especially in the heat!

Before we went in for lunch, we had the chance to observe a few of the kids being debudded. Debudding is the process were the growing horns of the kids are burnt off. This way, the horns won't grow as the goat does.

After lunch, we fed the kids, via the milk bar. We then had to bring four of the kids that were getting big, to the other barn. It was quite an experience traveling with four kids in a car!

The last thing we did, was take a manure run. YellowSprings Farm doesn't have enough room for their own manure pile, so we had to bring it to another farm where they would use it. When we returned, we had a lot of fun trying to back up the manure trailer into the goat field, while trying to keep all the goats inside!