Expecting the Unexpected (written 4/28/2025)

When you are raising dairy goats, it’s absolutely critical to have them get pregnant every fall. Unless the lady goats are expecting babies, they will not produce milk. And unless they produce milk, dairy goats are essentially worthless. They are definitely not earning their keep.

And to get babies, and therefore to get milk, you need to have a decent boy goat on the place. So, last fall, my stud was an absolute dud. He was a  new guy that I had purchased a year ago, to introduce some new bloodlines and some new color into the herd. He was a pretty face with some neat dappled spots, but that was about it.

He was small. He was whiny. He was loud. And, the most important and most graphic detail of all – he appeared to have less than zero interest in breeding the girls!

There is only one reason to keep a stinky, pushy, obnoxious, and potentially aggressive billy goat around, and this fella just wasn’t doing it.

In disgust and total aggravation, and with a major blizzard looming on the horizon this past January, I just threw in the towel and sold him at auction. I was not going to babysit him anymore. I was done, and so was he. And good riddance too!

And then, all I could do was wait. And wait. And wait. Of the six girls I had put in with him back in December, I had no way of telling whether or not any of them were pregnant. My thoughts began to darken. How could I justify keeping a dry dairy herd for all of 2025 and part of 2026, until they would have kids and milk again? I really couldn’t. Should I just sell the entire herd? Should I give up on the whole dairy thing? And if so, what then? How could I just throw away twelve years’ worth of endeavor and effort and hard work? How could I throw away twelve years’ worth of hope and love? Could I seriously turn my back on an entire lifestyle and just send it off to auction?

All through the bleak and bitter winter I fretted and fussed about it. The goats kept right on eating and pooping and taking up space. I kept on fetching and carrying, mucking out, cleaning up, hauling hay, thawing water.

March came with warmer weather, and still no way to know. Early April and still no sign.

And then, about two weeks ago, Spruce decided to start producing some milk. Then Java thought maybe that was a good idea, and she started to get an udder together, too. And finally, Mogen stepped up and joined the goat pregnancy club.

So all of a sudden, and against all odds, I’m going to have babies. By the end of this week, or at the latest by early next, I will once again be sitting at the milking stand twice a day, and feeding yelling, hungry little ones more times per day than I like to consider. I think I’m ready. I sure hope I’m ready, because they are coming, whether they were expected or not.

Expectant mommas! More news to come...