Sunday, March 11, 2012

Spring is here!

I have been so busy these past few weeks, birthing goat kids, selling rabbits and so on... The bunnies seem to be enjoying the warm weather :). The trees are starting to bud and the grass is starting to get green :).  I have sold two litters in the past week.  So, I re-bred all of my breeding does-nine of them; they are all due the end of next month.  I have decided to get out of the Californian breed, because I don't think they are as profitable as the Production Whites.  The Californian breed don't seem to handle the heat as well as the Production Whites.  They appear to struggle a lot more when it's really hot.  Last summer was an extremely hot summer, & I lost Krissa, my favorite Californian doe.  I didn't lose any Production Whites.  Also, the Californian breed eats a lot more than the Production Whites.  Since I breed for meat, I want to make sure I am getting the optimal amount of meat for my family.  I weighed the Production White breed v.s the Californian breed (freezer weight), and found that you get much less meat on the Californians at 10-11 weeks (typical slaughter age); I got about 1-1.5 pound of meat. With the Production White breed, I got about 2-2.5 pounds of freezer weight meat, & was able to slaughter much earlier (8 weeks). 
Here are a few pictures around the farm....