Agriculture training at RLC- Part 1 Goat raising

Last week I went with 4 other girls for agriculture training at RLC.
I really enjoyed and learned a lot during the goat raising class

We learned about milking

I love the fun personalities of goats :) This doe decided to get up in my face, I didn't mind :)

Fast effective milking is a learned art that I hope to become good at one day

One my way to be a good goat milker

Weighting the milk 

Guess what I am about to do???

Castrating a young goat

It takes some concentration 

And proper technic  

I didn't find it too hard and... kinda fun

If you would like to give it a try, this is how you do Bloodless castration;
1st. Cut the tip
2ed. push one testicle out, use the razor to gently cut through the membrane
3rd. Pull a tightly fastened membrane off the testicle and push all the membranes back into the testicle sack
4th. Twist the testicle 5 times, make sure to count, so you don't for get
5th. Rip the testicle from the goats body
6th. repeat with testicle #2
7th. Clean with a mixture of gin, ginger and turmeric
8th. Return the newly weathered goat to his pen

Finishing up

Anyone up for mountain oysters??

HELP ME!! 

Brenda giving the final pull

Kelly is proud of her first castrating experience 

Eileen did a great job as a city girl getting dirty doing farm work

Juniper was a natural 

Count them up. How many goats did we castrate?

Getting instructions on how to de-bud a one week old kid goat 

This one was a lot harder for me than the castrating, but I did it!

Finishing up

The freshly de-budded kid, he was sad

I gave him a little loving before returning him to his pen

Learning about hoof trimming. I had done it a little bit before, but I learned I had not been talking off enough of the hoof 

The stand of de-budding 

Our instructor was a good teacher out in the barn

We learned about mixing feeds & growing crops to feed your dairy goats 

Soybeans 

Salt & shells 

The grain before mixing 

mixing the grains back and forth 

The farms grain storage for their own animals and to sell to local farmers

A pretty nanny goat 

These animals are great for small farmers and their milk can bring a malnourished child back to health  

For the first two weeks they live the kids with their mothers.
For 2wks to 3 months they put the kids in their own pen during the night so that they can milk the does in the the morning and return the kid back in with the mother during the day.
After the kid is 3 months old it is weaned and the nanny gets milked twice per day 

Nubin does
We were told they are the best tropical milk goats

Feeding and housing animals in a tropical country is much different. You can plant hedge rows and cut and feed your animals from them year round. The barns are on stilts for air ventilation and for easy cleaning.

I have dreamed of having milk goats for a long time. My time at RLC gave me renewed vision for my future ministry in Africa and how milk goats can fit into that vision. I am excited to see what the future holds!   Part 2 of RLC training coming soon