Livestock Guardian Team Assembled


Izzy and Sophie, getting muddy and getting their "mark" on

Last Saturday I picked up a couple adult livestock guardian dogs (LGDs). They are 3 and 4 yrs old and are full sisters from different litters. Izzy and Sheba are their names. They are 1/8th Anatolian Sheperd and 7/8ths Great Pyrennes. We just refer to them as Great Pyrs, but they do have some Anatolian traits, including some darker hair around the shoulder blades. Around here the new LGDs are known as “the big girls”, becuase, well, they’re freakin’ huge! We thought Sophie was getting to be a big girl. She looks like a little peck compared to her new friends.

 
Why Get Livestock Guardian Dogs?

 

We are using LGDs because we’re in an area that has coyotes, packs of wild dogs, and other predators (potentially including a bear, although that’s yet to be substantiated). Our goats are vulnerable to predation when they’e out on pasture, especially when they have little goat kids running around with them. It's the dogs responsibility to help protect them. It's our responsibility to facilitate the dog's success as a guardian and keep them happy and healthy.

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The Temporary Goat House Solution


Mayday, Sweetbread's favorite milking doe :)

Our timing for the move to Tennessee was seemingly perfect. Winter was officially gone (although it never really came), the grass was greening up, the days were getting longer, and baby goat kids were popping out of pregnant does everywhere. That meant we could get a couple milking does and their kids pretty much right when we moved in, and we did. The only problem was that we didn’t have much infrastructure to properly house the goats. We have some plans in mind for what our final layout will look like, but we needed a temporary solution. Thus came the temp goat house project.

The Temporary Goat Barn
We probably committed a crime worthy of capital punishment in Tennessee. We turned a man’s garage into a goat barn. Complete with milking stand and hay feeder. I get a good chuckle every time I think about the day that he comes to visit and sees what we did to the place. It hasn’t happened yet, but I know it will. Probably a couple weeks into me not mowing the “lawn”, he’ll roll up to say hello and damn near have a heart attack. Old guys that lived in places for a really long time like to see things the way they left them. Well, now you have a goat barn surrounded by natural goat food growing out of the ground. It’s a good thing these goats like fescue and clover or I might even have to reseed it!

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All About The Goats

Our Herd - (from left to right) The Buckling, Bridget, Springbok, Mayday, and SabineThings are moving along at the pace of a spring river and it has become a bit trickier to keep everyone up to date. Every time I talk to my parents, even though it’s only been a few days, I feel like I could go on for hours about everything that’s gone on since we last spoke!

I feel the same way about the blog, so get ready for a hefty read! Like I said, there's so much going on that it would be almost impossible to cover it all, but here’s an update on the goats to get you started…

We’re really beginning to settle into life with a herd and it’s hard to imagine that less than a month ago we didn’t have one! Milking and “goat walks” have become part of our routine, each enjoyable and relaxing (well, when everyone’s behaving, that is). We drink their milk every day and, just this weekend, have been enjoying our very own chévre and ice cream. Ah, life is good!

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