BigBlog

I have reduced my herd to 5 does and one buck. Bitch Face, and numbers 7,8,33, and 34 are the does and I have replaced Syco with No.50 as the breeding Buck.There are still 8 of Syco's kids to be evaluated in about 6 months. None of the older buck kids were retained as No.50 was the best of the drop.

The next drop of kids will be 7/8 Cashmere/Angora crosses and I expect that fleeces will be more uniformly cashmere in style and fibre diameter.

The latest fleece test results have come back. The Cashmere does No.'s 7,8,& 33 were all under 15 microns. No.8 is 5 years old has has always been under 15 microns. A trait inherited from Rex's dam who at 6 years of age was always under 15 microns.

Of the three 75% Cashmere 25% Angora crosses, two bucks showed large amounts of intermediate fibres but the other, No.50, had a  mfd of  15.66 microns, a CV of 19.95%, a Yield of 82.18% and a curvature of 48.95 deg./mm. His total fleece weight was only 300 grams but this was at 7 months of age.

I will keep him for further testing.

This seasons kidding has just finished. 12 kids were born 2 coloured kids were sold as bottle kids. All 12 kids were male so I will have a larger number of crosses to select from next year. 

Four male kids from the previous kidding, which was spread out a lot, have not been tested yet. They will be tested in September.

After the encouraging results from the first backcross kids my breeding plan is to keep crossing Syco to the cashmere does and to select one or two Bucks   with high down growth rate, low intermediate fibre percentage, high yield, less than 16.5 microns, CV less than 23 on their second shearing. (2 shearings per year) If possible, a buck that is also free of back mane would be selected.

The bucks would then be crossed back to the cashmere does to produce 87.5% Cashmere 12.5% Angora crosses. If a significant number of animals have fleeces that are 14.5 -16 microns I may stay at this level and from then on inbreed and line breed to set the desired characteristics and produce a more uniform line. If they are not as fine as I want, then I will backcross to cashmere again to produce 93.75% Cashmeres. I could also backcross to higher cashmere percentages if required.

Each generation will be fleece tested and stringent selection carried out. I will also be selecting for worm , especially Barbers Pole worm, resistance. 

 This may take me 10 years or more but I'm sure it will be a fascinating journey with plenty of surprises.

I sowed the usual cowpeas, lablab and corn as Summer fodder and they have all grown well. I added Burgundy Bean to the mix and it added a small amount of extra feed. 

 With the heat and humidity all the perennial ryegrass has turned to crap and is inedible. I have killed off 2 zones with herbicide then cultivated them.

 I have sown a digit grass ' Strickland' in place of the ryegrass and am trialing Desmanthus virgatus  as a legume shrub in the middle of the zones.  I hope the goats can browse on it directly without killing it. A protected plot has performed very well and has seeded very well allowing more area to be sown. A test plot of 'Strickland' has performed very well also. No rust or other diseases or significant pests. It grows tall and erect, regrows well after grazing, and my goats love it. It is damaged by frost but is said to remain palatable, I hope so. It regrows in Spring and is perennial.

I have also harvested about a kilogram of Pigeon Pea seeds from the 5 plants that grew from the saved seed from my frosted crop, so I will be sowing some of them with lucerne and Digit grass in 2 more fodder zones.

Update 2010.

The 'Strickland' digit grass does very well over the warmer months and is too vigorous to grow with anything else. It smothered lucerne, Pigeon Peas and Desmanthus.  Over Winter it dies off and my goats do not eat the dead grass. As an experiment. I spread oats ( Drover)  seeds over the top of the dead grass then mowed it short with my ride on mower., NO cultivation. I irrigated and the oats grew very well. In late spring when the oats were dying off I mowed and fertilized and the digit grass reestablished itself in a month or so and has provided plenty of fodder again this season.

The Desmanthus that did well in its first season went dormant over Winter and has not regrown very much since.  I will investigate some Acacia species to see if they will provide direct fodder for my goats.

April 2010 update:

I bought 27 species of Acacia seed and have germinated A. deanei and A.oswaldii which seem to be the most promising from what I have read.

Germination was rapid after sowing in potting mix with added perlite then applying a blowtorch to the surface of the potting mix until it starts smoking. A fine spray of water is applied and the seeds kept moist.

Oswaldii germinted first then deanei a few days later. I will wait until Spring to germinate the rest of the species.

I also tried Stylo, a small shrub as direct feed for my goats. The plants grew slowly and only live for 2-3 years and get frosted a bit but they were about 1 m tall when I introduced the goats. Unfortunately they destroyed them very quickly. The bucks horned them as well as ate them. A fodder shrub needs to be stronger to widthstand the eating habits of goats.