Leala

So far we are 12 inches over our average rainfall for the year. This is a good thing since we have been in some sort of drought status since I have lived in this area. My ponds are topped off, and pastures have grown so high I can not see the goats when they are standing in the fields. Sure made it harder to get chores done when it was coming down though.

Goats don’t like to get wet, walk thru puddles or mud. So if we were in the middle of a downpour, or just a drizzle for that matter, I do twice as much walking. The only way to get them from their shelters to the barn for milking and back again, is to personally escort them. Some of them wait till I’m coming thru the paddock gate, then they make a run from the shelter to the gate. Most will wait for me to come to the shelter and reach for their collar before bolting to the barn.

Then there is Leala, a first freshener this year, who took to the milk stand like a champ. There was no rocking, dancing, or kicking. She just jumps up, plants her feet, and squats that back end forward just enough so that you can milk her out easily. But Leala wants nothing to do with getting wet. By the time it’s her turn to be milked, she has worked her way to the back of the group hiding, and unlike the others, won’t come forward when I call her name. This means I have to make my way through the group bent over, with each goat between me and her not wanting to move out of the spot they have chosen. Once I reach her and have her collar, she does what she does on the milk stand…plants those feet & drops that rear end down. As she is getting dragged to the front of the shelter, each goat she passes gives her a butt as if to let her know the extra commotion she has created..

Once outside the wet, slick ground makes dragging her along a bit easier and when we finally reach the barn she is eager to come in to get on the stand. After milking she is somewhat better at going back to the shelter-I only have to drag from the barn to the gate of the paddock. Once she is thru the gate, Leala then dashes for the shelter saving me a few steps and standing there out of breath.