By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
The goats cooperated well enough this time going into the yards.
Even the wether that managed to avoid going to the sale for two years now went in without any trouble.
Only one doe jumped out but quickly decided there was safety in numbers and jumped back in again!
Our main yard facilities are not set up for goats so crowding in the race was a problem.
Dear Richie was in the race with the goats while I drenched from the outside.
Although goat horns may make good handles he was a bit wary about his agates getting damaged.
A few goats seemed to know the trick of spitting the drench out again and got a second dose.
I was only interested in getting the job done quickly without stress to the goats so I didn’t take any notice of males or females, but at the
end there were two goats left up the front.
I realised they were both wethers so we quickly locked them in the weigh station and turned to let the other goats out.
One goat became a bit demented, calling out and starting to shake.
Then before I could say “Mrs Robinson” it dropped dead.
Would you believe, it was the big fat wether that we had unsuccessfully tried catching on many occasions to take to the sales. He had been determined not to leave the property at any cost.
I wasn’t impressed but, well, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
I briefly considered CPR while Richie asked if we could turn him into tucker.
In the end fertiliser was the option we chose.
On the way home from work yesterday I spotted Anne from Mingoola Station checking her sheep near the road so I stopped for a yarn.
I love catching up with Anne.
We have a lot in common and though the women in our small community are all lovely, most are farmers’ wives and don’t generally discuss sheep worms, maggots and dead goats in depth, whereas Anne is a hands on
farmer.
I love catching up with her and her husband, Peter.
Anne is also an incredibly talented artist and, like a lot of country women, there is not much she can’t turn her hand too.
We headed up to their house for a coffee and on the front lawn were nine Dorper poddy lambs.
It is no small job to raise nine poddy lambs but Anne takes it in her stride and I have to admit even though I am not a Dorper fan, the lambs are very, very cute!
As Anne and I were chatting away before going inside for coffee we spotted something incredible, something I have never seen before.
High in the sky we heard a plane flying over and looked up to see two big jets, one slightly behind the other and maybe slightly higher.
It looked like they were piggy backing but my guess is that they were refuelling. It was an amazing sight.
I had vaguely heard of this manoeuvre somewhere long ago but never seen it before. I was sorry I didn’t have my phone with me to take a photo as I doubt I will ever see it again.
Yesterday afternoon I also went up and checked my cows to see how close to calving they appeared.
They look to me to have a fair way to go though and I just hope it is either before or, preferably, after my NZ trip.
They are not showing a great day of udder, at least not as much as I thought they should be by this stage.
Finally, since it was Remembrance Day, I took a moment this morning to reflect on those who had made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives so I could have a better life.
I quite often think of these brave individuals and pay my respects.
GUINEA FOWL
People fall into two categories when it comes to Guinea fowl – they either love them or they hate them with a passion and don’t understand why anyone would want to keep them.
Guineas are semi-domesticated.
They are best suited to live free-range in the trees and should never ever co-habitat with chickens in a chicken coop.
They will terrorise the hens and the guinea cocks will give the rooster hell.
I have around thirty on my farm. I don’t lock them up at all and they sleep high in the trees at night.
My friend doesn’t feed hers but I do. I feed them every morning around 6am – it is useful if I ever want to catch any.
Even so, catching them is no easy job as they can fly very high and very fast.
They are dumb enough to be caught by predators but way too fast for me to catch unless lured into a chook pen with a bit of grain.
Our numbers stay fairly stable as every spring the guineas lay clutches of eggs in communal nests.
They are hard for me to find but seem to be easy targets for wild cats and foxes and, consequently, we lose a few.
This usually results in more males than females. If they do manage to hatch any out they are hopeless mothers.
Although Guineas are extremely tough and hardy birds, they are very fragile and vulnerable in the first few weeks of life.
Both mum and dad try to take care of the keets but I don’t think I have ever seen them successfully raise any. Guineas live for around twelve to fifteen years if not taken by predators.
People keep Guinea fowl for many reasons, most commonly because they are reputed to keep snakes away, and I think they do to a certain extent.
They are very noisy birds and tend to chase goannas and snakes in a group, making a real racket as they go.
They are also excellent bug catchers and rarely disturb gardens.
Just like chooks, they love a good dust bath and may pick an area of the garden to do this.
I have had them in my garden beds occasionally bathing and pecking at the vegetables but perhaps it was just the bugs and slugs they were after.
Guinea fowl come in an amazing variety of colours and some are quite rare.
The main varieties to be found in Australia are:
Pearl – the most common colour being a dark grey with white pearling on the entire body,
Lavender – the second most common, a light grey/silver colour also with white pearling on
the entire body.
Pied – any colour with white bands throughout.
Chocolate – less common and also less hardy.
Cinnamon – Similar to Chocolate but a bit lighter in colour.
Pink – not exactly hot pink I have seen these only twice in my life.
I believe they may be albino and are best kept in a pen designed for Guineas as they are not as hardy.
They are also very expensive.
White – I haven’t actually seen a fully white one!
There are variations between these colours as well and the International Guinea Fowl website lists many of them.
I personally have Pearl, Lavender, Pied and Chocolate but only a few of the latter.
Male or female? An often asked question is, how can you tell? One way is that the females make a two syllable sound, “Buck wheat, buck wheat, buck wheat,” whereas the males only make a single syllable sound, “Chi”.
That is the easiest way. Once you have had Guineas for a while you will mostly be able to pick the subtle differences such as the male having a larger helmet and wattles than the females.
The males wattles go out to the side and the females straight down.
The males are also slightly bigger.
