The Woolnoughs break new ground !

It's a funny old world, and things change so fast. Here we are at the beginning of June 2007 and we suddenly have two goats.........

We had been negotiating with the Council to try to get permission to keep pigs, when suddenly they agreed that we could have goats !

A whole new world of fresh whole milk, cheeses and yogurt suddenly looms large on our horizon.

Having gotten permission, they were not easy to find. Whether we were looking at the wrong time of year or something like that I don't know, but we certainly encountered a lot of opposition from breeders to our keeping them on allotments. It seems a bit daft when one of their top judges keeps his on the lotty !

Anyway, we spent a fortune on phone calls up and down the country to no avail, gave up on our chosen breed and settled for two crossbreeds but were then let down with them, and we were reaching the point of despair.

Then suddenly out of the blue came an email from a lady asking if we were still looking for Golden Guernseys as she was cutting down on her herd !

The next day we tore off to Guildford before she could change her mind and.....................

Say hello to Gertie and Rosie.

They are Golden Guernsey goats, which are classified as a rare breed. As their name suggests they originated on Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
They almost died out during the German occupation of WWII, presumably due to being eaten by hungry islanders, but were saved by some dedicated people who managed to find a few that had survived and re-established the breed.

We opted for them because they are moderate milkers, have a gentle temperament, and are not famed escapologists like so many of their brethren.

Following a talk given to the Suffolk Smallholders Society by a lovely lady called Julie, we went to see her GGs and fell in love with them, and the hunt was on.

Gertie (that's her on the left) and her daughter Rosie have settled in very well. Gertie accidentally got pregnant at 8 months old, which is very young, and as a result she gave rather too much of herself in producing and feeding young Rosie, and is rather thin.

I'm sure that we'll soon have her built up again, and we'll be mating one or both of them in the Autumn so that we can look forward to fresh milk next spring. So all we have to do now is find a stud billy.....after the terrible trouble we had finding the girls, I think this may be another big job.

Oh and we obviously weren't fated to have that new chook run - it is now the goat pen.

One good thing to come out of this is that we now have a use for the fartichokes that Sue refuses to cook.....the goats absolutely love their foliage. Whenever I walk into the Jerusalem patch there is a chorus of excited bleating from the goat pen.

It's also great to be able to look at brambles nettles dock leaves and thistles and think to myself "free goat food".

I feel sure that we will have many adventures with our goats to tell you about - recently for instance Gertie broke her collar when tethered out for the first time and before I knew it every leaf was stripped from 8 gooseberry bushes ! After that I kept walking past her pen telling her what a bad girl she was. The next day one of my neighbours commented about the "bloody caterpillars stripping the leaves off the gooseberries". Already feeling very guilty I took a close look at our bushes......and sure enough they were covered in tiny green caterpillars !!

I should perhaps just explain that our Field Secretary was keen for us to use the goats to clear the overgrown plots of brambles etc, and this is why we were trying out tethering. The idea being that the girls could make use of the free food available whilst I was working on the plots. We would never have tethered them and left them, as this is very dangerous. Having looked around the overgrown plots I decided that there are just too many unknown (and potentially poisonous) things growing there to risk it.


14.6.2007 We have just spent a lovely couple of hours on a farm, and it looks like our problems have been solved already !
After we got Gertie and Rosie I contacted Julie again, without a great deal of hope I must admit, as she had a GG billy when we visited her, but had told us that she would probably be selling him. Sure enough, he was gone - but only to a rare breeds centre that was even closer to us.
We understood that they had a couple of GG nannies and bought Julie's billy as a mate, so today we decided to go and visit the farm, which we knew was run by another couple of Suffolk Smallholders Society members. The first things we saw as we walked down the driveway were two GG ladies in a field shelter, with a kid at foot to one of them, so it was a promising start. What we didn't know was that the other nanny was pregnant - and imminent.
When we walked into the reception area at Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm, we were lucky enough to meet Neil Storer (one of the owners) and got talking to him about GGs and the possibility of using his Billy at stud with our girls, and he was immediately very willing and helpful. Having sorted out most of the details pending finalisation in the Autumn we enjoyed a very pleasant hour strolling around the farm and looking at all the chickens goats cows sheep pigs.....oh and alpacas, most peculiar but beautiful creatures with HUGE eyes that melt your heart.....and wandered back to the reception for another chat. Suddenly Neil was called away - the other GG was giving birth !

Neil very kindly (he's a really nice chap) invited us in to watch. One kid, a billy, had literally just been born. Another billy was born, with a little assistance from Neil, whilst we watched. An amazing thing to see, and such good luck that we should choose that day to visit.......but then again, I don't believe that there is any such thing as coincidence, these things are meant to be.


Luckilly I had taken the camera..............





The proud mum and her two newborns.





This is the little darling two-week old kid that we saw when we first arrived.





and this is Peter, who will soon be getting to know our girls very well !
Neil's three kids were sired by a billy that he borrowed for the job. After producing three boys, I would think that he hopes Peter has some female chromosomes in his sperm !

In case you are wondering why Gertie and Rosie look so different to the Baylham GGs, the breed covers a wide range of colour and hair texture - from almost red short-haired's like ours to the long blonde jobs that we saw today.


Oh and if you are wondering about alpaca's.........





I'm sure that there was an alien in Star Wars that was modelled on them.....
If you'd like to read more about Baylham House Rare Breeds farm visit http://www.baylham-house-farm.co.uk/


30.7.2007 It has taken some time to sort out the pedigree and registration transfer of the girls, but we are finally getting there. It transpires that Gertie's official name is Aureusaum Celeste, but I think we'll still be calling her Gertie - she is named after one of Sue's grandmothers. Rosie was unregistered, so she will actually get christened as Aureusaum Rosie.


23.9.2007 Sadly Baylham Farm has been hit with the first-ever UK case of bluetongue, which is a horrible disease affecting ruminants, spread by midges. We feel so sorry for Neil and his parents, as it must be devastating for them.

Obviously this has scuppered our plans to take the girls to get up close and personal with Peter for the time being, but we are so relieved that the foot and mouth movement restrictions stopped us taking Gertie and Rosie to Baylham as it may have been them in the news with bluetongue.
Our breeding arrangements may have been messed up, but at least we don't have our animals trapped on somebody elses property, or worse still....dead.

26.9.2007 We had been considering getting our own billy for some time, to get our breeding stock fully into our own care and management, and the situation at Baylham made us look at it more seriously. We thought that we had solved our dilemma this week when we found a beautiful young buckling available on a City Farm in London. They were very pleased to have found him a new home....until they found out that we keep our goats on allotments. We haven't heard from them since. This is the same prejudice that we came across with goat breeders when we were looking for the girls. Gertie and Rosie are extremely well looked after, and enjoy a wonderfully varied diet - Gertie has prospered and put a lot of growth on her skinny frame. They enjoy space far in excess of the recommended pen sizes in all the books I have read, and the billy would have been similarly looked after. It seems a very short-sighted attitude to us, especially when you consider that one of the top BGS judges keeps his goats on an allotment !


21.10.2007 This is Gertie this morning, relaxing on her adventure playground.





As you can see, she has filled out nicely.





Rosie wonders if Gertie would let her have a go........





er........... no





and they now have a lovely new des res.

19.11.2007 The vet came today to take blood samples from the girls to do CAE testing before they go to meet a boyfriend. It was a bit of a traumatic experience really. Rosie was no problem, but the vet couldn't get blood flowing from Gertie, despite several stabs in her jugular, even though when she pulled the needle out once blood spurted across the shed !
She managed it eventually though, and neither girl seemed any the worse for the experience, although I had to go back afterwards and make sure that Gertie wasn't bleeding to death......

The nice thing was that she said both the girls are in excellent condition, neither too fat nor too thin, and lovely and healthy. She also said that all aspects of our housing are satisfactory and the girls are obviously well cared-for.

So it seems that all the "experts" who poo-poo'd us keeping them on allotments have to eat their words. We've experienced opposition from the show set all along, and it's sad really as everybody should be pulling together to protect this lovely rare breed.


21.11.2007 This tale has so many twists and turns, it would make a good film script. Just as we were about to give up on using a Golden Guernsey billy and using an Anglo Nubian instead, just to get the girls in milk, we were contacted again by Baylahm Rare Breeds Farm. The upshot is that Gertie and Rosie will be heading there the day after tomorrow and staying there for a week that should bridge both of them coming into season. They'll then be going to a smallholding for a few days to give us a chance to take a much-needed short break ourselves. Hopefully when they come home they will both be pregnant and next April will be very interesting !


23.11.2007 Well, the day we have all been waiting for has arrived. When I arrived on the allotment this morning Rosie had quite clearly come into season a day early as she was making a hell of a racket !
After they were fed Sue joined me and we had the fun of getting them into our trailer, which didn't turn out to be as much trouble as I thought it would be.
We then made the 15 minute drive to Baylham Rare Breeds Farm, where they were released into a paddock.





Mum, what's going on here then ?





Cooooooey girls, I'm coming !





Mum ! Help !





Nay lass, I don't need any help - I know what I'm doing.....





Well then Gertie, how about your turn then gal ?





Aw come on Gertie, don't play hard to get !





Bugger off Peter, I've got a headache !






Well, I've finished, so it's time for a cigarette piece of bread....
.......... food's better than sex anytime......

The little trollops went galloping towards Peter the second he appeared !
We can visit the girls anytime, so we'll be taking plenty of goodies over for them every day.
We need to keep them coming to our hand - we'll never catch them in that big paddock if they decide they don't want to be caught !
It's hard enough trying to catch them in their pen on the allotments when they are spooked.....
At least horned goats have handbars you can grab hold of.
We'll be highly surprised if Rosie doesn't come home pregnant, after the amount of attention she was getting from Peter.
The poor boy has been celibate for two years.
His full pedigree name is Mutty Peter.........we think it should be Smutty Peter as he has a one track mind and no idea what foreplay is !


1.1.2008 A good start to the new year - both the girls are expectant mums ! The happy days are due to be the 21st and 29th of April. I think there will be some very nervous step-parents as the days draw nearer.......


9.1.2008 Gertie and Rosie had an unusual visitor today......Mark Murphy from BBC Radio Suffolk's Breakfast Show. I contacted him after he was talking about chicken welfare on his programme following Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's TV series Hugh's Chicken Run about the plight of factory-produced poultry.
Mark is a really nice chap and we had an interesting chat which is due to be transmitted tomorrow.




BBC Radio Suffolk presenter Mark Murphy meets a famous personality.
Whilst Gertie was prepared to try to eat his coat, watch or even his wedding ring, she wasn't prepared to be photographed with him.
As time goes by I become more and more passionate about our way of life, green issues, supermarkets and the way that they are ruining our economy, and factory farming.
Just about anybody who really wants to can produce some of their own food and enjoy the wonderful flavour that comes from fresh fruit or vegetables, and cut the number of food miles used while they are doing it.


10.1.2008 We had an exciting morning today, listening to our interview on BBC Radio Suffolk. Mark made a smashing job of it and we and all our friends thoroughly enjoyed it. Hopefully it will encourage a few more people to have a go at growing their own food.
We get so many emails from readers of this website, saying that they are giving it a go, that it is really encouraging for us too.
If you would like to hear the interview click HERE.


3.5.2008 It's been a long break from updating the site, and we know from your emails that many of you have been waiting with bated breath to see how we got on with the kiddings, but we felt that as Home Farmer are paying us to write our diary we have a moral duty to have news appear there first.....

Both girls had trouble-free pregnancies, with none of the food fads or sudden illnesses that we had heard so much about. The same could not be said about their kiddings!

Rosie's took place overnight, and I arrived one morning, three days before she was due to give birth, to find a dead kid just inside the door of her shed. As she was not very big when pregnant we were only expecting one kid, and my heart sank. Then I heard a small squeak from the corner behind her, and when I took a look I found two beautiful boys.....




Nature had taken it's course, and presumably the dead kid (which was also male) was weak in some way.

So, little Rosie had produced three kids when she was tiny - what was the enormous Gertie going to present us with?
We didn't have long to wait. A week later I visited the allotments early on Saturday morning to find her being very vocal, a sure sign something unusual is happening.

She continued to call after being let out into her run, and at 10am her waters broke. She carried on as if nothing had happened and ate and drank normally until 2pm when she very suddenly went into labour and very quickly produced a small dead kid – again a billy – that hadn’t formed correctly and had its eyelids sealed shut and a sizeable hole at its navel.

We were deeply shocked by this, but worse was to come.

Gertie had quite strong contractions for about an hour, and then they stopped. She stood up and walked about, accepted some cabbage leaves that I offered her, and ate hay and chewed the cud. We began to wonder if it was all over, despite her large size. Sue went home and brought back sandwiches and a flask of tea, and just as we started on them Gertie again went into labour and began to scream in pain. Examination of her showed a head emerging but no front hooves as is usual. With my large hands I struggled to find the front legs, which were obviously tucked back and jammed, but when Sue had a try she found a hoof and brought it forward….and it turned out to be a very dead hind leg!

We were now facing the prospect of losing not only the kids but Gertie too, as she had a very large live kid with its front legs tucked back, jammed side by side with a dead one in breech position. The kids eyes were open and looking at me beseechingly, and it was breathing with difficulty.

We couldn’t raise the vet as it was out of hours on a Saturday evening and we were waiting for a call back from a messaging service, but we obviously had to do something.
Although terrified, and with Gertie screaming continuously, I somehow managed to ease the dead kid back in a bit and allow enough room to gently turn the live kid slightly so that I could find a front leg. I couldn’t find the other one but Gertie was pushing strenuously now, and with a little help from me it was delivered safely, leaving a dead rear leg hanging from poor Gertie’s rear end. The body came free quite easily and turned out to be a very small foetus with no eyes that had obviously been dead for some time as it was nothing more than skin and bone.

Unbelievably, all three kids were billies!

The vet finally rang us and ran through what we had done, and congratulated us on managing so well. She instructed me to do a full internal examination to check that there were no other kids present, which was ...er....interesting - Sue holding my mobile phone to my ear while I was up to my shoulder in goat

As Gertie was now up and licking the youngster, and he was trying to find her udders, the vet didn’t feel it was necessary for us to have an expensive weekend callout, and arranged for me to pick up some antibiotics on Sunday morning. By now there was a lot of afterbirth hanging free, but the vet had assured us this was normal and so at 8pm we finally reluctantly left as dusk settled over the allotments, having bottle fed the kid first. Gertie’s udder and teats are pendulous to say the least and he had been looking too high for them so we bottle fed him to be on the safe side.

We walked home together, with me looking like a mad axeman covered in blood – luckily there were no passing policemen!






16.12.2008 Again, a long break between updates. This is partly because I feel that, as they are paying us for our diary, Home Farmer should always carry our news first.
Sadly, it is also because I have found it very difficult to continue telling you all about our goat story.

Quite honestly, in the end we just couldn't afford to keep them. The global rises in food and livestock feed prices caused the cost of our goat feed to go up by fifty percent, and it was working out at twelve pounds a week to keep them. You can buy an awful lot of organic milk for that much money!
Whilst we were also feeding up three kids for slaughter, this didn't really help our situation as we have not eaten meat for several years and so have no budget allowance for meat in our weekly expenses.

The problem got worse after we had our first kid slaughtered (which incidentally cost another £25) and we did not enjoy the experience at all!




We began to realise that we were going to find it very difficult to slaughter the remaining two kids, especially Gertie's kid Billy Whizz, who had become very tame. He was convinced that I was his playmate, and would climb on my lap if I sat down in his pen. Whilst the meat from our first kid had been delicious, I knew that I couldn't eat Billy Whizz.

I was also becoming increasingly exhausted, trying to cope with everything that needed to be done. It was taking me an hour every morning to feed, water, hay and milk the goats in the mornings, and then they had to be shut up again in the evening. Remember, this was in addition to everything else that we do.....

And so we reluctantly decided to sell them. Almost as soon as we advertised them we had somebody wanting to buy the girls, but they didn't want to buy the kids and would only take them for free. We couldn't afford to give the boys away as they had cost us so much to raise, and so we still faced the prospect of taking them to slaughter.
Whilst we waited for the girls to be collected we became more and more upset at the prospect of another trip to the abattoir, but there seemed little option.

At the last possible moment, when the girls were due to be collected in a couple of days time, we were contacted by another interested buyer. This lovely lady had years of experience with goats, they would enjoy the run of six acres of scrubland, she offered us a fair price for all four goats - and she would keep Billy Whizz as company for her own billy goat.






We had no hesitation in selling them to her, and as you can see, they are living the life of Riley down in Sussex.

So, a chapter in our self-sufficiency closes........but we are now trying our hand with turkeys, so watch this space!


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