Let’s face it.  All of us in the goat world have a story or twelve of things that we have never seen before and will probably never see again.  Goats are the worst when it comes to these amazing things but it happens in all species of livestock.

Tonight, I had a double whammy.

First, I was trying to sort some calves.  The first batch went really well.  The next batch was a pain in the ass—mini herefords.  Before any of you buy a herd of mini-herfs–call me.  There are some things that they leave out in the sales brochure.  Like the fact that they are a bunch of M-t@h$r  FFFFFFFFFFFers to deal with once in a corral.  I like eating them but I don’t like dealing with the little turds.  These calves have been weaned almost two weeks.  We needed to sort a couple out and run them through the tub, alley & chute.  Some went, some went bat crap.  I was staying calm but my helper was getting pissed.  I warned him to calm down.

This one calf would not go through the gate, wouldn’t do it.  We were both getting frustrated but, the third time this calf ran head first into a panel and then turned and ran south, the kid helping me decided to throw a sorting stick at the calf.

Swear to GOD, if I hadn’t witnessed it, I wouldn’t believe it.  The stick hit her right behind the ear and she dropped dead.  Dead, dead, dead.  I saw him throw it and I didn’t think that he threw that hard.  But, I also knew that deal was dead when she hit the ground.  Instant impact!  The thing is, this calf is out of the oldest, calmest mini herf.  She eats cake out of the Dragon Lady’s hand.  Not no more.

Yeah, I was pissed.  He shouldn’t have thrown it but I also know that he wasn’t trying to do damage.  I have just never seen anything like it before.

So, then we went to check goats.  Three does with kids in the kidding barn.  I had fed them an hour earlier.  The kid went in the barn to clean water buckets.  He hollered and said that “A doe on the south side of the kidding barn was dead.”

What?   No, she was eating alfalfa an hour ago.  WTH?  Yep, he was right.   Dead, dead, dead.  Bloated up to beat all hell.   In all the thousands of doe goats that I have kidded out, I have never had one standing there eating and nursing kids and then be dead.  Bloated up to beat all heck.  The others are fine.  I guess she choked and bloated.    the great thing is that she had a pair of twins on her.

The joys and discomforts of an agricultural life.

Have a good one.