About Our Farm
We have a herd of about 200 goats, including our milking girls and our young goats. Our does are mostly crossbred and we use quality purebred bucks that we change every 2 years. Currently we have 5 bucks - 1 Alpine, 1 Toggenburg, 1 black Lamancha & 2 Nubians.
Our goats are not disbudded - we leave the horns on. Horn related injuries on our farm are very rare. The goats are pretty closely monitored.
We usually run our bucks with our does. We find that the bucks have more time for heat detection than we do! After 6 years milking goats, we have never found that managing our herd this way has negatively affected the taste of our milk. We spend alot of time in the barns so we know when they are breeding and know when to start watching for kids. Not for every herd, but it works out well for us.
We have 2 kidding seasons and 2 barns that we house breeding aged does and the bucks. We can move the bucks around if we want to manage the timing in a particular barn. That way, we ensure a year-round milk supply.
All our babies are seperated at birth and raised in groups - bottle fed goat milk, then grain and a fine grass hay is added. We don't use medicated feed, preferring to treat a sick goat as needed. The kids are weaned at about 8 weeks of age. I watch them closely during that time, and if a particular kid is having trouble with the transition, I will move her back and give her more time.
We keep about 20 - 25 doelings each kidding season. The rest are sold for pets - we try to ensure that they go to a good home - or to another farm to be raised for meat.
We are often asked if our farm is organic and what our goats eat. Our fields are organic, but not certified. All the hay or pasture the goats eat if from our own farm. The grain the goats are fed daily is conventionally grown.
Polymeadows Farm 
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