FarmHer Musings

 Hey, goat lovers! Welcome to my blog where I share my passion for showing goats. If you're new to this hobby, you might be wondering what showing goats is all about. Well, it's basically a competition where you present your goat to a judge who evaluates its appearance, health, and personality. It's a lot of fun and a great way to bond with your goat and meet other goat enthusiasts. In this post, I'm going to give you some tips on how to prepare your goat for a show. There are a few things you need to do before the big day to make sure your goat is ready to shine. First, you need to groom your goat. This means trimming its hooves, clipping its hair, and brushing its coat. You want your goat to look neat and tidy, but also natural and comfortable. Don't overdo it with the scissors or the clippers. You can also use some products like shampoo, conditioner, and shine spray to make your goat's coat look glossy and healthy. Second, you need to train your goat. This me...

About Me... Hope you and the critters are finding a way to survive this horrible heat. If you don't know me, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Amanda Goodwin. I normally work with my Husband, Lee or our daughter, Gracie. We are known as  THE ARKANSAS TRAVELING GOAT FARRIER  and we also own  GOODWIN FAMILY FARMS  where we raise Oberhasli and commercial goats along with Brahmans, emus, kune kunes and alpacas and a few other varieties of poultry. We offer hoof trimming, ultrasounds, disbudding, dehorning, banding to name a few and we also help evaluate your herd and provide information that will help improve your herd's health along with helping with wormers, copper, shots etc. I also have a designs shop,  Goodwin Designs , where I specialize in custom products including breed promotional products, signs, decals, shirts, logos, books, designing websites and maintaining social media pages.

  This year the weather has been a perfect brewing storm for barber pole worms. They thrive in the current conditions; this is why it is so important to check FAMACHA scores on a weekly basis. Barber Pole –  Adult worms attach to  abomasal  mucosa and feed on the blood. This parasite is responsible for  anemia ,  oedema , and death of infected  sheep  and  goats , mainly during summer in warm, humid climates. So what do we do when they end up with a bad case of barber pole worms? We worm with at least 2 different wormers, but 3 are better – I prefer Prohibit as the main and then you can add in Valbazen and/or Cydectin (cattle pour on). The dosage for Prohibit is 1 packet to 32 oz of water – 2.7cc per 25lbs orally, Valbazen is 2cc per 25lbs orally, and Cydectin is 1cc per 22lbs orally. REPEAT IN 10 DAYS – DO THIS 3X. Anemia Treatment - IRON - Injectable Iron 100mg/ml, SQ 4cc per 100lbs 3 Days in a row, then weekly or RED CELL - giv...