I'm not exactly sure how much to say. I don't want this to turn into pointless, rambly ranting or a general bitchfest2011...
Basically, the overarching issue, from my perspective, is that this is a business whose main priority is the production and sale of cheese...the problem here being that they also happen to have a large herd of goats, and a new army of kids - whose welfare,
I feel, should be the absolute number one priority trumping pretty much all others. The goats here are fine: they aren't abused or seriously neglected - they are fed twice a day and always have fresh water...they have shelter...and salt licks. These guys really do care about these goats. But, call me crazy, I feel like if you're responsible for bringing a life into the world, you're taking on a solemn vow to do everything you can to care for that life to the best of your ability, and them being "okay" and "fine" doesn't really cut it.
Especially when you cause that new life to show up,
and then take away its mother. But generally, I've been feeling like the goats' needs come second to the cheese here...so they're missing collars, aren't tagged, hooves need trimming (badly)...the baby pens weren't ready before the babies came, the heat lamps weren't bought, the feeding buckets weren't ready, they didn't have a birthing basket prepared...no colostrum frozen...we frequently run out of some component of their food regmin (despite multiple warnings/reminders) - beans/silage/hay/sweet feed.. I got the impression that the babies coming was kind of a surprise, even though we know goats have a 5 mo. gestation and we know what day the bucks were put in the pen with the does...Simple math here, kids... And that they wait until they run out of something to get more of it, instead of having some on hand should it be needed... It makes everything a crisis...and when you're running a dairy, I feel like feeding your animals should not be a crisis. Anyways...and here I was sitting around for pretty much all of January twiddling my thumbs and doing 2nd grade water colors of sunsets and mountain landscapes. ?!
This week's drama is that they ran out of frozen chevre and don't have enough to fill restaurant orders for the week...and probably next. That sucks. But you know what? This is why businesses keep inventory. Not to be a sass, but...surprise. And I don't mean just having a vague idea of there being some buckets in a freezer somewhere you can pull out when you need them, but like...count the buckets and check them off as you use them? I feel pretty confident that there are some good, simple systems out there for tracking this sort of straight-forward thing... So, no cheese.This means he needs the mamas' milk to make cheese.
This means the babies can't have the mamas' milk.
The solution? They get calf milk replacer.
This means I start fuming out the ears and frothing at the mouth turning all mamabeargoatmama on him.
Everywhere I've read says not to give goats calf milk replacer because it contains a fraction of the vitamins and fats they need in these first weeks, and the extra lactose gives them potentially fatal digestive issues. My boss says we can do 50/50 with milk replacer mixed with goat milk...and this weekend we'll switch them to cow, but for the next few days it'll be too expensive to feed them 100% cow, and he really needs the goat milk for the cheesemaking for the restaurants. I told him that I cannot knowingly give them something that's going to make them feel unwell, and could potentially seriously hurt them. He says that's what they did last year and they just had some diarrhea. (I'd also like to add that we're also only feeding them twice a day, when it's recommended that they be fed at Least 3 times a day in their first month. So they're saying they only get to eat twice a day...which makes them overeat and bloat twice a day, and can cause scours (tho I haven't seen any signs of it thus far), and now we're going to dilute what the kids DO get to eat with something that will give them the runs.) Excuse me?
...I'm sorry. You know what I think? I think that if this whole situation is the result of not being organized or planning ahead, there's absolutely no way I'm cool with passing the consequences off onto some baby goats that didn't even ask to be born (or sold off for probably meat in a week) - even if it's just some diarrhea. I said I just couldn't do it. He says we could do 50/50. I said I might try that, but if there are any symptoms I won't be able to continue. He says he'd just move things around and if there were any problems he wouldn't ask me to feed them.
I decided, but did not say out loud, that if there are serious issues because of this milk replacer, I will leave. There probably won't be, but if there are... I don't care that I'm already planning to leave in two weeks. I just can't deal with it. I realize that this is what the industry does, and that they're "just animals," that they'll more than likely be totally "fine,".......but I really love these kids...even though they probably only know me by my boots and the bucket at my side...but they are sweet and affectionate and such individuals already - like puppies, really. And to have someone say that it's no big deal that we'll be making them sick because we didn't plan well and don't want to spend the money...It makes me sick.
Or perhaps we'll do this half&half thing...and I'll just start diluting all their beers and wine and dinners with water laced with laxatives. You know...weapons of the weak.
One of them half-jokingly said a week or so ago that when they started making cheese they weren't going to be sharing any of "their" milk with the babies - they'd get switched over to cow milk. "Their" milk? Oh, really? If that's your milk, then you better show me your teats, Sir...
It was all I could do to restrain myself from going and pissing in their pasteurizer.
I'm being harsh, I apologize. They're great guys. They care about their goats, but we're just on different wavelengths when it comes to how that translates to caring
for their goats. Seems strange that I'm the one advocating for the well-being of animals that aren't even mine... And I've been asking around and reading a lot online, and I'm not overreacting...These are not best practices.
So I wrote all of this last night and saved it, then got up this morning to find that he'd gone out to buy 10 gallons of cow milk from the grocery store - which is far superior to milk replacer for goats... He said he's trying to "appease" me, but I think that not-so-deep down he agrees with me and is going to sigh and roll his eyes and drag his feet and then use me as an excuse for the added expenses...when he knows this is what's best. Because, seriously, if this were your business and some intern told you you were doing something wrong that you knew
wasn't wrong, you'd explain that to them and all would be well. Him conceding says to me that he knows that milk replacer is not the way to go... I don't feel at all smug about this little victory. Just rankled that it was even a debate to begin with, and worried about all the other things that will slide here along with hoof-trimming and baby feedings when I'm no longer here to get on their backs about it.
And I realize that most of these issues are not done out of lack of caring or anything - it's just lack of time and money and staff... I guess I just don't have the patience for excuses like that when it comes to the care of living things. :/
When I have a farm I think I will need to produce my own dairy products on the farm...or eliminate them from my diet completely...this extraction-based relationship we have with domesticated farm animals is tearing me up.
