Rivera Acres

05/30/2024

The birds enjoying the nice weather 🦆🐓💕

04/29/2024

04/05/2024

The chickens are producing in full swing over here at Rivera Acres. We collected 90 eggs yesterday 🙀

Fresh farm eggs are available for $3 a dozen. They will come washed unless otherwise requested! 🥚🥚🥚🥚

02/22/2024

First batch of egg of the season. That olive egg three down in the last row is sooooo pretty when it's wet. 🥚

01/23/2024

Breeding and Winter Management of Sheep and Goats – Certification Virtual Course 2024
1) January 22 (4pm CT): Hoof Care for sheep/goats
2) January 29 (4pm CT): Pregnant Sheep/Goat healthcare

Speaker
Susan Schoenian
Sheep & Goat Specialist Emeritus
University of Maryland Extension

Short Bio

Susan Schoenian is a retired Sheep & Goat Specialist for the University of Maryland Extension. She joined the University of Maryland faculty in 1988 as a county extension agent. Susan received a B.S. in Animal Science from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in Animal Science from Montana State University. She had a 100 percent extension appointment. She conducted extension education programs for youth and adults in all aspects of small ruminants, including integrated parasite management (IPM).

For Zoom link, registration is required
Registration (Scan or click the link below)

Registration link https://bit.ly/47esOdZ

01/10/2024

Did you know goats may need more copper than what is available in the minerals you are providing? But maybe not! That's why I created this free course on copper deficiency in goats. As with most thing goat, the answer to copper supplementation is "it depends." https://thriftyhomesteader.teachable.com/p/copper-deficiency/

01/10/2024

One of the biggest challenges for anyone raising livestock is preventing predator attacks. This is true whether you have 300 sheep or 3 hens.

01/10/2024

THE EFFECT OF COLOSTRUM SOURCE AND TIMING OF FEEDING

Several factors can affect lamb weight and immune status during the first days of life, including colostrum source and timing of the first colostrum feeding. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of colostrum source (goat or sheep) and timing of the first colostrum feeding (2 or 14 hours after birth) on lamb weight and immune status.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030214007206 #:~:text=Conclusions,at%20d%2020%20of%20age.

01/09/2024

"I have climbed to the highest peaks and now I want my milk."

01/09/2024

This is an old practice from the last century when people thought it was possible to increase production by keeping worm loads as low as possible. Current research has shown that a goat with a healthy immune system is just fine with a normal worm load and there is no reason to try to kill all the worms in a healthy goat. But why not? The more you use a dewormer, the faster you will face dewormer resistance, so you need to save the dewormers for when they are really needed.

01/09/2024

🐐 𝐆𝐎𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃❗

Mark your calendars for Thursday, January 11 at 7 pm central time!

Join us as Deborah will talk about the most common mistakes that people make during labor, birth, and within the first few hours after the kids are born in this FREE webinar.

🐐🐐🐐

⌛️🗓 Save your spot now: https://bit.ly/webinar-goat-birthing

🐐🐐🐐

Can't make it? No worries! Sign up anyway, and we’ll send you a link to the video to watch afterwards!

🌟 Happy goatherding,
The Thrifty Homesteader Team

12/25/2023

We wish you all a joyous holiday filled with peace, love and prosperity 🎄🎅

12/19/2023

Learn about the notorious history of selenium, symptoms of deficiency, and how much selenium goats need in their diet, and more.

12/19/2023

When some people get started with goats, they may overlook a very important aspect of their care by failing to provide free-choice, loose goat minerals.

12/13/2023

Live, Love Goats ❤️🐐❤️

12/13/2023

Here are the five things you'll need to survive winter on the homestead, regardless of how cold, muddy, or snowy the weather becomes.

11/23/2023

From our Family to Yours 🦃

11/23/2023

It is possible for a doe to get bred, stop cycling, get a big belly, develop an udder, and appear to be pregnant in every way, yet not be pregnant.

11/16/2023

With Dr. Michael Pesato, we discuss the wide variety of reasons that goats cough, as well as the real symptoms of pneumonia and how it is diagnosed.

11/03/2023

Foaming at the mouth is a symptom of zinc deficiency in goats. It is most common in bucks and can be caused by consuming too much alfalfa, which is high in calcium.

Bucks don’t need a lot of calcium, so if they consume too much it can bind with the zinc and make it unavailable. It can simply be reversed by eliminating or reducing alfalfa in the buck’s diet. Bucks usually do best on grass hay.

11/03/2023

This is another old practice that was not based upon research. When people started to see dewormer resistance in their herds, they thought it just sounded like a good idea to use a different dewormer each time they dewormed their goats. Unfortunately, that just led to dewormer resistance even faster! Today we know that you should continue to use a dewormer until it no longer works before moving on to another dewormer. There is no "best" dewormer, and what works on your farm may not work on another farm where it has been overused. They all work when used properly.

11/02/2023

Live, Love Goats ❤️🐐❤️

You have to know when the does are in heat, so you can breed them. Here are 6 signs of goat heat, although most does won't exhibit all of these signs.

10/31/2023

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃

10/24/2023

This is so awesome!
Congratulations Wolfivan Ranch and Tyler Rameriz ❤️

10/16/2023

Live, Love, Goats 🐐 ❤️ 🐐