May at Camelot Cattle Co
Posted by Michelle DeLong on June 5, 2019
May has brought lots and lots of rain to Camelot Cattle Company. Fortunately the super destructive weather has missed us thus far although we are woefully behind on getting hay cut and baled. Our hearts and minds are with the Lin-Crest Dairy in Kansas who weren't as fortunate and lost some really nice cows along with their entire farm to a direct hit from an F5 tornado last week. We can't even imagine the emotions they are dealing with but we are thankful the family all made it through safely. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
Our goat herd's annual linear appraisal took place in the middle of May. For those who aren't familiar with this, linear appraisal is a program provided by the American Dairy Goat Association. A sanctioned appraiser comes to assess each individual goat on the farm and evaluate individual type traits that affect structural and functional durability. Basically they are compared to the perfect Nubian and awarded a score; 100 would be that perfect Nubian (doesn't exist). 90 and above is considered Excellent (E), 85-89 is considered Very Good (V). The scoring system goes on down through Good Plus, Acceptable, Fair and Poor. Goats are not allowed to be awarded an Excellent score until they have freshened (had kids) at least twice so first fresheners can only score up to V89. Having a herd of Excellent mature animals (excellent examples of their breed) is something we reach for. That said, we appraised 7 does, 4 of which are first fresheners. All of our mature does went Excellent and our first fresheners all went Very Good including first freshener Veela who maxed out at V89 and several other V88 first fresheners.
The week following appraisal, we hosted the annual State Jersey Picnic here at Camelot Cattle Company. We had a great turn out and raised a lot of money for the Jersey Club to use towards scholarships, cow camps, judging team trips, show awards, etc. We love seeing folks get (and stay) involved in this wonderful breed!
Now, with May behind us, we are grateful for the life-giving rain we have gotten; it is definitely better than the drought of last year because we can graze the livestock right now on all this lush green grass. However, if we are unable to get hay cut and baled, our winter hay supply is going to be hurting just as badly as it was last year. We are praying for some dry weather that will allow us to get hay cut, baled and stored for winter.
Yes, we do indeed need some dry weather for haying but can't deny we get some pretty scenery in the storm aftermath....
April at Camelot Cattle Co and our drawing winner!
Posted by Michelle DeLong on May 4, 2019
April was slightly less crazy than March, ha! I am still bottle feeding more than a dozen baby goats which is almost a full time job in itself and even though there are less kids now than last month, they are going through 9 gallons of milk a day now! There are still 4 kids to sell and 1 kid that is sold but hasn't been picked up yet...8 are staying here.
I have been trying to get all the momma goats' hair clipped off before linear appraisal which is a week from today. The cows are getting clipped off as well for the warmer weather so they will be more comfortable.
April brought us three new Jersey babies--gotta love those sweet baby Jersey faces! Pictured is second time momma Qapuchin with her brand new heifer; ol' Quickie is keeping an eye on them in the background.
Marc and I had our 8th anniversary on April 30th. We celebrated as we usually do--working on the farm--but had the added excitement of tornadic storms blowing in during evening chores and milk time so we ended up milking in between the most serious threats. Fortunately, we did not get storm damage other than some flooding. Probably a good thing...our mud was getting dehydrated. ;)
I want to thank those who participated in our most recent drawing. The recipes and stories are great and chatting with you all was fun! Everyone who participated was entered into an online random drawing tool and this time, Lori McCormack won. She will be claiming a week's worth of free milk for her family on her next visit. Congratulations Lori!
Our next drawing will likely be an interactive one as well because I liked hearing from everyone so stay tuned for details on that and, as always, God bless! :)
March at Camelot Cattle Co -- we have goat milk!
Posted by Michelle DeLong on April 5, 2019
March was a crazy busy month but we made it through kidding season with 11 does having 29 kids and all of them happy and healthy. There was much lost sleep and missed meals so I apologize to anyone who may have seen the stumbling zombie possibly covered in afterbirth that was me for most of March.
Now that we have survived kidding season, we once again have goat milk available to our customers. If you want some goat milk, take a look on the left side of the refrigerator in the store - it will be in the green-capped bottles. It is $4 per half gallon.
We are glad to finally have some spring weather, and, although the mud has been a bit excessive, we are happy to not be in a drought and to see some green grass poking up. There has been a lot of spring cleaning around the farm and hoof trimming and, of course, lots of bottle feeding! About half of the kids have gone to their new homes already but the kids still here are drinking about 8 gallons of milk a day!
Here is a small hint of what it is like around here right now....
A note for our goat friends, we do have a few Nubian kids still available - check out our For Sale page for details. Also, we are starting to make some hard decisions about what mature goats to sell this year to make room for the youngsters we've kept so stay tuned for those sale announcements if you're interested.
Also, now that things are calming down around here a little, we hope to have another drawing for free stuff but this time instead of drawing from everyone on the mailing list, we may just draw from those on the mailing list who choose to participate and interact so be watching for details on that!
God bless you all! :)
February at Camelot Cattle Co--plus my new favorite hot drink!
Posted by Michelle DeLong on March 6, 2019
February was a busy month preparing for our busiest season--spring! March brings kidding season for our goats. As of today, we've had two does kid, each with a set of triplets. We have six more does due this weekend and three more due later in the month. We will be in full swing milking goats again very soon; not to mention feeding all the new bundles of joy bouncing around! This uncommonly cold March weather has complicated kidding season a bit but fortunately we were able to make some room in the Jersey barn for maternity/kidding pens since the cows' body heat keeps the barn above freezing so the new babies are staying dry, warm and happy.
We also had a new Jersey heifer born in February. Baby Sequoia will make a wonderful addition to our milking herd in a couple of years. Right now, she just looks adorable running around in her bright green coat! :)
With all the time I've been spending outside in this cold weather as well as all the sleep lost due to being on constant baby watch, there is one hot drink I've been fixing daily to warm up and wake up!
Café Mocha
2-4 ounces of coffee (any kind, brewed strong)
6-8 ounces of whole, raw milk
1/4 cup hot chocolate mix (store bought or homemade)
Brew the coffee and heat the milk (steaming but don't boil). Stir hot chocolate mix into brewed coffee and then add hot milk. Enjoy!
And in closing, here is a small sampling of the baby explosion we are in the middle of....
Posted by Michelle DeLong on February 11, 2019
January brought cold weather here at Camelot Cattle Company. Around here that means deep straw bedding, warm mashes, and plenty of free choice hay for all the hard working critters. We had some first time Jersey heifers pregnancy checked and we are looking forward to seeing healthy babies out of all of them this summer/fall. Our first Nubians are due in just a couple of weeks and they are getting big enough now that during their daily and nightly checks, they can be found groaning, shifting around and snoring in their sleep. Hopefully it will warm up before the kids decide to make their appearance!
January also brought linear appraisal for some of our Jerseys. Our sweet, almost 12 yr old QT was reworked to EX94. Our newest heifer, Festive, went VG86 on her first lactation. Our other first freshener, Hadassah, went VG88. Our 5 year old, Qadira, raised from EX90 to EX92. Even with the cold, yucky weather our girls didn't let us down!
I don't know about you all, but the cold weather has me craving comfort food and one healthy and versatile comfort food for me is homemade butter! I am going to share with you how to make fresh, homemade butter and also a couple of flavored varieties that we enjoy.
Homemade Butter
Separate cream off your whole, raw milk and then gently warm the cream to about 60 degrees (warm cream will churn into butter much quicker than cold cream--62 degrees seems to be the magic temp for butter-making). You can use a butter churn, mixer, or even just shake a jar to churn the cream. The cream will whip into whipped cream first and then look like scrambled eggs and then you will see the buttermilk separate from the butter. Once buttermilk forms, pour it off (buttermilk can be saved for future use; we use real buttermilk for baking or cooking) and squeeze the butter together with your hands to form a ball. Knead the butter under cold, running water until the water runs clear. You want to rinse all the buttermilk out so your butter will stay fresh longer. Once the water runs clear, you can wrap in parchment paper or put it in a mold and chill in refrigerator, or just slather it on a fresh biscuit!
Honey Butter
1 pound homemade butter
1/4 cup raw, local honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cut butter into chunks and place in mixer. Beat on low speed with whisk attachment until softened. Increase speed to medium and add honey, cinnamon, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
Cinnamon Butter
1 pound homemade butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup raw, local honey
4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Cut butter into chunks and place in mixer. Beat on low speed with whisk attachment until softened. Increase speed to medium and add powdered sugar, honey, and cinnamon and beat until well combined.
*NEW* Be sure to check out our new soap when you come to our store! Rustic Woods and Rum has the same conditioning benefits as our other beer soap, Oatmeal Stout, but has a unique warm, smokey, deep scent with notes of Hay, Sandalwood and Cinnamon, brightened with White Citrus and Ginger and layered by Rum, Birch and Tobacco.
December and Technical Difficulties
Posted by Michelle DeLong on January 7, 2019
We have been having technical difficulties with our blog and have been unable to post new blog posts. After weeks of trying to get assistance from our website provider, this doesn't appear to be something that will get resolved, unfortunately. I was looking forward to having the blog format to make it easier to categorize and find individual posts but unless I figure something else out, I may just have to post as regular text on this page and readers will have to scroll down to find individual posts. I am sorry for any inconvenience this causes!
Other than technical difficulties, December brought some good things as well, such as some wonderful, heartfelt gifts from our customers. Thank you so much for thinking of us during the holidays!! We also had our mailing list drawing in December using a random online drawing tool and again want to say congratulations to Cheryl Hipp who won a week's worth of free milk for her family! We will be doing regular drawings like this from among our subscribers so if you want a chance to win some cool prizes make sure you are subscribed and receiving our emails. If you want to be sure you are subscribed to our mailing list, email us at camelotgirl26@gmail.com.
We also had an adorable Jersey calf born during December and enjoyed a little family time for Christmas. Right after Christmas I got down in my back but fortunately, if that is going to happen it happened at exactly the best time because the goats are all dried or drying off and haven't kidded yet so my work load is at it's lowest until the end of February. Doctor says it will take 6-8 weeks to heal which should give me enough time to heal before I am buried in little, bouncy bottle kids and more goats milking than I've ever milked before. Isn't it neat when you can see God's hand at work?!
We added a couple new soaps in December as well so be sure to check those out! Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year!
November at Camelot Cattle Co - plus FREE recipe!
Posted by Michelle DeLong on Sunday, December 2, 2018,
In :
Monthly Post
The last month went by so fast; I can’t believe December is here already! November certainly went out with a bang, finding us in our tornado shelter for the middle part of the night. We are definitely keeping those who lost their lives and/or property last night in our prayers but we thank God that we escaped any damages here on the farm!
In other November news, we recently added some new Christmas themed goat’s milk soaps to the store’s shelves.
Winter Splendor is evocative of morn...
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October at Camelot Cattle Co
Posted by Michelle DeLong on Thursday, November 1, 2018,
In :
Monthly Post
October was a busy month for us! We started the month with a mess in the store as I’m sure many of you have noticed. However, now we will have a reliable source of heat for the store as our new fireplace is fully installed and ready for colder weather (although that can still wait a while; we are in no hurry to be breaking ice for all the livestock)!
We also have gotten all of the 11 does we needed bred this year bred for new bundles of joy in the spring. We will have kids sired by 4 diffe...
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