Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

I should read all my mail before I go into lecture mode -- it would save
time. Lynda pretty much gets it right (IMO for what that's worth), but I
have a few points of disagreement.


Lynda <<Sound like he is due for a buck pen.  A buck is quite a dirty
critter and
STINKS when it is breeding season.  Not that they are too pleasant smelling
the rest of the year once they discover what they were put on earth to do.
If you have them around a freshened doe the milk will taste like the buck
smells.>>

Bucks aren't all that dirty if they're running with their own herd of does.
HOWEVER, back in the bad old days when I had three breeds and five or six
bucks (so as to have the right buck for everyone), you could smell the place
several yards away during the season, particularly on humid, windless days.
The rest of the year, they didn't smell all that much.

As for tainting the milk, that's only a problem if you actually get buck
urine into it. Milk from a clean udder into a clean bucket doesn't have any
odor. Of course, I was careful to keep the girls trimmed and brushed. It
only takes a little something falling into the milk to transfer, er, flavor.


Lynda <<***What characteristics does he have that you feel are important?
Are you
planning on keeping the kids or selling them or eating them?  You don't
really want a buck in your herd.  You want them by themselves so the whole
herd doesn't become a smelly mess unless you don't plan on milking any of
your does.>>

That depends. When I had a large herd and several breeds, I kept the bucks
separate. They're definitely a lot smellier when they're kept separate. Now
I have a dozen does and one young buck. He doesn't smell like a petunia, but
he's not all that bad, and by the time the girls are ready to kid breeding
season will be over. Next fall, I'll pen him up when breeding season begins,
mainly because I want to decide when we'll have babies in the spring. A buck
penned away from the herd needs at least one buddy, or he will get mean.
Marie