2021 Kidding season

The 2021 kidding season has not been bad on our small farm. So far we have had 17 kids, 8 doelings, and 9 bucklings. There are two does still pregnant so I still have some more kids coming.

This batch of kids is from a new 100% New Zealand Kiko buck, the does are Purebred Kiko. I have had more twins with this buck so far. I have a Purebred buck with a smaller herd and those have mostly been singles, although they are sturdier and healthier. Besides the goats I also have 10 sheep on the field this spring, 5 of those are lambs.

Crops in the High Tunnel. Small Farm challenges

Setting up the cash crops in the High Tunnel has been difficult. I put the habanero peppers, beets, and cucumbers in the racks in December. Germination for the beets and cucumbers was easy. The Habaneros didn’t really germinate until about 6 weeks in, and pests immediately took over, they didn’t make it out of the racks so that was a complete waste. I have regrouped and put peppers in the racks again last week. The Cucumbers were easy to transplant from the racks to the high tunnel. They were also easy to keep going, which is good on a small farm. I had about 100 cucumbers plants at one time but then didn’t follow up properly with watering. The yield was low too, about 4-5 cucumbers per plant but overall the experiment was not bad. I need to put them on racks earlier, probably around November, and plant at higher densities.

Cilantro; the only “success” story

The only “success” story so far has been cilantro. It has been very easy to grow, basically direct seed to the high tunnel. Grows fast, at least here in Florida it takes about 2 weeks. It also requires very little watering, about every 2-3 days I had to water but sometimes it was a week before I had to. Overall I can’t complain about the Cilantro. I also found a buyer, a Vietnamese restaurant, fairly easy and might have enough to get to a farmers market.