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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Meet My Dealer: A Chaffhaye Update

Darktanion owned and loved by New Horizons Ranch
So, about a year ago I blogged a bit about my switch to Chaffhaye Alfalfa and I thought some of y’all might like an update on how all that has been going.

Not only will ya get an update, but you get a healthy dose of Equine eye candy too..

Since we moved, I’ve had to hunt up a new Chaffhaye dealer and Heather at New Horizons Ranch is my go to gal…

Heather has the most gorgeous sport horses (looking sleek and stunning on Chaffhaye I might add) and on our last pick up she was kind enough to take us on a tour and let us meet her herd.

Shayla-Wayla, like most 8 year old lil girls, is totally horse crazy and this was absolute heaven for her.
Darktanion- Is he not just stunning??!
You can find Heather in Grand Saline, Texas. Her prices are great, she stores her Chaffhaye well so you don't have to worry about damaged bags.......

Whether you buy by the bag, or by the ton; she's able to load ya up with any size purchase, and she is more than happy to answer any questions you might have ....

The highlight of the trip for Shayla was getting to visit with Darktanion, a 16 year old Friesian stallion with the most laid back, sweet disposition I've ever seen in a horse. He was quite the clown showing off his various tricks he does for treats and was ever so tolerant with this over excited munchkin climbing all over him. Such a big, beautiful sweetie!


Darktanion & Shayla-Wayla
Shayla enjoyed meeting the adorable new baby
Momma didn't wanna be left out of all the attention.. Such a sweetie.
So, I've delivered on the equine eye candy promise and if you'd like to see more, or are in my neck of the woods and are looking for a Chaffhaye dealer, please don't hesitate to call Heather... Her info can be found here on her website: New Horizons Ranch


Now on to the Chaffhaye update portion of this blog post.
I must say, I couldn't be more pleased… Had my entire herd on Chaffhaye from the end of last lactation, through breeding season and kidding, and more than half way through another 10 month lactation.
Bleuberry, who should be on the milkstand, is stealing Chaffhaye instead, lol
Lovely Miss Bleuberry
My goats are real life testimonials to how great Chaffhaye is. Silky soft, shiney coats... Everyone, including the heavy milkers, have maintained weight very well, even during the peak of their lactations and my milk buckets have been plenty full.
Star, milking 12lbs a day and looking quite pretty.
Tricks, not to be outdone, had to steal a few mouthfuls too before I caught her and drug her out of the feed room.....Such a brat!! 


My most exciting report is my kids, the four legged, goat variety, not the awesome 2 legged human variety.... Typically all bottle babies are fed milk and I offer a meat goat pellet to them in lil handfuls early on hoping to tempt them to try it. 

Generally I see lil nibbles, but no real, noticeable pellet consumption until after 3 weeks old or so.

By the end of week 1, all the babies were noticeably eating it with gusto! 

I kept all bottle babies on a diet of Chaffhaye and milk for the first 12 weeks of life, then introduced pelleted feed when I reduced the amount of milk I was feeding.

Very happy to report that my kids averaged 18-21lbs of growth every 27 days. Color me happy!

This year, I gave a little handful to all the babies around 4-6 days old. All were curious and played with it a bit right from the start….. I think the soft texture and sweet smell make it a more interesting item for them to investigate.
Baby June Bug looking fat & sassy
These kids are lil monsters and I’m so thrilled that all will be more than big enough to breed their first fall to kid out as yearlings… This means no extra long wait to get a peak at the Jr. does' udders…

3 yearlings on the left, 3 spring kids on the right... I'd say these "babies" are well grown!

Oh, and Mr. Rocco, my lil buck from Oklahoma, was plenty tall enough to breed some yearling does for a friend of mine shortly before he turned 6 months old. If that’s not peachy, I dunno what is!

In my original post, A Noodleville Review: Chaffhaye Alfalfa I outlined our switch over to Chaffhaye from alfalfa pellets and I shared a nifty video and some cool pictures of the beneficial yeast colonies... Since then, it's kinda become a habit of mine to snap pictures when I find lil colonies.... These yeasty patches, BTW, belong to Bleuberry.. They are her favorite bit, she'll dig in my bags to find them and she doesn't think they need to be shared with anyone.
Yes, they look a lil alarming at first, but these are like the ultimate, uber probiotic supplement for a ruminant.


Patch on the left looks fuzzyish as it came from the center of the bag. Patch on right looks smoother as the surface was up against the plastic. These patches are not to be confused with mold, they are yeasty-yogurty smelling and not foul, rank and awful like mold.


Yeast colonies in a freshly opened bag
And..... for the grand finale and to end this for y'all...... Since my last Chaffhaye post had a video, I thought I'd share a teeny tiny clip on this post as well.

This is Rosie Posie & Tricks chowing down on Chaffhaye.... Rosie's face when she looks at me with a mouth full just cracks me up... And Miss Tricks, the rotten lil brat, couldn't stop eating for just one second to look at me..

Sorry, crummy cell phone video, but aren't the girls just pretty??




7 comments:

Anonymous said...

ur goats look amazing! the 2 in ths video are sooooooo shiney! im jealous of ur visit, ive always wanted tI pet a fresian. id go to ur dealer just to see the horses! lol

Anonymous said...

Girl! Where have you been??? Too long between post I was starting to think you died! lol j/k. Are those the March babies from this year??!! If so OMG they are huge!! And Rosie in the video with her mouthful us too cute!! Sending you an email with my new phone number, don't forget I call first dibs on a buck kid from Rosie or June Bug, or you can just let me buy June ;)
-Cassandra

Anonymous said...

ok I bought some of this, saw the white stuff in the open bag like your pic and threw it away! are u saying those patches are ok??? lol I feel dumb

Leigh said...

Crystal, hurray you've posted (finally!) I was delighted to find your comment on my blog and have to tell you what happened.

Awhile back I bought a domain name for my blog though google. I went from my5acredream.blogspot.com to www.5acreasandadream.com. Google redirected traffic, so no one noticed. Then they changed their policy for annual domain name renewal to an automatic bank withdrawal and I didn't' want to do that. So I changed to a different "registrar." Now blogger puts those warnings up sometimes, such as when you came over via a blog list.

I'm finding blog readers and blog rolls didn't update, however, so that the last post they have for me is "Fig Fail." I've written lots more blog posts since then! If you have me on a blog roll or blog reader, you'll probably need to delete my old blog name and add me under the new one.

I appreciate the post about chaffaye. I hear so much about it on the goat lists, but our closest dealer is over 200 miles away. As usual, you break down all the important parts and do an good job explaining it. Plus the photos are priceless!

* Crystal * said...

lol Cassie, no, ya can't have June, but do send me your new phone # so I can let ya know when I breed and have a guesstimate kidding date. First dibs on the boys are yours ;) And yes, those are the babies from this year...about 5 months old in the pictures :)

* Crystal * said...

Anonymous #1, yes, lol seeing the horses and chatting with Heather is worth the trip out there ;) I have a dealer a lil closer to me, but Heather stores hers better and has better prices...

Anonymous #2, yes those patches are ok...More than ok, they are great. It's a beneficial yeast colony with lots of good bacteria.... It's alfalfa and a probiotic all rolled in one :)

Anonymous said...

excellent post all the way around !!

sam boba