Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Last night we said goodbye to our billy goat Briar as we officially signed him over to his new owners, a couple from Redruth! It was always the intention to sell him on after he had mated with our female goats but selling male stock is NOT always easy and especially this time of year when most people already have their females in kid/lamb/calf etc and so don't actually NEED a male for breeding. We were very nervous about finding a new home for him and a good home at that, but as far as it is possible to tell, we have. The couple in question are first time goat owners but have horses and poultry and it is their intention to have two or three nannies to breed from. Their land is bordered by masses of brambles so Briar will be in his element: goats LOVE brambles and they are so careful never to get stabbed by the thorns.
Despite still having a barn full, it seemed very empty when we went down to feed everyone this morning. We will miss him, he is one of the nicest billies we have had and delightfully easy to handle. The good news is that we have now absorbed what was his pen into the poultry area which gives the birds a bit more room and makes it a little less busy for us to clean out.
In other news, it is still wet wet wet although we did have the alpacas out again with the poultry this morning whilst it was reasonably dry. However, we remain very anxious about the fox after his exploits yesterday...