One of our working students has embarked on a surprising line of work: Goat Mom.
“I did not plan to be a mom to a goat. I just wanted a goat,” said Summer Spell. Now Sorrel is bonded with Summer, and thinks she’s more of a dog or child than a goat!
Deck Family Farm is slowly working up a goat herd and one baby needed some extra care. Sorrel was a runt and was rejected by her mother. Ella Deck, who owns the herd, decided to check with Summer about adopting her.
“I want goats in the future, and so I decided to take this on, even though she’s a little small and pathetic!” Summer said lovingly.
Baby goats need to be bottle fed 5 times per day for the first 2 to 3 months. Summer got up each morning at 6 and stayed up late each day to get the proper nutrition into Sorrel. Even so, this baby goat mostly ate cow's milk.
“She is convinced that I am her mother, follows me everywhere and cries when I leave her. And she comes running when she sees me,” said Summer. “If I ever took her out to visit with her and then put her back, I’d have to do the “daycare distract-and-run” so that she wouldn’t get upset and try to follow through the electric fence.”
Once in a while, Summer felt unable to listen to Sorrel’s crying at night and she brought her in to sleep with her. Overnight, she did everything Summer did: lie down, sleep through the night, sit up when she sat up, go back down when Summer lay back down.
“She’s even potty trained in the house! I would take her outside after the bottle so she wouldn’t make a mess in the house. And it worked,” said Summer. “And I drove her home to Seaside sometimes and I could take her out of the car and tell her to go potty and she would go!”
Sorrel is even fun to bring on hikes. She follows along without a leash and can handle all terrain.
“One time when she was very, very little, I took her home for a visit. My sister and I took her for a walk in downtown Seaside. She startled when she saw a car and so we picked her up and carried her in a book bag, which she thought was great! Everyone on the street was so excited to see her,” Summer remembers. “One time we put her down low in the bag to hide while we chose our ice cream flavors and at checkout she made a noise - so that was funny!”
The future for Sorrel, who is mostly Nubian, is in being a dairy goat. Summer fantasizes that Sorrel will one day be a very tame and biddable doe to base her herd on.
As cute as the experience has been, however, Summer has learned some important lessons about why it is important for babies to be raised by their mothers. Many cow dairy farms separate their babies from the mamas so that they can manage the herd more efficiently and so the milk can be collected for sale. Deck keeps the babies together with the mamas as long as possible, usually 3 or 4 months.
“She’s a good goat, but she’s a little weird emotionally compared to the others, and looks different with a pot belly maybe from the cows milk and from the less regular feedings,” said Summer. “So maybe her digestive system is a little funny for now. I’ve learned that it’s sweet and fun [raising her] but it’s also great that Deck Family Farm stresses having animals raised by their moms.”
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