This Winter’s Weather

We’ve had a lot of warm weather this winter.

enjoying the nice weather

Granted, we had some really cold at Christmas time, but there’s been a lot of warm weather, too.

Our snow is melting and leaving January mud puddles

We even saw more rain this week on Monday into Tuesday; there was a rain/ice/snow event on Wednesday into today. We are not supposed to have rain in January.

Hanging out in the barn to stay dry

It leaves me a little concerned about what that might mean for this coming spring and summer.

2TC in pasture

When it’s warmer weather over the winter, the goats don’t need as much to maintain their body condition.

It’s good for my old ladies who need to maintain that body weight.

That means they often have bigger babies because they have more to give to the fetuses.

Antigone is already looking big.

That means more difficult births.

I lost Jilly in 2012 to a huge kid and difficult birth.

Sometimes, it can mean that there isn’t an adequate killing of parasites and bacteria, and that can mean more health issues the following summer.

Cindy Lou and several others had horrible e-coli scours the same year.

While I don’t want to go to extreme cold, I would like to see some more normal temperatures for the next month or six weeks before we start kidding.