Our Animals
It wouldn't be a farm without animals. We love all our animals, they keep us going sometimes just because they must be fed and cared for....but mostly because we love watching them.
The Goats
Hands down, the goats are the greatest! There is nothing that can make us laugh out loud as the baby goats do in the spring. Their philosophy seems to be: "Why walk when you can bounce or spring?" Even if it is two feet over to Mom, they are cavorting and practicing. The word capricious we understand very well here at Briar Rose Farm. It is a joyful word!
Most of our goats are cashmere goats.While cashmere is not a true separate breed, these goats have been bred to produce cashmere in sufficient quantity with the length and crimp needed to be called good "cashmere producing goats". We are one of the very few farms in North Carolina breeding cashmere for this new "industry" in the United States.
Cashmere goats begin producing their cashmere undercoat in late summer or fall. It serves the purpose of keeping them warm in the winter and when no longer needed in the spring, it is shed, combed out, or sheared. These goats usually produce twins, most often have horns, are very hardy, not fence jumpers, and are excellent mothers, brush clearers, and meat goats.
We also keep a dairy goat or two for milk, cheese, and the other things dairy products can be used for....like hand cranked ice cream! Dairy goats are almost always people friendly and need to be milked twice a day...Yes, EVERYDAY!
Honestly now, are your kids this cute?
In the fall of 2003 we acquired Lady and Sizzle, Nigerian Dwarf goats. That is Lady with the belt while Sizzle is described as a pinto. This is a poor picture as you can't see Lady's blue eyes. We have fallen in love with these little gals and their spunky personalities. They are full grown and not quite 23 inches tall.
Lady gave birth March 29th to two little girls. One has blue eyes like her mom and is lack with a salt and pepper muzzle and ears. The other is salt and pepper and sports a white belt like her mom. Lady is a good mother and comes running from anywhere on the farm when she hears her girls calling for her.
The Cattle
We raise Belted Galloway Cattle, a relatively rare breed of cow having their roots traced back to the 11th century in the former Galloway district of Scotland. Hardiness was necessary in this rugged and hilly seacoast region. Known today as the "Oreo Cookie Cows", they are black with a wide white belt, making them particularly wonderful to just look at as they graze across the slopes. They are short, stocky, docile cattle producing excellent and very low cholestrol beef. Instead of the layer of fatback that most cows require, belties have a double coat of hair that grows to some length. They are thrifty, good producers that will eat rougher pasture than some breeds. Our beef is hormone, chemical, and antibiotic free.
The Chickens
We keep a variety of chickens: Rhode Island Reds, Araucanas, Black Sexlink, and white Leghorns. All have different attributes but are layers, not setters. We do not keep a rooster. We like the looks of a dozen eggs, with all the colors: dark brown, light brown, blue, green, and white! Like most eggs produced on small farms, our egg yolks are bright orange and stand up above the when when opened. While our chickens are not free-range, they get a great variety of foods to eat and are hormone, chemical, and antibiotic free.
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Guineas
Guineas are the "wild" fowl that roam freely at Briar Rose Farm. They eat bugs, including fleas and ticks which makes them a helpful addition to the farm. They lay their eggs in large clutches of 10 to 20 eggs, sit on them for 28 days, then take off running with the little chicks behind them. Unfortunately, some get left behind or fall prey to predators. But they are stout little birds and many do survive to call the farm home. We enjoy watching them grow and watching the adults "glide" across the hay field in mass. Our guineas are black, gray, and white. Males and females look very much alike. Females have a two syllable call while the males make a single sound. Yes, they are noisy at times, but we find it a nice comfortable "farm" type sound.
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