Label Approved!

Well, we got preliminary approval for our label. 

Now we have to get approval from all of the other forms and registration papers, 

but it looks like we will be able to offer our milk for sale 

for pet use when our doe Lori kids this summer!

 I'll post an update once we know for sure. 

Thanks for following along on all of these journeys with us! 

I hope that what we are doing with these blog posts is of some help to y'all! 

Archer's Acres Pet Milk Label by Lisa Vaughn

Raw Milk Sales

I have had an interest in selling my goat's milk to the public for use as pet milk, for orphaned animals in particular. It is currently illegal to sell raw milk in Georgia for human consumption. Below is a summary of the Georgia Laws regarding the sale of raw milk and raw milk products in Georgia. 

You can sell raw milk to the public for use as pet milk. Many people can use fresh goats milk for orphaned pets or farm animals. I have everything you need to know regarding getting licensed to sell milk for pet use in the state of Georgia in this blog post, including an example of a label. 

The state has banned the sale of raw milk for human consumption through its interpretation of the Georgia Dairy Act of 1980 and also through its adoption of the 2003 version of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance.

The sale of raw milk for animal consumption is legal if the distributor is licensed under the commercial feed laws. The Department of Agriculture currently has several distributors of raw goat milk for pet food under license.

Georgia Rules and Regulations

RULES OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS

CHAPTER 40-2-1 DEFINITIONS

40-2-1-.01 Definitions.

The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of the Georgia Dairy Act of 1980.

(a) “Raw Milk and Raw Milk Products for Human Consumption.” It shall be unlawful to sell, offer for sale, or otherwise dispense raw or unpasteurized milk, cream, or other milk products except raw milk cheese properly processed and aged according to Federal requirements.

Georgia Code

TITLE 26 FOOD, DRUGS, AND COSMETICS

CHAPTER 2 STANDARDS, LABELING, AND ADULTERATION OF FOOD

ARTICLE 7 MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS

26-2-238. Standards and requirements generally.

The standards and requirements of the May, 2003, Amended Version of the Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance Recommendations of the United States Public Health Service – Food and Drug Administration and supplements thereto, except as otherwise provided in this article, are expressly adopted as the standards and requirements for this state. Future changes in and supplements to said milk ordinance may be adopted by the Commissioner as a part of the standards and requirements for this state.

Please note the below label has the Guaranteed analysis for cows milk.
Goats Milk Guaranteed Analysis is as follows:
Crude Protein  Min---3%
Crude Fat           Min---3%
Crude Fiber        Min--8%
Moisture                      88%

Feed License Application Georgia by Lisa Vaughn

Pet Food Registration Georgia by Lisa Vaughn

GA Commercial Feed Act by Lisa Vaughn

Georgia Raw Milk Label Example by Lisa Vaughn

Handmade Soap Giveaway!

I am going to give away 1 bar of my handmade Goat's milk, oatmeal and honey soap to one randomly chosen entry. The winner will receive 1 bar, postage paid.

The Winner will be chosen randomly on Feb. 1, 2013. All entries must be in by noon eastern time.

To enter: Leave a comment answering this question: What is your favorite barnyard animal?

To earn 3 additional entries, leave a separate comment for each of the completed tasks listed below. If you don’t leave separate comments for each task you’ve completed, your additional entries will not be included. Entries must be entered here, not on the Facebook Fan Page.

1. Become a fan of Archers Acres on Facebook.
2. Mention this give-away on Facebook with a link to this blog post or the Archer's Acres FB page..
3. Subscribe to Archer's Acres via email or rss feed.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You are providing your information to Archer's Acres and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for this giveaway.

Equipment For Milking Your Goats

The whole reason I wanted to get my 

goats was so I could milk them 

to use their milk in my handmade soaps.

I have always loved goats and had a few

growing up but my husband

wasn't as excited about getting the girls.

All of his memories of goats are of

them escaping and climbing up on things

they aren't supposed to be on,

things like his beloved vehicles.

He's a car guy, not a goat guy....

But I was finally able to convince him

that our lives would be blessed with a few

goats in the pasture.

And unlike when I had goats before,

at my parents home,

this time we did the fencing right, 

so there has yet to be a king of the mountain

episode with the goats on one of his cars,

which keeps him pretty happy.

So, back to the point of this blog post,

Milking your Girls!

Now, I have to admit I have very limited

experience in this as of yet.

But I have a doe due in June and I plan to get a lot

of experience in then!

But I wanted to at least post a blog

on some of the basics, 

at least in equipment 

that your going to need to start milking your does at home.

I bought all of the above supplies as a kit

from Caprine Supply.

It worked out great because they

have a mini version just for

the Nigerians.

This kit comes with the following:

Small Stainless Steel Strainer

Package of 200 Count 3-5/8" Filters

 2 Quart Stainless Steel Milk Pail

 Fight Bac Teat Spray

 Aluminum Strip Cup with Screen

Milking Pail

Your milking pail is the actual

container that you will milk into.

You want to use something that is 

made of stainless steal over 

something that is made of something like plastic

because plastic will harbor bacteria

and can also absorb weird smells and flavors

that can alter the taste of your 

milk, and not for the better.

You also want something that is going

to be very easy to get clean

and keep clean.

Because milk is the greatest

medium for growing bacteria, 

you want to keep everything nice and sanitary.

Strainer with Filter in Place

Strainer with Filter in Place

Your strainer is used to strain your milk

before it goes into it's final container.

You would pour your milk from the milking pail

through the strainer and into the final container.

I have pictures to show you what your strainer

looks like with the filter and without the filter in place.

The little metal ring is what holds the filter 

tightly in place.

You should use a new filter each time 

you strain your milk.

And you should never add warm milk to cold milk.

The reason for using the filter is to get any

small particles of dust or hair that may have

fallen off of your doe and into the milking pail.

You can shave around your does utters and 

keep her clean from dirt and debris to

help reduce what falls in your pail,

but I don't think you can honestly keep 

everything out and so that

is why you use your filter.

Strainer without Filter

Fight Bac

Fight Bac is used to clean 

your does utters and teats before and after

you milk her.

It is to help prevent any bacteria that 

may get on or in her teat from growing

and causing mastitis. 

You don't have to use this product specifically,

there are several on the market and there

are also several different recipes available

online to make your own.

This is what came in my kit so this

is what I will be using for now.

Strip Cup with Screen

Your strip cup is used at the very beginning

of each milking. 

You use this to inspect the milk that first comes

out to be sure there is no blood

or signs of mastitis.

Sometimes mastitis will cause

the milk to be stringy or clumpy.

You just want to make it a habit of checking your

girls udders and milk each day

to stay on top of any

issues.

My wonderful, handy husband

built my milking stand for me.

You will need one of these

to make milking your girls

go smoothly and easily.

Toddler not required!

Milking Stand

Your milking stand makes your job 

of milking your girls much easier

because it puts them up higher so 

it is easy to reach them and

the head gate helps control

them in case you have some that are 

not quit sure they liked to be milked.

We have a little hanging feeder on

the front of the stand so the girls

get their breakfast and dinner

while they are being milked.

It makes them much more willing participants.

So these are some of the things you would

need to get started with milking your own goats. 

This list is definitely not set in stone.

I know some people who use more

than what I have listed or

who don't use all of the things listed,

or who use things like 

stainless steel cooking pots instead of 

milking pails. 

All that is fine, you just

want to be sure that whatever you use

it works well for you,

it does the job needed

and it can be cleaned properly to 

prevent illness in you and your does.

I plan to continue with this blog post and 

have photos of me actually milking my girls,

pictures of udders,

and much more so stay tuned!

Happy Milking! 

New Name, Same Farm

I just want to welcome everyone over from 

the fluffybottomsfarm.blogspot.com page!

We are the same farm in the same place

but with a new name and a new blog spot!

I am going to wait until I have transferred over

everything from the Fluffy Bottoms page before I 

disable that page.

So please add this page to your bookmarks

and start following us here!

The name change has come as a result of us

starting with more animals than just the poultry.

I wanted to have a farm name that would be universal 

regardless of which animals we were showing or registering.

I chose Archer's Acres because #1 I am a bow hunter

and I love archery in general, it's a great sport.

#2 I am a Sagittarius and the sign for the Sag is the

Archer. 

It fits me very well, as a half horse half human creature

as I have always loved horses and we have a few here on

the farm. 

So if you are new, Welcome to the Blog.

If you are coming over from the Fluffy Bottoms Blog,

Thank You for your continued support!

It is truly appreciated!

Lisa

Goat Pasture

Building a New Goat Pasture

This weekend we started building the goats new pasture area. We are trying to build it a little at a time so we don't have to deal with the costs all at once. The area we fenced in this weekend comes to 1,536 sq ft., it's an enclosure of 32x48. We eventually want to fence in the entire area all the way up to the road for the girls, but will be doing it every few weeks until it is completed.

What we have done is used 6x6 square posts for the corners and to support the gate. We used 4x4 8ft long posts every 8ft to support the panels. The posts are all close to 2 ft in the ground and the hubs is going to cut them all off even to make it look nice.  We used the cattle/hog panels for the actual fencing. We chose this type of fencing because goats are known to be difficult to keep penned up and this seems to be the best thing for keeping them in. I have a very young son so electic fencing was not an option and any of the other wire type fencing they seem to damage really easy, by either rubbing on it or standing on it and making it sag and loosen. This may be a little more expensive than the others but we feel it will last much longer and we thing it looks nicer as well. The panels we have are 16ft long and approximately 4.5 ft tall.

We used the wooden posts to hold the fence but along the back we used T-posts because that area is not going to be there permanently, we will be adding to the fence to make it eventually go all the way to the road so we didn't want to waste wood posts in an area that won't be there forever. The T-post do a great job at holding the fence up and you could build a fence using them but they don't look as nice so we only plan to use them during the construction phase.

Even though this is our "after" photo, this fence is not yet complete. We will be extending it further toward the road, we still need to cut the posts down so they are flush with the fencing and we will also be adding a wood board along the top and possibly the bottom of the panels to give a more finished and polished look to the whole thing. 

We still haven't decided exactly where or how we want to do the goat barn, so for now the girls have a large wooden house to sleep in and get out of the elements. They love to nap on top of it though. I also have their hay bag and their mineral block out there for now. And I am hoping to go some time this week and get some things for them to jump up on because I know how much they love to climb. 

Our Trailer full of supplies.

For this project we used:

4x4 posts every 8 ft

6x6 posts for the corners and gate

16ft cattle panels

U shaped fencing nails

String to keep the fence straight

A level to get the poles straight

Post hole diggers and a shovel

Tape measurer

Helping daddy pack the dirt in the holes around the posts.

Measuring out the fence perimeter

Goofing off

It's coming along great!

Kids Due in June!

Lori's Romeo

I just picked my doe Lori up this Saturday from being bred. I had a chance to take a few photos of her Romeo to share with yall. His name is actually LEVI, but I don't know what his registered name is, gotta check with his owner on that to be sure I get it right. But he is a very sweet buck, his young handler was showing us his tricks on the obstacle course, it was very cute, he followed her anywhere she went. It was quit entertaining watching him take those jumps, it will really remind you of a deer and was just very cute to see. 

Soap Properties

Properties of my Soap Ingredients

I started making soaps because my young son suffers from eczema. Everything we tried to bathe him in caused an itchy rash. His pediatrician was recommending different treatment options to help battle the rash, but I wanted to try to find something that wouldn't cause it in the first place. Someone told me about using handmade goats milk soap to help with his eczema. So I started reading on how to make soaps. I know I could buy them myself, but I figured if I was going to try to use hand made soaps why not make them myself, that way I could control the ingredients. So I started checking out how to make soaps and I soon discovered that there are millions of ways and ingredients you can use. I decided on a few ingredients that had properties that really seemed like they would benefit my son's skin. I started making my soaps, recording exactly what went into each bar and then seeing how they affected his skin. I am happy to say that so far my son has done WONDERFUL with the soaps I have made for him. His rash completely disappeared. I even had to send some soaps with him whenever he goes anywhere so if someone else needs to give him a bath they use his soaps. My mother bathed him without his soaps once and the rash came back immediately, but once I got her using my soaps again it has again disappeared. So I wanted to share with you just some of the properties of the different ingredients I use in my soaps. Hopefully this will help you to decide which soaps would be best for your skin.

Avocado oil contains vitamins A, D and E.  It is useful for healing and moisturizing.

Castor Oil is conditioning as well as moisturizing. It is an excellent humectant; attracting and holding moisture in the skin. It creates a fluffy, stable lather.

Coconut oil makes soaps lather beautifully. It is an emollient, moisturizing, conditioning and protecting to the skin. Coconut oil is what makes the soap "clean".

Flax seed oil is said to soften and heal skin abrasions and scars and to reduce swelling and redness of rashes and lesions from skin disease.

Grape seed oil is lightweight oil that absorbs into the skin quickly without leaving a heavy greasy feeling. It has mildly astringent qualities and is said to be useful for acne and other skin complaints.

Olive Oil attracts external moisture to your skin, helping to keep skin soft and supple. Traditionally "Castile" soap was made using only olive oil, but the term has loosened now to include soaps that have olive oil as a major proportion of the oils in them.

Sunflower oil contains Vitamin E, and is a great skin conditioner; it creates a silky feel.

Walnut oil is a soothing oil which is said to help regenerate, tone and moisturize damaged dry skin and to aid in preventing wrinkles, controlling eczema, dandruff and rough, dry or sunburned skin.

Honey is known to have antimocrobial qualities and it is also a humectant, which means it attracts moisture to itself. Making it a great moisturizer and conditioner for your skin.

Oatmeal and its natural oil coat, moisturize, protect and gently cleanse, while correcting the pH of itchy or inflamed skin back to normal.

Goats Milk contains Alpha Hydroxy Acids which remove dead skin cells, leaving smoother younger looking skin. It is high in Vitamin A which helps reduce lines and wrinkles, control acne and give relief to psoriasis and eczema. It is moisturizing due to the fat content and contains many minerals such as selenium that are great for preventing and repairing damage to the skin from things like sun exposure.

Breeding Lori

Breeding my girl Lori

I dropped my girl Lori off to be bred at Painted Zia Stables this past Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. I was so excited. I can't wait till we have some cute little kids of our own here at the farm. The stud I am using comes from some great lines over at Madisons Meadow. Some greats in the pedigree include CH Woodhaven Farms Cowboy Cadilak, sire of the first ever ADGA Nationals Reserve Junior Champ Nigerian Dwarf Doe (2010), LTE Camellia. I am very excited about this breeding and really hope to get a doe from this cross. I may or may not have kids available for sale from this breeding.  I hope to retain just 1 doe and any other kids should be available for purchase. Please contact me if you are interested in acquiring a kid from this breeding.

MCH/PGCH Flat Rocks Opal *D

CH Woodhaven Farms Cowboy Cadilak

                                    Woodhaven Farms Texas Twister

Madison's Meadow Chrysanthemum

Little Tots Estate Loropetalum

CH/MCH Kaapio Acres Hot Habanero
(a WHF Bently Hotwing son & Cadilak grandson)

Kaapio Acres HH Red HOT Poker

Rosaharn GX Cinnamon D

You can view Lori’s pedigree on our main goat page.

Milk Production Awards (the pluses and stars)

Since Nigerian Dwarves are dairy goats, perhaps the best place to start understanding the pedigree is with the *M (ADGA) or *D(AGS) designations.  This indicates that a doe has been tested for milking ability, and has successfully passed the required levels.  There are many details associated with earning the star milking designations; however, stars in the pedigree are a good indicator that the goat has potential for good milk production.  The star and plus designations are always listed after the goat’s name.   

Goats can also earn stars based on their progeny; and this is obviously the only way a buck earns production awards.  For AGS, the rules are as follows:

For a *D (star doe), the doe has met the minimum standards for milk production or she has three *D daughters, or two +S sons, or two *D daughters and one +S son.

A 2*D (two star doe) is the daughter of a star doe, and has also met the minimum standards for milk production.  The number preceding the star indicates the number of consecutive generations of qualifying does.   

A *S (star sire) has a *D dam and has a +S sire or sire with a *D dam.

A +S (plus sire) has at least three *D daughters (from three different does), or has two +S sons, or has two *D daughters and one +S son.

A ++S (two plus sire) has at least three *D daughters (from three different does), and at least two +S sons.

A ++*S (two plus star sire) has at least three *D daughters and two +S, and a *D dam

In the ADGA registry, the D’s change to M’s, the S’s change to B’s; and there are small differences in the requirements. 

Titles (CH, MCH, GCH, ARMCH)

Goats are awarded titles for show wins, and MCH is the title for a Master Champion in AGS while CH is a Champion in ADGA.  To reach Champion status a goat must win three shows as champion under at least two different judges.  If a goat has achieved Champion status and also has production awards (the pluses and stars), then the goat becomes a Permanent Grand Champion which is denoted by ARMCH for AGS and GCH for ADGA.  These designations are placed in front of the goat’s name. If animals have multiple titles (MCH/CH), then they have completed wins at shows for both registries.

SG indicates that a doe or buck is in the top 15% of the production index for that breed, and if they also have Permanent Grand Champion status, the title becomes SGCH.