Question about traveling

[elizabeth.scalf]

We are about to buy a new house. If we get one with a few acres, is love to consider a few chickens and possibly a milk goat. But we travel a small amount, at least 4-5 times a year. we already have dogs and fish so we have someone coming to the house daily anyway. but I doubt that person would know how to milk a goat. What can you do with farm animals when you travel our otherwise are unable to take care of then for a few days?

[missc]

We have a family nearby, actually the people we bought our property from (when it was only woods and crops) that likes watching them. We don't go away often, about 2-3 times a year, and they don't watch the house animals, just the farm (a few horses, 2 outdoor dogs, 2 cats, chickens, turkeys and ducks). We try to make it as easy as we can, we pay them and they get to keep any eggs they gather.
The one time we went away and had to leave the house animals as well, my brother watched them. This summer we'll have to leave all the animals for a long weekend and we're not sure, probably may have the farmer boy who lives around the corner stay at our house.
The chickens are easy...the goats, might need to time it when the goats are dry? Otherwise, you might be surprised...if you give the people watching the goats whatever milk they get, you might have some people willing to learn.

[hac1224]

We are just getting back into chickens again and getting started with goats for the first time, but we are fortunate to live in a farming neighborhood. The older lady beside us has goats, chickens, geese, dogs, and a cat that I take care of when she's away, so I know she'll gladly help with ours when we travel. We're fortunate in that, though. When we lived elsewhere and only had chickens we would have family members come buy and feed and collect eggs in exchange for them keeping all the eggs that were laid while we were gone. Same for out garden last year when we were going to be gone just over a week. We found two families in our church that knew a little about gardening who could use the extra veggies. They kept the garden picked so it would keep producing for us and got to keep everything they picked.

[okiemama]

This reminds me of when we used to drive to a smallish dairy farm (4-5 cows 12goats) and we were talking about their milking schedule and I asked how do you guys go anywhere? She looked at me dead pan and said "we dont" the look on her face was priceless lol

[Squeaky McMurdo]

For the goats, you can either plan travel for when they are dry, or plan to leave their kids on them to take care of the milking while you are gone. If you can't leave kids on them then it is generally okay to skip milking for a day or 2 after their lactation is well established as long as you don't do it often.

[raisingcropsandbabies]

DH stays home and I go everywhere with the kids, basically. I'm pretty sure our last family vacation ever was last August when DH's dad was well enough to hold the fort down on the farm (we made sure to go during a lull). Now that his dad is out of the picture, I imagine those days are over (we didn't have that many to begin with... that was our first family vacation in 3 years!).

I do get bummed about packing the kids up and going to visit family without DH, but I understand it and was warned prior to marrying a farmer that this was reality!

[Macyllehub]

Another idea is to hire a responsible teen from 4H that is experienced in farm life. You do pay them just like a job, but caring for animals while gone is a huge responsibility the bigger the animals get. I know most of my friends with livestock just don't travel.

We don't travel. It's a choice right now for this stage in life we're in. Someday

[igotmywings]

When we lived on a homestead it was rough for us to travel so we rarely did. We either did one of two things

Allowed someone from 4-H or FFA house their animal on our property in exchange for when we went out of town they would take care of our animals in exchange they didn't pay boarding fees or anything and when they were sick (or when out of town) we would feed their animals

of if we didn't have someone boarding their animals on our property that year we would get someone from the FFA (I was VP) to come out and at least feed and water them. If we had a diary goat they would milk them as well

[daddyn4wisechix]

Originally Posted by igotmywings ...Allowed someone from 4-H or FFA house their animal on our property in exchange for when we went out of town they would take care of our animals in exchange they didn't pay boarding fees or anything and when they were sick (or when out of town) we would feed their animals of if we didn't have someone boarding their animals on our property that year we would get someone from the FFA (I was VP) to come out and at least feed and water them. If we had a diary goat they would milk them as well

What is FFA ?? My DB moved out of state & now has some dairy cows, hens, etc. & he wanted to come & visit since it has been a while since we saw him, but he isn't sure what to do w/his animals...so he hasn't been back yet. He knows that is life w/critters, but is homesick as he is alone... no GF or DW... yet .

We're also thinking of a dairy animal or 2 at some point & we were wondering about this for us too... although, we usually only go somewhere maybe 1-2xs a year (tops) & usually overnight, so it wouldn't be too bad, but we wonder what if a emergency came up that we had to be away longer (parent sick out of state, a death out of state, etc.).

[igotmywings]

ffa use to stand for Future Farmers of America but since just switched to FFA because not all the kids in the club are farmers Its a club in high school and some middle schools. A lot of kids (in FFA or 4-h) usually don't have the land to house their animals, if their schools have the farms then some of them allow them to house their animals there (i did that one year) however, some schools don't allow that so either they don't do that animal projects or they board them places which can eat in to their profits if they are doing meat animals.

The agreement worked out REALLY well for us. One year we had 5 kids total on the property and some of them had more then one animal.The kids always showed up to feed them (its their responsibility after all). If your brother has a high school in the area he could always ask the agriculture teacher (or the teacher who sponsers the club) to see if any of the kids might be interested in watching over the farm. Or even reach out to the 4-H Clubs as well.