Goat Feed...

It's THAT time of year again - the "tween" time. Right between the good summer food, and the time for feeding hay. The goats are getting picky, while standing in the midst of all kinds of food.

They just want me to cave and give them the good stuff...

A couple of days ago, I was in out and about and stopped to visit with a couple that sells sweet corn that they grow in their back yard. I asked them if they wanted the stalks taken care of when the corn was done. The man just told me to "come back tomorrow, with your corn knife".

So, yesterday afternoon.....I DID.

Between, him, me, and his helper, we filled the back of the truck with stalks, then added a lot of tall grass they had just pulled.

Always keeping an eye out, I happened to notice an apple tree not far from the house. There were only about a half dozen apples on the tree, but there were quite a few on the ground.

The owner told me to take as many as I wanted.

Now, these apples were not really usable for us - but the GOATS would LOVE them, so I got a box and picked up a bunch.

Of course, once the goats figured out that I had corn stalks, they came running. They were under the impression that the stalks were as good as it was gonna get.
They were truly amazed and thrilled once I started producing apples.

One doe we have - Romper - likes to jump the fence this time of year. I can always find her - camped out under our apple tree. This year, she would break out, but be disappointed - the apple tree didn't produce many this go around.

So she ate the leaves.....

Yesterday, she saw an apple in my hand from at least 30 feet away and came RUNNING over, with her tongue flapping 90 miles an hour.



She stretched her neck out over the fence to take it, but I was mean and held it just out of reach to tease her for a bit.



I finally decided that she'd had enough, and let her take it. Being part pig (the LARGEST part...), she took the whole thing at once:



It kinda reminded me of those pictures you see of the roasted pig with the apple in his mouth....

Since I was feeding some to the dairy goats - and they'd never had them before, I chopped most of the rest of them up so they could eat them easier. Romper knew full well what they tasted like, so wasn't ashamed to take more then her fair share. She even wanted me to hold one while she ate it. She came up for a bite, hopped down to eat it, then jumped back up for another bite of the same apple.

Like I said, she REALLY enjoys apples....



She gets all "dreamy eyed" when she sees one...

All-in-all, it was a short - but SWEET, break from normal goat food.

The bad part is -

Now they ALL want more apples....