Side Hill Acre Dairy Goat Farm

Wednesday we took a field trip with another family to Candor, NY.  Home of Side Hill Acre Dairy Goat Farm.  They produce delicious goat cheese, milk, candles, and bath/beauty products.  Once we got there we were given choices of cheese with crackers to munch on.  There were many herbal varieties.  I loved the “herb de Province” , my new favorite!  We brought many logs home with us and a couple candles, too.  We really enjoyed playing with the over 250 goats in the barn.  There were many varieties of goats.  I was surprised by this as I know many folks really like to focus on one type at a time.  I also discovered she uses no vaccines or selenium shots, other than rabies vaccine.  That is due to the tours and classes held on the property.  She is used by Cornell Cooperative as their Goat Classroom.  Apparently Cornell doesn’t have an onsite goat barn, as they do with many other aniamals.    I found this to be really freeing.  Having goats of my own, I am inundated with information about there care and knowing what is considered natural care for goats is something I have not been given guidance on.  This really helped me see that I can be natural with m y goats and not have so many concerns that some goat afficiandos have predicted.  Rita Kellogg, the Owner, brought us into the room where she empties all the full milk cans and pasturizes it at 145 degrees.  She even showed us a bucket made for feeding many of the kids that she has yearly.  What a funny device!  Then we were brought into the milking room.  She milks twice a day, 4am and 4pm.  Then off to the barn full of meandering goats, lounging around or stuffing their faces with hay.  They loved being petted and followed us around everywhere.  We were used as straching posts mostly. LOL  T. had a great time with that!

What a great trip!