THE GOAT FARM

Zuko is our only Alpine wether and was born on February 29, 2020 (that’s right, he was born on a leap year). Last February we celebrated his “fisrt” birthday with lots of warm oatmeal and molasses for everyone. He is the only animal to have horns on our farm. In the picture above, you’ll notice how it looks like he only has one horn. That’s because he was disbudded (act of burning off horn buds to prevent horn growth). Unfortunately it didn’t work and his horns grew anyways but it caused the horns to be deformed. One grows forward and the other grows straight back. Because of his deformed horns, every so often, I have to have the vet out to trim a little off of his horns to keep them from hurting him.

I brought Zuko home when he was just 4 weeks as a friend for Mushu and since then, the 2 of them have been pretty much inseparable. Zuko has become the most outgoing and playful of all of the animals. He is usually seen trying (and sometimes failing) to get the others to play with him. Sometimes Zuko can be a little much when it comes to playing around but he always knows when enough is enough.

I get asked a lot why I bought Zuko when all of the other goats are Nubians or Boers (clearly I love the floppy ears and roman noses!). Truthfully, I had been looking around for another goat since my first set of goats were really old (15 years to be exact) and knew they wouldn’t be around for much longer. I knew you couldn’t just have one goat so I knew I had to find Mushu a friend. In 2020, after much searching for Nubians on Craigslist (can you tell I didn’t know about the amazing Facebook groups yet?) I found an Alpine buckling for sale and I brought him home. I was worried about how Mushu would react with a much smaller animal but they instantly loved each other and the rest is history! While I do love the Alpine breed and am so thankful for Zuko, I just can’t resist those floppy ears on the the Boers and Nubians.

For more on Zuko, check out of Instagram @thegoatfarmnh!