Today Eyes on Animals visited “De geitenhoeve” in Tilburg (NL), where we were warmly welcomed by the farmer and his wife. De Geitenhoeve is an organic goat farm where 600 goats are milked. As of April the goats are able to enjoy outdoor pasture, which is lovely to see. Before April weather conditions can be wet or too cold and the goats often prefer to stay inside.
The lambs stay with their mums until 2-3 days after birth. It is not possible to keep them with their mums for a longer period, as after 2-3 days the lambs start to wander around and drink the important colostrum from other high pregnant goats.
All lambs stay on the farm for 3 weeks minimum, including the billies (male goats). Billies are fattened until they are 21 days old and then slaughtered. In this fatting period the billies receive organic milk, first by hand and then by machine. As billies are still on a milk-diet, they do not get pasture. A small amount of billies are fattened for a longer period of time, for example the “bunker-billies” who are fattened until 6-9 months of age. These bunker-billies do receive pasture after a few weeks (from of 12 kilos of weight).
We want to thank De Geitenhoeve for their time, information and tour around their farm.
