Goat jumps on pig, on any ranking of cuteness, baby goats have to be right up there with puppies and kittens.
The little kids – they’re usually born as twins and triplets – nuzzle one another, sniff your face and wobble about on knobby legs.
So it’s no surprise that Noreen O’Connell loves her baby goats, and recently there’s been a lot to love.
Every other day in April it seemed baby goats were being born at her farm on Federal Hill Road.
Noreen and her husband, Tim, have been farming here for 37 years, and at one time or another they raised pigs, cows and chickens. But she didn’t love them the way she loves her little kids.
“I don’t know why we didn’t have goats 30 years ago,” Noreen said as she watched 2-day-old goats struggle to climb a step stool.
Butternut Farm has long produced a wide range of vegetables on about six acres, “arugula to zucchini,” as Noreen likes to say, as well as cut-your-own flowers and Christmas trees.
But it’s the goats Noreen is excited about now.
The O’Connells will be milking six does (female goats) when they all deliver their babies and will have up to 12 kids. Joseph is their wether (neutered male) and first born, and the babies are fathered by bucks owned by their daughter, Marcy, who runs the Holland Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) on Osgood Road. She will be milking eight does and has 12 yearling goats and five newborns so far.
All that means there will eventually be an abundance of fresh goat milk.
The farm is now a New Hampshire-licensed dairy called the Milford Goat Dairy, selling milk, hard and soft cheese and goat milk soap. The O’Connells also sell Earthling Maple granola made by their other daughter, Jeannine, and will soon be bringing their products, which are sold at the farm, to Farmers Markets in Milford, Bedford and Nashua.
The idea of raising goats came to Noreen and Tim five years ago when they decided they wanted to have livestock again.
Goats were the best and easiest choice, Noreen said, because they are “personable, fun, give a healthy product” and their milk is “closest to human milk and easily digestible, sweet and creamy.”
Both farms welcome visitors and the O’Connells enjoy teaching people the benefits of locally grown/produced food.
The little kids – they’re usually born as twins and triplets – nuzzle one another, sniff your face and wobble about on knobby legs.
So it’s no surprise that Noreen O’Connell loves her baby goats, and recently there’s been a lot to love.
Every other day in April it seemed baby goats were being born at her farm on Federal Hill Road.
Noreen and her husband, Tim, have been farming here for 37 years, and at one time or another they raised pigs, cows and chickens. But she didn’t love them the way she loves her little kids.
“I don’t know why we didn’t have goats 30 years ago,” Noreen said as she watched 2-day-old goats struggle to climb a step stool.
Butternut Farm has long produced a wide range of vegetables on about six acres, “arugula to zucchini,” as Noreen likes to say, as well as cut-your-own flowers and Christmas trees.
But it’s the goats Noreen is excited about now.
The O’Connells will be milking six does (female goats) when they all deliver their babies and will have up to 12 kids. Joseph is their wether (neutered male) and first born, and the babies are fathered by bucks owned by their daughter, Marcy, who runs the Holland Farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) on Osgood Road. She will be milking eight does and has 12 yearling goats and five newborns so far.
All that means there will eventually be an abundance of fresh goat milk.
The farm is now a New Hampshire-licensed dairy called the Milford Goat Dairy, selling milk, hard and soft cheese and goat milk soap. The O’Connells also sell Earthling Maple granola made by their other daughter, Jeannine, and will soon be bringing their products, which are sold at the farm, to Farmers Markets in Milford, Bedford and Nashua.
The idea of raising goats came to Noreen and Tim five years ago when they decided they wanted to have livestock again.
Goats were the best and easiest choice, Noreen said, because they are “personable, fun, give a healthy product” and their milk is “closest to human milk and easily digestible, sweet and creamy.”
Both farms welcome visitors and the O’Connells enjoy teaching people the benefits of locally grown/produced food.