Grace Stacy isn’t getting much sleep these days.
During the season when her Nubian dairy goats are giving birth, the 78-year-old has to be ready at a moment’s notice, no matter the time of day.
That also means regular checks every couple of hours.
“I used to sleep in the barn when they were due,” she said.
“It’s always a time of stress,” Stacy continued, “since you never know what you’re going to get, same as with cattle people.”
And indeed, Stacy has seen it all, from a doe named Helen giving birth to five kids in sequence, to having to disentangle and turn countless goats while still in the womb.
“It’s just harrowing,” she said. “Because you can’t see what you’re doing when you’re in there, you have to go completely by feel.”
“We just had two last night,” she remarked. “[The doe] just walked into the barn and dropped the kids.”
But it’s not all guesswork, Stacy explained, as goats give multiple signals when they’re about ready to give birth.
“They get kind of lovey and want to be petted a whole lot,” she said.
“The udder gets full and the tail head loosens up, … and if you put your hand on their left side, you can feel the babies.”
This is because the stomach and other organs shift to the right during pregnancy.
As for how many goats Stacy will end up with this year, that’s anybody’s guess.
“Goat math is different from regular math,” she laughed.
The joke among goat people is that “goat math never adds up, and there’s always room for one more goat.”
