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08/12/2015 09:00 AMThe recent trend to be healthier, grow your own food, and to seek out local, organic goods, is also seeing more people getting back to the land through farming. Bev and Hal Tarpill had taken that leap with gardens and chickens, but it wasn’t until Bev celebrated her 50th birthday that goats became part of their daily life.
The Tarpills’ Flamingo Acres Farm is on 11 acres of family land given to them as a wedding present many years ago. The goats came along as a birthday gift—but as a gift with a purpose.
“Ben and Jerry were really bought to clear the property of poison ivy, the summer after we got them, we got two more girls and two more boys and now it has snowballed,” Bev Tarpill said.
Ben and Jerry are the two Oberhasli wether (gelded males) goats that started the herd. The herd has since grown.
The first goat born on the farm was Dunkin Donuts, who’s now accompanied by her offspring Munchin and Crispy Crème. There was also Tim Horton and Bess Eaton, who were sold (Bev doesn’t keep bucks at the farm). There is also Ella, who gave birth to Elvis and Eldon who were donated to Ray of Light Farm in East Haddam to be part of an educational program there. In addition there are MaryAnn and Mini-erva, who are the offspring of Mary Louis (who was named after Bev’s aunt), to name a few.
To ensure the herd’s safety and to help keep predators like coyotes away, the Tarpills purchased a body guard, Good Golly Miss Molly, a loud, braying donkey who is very protective of her goat family. Although Molly doesn’t what to share space in the same enclosure with the goats, she does look out for them, and lets everyone know if something is amiss.
While visitors might be easily confused by the nearly identical flock, Tarpill knows them all by name and color co-ordinates their collars, so others will know who is who. All her goats bear the signature Oberhasli markings of rich brown coats, with thin black legs and a prominent black strip down their backs. They are medium sized and are friendly, quiet, easy keepers, said Tarpill.
Not just well-loved pets, the goats are also used to clear fields around the house (which they do happily) and to produce milk, which is similar to cow’s milk, but without the high butterfat content. Although Tarpill doesn’t sell the milk or the cheeses she makes from it, it’s something she’s thinking about doing sometime in the future.
“For now we just love our goats,” said Tarpill. “We are growing a little at a time, and hopefully next year we will have a milk house.”
Although she loves her herd, Tarpill does caution that if someone is looking to get into goats, they need to realize that it’s a real commitment.
“You can’t go away like ever. You have to make sure you are always here for morning and evening feedings and milkings [during milking season, which for Tarpill is mid-April until October] and you have to know a little bit about what you are doing,” said Tarpill, who got a job with large animal vet when she first got her goats so she could learn about them.
“They have to have yearly shots and vaccinations, you need to pay for hay and grain, you need to clip their hooves every six to eight weeks and you need to take care of them on a daily basis. It isn’t always easy, but for me it’s worth it,” said Tarpill.
“I love my goats. I think they are comical, hysterical and fun,” she said. “They are friendly and inquisitive and the baby kids are the cutest things you will ever see.”