On Goats (An Interview)

Marthe has a full time job as a photo-curator, but has started working part-time on a remote farm looking after goats. I decided to find out more about why she wanted to do this and what it is like. 

You already had a full time job, so what made you want to start working with goats in a barn?

I think there are two reasons. The first one is that although I like my job and I enjoy what I'm doing, it's quite nice to do something completely different. With the goats, I go in there and I'm working 100% the whole time. It's very physical. I have to constantly make sure that all the goats are alright.

Apart from wanting a job that was more active, I remembered that a few years back I actually applied to become a budeie for a summer job. Traditionally, a budeie used to be a young girl working up in the mountains for the summer, living alone and taking care of the cows or goats on summer pastures. I went abroad that summer instead, but there's obviously been some interest in me to work with animals.

Can you give a quick description of what the job involves?

In the summer, when the weather is good, I come to the barn and the goats are all outside. So I go up in the mountains where they're roaming around, and I've got a bell I can ring so they can hear my bell if I can't see them. I also yell for them to come. Sometimes there can be a bit of walking involved, but so far, this early in the summer, they haven't been walking so far away from their house.

It's a really gorgeous feeling when I spot the goats and they start running towards me with their "baaah"s and the bell going "ding-ding-ding-ding-ding." We're both really happy to see each other. I'm happy to see the goats, that I don't have to go trekking to find them, and they're ecstatic that someone has come to collect them.

Then we go back to the barn and it's the milking with an automatic milking machine. I get 12 and 12 goats up to be milked. I have to make sure I don't milk any goats that are ill. If they're on medication I can't mix their milk in with the others', and I also have to make sure that none of the goats have become ill or got hurt whilst they were out. I give them some "power food" whilst they're being milked. It takes quite a long time because I've got 87 goats that I milk. Obviously, there's that little bit of excitement when I get to the end of the shift and it's like, "Have I got the right number of goats today, or did I leave some in the field?"

I also have to make sure that the barn is nice and clean. I feed the hens and rabbits, clean equipment and so on.

How would you characterise goats as animals?

Cute! They're really trusting. They are possibly not the most clever animals in the world, but they certainly know what's going on. They've got their habits. When I milk, I know which goats come first and which are the last ones, and it's always the same ones; my three last goats are always the same three. There's one that likes to run up to the milking ramp first, but then she gets really confused because she always stands there second, so she has to run back and forth a bit so that she can be second. So they're animals of habit, but they're also very trusting and quite cuddly. 

Has working with goats changed your relationship to this place or the animals around us here?

I'm not sure that it has. I guess I'm more conscious of how few people there are left that keep farm animals. There used to be loads of barns here where we live, but now there are only two that keep goats and a couple of sheep farms. There's room for many more.

I think the first time I went into the barn I was afraid that they might bite me or run me down, because 80 animals: there's quite a lot of power there. And they have sometimes crushed me a bit, but I'm not afraid of them. I think in the beginning I was kind of nervous about how they would treat me and how I would treat them, but not anymore. They nibble a bit but they don't bite.

What's your favourite thing about the job?

My favourite thing is when I see them coming towards me, running down the mountainside, all happy. But also, just being physically active and taking care of someone who's dependent on you for their wellbeing.  

Anything else to say?

Only that I would recommend to people to work on a farm for a summer if they could. It's hard physical work, but you learn a lot that you never thought you would learn about, and it's really fun. 

 Many thanks to Marthe for the photos, video and interview.