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I’m a cotton patch goose breeder. Well, I have geese that are old enough to mate. We’ll save the moniker of goose breeder until we have some deliberate success.
The cotton patch goose is a historical landrace breed originally used to weed cotton fields and other crops across the South. However, the introduction of pesticides replaced the need for geese, and they’ve been hidden away on farms until the internet made them popular again. The common qualities of the breed include autosexing goslings and adults, gentle disposition, medium sized, great weeders, and broody.
In pastured poultry, geese have a very popular use as guard animals, which is job one for my flock of Cotton Patch Geese. I will also use them for vegetation control on different parts of the farm. Most of this work relies on successfully hatching goslings, but after I have goslings to build the breeding pens out and to satisfy my utilitarian needs, I need to have a market for the geese.
Christmas goose is a traditional market, and on the episode, I talk about a regional Pennsylvania holiday called Goose Day, which is celebrated in the Juniata River Valley. According to a 2015 Penn Live article, Michaelmas Day was originally a holiday to celebrate the archangel Michael in 480. Over time, by the 15th century, it became a popular day to pay leases, and the tradition of adding a plump goose to the payment was established. The tradition stuck and made it’s way to Mifflin and Juniata Counties with German settlers and is popularly called Goose Day. You can read more the article Happy Goose Day! Here’s everything you need to know about the holiday.
It’s too early to know what the 2020 goose season will bring, but my first priority is to get goslings.
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