MILK!

It appears that little miss Tirzah is finally coming to terms with being a milk goat. I had to take Carbonado off of her and move him to the buck pen with Intrigue because the two boys were harassing all the girls mercilessly (BUCKS -OYE!!!!). I am bottle feeding Carbonado part time and leaving Hope with mom. This is the amount of milk I got this morning!

Yep folks, that is darn close to a quart and the baby was only off of her for 10 hours. I am pretty pleased with this girl - I cannot wait to milk test her in July but am seriously wishing I'd gone ahead and signed up for 305 day testing (I did not for 2 reasons - my milk tester forgot to re-certify and I thought it was going to be too stressful to milk test when most everyone I was freshening was a FF !) Lessons learned - I will not make that same mistake again next year!

2009 CAE test results - All Negative!

For the 5th year running CBFNigerians is posting that all our adult breeding stock is CAE Negative. I called WADDL today to pay for my tests and they said my results were in - we are
all negative. So Storm, Joie, Tirzah, and Miss Priss were the only goats currently over 6 months of age that got tested. I still need to test Kokoro, Stars, and Coral to make sure they are - since they are all out of CAE neg. mom's I have no doubts that they are fine. We are really starting to get excited about breeding season now. I also learned that my new digital scale for milk testing is in and calibrated and I can begin Milk Testing other herds. NOW, I need to see if I can afford to 305 day test my herd next year - I sure hope I can! It would be so exciting to be able to begin to get AR designations on my doe herd. I also am waiting on pins and needles in hopes that our hay comes in before the rain from the Hurrican off of Baja comes in.......I was hoping today but didn't get the call - I hope he calls tomorrow morning so we can get our hay done before it rains. Oh, and tomorrow is our 16th Anniversary - WOW!!!! What an incredible 16 years we've had - I won't even begin but seriously - WOW!!!!
Well, off I go to get dinner fixed.

M is for MILK, MILK TESTING, MILKING STARS

This is the Certificate of Joie's for earning her MILKING Star.
of course, right now she is our Star Milker in the Nigies and we are proud of her accomplishments - if you'd like to see the numbers - click on the certificate - it should enlarge.
We have high hopes for Joie's daughter, Malina and Dixie to get their stars this year at Nationals. I think the club Milk test is too soon after kidding - I may not be able to get them on test then.
Also, I am currently trying to go through the program at Langston DHI to become a certified MILK TESTER for NM along with one or two of my friends. IT should be fun as we will be able to do 305 day testing or 1 day tests. HOPEFULLY that will mean a lot more goats with stars in NM.
AH MILK - the whole reason CBF NIgerians even came into existence. We wanted our own fresh clean milk and dairy products - as well as soap. This is our milk shelf in the fridge - yep -lots of milk and this is only from ONE goat (the Oberhasli) Imagine how full this will be this summer when we are milking an Oberhasli, Alpine, and 3 Nigies. I don't think the new BIG refridgerator will be big enough!!!LOL. Actually the Alpine might be leased out to a couple who wants milk but not the hassle of kidding etc. and I am considering putting one more milking Nigie up for sale which will be HARD. Need to see how the two youngsters compare - the best milker will stay and the other will become available.
WE love the MILK and all the wonderful products we get to make: cheese, yogurt, kefir, ice cream as well as the milk for all of our cooking is our own wonder goat milk.