Farm update.

It is painfully obvious that I have not updated my blog in some time.

I cannot believe all that has happened in the last few months. As you all know, all of our does Kidded in Feb - March. We were blessed with a lot of does and only two bucks. Happily both boys got to stay intact and will be herdsires at two different farms. CBF AGI Maverick got to go to Milan, NM and CBF AGI Captain America got to go to Tularosa, NM.

In April we were blessed to have Ammi and Pepper return to the herd - sadly it was because their owners' dreams of a dairy were shattered when they could not find a well on their property in Fence Lake. All of the girls that are in milk are on 305 day milk test this year and I am happy to say that it is a real possibility that most of them could earn their milk stars in at least AGS this year. I think 3 have a real possibility in ADGA. It's been a lot of work but I think the effort will pay off in the long run. When we were blessed with so many does it was really hard to decide who we'd keep and who we'd sell. Doubly hard in that there isn't one of them out there isn't worthy of staying here and carrying on the herd name HERE. But I cannot keep them all. Our decision was made a little easier in that I already have Hope and Tirzah kidded 3 does who are the same breeding as Hope - because Hope is in milk, she gets to stay. I think all 3 doelings are finally sold but I sure will miss them. One of them, Fauna, is really close by so I will still get to see her often (YEAH!) Cleo's two girls were a bit of a harder choice but ultimately we chose Marina over Mew for really no other reason but preference. Both are lovely, correct doelings but I prefer chocolate to gold and white. Marina also took Jr. Grand Champion at the Quad show at the beginning of June which really made Suzy's day since she is truly Suzy's doe.

Hope kidded a single buck kid so no choices to make there. Lastly Stars gave us 1 doe, 1 buck and since I was wanting to keep an Intrigue doeling - she's it. She also did well at the Quad - she took 1st and 2nd to Marina.

We did have one surprise this year. When we got Ammi, she left her kids, herd, home and owners all in one day, she was terribly depressed and lost a lot of weight. Because of it she also dropped milk. She started here milking 1.6# per milking and went downhill. Then, she started eating again and started to get somewhat pudgy but her milk kept dropping. I wormed, I supplemented, I milked her and added some herbs to increase her milk all to no avail. Well, about 3 weeks ago, walking behind her I thought....hmmm - she looks pregnant but NOOOOOO! I contacted the previous owners and they didn't think so either but she LOOKED pregnant. So we ultrasounded her. Oh yes, she's pregnant. I ultrasounded her and the vet said she is not less than 90 days which would mean she came to me bred and had good reason to dry herself off - it's time. He also said there were at LEAST two in there. I guess we will know for sure in about 2 months time. We really do not know her due date but at least we know the sire since the previous family only had 1 buck - Lost Valley PAR Pepe Le Pew *S. I wish Ammi had the chance of earning her stars but she will go right onto milk test with me after she kids. I think she'll have her stars by the end of her next lactation. I believe all kids will be for sale as I wasn't planning on keeping any more this year and I have (I HOPE) a doe coming in a month from Nizhoni herd.

Very excited about that kid! She is a cross between Lost Valley TB Terebithia and Lost Valley ML Rigley. That should be an incredible doeling if we get a doe out of the breeding. But tha will probably be in our next update!

Storm's Daughter's - Part 2

This could be titled - "The UDDER view" haha! Anyway. In dairy goats, it kind of becomes all about the udder at a certain point....with a buck - seems to be one thing we goat folks look at. What does the buck's dam and sister's udders look like? What about his daughters. And while this is only 3 daughter's of Storm, I can honestly say - what it looks like only tells half the story - you need to have more of a hands on approach!
NONE of Storm's daughters have the same udder (at least not the way it looks. None of them even have very big udders. But I can see that they could easily have them with subsequent freshenings. One thing I can say about their udders is that each one is an improvement somewhere from their dams udders. This and the top picture are CBF CS SG Ammi. Her udder is softer than her Granddam - Willow. She has the same small teats but as far as milking her goes she is waaaay easy. Her udder is so soft. I milked her dam for a very short time - Dixie and from what I recall - it is easier than hers as well. She has good MSL and Lateral attachments - I'd love to see bigger teats and better foreudder extension.

Hope is one of my favorites. She has the good Foreudder attachement, is snuggly attached and fills out that escutcheon very well. She also has a very soft udder and wonderfully plumb teats. But they stick out to the side some. I kind of hope that when that udder fills out next year that it will push the teats down a bit.
Stars. This udder doesn't look big and for her size - it really isn't but I can tell that there is a lot of capacity there - if she had triplets or more - watch out world. There is plenty of room for expansion - her teats are nearly ideal in placement, has good foreudder extension but could use some lateral. Her escutcheon is a bit on the narrow side but most certainly she is an improvement on her dam and granddam!Like all of Storm's kids so far that I've milked it is butter soft and milk just flows out of her.
I am so excited to see what next years' kiddings with these girls are like. I think it will be even more exciting than this years for me. Not to mention I will get to see an Intrigue daughter freshen as well. It is so much fun to see what your breeding program is doing.

SOLD babies

Here are photos of the two girls who are sold. This is CBF TD SG Pepper. She is out of Nizhoni's Joie de Vivre *D and Piddlin Acres KR TapDance. She was born on March 22, 2009 and is a beautiful little black doe - The only white on her is on her head, frosting on her ears and muzzle. She's got a nice personality too and is very friendly!

This is CBF CS SG Ammi. Ammi is Cumin (are you seeing the trend? ) Their new herd is all being named after spices - too cool! The Ruiz family also purchased two does from PrairieWood - Nutmeg and ??? and the girls are very close in age so they will have a nice start to their little herd. HOW fun!

Ammi and Pepper are already bonding well. I am sure SR can't wait to get all her precious girls home. I am furiously working to get their paperwork done for both ADGA and AGS so they can be shown in the May Quad show. Just need a copy of Pepper's dad's AGS certificate and we will get this done in time to show.

Thank you again SR for giving our precious girls a good home!