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!

Lots of News

WE have lots of news so I'll divide it in two for those who want to only read Alyssa updates or those who like the goat news too. I wanted to post all of this earlier but our weekend was so busy I never had much time to sit down and write.
ALYSSA NEWS - Friday we had an appt with Dr. Winter and we didn't get the good news we expected - We got " the shrinkage in her tumor wasn't enough, I'm sorry Alyssa will now have to go thru 14 radiation treatments" GULP. What this means is that she will have two weeks M-F of daily treatments and then 4 days the next week. Also there will be an appt where they mold a pillow to her body the way they want it positioned so she stays still and right where they want her during treatments = Thankfully the treatments are quick and precise. Side effects short term are: sunburned skin at the site, tiredness and possibly nausea though most folks said they did not have nausea during the treatments - just tired and sunburned. Her and I have cried our piece now and we just need to wait for the call for us to go in and meet with our Pediatric Radiologist.
Today is also my appt with the Surgeon to determine when I will have the Thyroid half with the nodule removed. NOT really looking forward to this but it is time. I hope I can get it done before alyssa starts radiation.

GOAT NEWS - Joie and Twinkle went to a one day milk test this past weekend. Joie milked
3.8 lbs (compared to 3.2 last year when she earned her star for AGS) we are trying to earn her star in ADGA. Twinkle milked 2.2 lbs as a First Freshener so I doubt she'd earn her star. HOWEVER - even if she did she would get it as her tattoo in her right ear was unreadable so I will be re-tattooing! PTHTHTHT!!!

IT IS OFFICIAL - Milk Test Results.

We've been anxiously awaiting our milk test results and finally received them today in the email box. Nizhoni's Joie de Vivre and CBF Seredipidy's Laikla both received stars. I know other does did as well but not sure who yet.
Nizhoni's Joie de Vivre *D age 1.11 at 20 4/8 inches milked 3.2 lbs of milk at 65 days fresh with 6.9% butterfat and 3.8 % protein for a total score of 45.88
El Cerro Wind in the Willow's daughter
CBF Serendipidy's Laikla *D age 2.00 at 20 6/8 inches milked 3.2 lbs of milk at 50 days fresh with 5.8% butterfat and 3.5 % protein for a total score of 41.14.
We are so proud of these girls. I believe that Flying Goat Jazzy Blue's Grandmother also starred with 3.6 lbs of milk and 9.9% butterfat. Her name is PrairieWood Player and can be seen on the Senior Doe page of Prairie Wood Ranch's website (please use link at top of page).
Congrats to everyone whose does achieved their stars this year.

Milk Testing

CBF Nigerians just took our first two does to a one day milk test. At the moment I am not sure either doe will get their stars. Joie, who is my super milker - dropped her production for the morning milk out.
She usually gives me about 2#s per milking and she went down to 1.4# and did 2.0#s in the evening. I still don't understand what all goes into giving your goat her star but I am glad we tried. It was a great experience. PrairieWood Player who is our Flying Goat Jazzy Blues' granddam also went on test and I know she milked out 2.2#s in the morning. I am very excited as Jazzy and Kidd's moms are both doing well so far. I have my eye on another doe who I'd like to buy a buck from in the future. She was the breed leader for butterfat, starred last year, and is one win away from her MCH. SOMEDAY!!!! My doe Joie's brother is now at Prairie Wood so she will be using him in the future for anyone who is looking for those milky lines besides mine here at CBF.