I have begun to call my 7/10-acre city lot a "micro-mini-farm!" This week I installed a hive of bees, and brought home the first two goats of my milking string. The garden is going strong, with tiny fruits on the Roma Tomato and Crookneck Squash plants. I decided to set up a hive of bees to insure maximum pollination, and although our space is limited I decided to get dairy goats again.
I got my first herd of dairy goats in 1992... that means I have over 20 years of experience with goats. Whew!
There are 8 breeds of dairy goat recognized by the American Dairy Goat Association: Alpine, LaMancha, Nigerian Dwarf, Nubian, Oberhasli, Saanen, Sable, and Toggenburg. In the past, I have owned and/or raised Alpine, LaMancha, and Nubian.
When I decided to get back into raising goats this year, I took a slightly different tack -- I want to raise hardy, long-lived milkers with an easy temperament, regardless of their registration status. It has been my experience that Nubians and LaManchas (which originated in the United States, with a good bit of Nubian blood in them) have the best temperament. Both Nubians and LaManchas are personable and friendly, especially if they are hand-raised with a bottle. Both are hardy and not prone to disease, but the LaManchas probably more so, since the base of their bloodlines was a wild earless goat in California.
Because the LaManchas had a slight edge over the Nubians in the area of hardiness -- and because I ran across a really good deal on a LaMancha early in my search -- I decided to use LaManchas as my base. About 2 months ago, I put a deposit down on a LaMancha buckling from Blue Moon Valley Farm. If you click on the link and go down to the picture of 2 little black goat kids, my buckling is BMV Morning Star. We will pick him up later this week.
This past weekend, in cruising the Farm & Garden section of Craigslist, my husband ran across an ad for some LaMancha does in Middle Tennessee. We made the 2-hour trip (complete with several wrong turns and about 5 calls to the farm for additional directions -- thank you, Lord, for cell phones!), and chose a young LaMancha doe. She is the larger of the 2 in the picture at the top of this page. Since she is of unknown parentage, I will be drawing blood to send off, to have her tested for CAE, CL, and Johne's Disease. Because she obviously has a good dairy build, she could be registered "Native On Appearance" with the ADGA, but that is for now not as important, and on the back burner.
We got "Memorial Day" home and settled into the little goat pen along the back fence, and before the day was out we got a call-back from a lady with some LaMancha-Saanen cross kids for sale about 10 miles from us, and at dusk we were over at her farm, taking a look at the goats. That night, "Valentine" -- who had been born around Valentine's Day -- came home with us.
The LaMancha yearling is small, somewhat stunted in size, probably because she was not fed well and bred too early, but she has a well-sprung barrel, a good dairy build, and a wonderfully balanced and snug udder. She's also in milk! The little doe kid from the neighbor has the long, lanky build of a Saanen, and the little elf-ears of a LaMancha. She also has horns, which almost made me turn her down, but with a slight reduction in price I was convinced, and Valentine is now in the pasture with "Mimi."
I wormed them and fed them, and this morning I milked Mimi and gave that first milk to the dog. Tonight, though, we'll get our chance to see what our new dairy goat's milk tastes like. I bet it will be delicious!
I got my first herd of dairy goats in 1992... that means I have over 20 years of experience with goats. Whew!
There are 8 breeds of dairy goat recognized by the American Dairy Goat Association: Alpine, LaMancha, Nigerian Dwarf, Nubian, Oberhasli, Saanen, Sable, and Toggenburg. In the past, I have owned and/or raised Alpine, LaMancha, and Nubian.
When I decided to get back into raising goats this year, I took a slightly different tack -- I want to raise hardy, long-lived milkers with an easy temperament, regardless of their registration status. It has been my experience that Nubians and LaManchas (which originated in the United States, with a good bit of Nubian blood in them) have the best temperament. Both Nubians and LaManchas are personable and friendly, especially if they are hand-raised with a bottle. Both are hardy and not prone to disease, but the LaManchas probably more so, since the base of their bloodlines was a wild earless goat in California.
Because the LaManchas had a slight edge over the Nubians in the area of hardiness -- and because I ran across a really good deal on a LaMancha early in my search -- I decided to use LaManchas as my base. About 2 months ago, I put a deposit down on a LaMancha buckling from Blue Moon Valley Farm. If you click on the link and go down to the picture of 2 little black goat kids, my buckling is BMV Morning Star. We will pick him up later this week.
This past weekend, in cruising the Farm & Garden section of Craigslist, my husband ran across an ad for some LaMancha does in Middle Tennessee. We made the 2-hour trip (complete with several wrong turns and about 5 calls to the farm for additional directions -- thank you, Lord, for cell phones!), and chose a young LaMancha doe. She is the larger of the 2 in the picture at the top of this page. Since she is of unknown parentage, I will be drawing blood to send off, to have her tested for CAE, CL, and Johne's Disease. Because she obviously has a good dairy build, she could be registered "Native On Appearance" with the ADGA, but that is for now not as important, and on the back burner.
We got "Memorial Day" home and settled into the little goat pen along the back fence, and before the day was out we got a call-back from a lady with some LaMancha-Saanen cross kids for sale about 10 miles from us, and at dusk we were over at her farm, taking a look at the goats. That night, "Valentine" -- who had been born around Valentine's Day -- came home with us.
The LaMancha yearling is small, somewhat stunted in size, probably because she was not fed well and bred too early, but she has a well-sprung barrel, a good dairy build, and a wonderfully balanced and snug udder. She's also in milk! The little doe kid from the neighbor has the long, lanky build of a Saanen, and the little elf-ears of a LaMancha. She also has horns, which almost made me turn her down, but with a slight reduction in price I was convinced, and Valentine is now in the pasture with "Mimi."
I wormed them and fed them, and this morning I milked Mimi and gave that first milk to the dog. Tonight, though, we'll get our chance to see what our new dairy goat's milk tastes like. I bet it will be delicious!