So, I was going to get a dairy cow, but the deal fell through. Now, I am very
glad that it did.
Me without milk is like a tree without roots, and without a good dairy output
(I am crossing some sheep to come up with bigger milkers but that is another
story), I am verklempt and need a cow yesterday. Or so I thought. Hello,
goaties.
A friend of mine found a baby doe that looked like a deer (doe, a deer,
deedeedeedo), and said it was a Nubian, which is the dairy goat breed that I had
put on my wish list of livestock to obtain in the future, in my dairy farm
quest. In the future. The opposite of now.
Against my better judgement, I get dragged by my two youngest daughters and
my best friend to go look. Of course the baby is adorable, but when I am told
that she is 1/4 LaMancha and 3/4 Nubian, I know she isn't what I want. A mixed
breed wrecks my plan for a pure Nubian herd, and any future pure bred sales. I
decide against getting her, as I really wasn't even in the market for goats at
the time, and I wanted a pure bred Nubian.
Unfortunately, my girls were already in looooove. And when we got up to
leave, little deergoat runs after my youngest, bleating her little baby bleat
and breaking my heart, because that means she already loves my kid, right?
I hung my head, knowing I had lost this battle. My kids are now deergoat's
kids.
The owner brought out some milk so we could all taste it, and to us it tasted
just like the 2% you buy at the store. SOLD! Pay the lady and load the goat
onto the laps gleefully perched in the backseat of my vehicle/livestock hauler.
We bring her home and figure she can be buddies with our Southdown Babydoll
wether, so she bunks with him. And cries, all...night...long. So of course the
next day I decide that the transition is difficult for the teeny weeny displaced
adorable baby goat, and her sheep buddy just ain't cutting it, AND, I
rationalize, one grown goat won't produce enough milk for my family anyway, so
what do I do? I go straight back to goat lady and buy another one.
My youngest daughter just loves tiny things. While visiting the goats the
day before, my daughter was loving on a black goat that was 3/4 LaMancha and 1/4
Nubian, so she had little bitty ears that my daughter that were the cutest things.
She had been disappointed to leave her
favorite goat at the farm, but she didn't complain, and was happy to have
deergoat. When I told my girls we were going back to get the one with the tiny
ears, very loud "yippees" and "yays" were my reward.
So I am not in the market for goats at all, and now I have two. My husband,
thank God, is a very understanding man.
I read and read and read before I buy things. I knew that I wanted milk
goats at some point and had done preliminary research, but nothing heavy. Now I
have two dairy goats, so I start seriously looking at milk quality and
production. In my research, I found that Nigerian Dwarfs have the creamiest
milk, and attempting cream and butter were high on my list. I had gone to the
state wide 4-H show to look at dairy goats last fall, and saw a sign that said,
"The Jersey of Dairy Goats", not paying particular attention to what breed it
was because I was only interested in Nubians. After my purchase of these two
not 100% Nubians, I was thinking perhaps I would buy a buck of this "Jersey"
goat breed and cross him to my girls. I start looking online to see which goat
produces the most, and the creamiest, milk. Nigerian Dwarfs appeared on my
radar, and I decide if the two I have are successful for us, we would add a ND
in the future. Future. Like maybe in a couple of years. The word future and I
apparently do not get along.
Sure enough, ONE MONTH later my very favorite localish farm posts on their
facebook page that they are getting out of Nigerians and all of theirs are for
sale. Here is someone I trust, have bought many animals from before, and she
has a baby doe for sale. You guessed it...a couple of weeks later our two goats
had turned into three.
So, we now have three does, born this past summer, that will hopefully give
us some kids, and milk, sometime next fall.
Meet Hazel, our Nigerian Dwarf, Alice, the spotted Nubian, and Black Betty,
the LaMancha (ever heard that song, whoa Black Betty, Bam-a-lam...that is the
song after which she was named, by my 9 year old).
glad that it did.
Me without milk is like a tree without roots, and without a good dairy output
(I am crossing some sheep to come up with bigger milkers but that is another
story), I am verklempt and need a cow yesterday. Or so I thought. Hello,
goaties.
A friend of mine found a baby doe that looked like a deer (doe, a deer,
deedeedeedo), and said it was a Nubian, which is the dairy goat breed that I had
put on my wish list of livestock to obtain in the future, in my dairy farm
quest. In the future. The opposite of now.
Against my better judgement, I get dragged by my two youngest daughters and
my best friend to go look. Of course the baby is adorable, but when I am told
that she is 1/4 LaMancha and 3/4 Nubian, I know she isn't what I want. A mixed
breed wrecks my plan for a pure Nubian herd, and any future pure bred sales. I
decide against getting her, as I really wasn't even in the market for goats at
the time, and I wanted a pure bred Nubian.
Unfortunately, my girls were already in looooove. And when we got up to
leave, little deergoat runs after my youngest, bleating her little baby bleat
and breaking my heart, because that means she already loves my kid, right?
I hung my head, knowing I had lost this battle. My kids are now deergoat's
kids.
The owner brought out some milk so we could all taste it, and to us it tasted
just like the 2% you buy at the store. SOLD! Pay the lady and load the goat
onto the laps gleefully perched in the backseat of my vehicle/livestock hauler.
We bring her home and figure she can be buddies with our Southdown Babydoll
wether, so she bunks with him. And cries, all...night...long. So of course the
next day I decide that the transition is difficult for the teeny weeny displaced
adorable baby goat, and her sheep buddy just ain't cutting it, AND, I
rationalize, one grown goat won't produce enough milk for my family anyway, so
what do I do? I go straight back to goat lady and buy another one.
My youngest daughter just loves tiny things. While visiting the goats the
day before, my daughter was loving on a black goat that was 3/4 LaMancha and 1/4
Nubian, so she had little bitty ears that my daughter that were the cutest things.
She had been disappointed to leave her
favorite goat at the farm, but she didn't complain, and was happy to have
deergoat. When I told my girls we were going back to get the one with the tiny
ears, very loud "yippees" and "yays" were my reward.
So I am not in the market for goats at all, and now I have two. My husband,
thank God, is a very understanding man.
I read and read and read before I buy things. I knew that I wanted milk
goats at some point and had done preliminary research, but nothing heavy. Now I
have two dairy goats, so I start seriously looking at milk quality and
production. In my research, I found that Nigerian Dwarfs have the creamiest
milk, and attempting cream and butter were high on my list. I had gone to the
state wide 4-H show to look at dairy goats last fall, and saw a sign that said,
"The Jersey of Dairy Goats", not paying particular attention to what breed it
was because I was only interested in Nubians. After my purchase of these two
not 100% Nubians, I was thinking perhaps I would buy a buck of this "Jersey"
goat breed and cross him to my girls. I start looking online to see which goat
produces the most, and the creamiest, milk. Nigerian Dwarfs appeared on my
radar, and I decide if the two I have are successful for us, we would add a ND
in the future. Future. Like maybe in a couple of years. The word future and I
apparently do not get along.
Sure enough, ONE MONTH later my very favorite localish farm posts on their
facebook page that they are getting out of Nigerians and all of theirs are for
sale. Here is someone I trust, have bought many animals from before, and she
has a baby doe for sale. You guessed it...a couple of weeks later our two goats
had turned into three.
So, we now have three does, born this past summer, that will hopefully give
us some kids, and milk, sometime next fall.
Meet Hazel, our Nigerian Dwarf, Alice, the spotted Nubian, and Black Betty,
the LaMancha (ever heard that song, whoa Black Betty, Bam-a-lam...that is the
song after which she was named, by my 9 year old).
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