| Rosa's daughter Comet had her second year of milking this year, and it was a good one. Her March '09 kids, residing at Silver Spur Dairy Goats in Mountainair, are turning out beautifully. Comet is bred for March kids in 2010. She will not be for sale, but most likely her kids will be (I always like to reserve judgement until the big day!). |
| Rosa has been sold - we miss her and wish her well out in Clovis! |
| Fancy, our first goat, is a fixture in our barn. She likes to be brushed and petted and fed peanuts! |
The Goats |
About the Goats "What did you do to their ears?" is a question you must learn to answer when you have LaMancha goats. Their breed trademark is indeed their tiny ears, but after tasting the high-fat creaminess of their milk, it is easy to overlook the PR pitfalls. Having been brought to the US from Spain during Spanish colonization, these goats first became registered as a breed in 1958. Our newest addition, Tap Dancer, is a Sable Saanen from South Mountain Dairy. We are getting used to have a goat with long ears! She is due to kid in March. See Tap Dancer's picture below. Contrary to popular belief, goats do not eat everything; in fact, some of them can be quite picky! Our girls eat alfalfa and/or grass hay and grain formulated for goats. They also enjoy lots of attention, brushing now and then, and peanuts for treats. We are not licensed to sell milk or edible milk products, but we enjoy the milk for our own use and add liberal amounts to our luxurious goat milk soap. If you do ever have the opportunity to taste fresh and well-cared-for goat's milk, give it a try. You might see a big difference between your expectations and the real thing! The girls are bred in the fall and give birth approximately five months later in the spring. For approximately eight weeks we bottle feed our babies to insure their health and sociability. Toward the end of the eight weeks, we begin to have enough milk for family use, and then the twice-a-day milking continues throughout the summer until the girls are bred again in the fall and "dried off." Milk production amounts can vary greatly from animal to animal and breed to breed, but our goats usually provide us with 1 ½ to 2 gallons per day during the mid to late summer peak of the season. |
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| The newest and longest-eared member of the herd, Tap Dancer comes to us from South Mt. Dairy. If her Sable Saanen forebears are any indication of her milk production, we should be getting all we need this spring and beyond. This will be her first year milking, and she is due to kid in March. |