SOLD!
What a week!
The doe I looked at a couple days ago, Ahnie, is not going to be coming to Lil' Toad Ranch. It was a learning experience interacting with a seller for the first time. Take away: Ask lots of questions! Ahnie would have most certainly had a good home here at our little place, but her health was in question and it just wouldn't have been fair to the rest of my healthy herd to take that risk.
Today I met with the owner of Di-Rich Farms to look at her pregnant does for sale. Diana was so helpful and gave me a good education about what to look for when selecting a goat and which goats to keep and which to cull or sell. After she looked at pictures of my buck and does she gave a good appraisal of them. My buck is not one we should keep for our goals in breeding animals that promote the good characteristics of the breed such as milk production, body conformation and temperment. Although Duke's temperment is great and his bloodlines trace back to excellent milkers his body conformation is very poor. If we continued to use him for breeding we could end up with a lot of kids that would not be useful in the dairy goat world. So, after leaving her place I lowered my price by half on Duke and within 30 minutes he was sold to a nice family that plans to use him to breed their mixed breed does so they can have milk and meat for their family. I was very happy that he went to a good home. We miss him though.
As far as my does, Diana's advice in short: keep breeding up. They look pretty good now, but keep breeding till you get a full American Nubian with parents who have good milk production and good conformation.
I was thrilled with our visit. Diana has some very nice purebred does. I will be purchasing one of her bred does this coming Saturday. The hard part is deciding which one to pick. Right now I'm torn between Di-Rich Farms Cecelia and Di-Rich Farms Esmerelda. Cecilia is a senior doe, Esmerelda a junior doe. Both look great and both come from great lines.
This is the junior doe: Di Rich Farms Esmerelda
This is the senior doe: Di Rich Farms Cecelia
All I know is I miss having goat milk! I can't wait till the spring when I have all those baby goats running around and all that milk in my fridge! I see yogurt, cheese and flan in my future!
