2017 Winter Kid Crop!

I have wanted a blue eyed Nigerian Dwarf milker for a long time.  Silly, I know.   I have some really great milkers and animals on my property.  I am grateful.  None of my blue eyed goats, have ever made the cut as easy to hand milk.  They always give a wonderful amount of milk, by the grace of God and because of their excellent genetics but being able to comfortably hand milk a goat, is very high on my priority list.  I want the milking experience, for me, to be enjoyable, as well as for the goat.  I want to be able to go out to the barn, milk quickly and then spend time with my animals and family.

Carmel Pie is a first freshener this year.

Carmel Pies grandmother was Abundance (a blue eyed milker that didn't make the cut).  Carmel Pies mother was Jubilee (a blue eyed milker that didn't make the cut either.)  Every year, I bred these blue eyed does to wonderful bucks, hoping these bucks genetics would improve on their teat length and diameter.  So...Carmel Pies first freshening was really exciting for me.  She did a great job carrying and delivering her babies.  She delivered on the 23rd and had a beautiful, big, black and white buck and a tiny, white, speckled, doe with blue eyes. 

Doe and Buck.

Doe.

It has been years since I have let a goat keep her babies and nurse them.  It has been nice to watch them all together.

Kinsley and the doeling.

Carmel Pie is giving a wonderful amount of milk for a first freshener but her teat size is not comfortable to milk on.  Even though I know they will lengthen some through regular  milking, it will not be enough to hold up to my strict standards.  I not only like easy to hand milk does for me and the genetics for it, in my herd but my customers, who buy goats from me, usually hand milk and would like that in the offspring they purchase from me.

I have decided to give up on improving this blue eyed line for hand milking and sell Carmel Pie.   Since I will be selling Carmel Pie and her babies, I decided to let her keep her babies (not take them away and bottle feed them) and sell them as a package deal.  I will miss her as she is very sweet and stunning with her ice blue eyes.

I will be purchasing a blue eyed Nigerian Dwarf doe, already in milk in the future.

The other goat that was pregnant was Calfy. 

She delivered January 24th. She gave me triplets, two beautiful bucks and a doeling. 

The little brown doe and white buckling.

The other buckling.

They are healthy and are 3/4 Nigerian Dwarf.  Joseph is their dad.  Calfy is doing well and milking up a storm.  I pulled the babies and they are nursing (bottle feeding) well.  I will be dehorning all the babies tomorrow and then selling them.  I have a waiting list of people wanting goats so they should be gone quickly.

I bred Panda to Joseph last week, when I saw she was in heat.  Pandas mother, Milky Whey, came into heat a week later.  She is in with Joseph now.  We should have babies from those breeding in five months.  Very exciting.

In another area of news on the farm, with the help of God and some of my children, we built my five year old son the chicken coop he had been wanting for his bantam chickens. 

We had a two week warm spell here in North Georgia, so I worked on it every spare moment, trying to get it done before the weather turned cold again.

I built it so a five year old could care for chickens with minimal adult help.   There are three different compartments to keep breeds separate.

Each area had two next boxes, a roosting bar and a feeder.

I found how to make these small feeders on the internet.

My dad had the brilliant idea of putting self closing foundation vents on it for ventilation.  I wont need to be going out to open and close air vents all the time.  :)

My son is very excited and happy with his new coop.  Praise God it did come out very well.  :)

Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Blessings and Happy Farming,

susan  

Winter Kids!

I knew I was going to need winter milk for all of the small children in our home.  So In July, I bred Amelia to Sergent Pepperbox and Milky Whey to Major Coco.  I put them in with the bucks and saw them both in standing heat the same day.  Their due date was December 23rd.  The 23rd came and went.  Finally on December 27th, early in the morning, Milky Whey delivered triplets.  Two beautiful bucklings and a very nice doeling.  Milky Whey had a very easy delivery and the babies are all very big and strong. 

This huge buckling was born first.  He looks like someone dunked his front half in black paint!

This flashy little buckling was born last.  He is very sweet and colorful.  Black, White and brown!

This little doeling was born second.  She is large and spunky.  I am partial to black and white goats.  I am retaining her.

Milky Whey is milking nicely.  This is her third kidding and she is my very best, pure bred Nigerian Dwarf goat.  She has long teats with large orifices.  She has a very nice, large, well attached, udder and her personality is as sweet as her wonderful milk.  She is already giving almost half a gallon a day.  I am going to retain her doeling this year as circumstances have prevented me in the past from retaining one of hers and this years doe is exquisite.

We knew Amelia was bred the same day as Milky Whey and have been playing the waiting game.  They both went over due.  But Amelia went days more.  All I can say is that she must not have settled the first breeding and got bred her next heat cycle.  I left them in with their bucks for a few weeks so it is very possible. 

Yesterday morning (1-2-16) when I went out to the barn, Amelia was in labor and within a half hour, had delivered two very large and flashy doelings!  I have a waiting list of people wanting goats from my herd, so these already have homes to go to.  I will de-horn (dis-bud) them all tomorrow, as I was waiting to dehorn Milky Whey's kids till Amelia's were born.

The first one born was a huge brown doe with white markings.  The second one was very flashy with frosted ears and lots of white marbling. 

This is Amelia's second freshening, she is milking very well and has a very nice udder. Her udder is very high, round and well attached.  Her teats are very easy to hand milk.  I only keep easy to hand milk animals. The very best of the best produced here.

I don't feel badly culling hard, so I can always have healthy good producers here.  I sold Jubilee after she freshened in the spring, as she was a good milker but I had so many just a bit better.  I did retain her daughter from the spring.  Carolyn named her daughter Carmel Pie.  Her dad is Sergent Pepperbox and I wanted to see what his genetics do to improve over Jubilee's.  We shall see, as Carmel Pie is in to be bred with a buck now.

Wishing everyone a happy New Year and hope you are having fun planing for the spring plantings.

Happy Farming!

susan 

Kid Crop 2015

Ready or not here they come!  I took the winter off from milking because I knew I would be very busy with our foster children.  They are all very young and were needing intense mommy time.  We have however missed having the fresh milk daily.

Last fall I looked over my goat herd and chose which ones I needed to breed for 2015 milk.  I choose Calfy as I had never freshened her yet and I needed to see what kind of milker she was going to be.  I choose Jubilee as I had never freshened her as well.  Yes, I will be milking two first fresheners this year.  Might as well get it over with... the struggle thru the first few weeks as the teats stretch out and training them to the milk stand is sometimes difficult.  I really needed to breed them to see if I want to keep them or cull them.  Also, last year I gave Plenty a break and did not breed her.  So I bred her for 2015.  I gave the other three does in our herd the year off as they gave us milk all through 2014.  All three goats I bred, came into heat with in  24 hours of each other.  I put each goat in with the buck of my choice for a day, to make sure the bucks had the opportunity to catch them in standing heat.  All three settled on the first breeding this year.   So that means they would all deliver with in a day or two of each other.

The first one to deliver was Plenty.  She had them quietly in the wee morning hours on the 25th.  She had them all cleaned off and one had nursed by the time we got to them.  I usually like to take the babies immediately, milk the moms out and bottle feed from the start but this was fine.  She had a little brown buckling and a black and white doeling. 

Buckling

Doeling

I had bred Plenty to Major Coco this year.  They are both pure bred Nigerian Dwarf goats.  The buckling is nursing well but I am having to tube feed the doeling as she will not take the bottle at all yet.  She was born with no suck reflex and stays back away from the other goats.  If the doe makes it I might keep her and freshen her to see what kind of udder she will have.  Her mom is a great milker.

Later on in the day Jubilee delivered.  She did a great job for her first time and also delivered a buckling and doeling.  They are both brown.  Jubilee has blue eyes and the little doeling has blue eyes for sure!

I could not get a clear picture of the doeling as she was so bouncy and moving so much.  She is very adorable and dainty. 

Very cute buckling! I can't tell if he has blue eyes or not.  They are very light grey/tan.

Jubilee did a great job standing on the milk stand and letting me milk her.  Her teats are a little short but will lenghten over time a bit.  I bred Jubilee to Sargent Pepper Box.  They are both full blooded Nigerian Dwarf goats.  This is Sargent's first babies born on our farm.  I would love to keep the doeling and freshen her to see what kind of udder she will have.  But will wait and decide over the next week.

Calfy is a mixed goat.  She is half La Mancha and half Nigerian Dwarf.  She was the last one that needed to deliver.  I thought she would deliver in the night last night as she was so uncomfortable but when we got up this morning she had not.  She was pawing the ground all morning so I knew she was close.  At around 11:30 she delivered two large bucklings.  She did an awesome job!  It was her first freshening and it went very well for her.  I milked her out and she freshened with the same wonderful udder as her mother and grandmother.  She stood very well and was easy to milk.  A keeper for sure.  I bred her to Joseph (pure Nigerian Dwarf buck) who is known around here for throwing very flashy kids.  Calfy is pretty flashy herself so the bucklings are just beautiful.  I will probably always breed Joseph to her as there genetics meshed so well and made some stunning kids.  Not only in looks but conformation.

The above buck was born first.  He looks like Calfy and has the LaMancha ears.  He is super strong and cute!

The buckling above was born second.  He looks a lot like his dad and got the Nigerian Dwarf ears!  He is just stunning!

There great-grand mother and grandmother were wonderful milkers and their mom looks like she is going to be as well.  They will make someone nice little breeder bucks, for their back-yard herd of mid-sized goats.

Even though we had more bucks than does born, I am very pleased with all the kiddings and deliveries.  I was not planning on keeping anything out of Calfy and am still not sure I am keeping the two doelings born this year.  We might be getting an infant thru foster care and I know I will be very busy again for a while.  I might just see how things go this year with milking and make a decision next time around about who to keep what out of.

The baby pen!

Many blessings upon your life,

Happy Farming!
susan

Goat Mites

Years ago, I had a young Nubian that was not as thrifty as all our other goats.  She had a ruff start in life and I had to do a lot of extra care to get her growing and healthy.  She lived here on our farm longer than most kids goats because I will not sell a sick or unhealthy animal to anyone.  I finally had her eating and growing well and was about to list her for sale, when I noticed she started to loose hair around her eyes.  This puzzled  me as we had been raising goats a long time and this had never happened before.  Soon she had flaky skin.  Her skin seemed thicker and coat looked a little ruff.  Soon she had no hair around her eyes, mouth and nose.  I did some research and found out she had mites.  I tried diatomatious earth and several other natural remedies to no avail.  Back then the off label treatment that worked was to inject   *Ivermectin ,the Cattle injectable kind, once a week for three weeks. (Do your research and try this at your own risk.  It is an off label treatment.)    Here is the quote from the website I got the information from, Onion Creek Ranch site... "There are several different products that can be used to kill mites on and under the skin of goats. The dewormer Ivermectin can be injected SQ, dosing at one to two cc's per 50 pounds bodyweight weekly for at least three consecutive weeks."         It worked, her hair all grew back in nicely and I sold her as a pet to someone.

Over the years I have had a handful of goats come up with mites.  It always seems like it is the goats in my herd that are not as healthy as the rest.  You know.  The ones that need worming more often.  That were smallish when born or don't eat as lustily for a goat.  I have not had the mites spread to other healthy goats in my herd.  Even if they were pen mates before and the *Ivermectin injected  always worked till this year.

This year one of my does started to have crusty skin on her udder.  I thought it was from the weather or her kid nursing to aggressively last year.  Then she started to loose hair around her eyes, mouth and down the back of both front legs.  She also lost hair in between her front legs, in what would be arm pits on people.  I guess leg pits??? If there is such a thing??    :)    You can see it in the below picture.

 
She also had some sores on the back of her front legs that would not heal no matter what I treated them with.  The sores were from her scratching herself there.  Poor baby.

I had not had a goat with mites in many years, so it took me longer than normal to catch on to what was going on.  I tried the injecting *Ivermectin approach and it did not work at all.  She still was just as bad as ever and for the first time a pen mate that was in with her had them mildly spread to her.  The * Injectable Ivermectin treatment did work on the pen mate.  I was at a loss and did a lot of research and found another treatment that was said to work but was also off label.  It was to use *Ivermectin pour on for cattle once a week for three weeks. (Try this at your own risk.  It is an off label treatment and not approved for goats.)  Here is the place I got this information from and the quote on how to use it....GoatLink.com " IVOMEC® POUR-ON FOR CATTLE
Ivermectin Pour-On for Cattle
NOTE from Administrator: This is a cattle product but is commonly used on goats as Off Label- we use it at the rate of 1cc/20lbs in a syringe with no needle dribbles along the back line from neck to tail- directly on the skin for the control and effective removal of Biting lice and other external parasites. Even though this is also a dewormer, it is not effective as a dewormer on goats- Only as an external parasite control- you still need to deworm your goats for internal parasites. Ivermectin pour-on is the only effective parasite control I have seen that effectively rids the goat of Biting lice- This is equal to Ivomec PourOn"

It worked!  It worked fast and it did not cause her pain like the injections did. 

I treated her about a month ago and now she is slick and beautiful and her hair is all grown back again.

I know as I did my research that was not much out there that seemed to work well for this ailment.  This is what we ended up doing and worked for us.  A light case we used the first forementioned treatment and for the very heavy case, we used the later treatment mentioned.  Once again please do your reasearch and try it at your own risk.  Every goat is different and can react differently to different treatments espeically if an allergy is involved.

Blessings and Happy Farming!

The Great Goat Experiment - The Results!

For the first 13 years on our farm, I raised and milked full sized goats.  La Mancha's and Nubian's to be exact. 

I started out all involved in ADGA (The American Dairy Goat Association)  Breeding acording to their showing and breed standards.  We had a herd name and number, papered our animals, tatooed our herd letters on our animals...the whole nine yards.  We kept a reputable clean closed herd.  After a few years of doing this I was exhausted.  It took me and several other family members four hours a day to do all the, milking and goat care.  We ran two separate herds, one pure bread Nubian and one pure Lamancha.  We had over thirty goats. 

One day while I was milking... and so very tired,  I asked myself why I was doing all this... I realized I was not doing this for my family or myself.  All I wanted was enough milk for my family.  I was doing all this to provide good goats for others to show.  Since I had been breeding these goats for several years, I also learned that what ADGA wanted in goats as a breed standard, the things that made them valuable for show points, was not valuable to me.  Although I wanted a nicly put together animal that looked good and held up for years...I also wanted goats that were easy to hand milk and gave a good amount of milk over thier lifetime.  I made some decisions that changed everything on that day.  All our goals for our farm and goat herd were now to make them what I wanted in a dairy goat and hopefully what other small farm milking people wanted as well...I am a much happier back yard farmer for it.  Having goats was enjoyable once again. 

I have found that there is just as much of a market for good back yard milkers, that are easy to hand milk, no matter what breed they are.  It doenst matter if they are pure bred or a cross breed.  (As a matter of fact, over all, I have found the cross bred goats to be healthier and more worm resistant)  In our area if they are from good milk stock they will sell.  Add to that, we still keep a clean closed herd and I usually have a waiting list on baby goats when they are born.  I keep the best of the best and only keep a small herd.  Enought does to rotate milking from year to year.  Enough to not be a lot of work for anyone and enjoyable.   Back then, I found I only needed two bucks and four does to keep my family in milk and genetics going for customers who bought the babies from me.  I would have to change my bucks out every few years to bring in new blood if I kept any does for myself.

In 2011 I was in the market for a new buck.  If I was going to keep any does out of my favorite does for my herd I needed an unrelated buck to breed to them.  So I started researching herds in my area.  I had not shopped for a Nubian buck in a long time.  I found that many of the herds I used to look at stock from, had gotten out of Nubains.  There were no really great herds in my area anymore.  So I thought I would look for a Lamancha.  Same thing.  What I found is many of the breeders that used to breed the larger goats had moved over into Nigerian Dwarfs.  This puzzled me and I wondered why.  After doing much research I found that Nigerians Dwarfs were much more efficient on feed to milk ratio if from good milk stock.  They were also more lucrative, as a good pure bred, papered Nigerian Doe from good milk stock can cost you 600.00 or more in our state.  Add in moon spots and blue eyes and the price goes way up there.  I also learned that they didn't need to be fed grain year round and only really needed grain while milking.  I was intrigued.  I was getting older and had some health issues and was having trouble handling the larger goats.  Also my family no longer needed the gallon a day milk production that my goats each gave.  I prayed about it, did some more research and in 2012 began the Great Goat Experiment.

I sold off my whole herd of full sized goats execpt for my two best milkers.   Twinkie and Bluebell.

It was emotional as I had bred for years to get exactly what I wanted and had some really great, easy to hand milk, back yard milkers.  I did a ton of research and looked at herd after herd online that bred Nigerian Dwarfs.  I looked at udders of certain goats, calling owners and questioning ease of hand milking, teat size, orifice size, amount of milk given and proof of clean herd status.  I narrowed it down to wanting to reserve several does born out of a few very good does, in herds within driving distance.  I took the money from the sale of my goats from my full sized herd and bought four baby bottle fed does.  These were out of four does that had what I was going to breed for.  Ease of hand milking, large amount of milk for a Nigerian and sturdy bodies.  I also bought two nice none related buckings that were out of really great milk does.  (A buck is 50% of your herd, one should always by the best you can afford as you always want to have your goal to be... to improve upon what you have with each breeding you do.)  I could not afford to buy adult goats, so bought bottle babies and raised them up and bred them.  I knew that not all babies out of the moms I liked, would be like their mom genetically and what I wanted in my herd.  I knew I might have to cull some.  But raised them up and prayed for the best. 

The babies grew and freshened for the first time, spring of 2013.  Two of the does did not freshen with what I was going to be breeding for so I sold them.  However Milky Whey and Plenty did have exactly what I was wanting.  So I had two very good pure bred Nigerian Dwarf milk does and two very good pure bred Nigerian bucks out of my initial investment.  I was not able to use the Nigeiran milk much last year as I was bottle feeding so many babies keeping a few to build up my herd.  I kept a very good buck out of Milky Whey to breed to Plenty next year.  

I also did a side experiment.  I just did not want to let all those past years of breeding full sized goats go to waste.  I wanted to somehow preserve my hard work and genetics in my two best full sized milkers and try out some mid-sized goats bred down from my two favoirte milkers that I had kept back, in case the Nigerians didnt work out.  So I  bred a very good Nigerian buck to my best full sized milkers that I had kept, to give me some mid-sized milkers to try.  Out of those breedings I ended up with three does to keep, raise and see how they milked.  Well, this was the spring I had been waiting for!  I bred Amelia and Mini Bell last fall to a full blooded Nigerian buck and they freshened several weeks ago.  I was so happy with them that I went ahead and sent my two full sized milkers that I had kept back off to another farm to be enjoyed. 

Whew...I said all this to share my thoughts and findings on my Great Goat Experiment!

First, I will share about the pure bred Nigerian Dwarfs. 

I have found they are very sweet tempered and easy to handle, even the bucks when they are in rutt.  I can easily trim hooves and give wormer by myself with no issues.

The bucks and non-milkers do indeed stay fat and healthy on good pasture, when it is growing and Bermuda hay thru the winter(and a handful of grain a day to keep them coming to me easily as a treat.) 

The milking does require way less grain for the amount of milk they give than my full sized milkers did.  Also, this is the first year I was able to make cheese from the Nigerian Dwarf milk.  It makes almost double the amount of cheese as I got from my Nubian and Lamancha milk.  We don't drink a huge amount of milk but use it for cheese, custards and ice cream.  So this milk is much better suited for our large family that makes these products frequently.   We are going thru less than half the amount of hay thru the winter so there is a cost saving there and my feed bill is down by half for them as well.  That is with me having 4 buck now, as apposed to the 2 full sized ones I used to keep and I have six does/milkers now as apposed to four full sized ones I used to keep.  So they are much more economical for our family and saving us hundreds of dollars a year.  Actually, to be very specific, I figured it out... $1,200.00 in grain and $300.00 in hay cost savings a year!

Since I bought from stock that was from proven milk lines, they are giving more milk than I thought they would.  Most people say their Nigerians give on average about a quart of milk a day.  Milky Whey is giving two quarts of delicious, rich, milk a day.  This is her second freshening. 

She is doing this eating two cups of grain a day and two cups of alfalfa and keeping good body condition.  Which I am very impressed with.  She is my easiest goat to hand milk and a very good all around goat. 

She gave me triplets her first freshening last year and triplets again this year again.  She birthed them easily and with out any help.

So to sum it all up.  I am very happy to have made the decision to switch over to the Nigerian Dwarf goats.  I am getting plenty of high fat, tasty sweet milk and they are very good, easy to handle goats.  They have saved me a lot of money per month, something that really helps with a large family like we have.  For our family, good quality Nigerian Dwarfs from good milking stock has been better for us than full sized dairy goats from good milk stock at this stage in our life.

Now for the experiment with the mid-sized milkers...  

Amelia (she got her Nigerian ears from the dads side)  kidded this year, her first freshening, with a single large buck. 

She had a very easy delivery and is a great little milker.  Her udder is nice, high, attached well and her teats have a good diameter and are easy to hand milk. 

Her milk is delicious and she is currently giving a tad over 2 quarts a day and that is as a first freshener!  She gives this much milk and keeps good body condition on 2 cups of grain a day and 2 cups of Alfalfa pellets.  I am very pleased with her and will be keeping her.  God has blessed us.  She has definitely measured up to her moms milking genetics and has been a very good smaller replacement for Twinkie, her full sized mom.

Amelia's twin sister Mini Bell got the La Mancha ears from her mom. 

This was her first freshening as well.  She gave birth to very healthy twins, a doe and a buckling.  She also delivered easily.  Her udder is very nice. 

Her teats however have been harder to milk from.  They are long and narrow.  When people look for an easy to milk goat they want long teats.  Long teats can be nice to milk on but it is the diameter that makes for ease of milking as well.  As when they are larger around they fill with more milk to be pinched off and squeezed out.  So even though Mini Bells udder is wonderful, her teat orifices are large and we get a good stream out of them.  Her teats are long and narrow, so it takes a lot longer to milk her as they fill with less milk each time we squeeze it out.  I am not going to cull her this year because every year that a goat freshens their udder gets bigger, they give more milk and their teats get bigger. (both longer and larger around)  So I will tough it out with her this year and see how she freshens next year.  I expect her to be easy to milk next year.  She acutally is already easier to milk than she was for the first week or so and is not terrible to milk,  just not a breeze like her sister.  Mini Bell is giving just under 2 quarts a day as a first freshener.  She is doing this and keeping good body condition on two cups of feed and 2 cups of alfalfa a day. 

So to sum up the breeding experiment of taking my best two full sized milkers and breeding them to my best Nigerian Dwarf buck to give me some mid-sized milkers...  This breeding yielded three wonderful, smaller easy to handle does.  The two that I bred so far carried over the good milking genetics from thier mom I was hoping for.  They are a little larger than a Nigerian Dwarfs but much leaner so have the same body weight and mass.  So are needing about the same amount of feed to make the same amount of milk as my pure good quality Nigerian Dwarf does I have freshened.  I am glad I did this experiment and can't wait to freshen Calfy, the last doe from this breeding I have not bred yet!

I hope this helps anyone considering buying and milking Nigerian Dwarfs or breeding mini-manchas.  As, if they are from good milk stock, can give you a lot of milk for much less money.  God has bless us so much in this experiment and I believe God led me to do this as it is saving us so much money and so much easier than farming the larger goats for me at this stage of my life.

Blessings and Happy Farming!
susan

Mini Bell's Delivery

Mini Bell, my third and last goat I had bred for spring delivery, delivered on Monday.  She did a great job and easily delivered twins.  A large doe and a medium sized buckling.  They are beautiful. 

As many of you know I scrapped my full sized goat herd for Nigerian Dwarfs.  I did this because we no longer needed a gallon of milk a day, I needed smaller goats so I could handle them easier and that the Nigerians give a good amount of milk, if from good  milking lines, on way less grain. 

Before selling my best full sized milkers I decided to do a little experiment and bred my best La Mancha milkers to my best Nigerian Dwarf buck to get a few mid-sized milkers.  Mini Bell is one I got from those breedings.  So far I have been very happy with both the Nigerians and the mid-sized goats that have been bred and freshened.  I will be doing a post about what I think so far very soon.

Mini Bell freshened with a very nice first freshener udder.  However her teats are a bit narrow.

I am so happy all the goats have kidded.  All the kids have been sold and I can now just enjoy all the fresh daily milk. I can now also focus on my gardening which will need my full attention soon.

Blessings and Happy Farming!
susan

Milky Whey Delivers Again!

Our very pregnant goat Milky Whey delivered yesterday evening.  Carolyn and I went out to milk Amelia and Milky Whey was laying down pushing.  She quickly delivered three beautiful and healthy babies.  Two bucklings and a doe. 

This is the first buckling born. Sorry the picture is so blurry.  All of the babies in the baby pen were being very active.  He is the smaller of the two bucklings but very flashy!

The second buckling born is very sturdy and larger.  Very pretty as well.  White with black legs.

 Here they are together.

I think I am retaining the little doe as I have not kept a doe out of Milky Whey yet and she is very easy to hand milk and is a great little milker.  She is smaller than the two bucklings born but very nice as well.  She is very famine and dairy looking for sure.  She has a few grey moon spots on her!

This is Milky Whey's second freshening.  I really like this does genetics.  She is a sturdy, easy to hand milk, high production, little milk goat.  I got her at Double Durango Farm if you want to see where she came from.  I was so happy with her, her first freshening last year, that I kept a buck out of her (Whey's Waldo) to breed to some of my other does this fall.

I pray Spring in your life is wonderfully blessed as well!

Blessings and Happy Farming!

susan