New In Town

Soooo, while I vaguely mentioned last week that I was getting something new very soon, I never really built up any suspense on that. I kind of enjoyed this little secret.

But now is the unveiling! Today, I got 2+ new additions to the farm!!

Please meet 'Ima Poco Sombrita', and 'Bags Metropolitan Gurl'!

I saw these girls on Craigslist and immediately e-mailed about them. Their pedigrees are *awesome*!
But more on specifics, Sombrita and Metty are a mother/daughter pair who were owned by the president of the Northwest Oregon Dairy Goat Assoc. He didn't have room for all of his goats, so these two were up for grabs. And grab them I did.

Sombrita is the black doe pictured below. She's a 7 year old, 7th freshener who is milking 8 lbs. (1 gallon) per day. Being an older lady, she's really nothing special to look at conformation wise, but that's not why I wanted her. My reasons for so hotly pursuing this lady was 1. She settles super easy when bred via AI, which I plan on doing this fall. 2. She's already in milk and I am dying to have milk again! And 3. She outproduces herself, meaning that while she might not be anything fancy, all of her offspring is gorgeous!!

Photo courtesy of Bags Nubians

"Metty" is the daughter. A 2nd freshening two year old, this little lady is due to kid around May 22nd (thus the 2+ I mentioned earlier). She is a wonderful improvement over her dam and got Reserve Champion at the Oregon State Fair last year! She milked 6 lbs. (3/4 gallon) a day on her first freshening last year, so I'm hoping for 8-10 lbs. from her this year.

Metty as a First Freshener; photo courtesy of Bags Nubians

Both of these ladies are tiny. They're very deep and wide, but quite short! These are "old-style" Nubians, so while today's trend is to have Nubians that are long, tubular and thin, the old style girls are deep, solid, calm ladies. They have substance through and through.

And what's even more fun, Metty is bred to a Nigerian Dwarf buck, so I'll have Mini-Nubians hopping around in a couple weeks! Eeek! ;)

These two girls, plus Ivy and Summer, will be my foundation does in which I will be starting my herd. It will be a blend of bloodlines from the past and present as I use today's names such as Lakeshore, Saada, and Kastdemurs, and names from the past such as Homestead, Kismet, and Mosaic. I am sooooo excited for breeding season already!!

But the best part by far is that now I have milk again!! WHOOHOO!! I haven't had any goat milk in 10 months, and the only cow milk I have had was two glasses while at Polyface Farm. This has been a long dairy fast, and I ready to break it. I want my milk.

So off I hop now, to milk dear Sombrita! :)