The Goats

I mentioned in my previous post about the goat barn that we had obtained a couple of young goats shortly after our move to Kentucky.  They have long since been culled from our herd.  We now have 3 does, which I’ll introduce to you in this post.

We got Annie, Orphan Annie as she was named by her previous owner, on June 6th, 2005.  She came from the same lady we had obtained the other 2 goats from.  This lady was preparing to move and she didn’t have room for all of her animals and wanted good homes for them.  She just gave Annie to us.  We were told that Annie was about 6 years old at the time we got her.  She had never been milked on a regular basis, she just raised her kids.  From all appearances she gave a lot of milk.  When we got her she had weaned her kids and had been allowed to dry up, so we had a few months before we could begin milking her.

Although it is hard to see, I was told that she is part Sannen.  If so, the white coloration wasn’t dominate.  We bred Annie that Fall to a purebred Nubian buck and on Jan. 24th, 2005 she presented us with 4 babies.  With some assistance from us and some milk replacer we were able to raise all 4.  We kept 2 of the little doelings to raise, although we later sold one.

We still have Brownie.  She has freshened twice, giving us a little buck kid each time.   She is due to freshen again in March.  She has been a good milker, very easy to milk and gives us very good milk.

Brownie’s half sister was born to Annie on March 3rd, 2007.  Annie had 3 babies that time but the little buck was dead.  We raised both of the doelings.  Zoe looked like the nicest of the two so we sold her sister this past Summer.  Zoe is also due to kid in March.

Actually Zoe is only a half-sister to Brownie as she has a different daddy.  Annie presented us with twin girls her last freshening, March 28th, 2008.  We sold both of them after weaning.  Since Annie has got to be close to 10 years old now we hope Zoe will be as good a milker as her mother has been.  Annie has maintained her health but the quantity of milk has decreased somewhat this past year.