Breeding For An Elegant Dairy Doe That Dances Like a Ballerina and Milks Like a Cow
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WE LOVE NIGERIAN DWARF DAIRY GOATS!!!!! True miniatures of the dairy breeds, Nigerian Dwarf goats pack a lot into a small package. Sweet and intelligent, they make ideal pets. Productive milkers, they provide lots of rich milk for drinking and cooking. Colorfully and unpredictably marked, they are a pretty addition to any farmscape.
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Our first goats were purchased in 1998, pets to provide family diversion as we dealt with the challenges of foster parenthood. We wanted our children to experience the unconditional love offered so freely by animals ("Feed me, hug me, spend time with me and I'm yours!") and also to learn about the enormous responsibility inherent in keeping these winsome creatures.
Well, as all things go, both the children and the goats grew and our family began to dream big dreams. We purchased acreage and became modern pioneers, opening up the land and constructing our homestead in a five-year process. We also realized how integral the Nigerians were to our natural lifestyle. We began to compost their waste for garden enrichment and use their appetites to help with brush disposal! Most importantly, we started to breed our goats and appreciate their gift of pure, sweet milk.
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TOWARD THE FUTURE Breeding For The Milk Pail
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Looking Ahead to 2012 and Our Tenth Breeding Season...
We are breeding for a high-milking, elegant, show quality Nigerian with a calm dairy temperament--Please check out our promising foundation sires and does!
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We purchased our first, and most senior, herdsire, ROSASHARN TOM'S WATER TABBY*S (AGS National Champions, ARMCH Goodwood Tom Thumb+*S "E" x ARMCH Goodwood Water Lily 2*D "VG") in 2002. As well as having strong credentials for show, milk, and dairy refinement, Tabby was an obvious choice for us when we considered how well he echoed the genetics of our first senior does, who were of Stonewall and Rosasharn lineage. Since that time, we have been blessed by the addition of several exceptional "non-local" sires and dams. We think that our present breeding efforts combine the best of two worlds--New England-based bloodlines blended with the complementary strengths of quality breeders from around the United States.
Our breeding goals are straightforward: we want to breed for structural soundness, dairy elegance, and LOTS OF MILK. Another
breeding goal, in keeping with our emphasis upon easy milking and
production, is a functional udder! To that end, we are selecting for
capacity, long easy-expressing teats, and a pliable, soft udder that
milks down to nothing. In order to achieve these breeding goals, we have chosen bucks carrying exceptional mammary/production genetics--please see the "Buck" page and check out our handsome sires! As well, we continue to upgrade our doe lines with girls who carry strong genetics for both production and well-attached mammaries.
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| What We Want to See With Our Milkers! Morning milk from a two-week first fresh Water Tabby+*S granddaughter. |
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NOTES ON MILKING: We take milking seriously here at Dawn Land Farm. Although we are not currently enrolled with a DHI program, ALL of our freshened does are hand milked daily, with the milk being utilized for kid rearing and household consumption. The "milkability" of our does is therefore very important to us. Does retained for our herd have proven themselves to be the kind of milkers that make it worthwhile to milk! We value girls that are even-tempered and willing milkers with the udder structure that makes for milk capacity as well as easy expression of that milk. And finally, we have designed our breeding program with the high hopes that daughters will surpass their dams in all of the milkability qualities that we value so highly. 2010 UPDATE: Of note, as we continue to select for high producing milkers, our "keeper" first fresheners from this year earned their status milking a minimum of three pounds at the start of their lactations!
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| Morning Milking--Our Rosasharn Bella's Linda Lou is a Very Cooperative (As Well as Productive!) Doe |
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SHOWING
We Love the Challenge and Our Goats Are Doing a Great Job Learning to Show Their Stuff!
--After a two-year break from the ring, we are hoping to get our girls out in 2012--
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| Our First Home-Bred Champion, MCH/CH Dawnland Tabby's Halifax "E". Photo Courtesy of Joanne Karohl of Dragonfly Farm, who showed Halifax to his champion status. |
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| August 2007 at the "Summer of Love Goat Show"--The Assistant Goatkeeper and His Lost Valley TB Saleen Earned RJrGCH and JrGCH Honours. Photo Courtesy of Joanne Karohl. |
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| The Assistant Goatkeeper and His Dragonfly MS Epona. Photo Courtesy of Joanne Karohl. |
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With the encouragement of the New England Nigerian Dwarf Association--NENDA--we started to show our goats and have found it to be both fun and educational. (It has also been a relief to find a like-minded community of goat enthusiasts who don't roll their eyes when the conversation shifts to debates about mammary systems, body conformation, and milk production--say what?) We are especially looking forward to 2012, as some of our seniors continue to bloom with maturity (and our first fresheners hopefully present with competitive mammary systems!)
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| Anna Margot, One of Our All-Time Favorite Goats, and Her Accomplished Showwoman at the Bolton Fair, the Finale Show for Our 2006 New England Show Season |
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HERD HEALTH
We Maintain Strict Biosecurity: No Leasing/Exchanges/Breeding Services Offered
No Wasting, No Abscesses, No Sore Mouth, No Foot Rot
Never a Positive Blood Result for CAE, CL, Johnes With Any of Our Stock Ever
Blood Testing for Current CAE and CL To be Done in Late Autumn/Early Winter 2012
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Dawn Land Farm takes great effort to maintain a healthy herd of Nigerians. We have never had a case of foot rot, sore mouth, nor of Caseous Lymphadenitis (contagious abscesses). Our goats are not exposed to other ruminants. We have purchased our animals from conscientious breeders who monitor their herds carefully for disease and likewise maintain high standards for herd health. All adult goats entering our herd are quarantined and blood tested, unless written results of recent negative bloodwork are available. In keeping with our efforts to maintain a secure and healthy herd, we do not accept "goat returns" nor do we offer breeding/leasing services.
We have incorporated whole-herd testing for CAE and Johne's Disease into our herd health maintenance practices. (New Hampshire is certified as TB- and Brucellosis-free.) Since we began testing in 2004, all blood (CAE/Johnes) and fecal samples (Johnes) have consistently been NEGATIVE for both diseases.We plan to repeat whole-herd screening for CAE
and CL, utilizing the sensitive ELISA blood testing through
WADDL, sometime in the late autumn or early winter of 2011/12.
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Vigorous and long-lived goats should be the cornerstone of a quality Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goat breeding program. Click on the links below to see why starting with--and then maintaining--a healthy herd is so important.
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The "Maryland Small Ruminant Page" offers a wealth of information for goatkeepers, including current information about
CAE, Johnes, CL, Sore Mouth (Orf), and Foot Rot. Click HERE to reach the home page.
A well-written article about CAE, outlining experiences with large breed goats: HERE
Link to the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine's Fact Sheet on Johnes: HERE
Link to information about Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL): HERE
Link to an overview of Sore Mouth: HERE
Links to two easy-read articles about Foot Rot: HERE and HERE
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OUR HERD MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES INCLUDE PLENTY OF "HANDS ON" TLC!
Check Out Our Happy Kids... And Read About Our Nutritional Management Too
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While "hands on" loving makes up a large part of our day-to-day herd management, we also place great value in a sound nutritional program--something we have tweaked during our many years of goat keeping. Although we have a multi-acre pasture area for our does, we consider ourselves to be dry lot farmers, so all of our goats are provided with both purchased hay (leafy, second-cut mixed alfalfa and/or legume) and browse (cut from our extensive acreage.) The goats are hayed--all they can eat within an hour or so--twice daily. We have found that measured hay distribution, as opposed to our previous free choice regimen, cuts down on waste and keeps waist lines trim too.
We are firm believers in giving grain to ALL of our goats (some of the fatter open does are shut off in the summer!) during ALL seasons, adjusting the components and amounts depending on sex, age, reproductive status, and weather. Our area is deficient in several key minerals and our high-iron water also reduces assimilation of essential minerals, so we feel that grain is an important supplement for our goats. We are lucky enough to have access to the high quality of the Blue Seal brand of feeds, which we strongly recommend. Routine feeding for bucks comprises a 1/1/1/1 mixture of Blue Seal Show Hutch Deluxe, BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds in the hull), EZ Pels (a horse supplement high in copper, biotin, zinc, and selenium), and beet pulp. Does receive the same mixture. Our babies are weaned to Blue Seal Show Hutch Deluxe, an alfalfa-based rabbit pellet especially high in minerals, mixed with beet pulp. We do not use medicated feeds.
The barn is plumbed for hot water and all of the goats receive hot/warm water twice daily, even in the summer. The heated water seems to be preferred by our spoiled animals and they drink lots of it. We think that the bucks especially benefit from the increased fluid intake, which helps keep their urine dilute, avoiding calculi build-up. Finally, we provide free-choice sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), loose mineral salt (our preference is for Sweet Lix Meat Maker), and feed-grade kelp meal (North Atlantic Kelp brand.)
To supplement our feeding program, we administer injectable Bo-Se (a Vitamin E/Selenium preparation) as well as "copper bolus" on a twice-yearly schedule.
Our baby regimen...Kids are pulled at birth and receive "First Arrival" probiotic paste along with heat-treated colostrum. We have had good luck--vigorous and growthy babies--using pasteurized dam's milk, supplemented as needed with Land O' Lakes goat milk replacer. To insure that kids receive love and cuddling, as well as attention to the amount of milk they are drinking, all bottle babies are individually held during feeding. Kids are weaned at about eight weeks of age, graduating to a diet of Blue Seal Show Hutch Deluxe rabbit pellets, shredded beet pulp, and second-cut mixed alfalfa/legume hay.
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| Visitors Receive A Warm Welcome From Our Kids! |
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| Our Babies Are Loving, Spoiled (and Smart Too!) |
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| WETHERS MAKE GREAT PETS! Our "resident wether", Pip (for Pipsqueak, since he was a teeny, tiny guy at birth), is a gentle, friendly, and tolerant fellow. Pictured here, Pip is being "trained" for the (imaginary) show ring. |
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| Human and Goat Kids Share Playtime at Our Farm |
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| Stylish Weather-Appropriate Clothing is Provided for ALL Kids |
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| Age-Appropriate Toys are Provided for ALL Kids |
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| We Have A Resident Goat Whisperer |
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| OUR GOATS REALLY DO DANCE! Under the Tutelage of Our Resident Goat Whisperer, A Freshly Clipped Witchy Dances For Joy |
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| Attack of the Killer Kids (Like ALL Children, Our Kids Get "Out of Hand" Sometimes) |
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| Our Daughter Likes Goats Better Than Dolls |
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| All That Babyhood Bonding Makes For a Special Kids' Friendship: Here the Girls Share Some Quality Time |
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| And, after the fun, there's always some work left to do! (Climbing is easier and quicker than opening the gate, however.) |
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