Miniature Alpine Dairy Goats
Sarabi and her last kid 1/2008 at 13 years old.
(Proverbs 27:27) And there is a sufficiency of goats’ milk for your food, for the food of your household, and the means of life for your girls.
Welcome
Check out the double rainbow on the "Going to the Birds" page.
Dec. 2011 kids are on the ground and photo's are on the Kidding Schedule page, also new photo's of the Great Pyrenees on The Guardian page
NEWS -- Ivy Gables OB Nashville our 1st Generation, 2 year old buck, has won Champion and Best Buck Show in the Fall 2011 V-Show Ring 1 with MDGA. Check him out on the Bucks page.
We have also added a Red Border Collie pup named Buddy to the crew. He's 5 months at the moment & being trained to herd & keeps proving his worth. A new picture of him is on the Guardian's page at the bottom. Love those blue eyes.
NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Jan 31, 2012(my parents 64th anniversary) there was a litter of Great Pyrenees pups, Snow's first litter and Kubby is the sire, born. A big litter of 11, 8 males/3 females if I saw correctly through the tears of joy. I will be keeping a male & female. The rest will be ready for new homes the first weekend in April. All are fat and will be getting goat milk as they are weaned. Snow is getting all the puppy chow, hen, duck, and goose eggs she wants along with goat milk. They will be wormed with Nemex 2 several times and have the first puppy shot before they leave me. Yes on the double dewclaws. Only one badger head. Photo's are on The Guardian page. On 2/3/12 I measured them and they are 7 to 9" long. So, check out The Guardian page and scroll down to the bottom.
Here at Milk Maid Ranch in Stephenville, TX we are helping other breeders across the country develop the Miniature Alpine dairy goat. This is done by breeding a Standard sized Alpine(French or American) doe with a Nigerian Dwarf buck.
For us it happened with a few "OOPS" in the herd. I had bought some Nigerian Dwarf doe's and a buck back in 2002 and they were in their own pasture away from the Alpine's. When weaning time came for the Alpine kids I didn't have a small pasture to put them in as the Niger's were in it. So, I figured they'd get along and put the kids in with the Niger's. NEVER did I think the Alpine doelings would start to cycle along with the Nigerian doe's. This was when our "OOPS" happened. I noticed 2 of the Alpine doelings were starting to get udders when they were 7 months old. I just thought they were getting good feed. But 2 weeks later I changed my thinking. Both doelings had twins & there was the beginning of our Mini-Alpine herd.
We are changing our kidding season to December. Kids seem to grow better without bugs around. The "Kidding Schedule" page will be updated as doe's are confirmed pregnant.
I have written a few articles on developing the Mini breeds of dairy goats. If you get the Ruminations magazine, the Nov/Dec issue of 2009 with the Nigerian buck on the cover had an article of mine in it for developing the Mini breeds. The buck on the cover is Reed's Golden Elvis that I used for some 1st generation kids(Montego Bay is one of his daughters). He now lives in Virginia. In the Nov/Dec issue of Countryside magazine(2010) on page 35 is an article about raising goats.
The doe on the top of this page is Sarabi, an Alpine/Nubian doe that was my first goat ever. She was born to Bea Wells in Lincoln, Calif. I got her as a weanling from Dana Hixon, who taught me how to raise goats. On April 9, 2010 Sarabi died of old age. She will forever be in my heart and taught me so many things in life. I was sitting with her as she took her last breath. I am giving her a spot on here with pictures throughout her life. Whenever I wanted to know what direction to head in to see where the herd was on our 40 acres, all I had to do was yell for her and she'd answer me back which told me what direction to head in. She also was an adoptive mom to many a baby deer, and countless kids that needed an extra boost in life. She took each kid and fawn with grace as if they were born to her. She is missed with many tears.
I do like natural photo's of animals, out doing what they do, not when they are in my garden though. So some pictures of them are out in the pasture. My herd is CAE, CL, & Johnnies free. I can't say this enough, I DO NOT SELL MILK, OR MILK PRODUCTS!
Updated 2/3/12
