Golden Guernsey questions... Milk uses? Personalities?
 

Hi, I'm curious who here has GG's, and what you use the milk for. Mostly I'm curious if the golden color puts people off from drinking the milk, and causes most of the milk to be used for cheese and butter instead. If you have customers, are any of them brave enough to try it? Does anyone use GG's in dairies? I know they're not common, but the British Guernseys are becoming more popular... Do BG's put out gold milk as well?

Also, what are their personalities like? I'm finding lots of info online about the history of the breed, but am curious if, as a general rule, they're more quiet or noisy, sweet or independent, etc.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has experience with them! They're a breed I'm interested in, but have never seen one in real life! :)

Angela

I do believe the "golden" refers to the color of the goat, not the milk.:grin:

I saw my first one in person at Split Creek dairy in SC, Last weekend. It was a wether. The owner Evin Evans is very nice lady and a bit shocked, i think, that i know what breed it was.:D It was a good ice beaker.

the gold color is in referince to the color of the goat not the milk,

I just talked to a guy that has had boer goats and is now getting these goats they were supposed to be here last week...he lives about 15 min from me and we are going to look at them when they are settled..he is hoping to have them bred with babies to sell this next year and does to milk..I did some research on them. .I am interested. I am just afraid they will be to expensive.

From what I've read, there are very few of these goats in the United States.

I think expensive is definitely possible.

"The males have been said to be unusually smelly."

Nope. I can tolerate Beaux up to a point, but "unusually smelly" sets off all kinds of alarms in my head.

How bad does a buck smell to be determined as unusual? That's got to be a heckuva stink!

Okay, I keep finding stuff online that says the milk they give is, indeed, yellow in color. Is this not true then?

Could you post some links?
Guernsey cow milk is supposed to be creamy yellow, as is a Jersey's.

And about the expensive... You can buy straws of semen from overseas for use on does to breed up to BG, but pure GG's are only availabe from SouthWind Farm here in the US (NY). They are not selling any does, but do sell foundation bucks, if you'd like to breed up to BG. I wonder how big their flock is going to be before they start selling does? They've been breeding them since 1998. You'd think the flock should be HUGE by now, but they only have about 30 or so animals listed on their site. What's happened to the rest of the does that were born over the last 12 years? Anyway, although you can "breed up" to a BG, I'd really prefer some pure GG's... Just was curious if anyone had experience with the milk, and looking into who actually owns them in this country, it looks like the only people who could truly answer that question are the Swind breeders... Although supposedly the BG's are almost identical since they are at least 7/8 GG...

So much for that dream! :) Maybe some day when I reallllly finding myself wanting one, I'll go the Saanen breed-up route...

Sure, now that I'm looking for references they're hard to find! *lol* Isn't that always the case...

Tons of links online with info about the breed, but finding one that actually mentions the COLOR of the milk is a bit harder...

Okay, I've been searching for over an hour now, and it seems like all those pages I read about have run away with the wind! I'll try to look through my computer history and find some later. The only one I've come across that mentions a single thing about the color of the milk is here:

http://www.manyrocksfarm.com/39601.html

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

i knew diet could make the milk change in color sometimes but never knew there was a goat that produced different colored milk all on its own. Very interesting

Alice, the milk is gold. There is something about the caesin that makes more curd per gallon of milk. It is very sweet and nicely flavored.

Tailwaggin', Gulliver at Split Creek is from my herd. The picture of the baby in the current Dairy goat Journal is my baby Pansy.

There is one herd in the US who is in the process of creating a grade A dairy. Joan Stump in PA also has her herd on DHI test and they are nice little milkers, very easy to keep. Easier than most larger breeds.

The Guernsey goat in the US is graded up from our ADGA Swiss eared goats. There is only one herd of purebred 'Golden Guernseys' in the US at Southwind Farms in NY. The rest are 'Guernseys'. BGS tells us that the Golden Guernsey and British Guernsey are two separate breeds. We use purebred GG bucks to grade up to BG Level. With any luck at all, we hope they will be accepted by ADGA in 2011

I owe someone in WV an email about goats for sale here, and I do have some Guernsey does for sale at this time. We also have buck service (GG and BG) for approved does. We are one hour east of Knoxville, TN and one hour west of Asheville, NC.

BTW> my GG bucks actually smell less than my Saanen bucks do.

guernsey semen
 

Silverflame- there will not be any GG does available likely ever- it's complicated. Until the import ban is lifted between UK and US, no embryos or live animals will come here, only approved semen.

You can buy domestic semen for 5/$250-$300, or some imported newer bucks for $125 a straw.

Alice, my first cross does start at $300. BG level is $500 and up, but I will not have any BG for quite a while- I need to get them here first, which should be next spring. Breeding fees are extra. We all agreed that the Guernsey was a labor of love, not a money making scheme like the boers were when they first came here.

Can you post a pic of the milk? Fascinating!

Let me get a side by side pic- the rain is here and I'll get it in the morning......it'll be on facebook with a link so everyone can see.

Does Southwind farm have website or does any one have any contact info. I would love to see them in action.

I have been AWOL for a while, but I have Guernseys :) One nanny, her son and several crosses including my 3/4 Guernsey, 1/4 BA. Of thos three, the tow GGs are long coated and the 3/4 is hmm a cross between long coated and shaggy LOL

They all three have themost wonderful temperaments you can imagine - Including the two boys! They are not the most prolific milkers, and beign small aren't the biggest meat producers in the world either - But I have three girls who are Guernsey cross BT and are incredibly easy keepers, good producers (although they are not champions and I am not a commercial breeder, but I am sure if they were in a commercial herd and being "professionally" kept they would do even better. They are small though - but I am not over worried about that :)

I suspect that their wonderful temperament was at least partially a product of "unintentional selective breeding" during the war years

Lovely goats though :)

Yay! I'm glad to hear it really is gold from someone who owns them! I'm guessing not quite as yellow as that of a Guernsey cow, but I'd love to see pix!!

I'm sure once South Wind gets a million of them, they'll start selling some of those pure GG girls that are so coveted... But most of us probably will never have the millions to buy them! Until embryos start getting transported again, I guess we can only count on having the BG's here in the US.

Anyone know the technicalities on why it's okay to ship semen and not embryos?

Is it possible to ship eggs? I mean, even if it is possible, it sounds like a crazy nuisance to get eggs shipped over to inseminate with pure GG bucks to have some other goat carry... But would be interesting to know.

Oh... Here is a link to the Swind page, Steff...

South Wind GG Goats

Not a whole lot of info there on them, but there are you some pix anyway of the only pure GG flock in the US...

An interesting thing I thought was that all the info I found seemed to say that the does were hornless, as were most of the bucks... And yet there is a doe on the page with horns. :shrug:

Yet again... They've been breeding them since 1998. 12 years. Where are all the does? They say only 11 exist in the US, and they're all on their farm. In 12 years, they've only produced 11 does??

I want the story!! What's going on? :confused: Are they butchering does that don't measure up to their standards, or do these goats throw like 95% bucks? What's the deal?

It is troubling me slightly as to how "anyone" can have a purebred GG herd in the US - if only semen can be imported, there cannever be true GG's - maybe I'm being picky here?

does have horns too :)

hoggie

They had embryos sent in before the ban went into effect.

ah OK - smart move on someone's part :)

The Southwind GG's were imported as embryos in the mid-90s. They were implanted in Spanish goats in Canada, and then then those does were imported into the United States. Shortly thereafter, the loophole that allowed these embryos to be imported was closed. They lost many of the original embryo kids to coccidia, and had a very few related animals to start breeding. All of the imports were sired by the same buck. They have had to deal with many birth defects due to extensive inbreeding. According to what I have been told, the goats are not managed particularly well and tend to have stunted growth. They choose not to disbud, and therefore the only hornless goats at Southwind are the ones that are naturally polled.

One more thing. They have had very little success with AI in those goats (probably because of the management).

Apparently the farm is mainly focused on their horses? The .net and .com sites are pretty much nothing but horses, and the .org site doesn't mention a WHOLE lot about the goats... That sucks.

So it's sounding like BG's may be the way to go anyway until the ban is lifted (if it ever is) just to get some hybrid vigour into your herd... Sounds like breeding up and then swapping/bartering/buying & selling with other breeders who have also bred up is the way to go. At least then you know your goats are going to be LESS related (although still quite related if they all trace their roots back to a single buck here in the US). Seems like you would be better off buying straws of semen from overseas - at least then you could get a flock completely unrelated to most of the flocks here in the US who have bought all their male stock from the Swind flock... Maybe the kids would be worth a bit more to BG breeders here who have only Swind bucks in their lines?

Just a thought. :)

I got an email today from the man who lives fairly close that has the BG and said they came in Sunday and to come anytime to see them. what me go check out someone elses goat....of course I will be there just give me a minute!
Actually gonna one evening this week!

Would that be Amos?

Where in Missouri?