Quote:
Originally Posted by saanengirl
What you need to do is decide what you want in a doe: milk, particular conformation traits, personality, etc. and visit a lot of Saanen farms in your region. If you like what you have seen from the Dzimianski's herd (full disclosure: they are my parents), continue to buy your bucks from them or related herds (Gooneybush, NYRLE Real, Violet Vale [my herd]), and get a couple of does you can live with locally. The buck is half your herd. If you get a buck out of a doe you love, that is your best option. There are some good genetics behind the Rosethyme goats that Rangels Ziegenhof has, so you might get decent results by crossing them with your buck and then taking the offspring and breeding them to another buck from a Georgia herd. The key is to be consistent in your breedings and cull, cull, cull. Don't go out and get a buck from here and a buck from there. Find what you like and stick with animals that are similar in type. Sell any goat that doesn't meet your criteria. The longer you breed, the stricter your criteria must become.
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I really like the Dzimianski's herd. And Mr. Kidd, who I got directly from her is so friendly and outgoing that I have fallen in love with him. He's only two so I expect him to grow still some more but he's good and tall already. Besides milk production that I would be able to grow some wethers for draft purposes is really important to me.
I need to be able to go out and see the herds around here--- as Alice said there aren't all that many but the ones that are here I need to see and touch and watch move. My priorities are Milking ability and reproductive soundness. I believe strongly that good does are the ones who drop their kids with relative ease... of course I have to make sure I don't breed them to anyone stupidly big for them and take proper precautions. And past that, I want to be able to show in the future so I want to keep an eye on type in whomever I bring into my herd.
The culling sounds like the most difficult part of the process but I am serious about this and I will do what is best for my herd.
I appreciate the input. I have no intention of skipping about buying here and there but I need to actually in person see more Saanens. In Georgia I know of course, about the Dzimianski's and I have been to your site (if you are Violet Vale) many times and Kickin-K (spoken to him because my doe Sunrise was with him for a short time) and wish they'd get to putting pictures up.
All I really, really want this year is a good doeling out of Sunny. I know that she appraised low when she was young but I don't see so much wrong in her that I don't expect fine things from her bred to the right buck. Her biggest fault, is not her own :-P it's her blown out teat on one side.
I want tall, strong bucks and tall, elegant does with well attached udders. Draft potential for the boys and milking good mothers for the girls. :-)
(I think my favorite pic from your site is Gallant Endeavor, I'd love all my yearlings to look like her! I like her topline very much I am not a fan of the harsh angle drop I have seen in some pics, though her nose appears a bit more 'bowed' than is my personal preference. I am a big fan of the slightly dished face on girls.)
My most personable doe has the ugliest head in the herd (Shadow Dancer). Mazurka has a very nice head, and I have a coming yearling (Rhapsody) who also has a lovely head. 
