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12/14/12, 10:54 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: KS
Posts: 1,219
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Doe, a deer, a female deer...
So, I was going to get a dairy cow, but the deal fell through. Now, I am very glad that it did.
Me without milk is like a tree without roots, and without a good dairy output (I am crossing some sheep to come up with bigger milkers but that is another story), I am verklempt and need a cow yesterday. Or so I thought. Hello, goaties.
A friend of mine found a baby doe that looked like a deer (doe, a deer, deedeedeedo), and said it was a Nubian, which is the dairy goat breed that I had put on my wish list of livestock to obtain in the future, in my dairy farm quest. In the future. The opposite of now.
Against my better judgement, I get dragged by my two youngest daughters and my best friend to go look. Of course the baby is adorable, but when I am told that she is 1/4 LaMancha and 3/4 Nubian, I know she isn't what I want. A mixed breed wrecks my plan for a pure Nubian herd, and any future pure bred sales. I decide against getting her, as I really wasn't even in the market for goats at the time, and I wanted a pure bred Nubian.
Unfortunately, my girls were already in looooove. And when we got up to leave, little deergoat runs after my youngest, bleating her little baby bleat and breaking my heart, because that means she already loves my kid, right?
I hung my head, knowing I had lost this battle. My kids are now deergoat's kids.
The owner brought out some milk so we could all taste it, and to us it tasted just like the 2% you buy at the store. SOLD! Pay the lady and load the goat onto the laps gleefully perched in the backseat of my vehicle/livestock hauler. We bring her home and figure she can be buddies with our Southdown Babydoll wether, so she bunks with him. And cries, all...night...long. So of course the next day I decide that the transition is difficult for the teeny weeny displaced adorable baby goat, and her sheep buddy just ain't cutting it, AND, I rationalize, one grown goat won't produce enough milk for my family anyway, so what do I do? I go straight back to goat lady and buy another one.
My youngest daughter just loves tiny things. While visiting the goats the day before, my daughter was loving on a black goat that was 3/4 LaMancha and 1/4 Nubian, so she had little bitty ears. She had been disappointed to leave her favorite goat at the farm, but she didn't complain, and was happy to have deergoat. When I told my girls we were going back to get the one with the tiny ears, very loud "yippees" and "yays" were my reward.
So I am not in the market for goats at all, and now I have two. My husband, thank God, is a very understanding man.
I read and read and read before I buy things. I knew that I wanted milk goats at some point and had done preliminary research, but nothing heavy. Now I have two dairy goats, so I start seriously looking at milk quality and production. In my research, I found that Nigerian Dwarfs have the creamiest milk, and attempting cream and butter were high on my list. I had gone to the state wide 4-H show to look at dairy goats last fall, and saw a sign that said, "The Jersey of Dairy Goats", not paying particular attention to what breed it was because I was only interested in Nubians. After my purchase of these two not 100% Nubians, I was thinking perhaps I would buy a buck of this "Jersey" goat breed and cross him to my girls. I start looking online to see which goat produces the most, and the creamiest, milk. Nigerian Dwarfs appeared on my radar, and I decide if the two I have are successful for us, we would add a ND in the future. Future. Like maybe in a couple of years. The word future and I apparently do not get along.
Sure enough, ONE MONTH later my very favorite localish farm posts on their facebook page that they are getting out of Nigerians and all of theirs are for sale. Here is someone I trust, have bought many animals from before, and she has a baby doe for sale. You guessed it...a couple of weeks later our two goats had turned into three.
So, we now have three does, born this past summer, that will hopefully give us some kids, and milk, sometime next fall.
Meet Hazel, our Nigerian Dwarf, Alice, the spotted Nubian, and Black Betty, the LaMancha (ever heard that song, whoa Black Betty, Bam-a-lam...that is the song after which she was named, by my 9 year old).
Last edited by earthkitty; 12/14/12 at 10:59 AM.
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12/14/12, 10:58 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: kansas
Posts: 1,851
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They are adorable
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Judy
Oat Bucket Farm
Central Kansas
The past is valuable as a guidepost, but not so if used as a hitching post.
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12/14/12, 11:08 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: KS
Posts: 1,219
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Why thank you. I must admit, now that I own both sheep and goats, I think I prefer the goats. My sheep are sweet, but the goats have SUCH great personalities.
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12/14/12, 11:25 AM
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gracie88
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: OR
Posts: 913
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Aw, what cuties  I think you made the right choice(s). Goats are way easier than cows, especially for kids and with three you should get plenty for butter and cheese and yogurt and...
__________________
"I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else."
- G. K. Chesterton
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12/14/12, 11:32 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Oologah Oklahoma
Posts: 3,579
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Oh my what cuties you have!!! I love your Nubian but of course my heart skipped a beat when I seen your little LaMancha.
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12/14/12, 11:37 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Utah
Posts: 2,164
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Way too adorable! I wouldn't kick any of those girls out of my barn.
__________________
"Don't worry what people think, they don't do it very often" ~ Unknown
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12/14/12, 11:46 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: sc
Posts: 3,364
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I am So happy for you!!!!! they sure are CUTE!
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12/14/12, 11:58 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Kansas
Posts: 6,143
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Oh my, they are too cute and the way you ended up with them is hilarious!
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12/14/12, 12:06 PM
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 359
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gorgeous!!!!
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12/14/12, 12:33 PM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,490
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I think you made good decisions. Pretty goats!
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Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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12/14/12, 12:44 PM
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Metal melter
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Jeromesville, Ohio (northcentral)
Posts: 7,152
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Adorable! But I think you need to explain to little deergoat that she's too young to wear eyeliner.
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12/14/12, 01:18 PM
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Terra-former
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 1,885
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I think the spotted one might be one of the cutest goats Ive ever seen! I like her! I would have got her also.
__________________
I have a high desert arid mountainous climate. Working towards self sufficiency. The potentials of plant breeding and building micro climates amaze me. We must learn to ride the wave.
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12/14/12, 04:16 PM
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: New Zealand, Far North
Posts: 417
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I would have come home with Alice in my car too, despite having "enough" goats at present. Those Bambi spots aaaargh! And the floppy ears. Too cute for words!
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12/14/12, 05:08 PM
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I got it on farm status.
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: SouthWest of Phoenix
Posts: 1,949
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This is 3 purchases you will not regret... adorable!!
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12/14/12, 07:43 PM
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Louisa, VA
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: VA
Posts: 958
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You get the best of both worlds - Nubian and LaMancha - both fantastic milkers! I absolutely adore your new doeling - you can't milk papers!
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12/14/12, 08:45 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Northernmost Arkansas
Posts: 1,010
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What lovely goats!
I have both sheep and goats and prefer the goats' more in your face personalties, though I have a few sheep that are like that too (one of my wethers, Baart, should have been a goat). And we have an extremely ancient ewe who was fostered on a Saanen doe, so she thinks she's a goat. She lived with the goats for years (though I had to put their mineral up out of her reach). Now she's so arthritic that I'm afraid they'd accidentally hurt her, so she's resigned to spending her great old age as a sheep.
Sue
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12/14/12, 09:03 PM
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Legally blonde!
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Oregon
Posts: 3,315
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Oh they are beautiful! I have to say Black Betty is almost the spitting image of my Mia! Mia is now 5yrs old but gosh I did a double take when I saw your cutie pie. I attached a photo of Mia and me from last year but let me see if I can't find her baby picture. There I found one, it isn't an exact match and she almost looks more like one of Mia's daughters but still I was very startled  .
You will get addicted to those earless wonders now you know .
Justine
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12/14/12, 10:28 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: SE Kansas
Posts: 288
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So glad you are enjoying them so much!!
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12/14/12, 11:01 PM
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: South central Idaho
Posts: 565
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Oh! What LOVELY girls! Congratulations!
Anita from Idaho
Dan-Ani Pygmy Goats
www.gndt.net/dan-ani
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Anita Crafton ~ Dan-Ani Pygmy Goats ~ Hansen, Idaho 
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12/14/12, 11:02 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 202
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Your children can get into 4h with the nubian and lamancha also Contact ADGA...I believe you can register them as NOA (Native On Appearance)! Great looking girls!
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