THE GOAT HERD

MY GOAT STORY

Fall of 2018 brought the newest addition to Pine Ranch.  12 mini-Nubian goats found their way to the Ranch in search of a new beginning.  Why you ask?  Grab a cup of coffee and your favorite chair…have I got a story for you!

Back in 1997 I lived in Fort Collins, Colorado on a five-acre piece of property with a tiny barn.  Back in those days, that area didn’t have covenants for the types of animals that could or could not reside on your property because the property was located outside city limits. I had a horse on the property who was feeling lonely.  Some wise person told me that goats make tremendous companions for lonely horses, so I purchased two goats from the local sale barn.  This decision made perfect sense to me.  Smaller animal means less feed and the horse has some friends.  Mind you that I was a true to fashion city girl of a ripe age of 27.  I really knew nothing about farm animals or their endearing habits.  I however did not feel the need to research goats; a mistake that proved expensive and stressful.  I brought my two new family members home and promptly deposited them both in the three-strand barbed wire pasture with the horse.
All three pasture mates froze and started at each other with a mix of bewilderment and curiosity.  I hung around long enough to witness the horse sniff noses with each of the goats and with a huge grunt of disdain, turn around and flounce away leaving the goats to immediately begin eating grass.  The next morning found everyone happily eating breakfast hay in the barn so without a second thought, I went to work.

The end of the day took its sweet time getting around.  I only wanted to go home and be with my new captives.  I was greeted eagerly by the horse when I got home but the goats were nowhere to be seen.  Investigation of the barn and property failed to reveal the new goats.  Giving up, I went to the house to change clothes to begin the neighborhood search for my goats.  Taped to my front door with bright red duct tape was a hand penned letter from my neighbor directly behind me.  The letter was brief and not exactly friendly. “Your goats have been visiting my place all day while I was at work.  They have completely eaten seven of my newly planted trees that I had hauled in from the western slope.  Damage has been done to several other trees, but I think those will survive.  What would you like to do about the $1750 I will need to replace my trees?”

I went to the neighbors to retrieve my two goats.  I hurriedly loaded them into my trailer and returned them after hours, back to the sale barn from whence they came.  I hated goats ever since.  Until…

21 years later

I had decided to get one goat for training my border collie.  I put out the word to the locals that I was looking for a goat for such purposes.  I purchase a little black and white Nigerian dwarf goat and put it in an old, 30 x40 chain link dog kennel.  She stays put; to my amazement.  Fast forward a few months and a student admires my goat, tells me all about the breed, suggests that I have an inferior breed of goat and invites me to her grandmother’s house to see their “real” goats.  I accept the invite and make an appointment.  Afterall, who can resist seeing animals??

I show up at the Grandmother’s house and am met in the barn by quite possibly, the cutest animals I have ever seen.  Baby Nubian goats that are only a week old and bottle fed are extremely excited to see humans. Long ears, beautiful roman noses, the tiniest little noises and bleating I have ever heard made me fall in love.  

That day led to hours of research.  The hours of research led me directly to Mini-Nubian goats.  I was attracted to the smaller animal needing less feed but producing similar amounts of milk.  Within two weeks of meeting my neighbor’s Nubians, I became the proud owner of 12 additional goats.  Almost all were registered mini-Nubians.

Since then, I have searched the country, looking for Nubian genetics to add to mini-Nubian genetics to “invent” my own line of mini-Nubian dairy goats.  I think that our mini-Nubians should look like a Nubian, milk like a Nubian and be hardy and parasite resistant.

I have an amazing herd of Nubians that boast some of the top genetics in the Nubian goat world.  I have been so humbled and honored to have tremendously successful herds like Jacob’s Pride, Wingwood Farms and Humfleet believe in me and my program enough to share with me some of their lifelong work.

What you see on this page and witness as time passes will represent my effort in bettering the mini-Nubian breed.  I hope to be able to leave my tiny, little mark on this outstanding breed of goats.

Find out more about mini-Nubian goats here.

Admittedly, I have not been very diligent about taking photos of my girls.  With our concentration on showing and milking this year, I will take photos and update this page as I am able.  Please be patient with me.  This part of my goat adventure (the website part) is a work in progress.

Inspiration Flute

Generation 7 Registration #MN12469 DOB:8/15/2020

Sire: SASH’s Gunpowder and Lead (3rd pic)                      Dam:GTO Ranch Emily (2nd pic)

Flute is one of my first creations here at the Ranch in my journey toward my own line of minis.  I’m excited to see how she does this year as a first freshener in my herd.  She was hand bred to is bred to the fantastically moonspotted Purebred Nubian, Mega Milkers Risky Conquest (PN2226858) G6S normal by Parentage, Casein A/B, on 12/1/2022 and is due to kid 4/25/2023 for a litter of F1 Inspiration kids.  I am hoping that by breeding her to Cotton, he will lengthen ears, neck and overall length.  He has tremendous, Mega Milkers udders behind him and I hope he passes the milkyness on to his kids. We should have some flashy spots on these kids.  One buckling will be available for reservation.

Flute will be for sale after kidding.

Mega-Milkers DT Moonika

ADGA Reg.# AN2017772   DOB;4/3/2019   G6S NEGATIVE by testing

Sire: Mega-Milkers Moonover Downtown    Dam: GCH Mega-Milkers Moonpie                Moonika’s pedigree

Moonie came to me as a bottle baby.  She has been a favorite for petting zoo situations, goat hiking and goat snuggles.  She developed well as a first freshener in 2021, had a beautiful 2F udder with more than a gallon a day in 2022 and production that easily earned her a milk star.  I did a repeat breeding to Sweet B’s Memphis because her first doeling exceeded my expectations developmentally.  Moonie’s first doeling went to the Philippines fall of 2021 to help build a dairy program there. Moonie’s second doeling sold locally to a show home and was well liked in the show ring in 2022.  Moonie is bred to our own Jacob’s Pride Legendary Asset (PN2262038) G6S Normal, Casein A/B and is due 4/18/2023.  1 buckling reservation available.  Doelings are reserved.

Mega-Milkers DT Primrose

ADGA Reg.#N002022320 DOB: 4/25/2019

Sire:  Mega-Milkers Moonover Downtown   Dam: Whimsical Kids Lady Cinna

Prim’s pedigree

photo credit to Mega-Milkers

Prim is such an elegant doe and yes, is twin siter to Effie.  We paired Prim with registered, moonspotted, Mini- Nubian buck, SASH’S Gunpowder and Lead.  Reg.# N2128810 for 4/19/2023 kids.  I am curious to see what this cross produces for me as first-generation Inspiration kids.