You’ve found the page for our dairy goats! Here we want to introduce you the the members of our caprine herd! (Caprine sounds like capricious, very fitting I think!)
Capricious (adj) – (1) characterized by or subject to whim, (2) impulsive and unpredictable
Synonyms include: whimsical, wayward, fickle, erratic, fanciful, flighty.
If that doesn’t describe the personality of a goat, I don’t know what does!
Our dairy goats are mostly of Nubian stock, but also with Alpine and Oberhasli mixed in. Each of these breeds have wonderful characteristics that we appreciate, and I feel the Alpine and Oberhasli mixes are hardier than purebred Nubians.
(Click here for a list of all our blog posts about goats)
First we invite you to meet the girls – Amelia (Ear-hart), Melody, and Miss Sassafras (Sassy)
Miss Sassafras, aka Sassy!
This is Sassy, soon after making her debut on the homestead. She’s about a week old here, and just about the prettiest little girl I’ve ever seen! (You don’t think I could be prejudiced, do you?) Soon after she was born, I was stroking the velvety-soft fur and falling in love with this lovely little girl. She was raised completely by her mother (Amelia) and not bottle-fed at all, but she is just as tame as the others, if not more so. Lots of attention while growing up has made her a rather spoiled little girl.
She is 3/4 Nubian, and 1/8 each Alpine and Oberhalsi. Her father was our purebred Nubian buck (Frodo), and her mother (Amelia) was sired by a Nubian out of an Alpine/Oberhasli doe.
Sassy is a very strong, healthy individual. She grew phenomenally well, surprising people who came to visit (I was often asked, “Is that the same little goat I saw last month?”). She outpaced Melody by the time she was 4 months old (and Melody is a year older, though undersized). Raised during a severe drought, she was at least fortunate never to have to deal with worms as a kid.
Her personality is just as strong as her body. She’s a sweetheart, but she has a mind of her own as well! She has every chance of becoming herd queen someday (and maybe someday soon, as she may just displace her mother), but she’s a lot less pushy (in the mean way of many goats) than strong-willed goats often are.
She was bred accidentally (that darn buck!) at too young an age, but she had grown so well, she really wasn’t undersized to breed. As of this writing, I am sitting up (it’s almost 2am) because soon I’m going to check her again … she’s due to kid any day, and I’m always worried about my “babies”.
I’m hoping within a day or so I can be posting pics of her with a strong, healthy kid, and all will go well with the delivery!
(Updated March 1, 2012)
Meet the boys – Mr. Frodo and Ricochet (the goat formerly known as Bar-B-Q!)
Babies coming soon, I hope!!!
Tribute to Dakota and Sierra
it’s worth a read. thank you for sharing so much information!
You’re welcome, and thank you for your kind words!
i have three black pygmy goats . i have had them for two years now. about three mos. ago i seen a bold spot on my doe about four ins round. so i went an got some zipcide dust from our feed store.i have put it on them five times now .i think it was round worms. but now there skin is very dry. they have alot of fksylakin you see it all in there fur white dandrift.and the under coat is coming out. my question is could the dust be making there skin dry out? or do they have mites when a cant see none. all three have the flaky skin.
Various things can cause goats to have flaky skin.
Are your goats producing milk? If so, there is a greater chance it may be related to their nutrition. Whether or not that is the case, giving them BOSS (black oil sunflower seed) as a supplement to their feed can help. Do they have access to good minerals? All goats should have access to minerals. I use a loose mineral and give it to the goats free choice (usually, the llama can’t have it, so they have to be away from her to eat it). Flax seed oil and borage oil can help too, but BOSS is the most often used supplement for skin.
It does sound like they could have had ringworm. If the round bald patch is gone, I wouldn’t pursue that anymore.
Yes, they can have lice that you might not be able to see. Personally, I like to dust with DE – diatomaceous earth – (food grade, NOT pool grade) for pests on any of my animals that need it. The DE CAN dry their skin, and yours, and can be drying to membranes (such as your eyes) if it poofs up, so be careful with it.
I am not familiar with Zipcide, so I googled it, but it doesn’t come up. I can’t comment on it, but if it’s like many of the dusts it can dry their skin.
So … you could be dealing with worms, lice, insufficient diet, or chemical/dust drying. Or a combination of these. I know, not easy to know what to do …
If I were you, I’d probably dust them with DE (here’s a trick, try putting it in a sock and knotting the top, then “bouncing” it on their body), give them BOSS, and make sure they have minerals. If that doesn’t clear it up within a couple of weeks, or you don’t at least see improvement, then you can try something more. But those will take care of the more common causes.
Good luck with your goats!
Some truly wonderful posts on this website , thanks for contribution.
Thanks for the kind words!
thanks. they dont have patches.the one doe had one patch on her side now the hair is cnomig back,and they do scrtch more then usual.i though it was from the dry skin.and they have water i change it every day . i feed them hay, goat feed. and they eat grass every day.maybe a good bath.might help.and some baby oil for the dry skin.i gess i can try it and see . so thangs you for your time. ps you you have very nice looking goats. they look so sweet.
sounds great!
this is perfect, i am looking to get dairy goats very soon and this article helps a lot.
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Dairy goats – A Homestead Heart- meet our herd of dairy goats A Homestead Heart just best like you say!
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If only it was as easy to implement some of the solutions as it was to read and nod my head at each of your points
For now I’m just reading your posts and gathering information, thanks for such an informative website! Hopefully someday it will be me with the homestead and goats and chickens and rabbits.
Simply a smiling visitor here to share the love (:, btw outstanding pattern. “Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes.” by Daniel Defoe.
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Miss Meka,I completely agree with you about Farmer John.I think the Fabulous Beekman Boys slouhd give him a page on their site, let him blog and respond, put some pics. Josh is a writer, so let him write Farmer John’s story or let John write his own. He’s the perfect balance to Josh and Brent. And such love for his animals is incredibly sweet and understandable.Josh and Brent: I too, love your show. Found by accident but think it’s just wonderful!!!! And will keep watching. Hopefully, will get there one day. Brent, you OCD of perfectionism (lining up tractors!) is a bit overboard, but if Josh doesn’t mind hey to each his own.
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I really love the idea of raising dairy goats and can’t read enough about it! Thanks for sharing this information with us, I will return every week to read more. Thanks for this article!
Thanks for the work that you put in this. Much stimulating info . “Either you operate the age or the age operates you.” by Jim Rohn.
Thanks interested in getting goats next year, always glad to find helpful info on the web. yours are very cute too!