Tag Archives: lamancha

Lamancha babies

Last night, Anna went to bed as I stayed up working on some things (ok, I was on Facebook).  Around 11, I was ready for bed, but first went to the barn to check on West View Swan’s Saffron, one of our Lamancha does, who was in the kidding stall for the night since she was already 2 days overdue.  I discovered she was in labor.

I headed back in and woke Anna to tell her I was getting more warm clothes and heading back out to the barn since Saffron was in labor.  She thought I should get a couple of hours of rest first and then go out around 1.  I didn’t think so.  As she drifted off to sleep, I headed back to the barn.  When I arrived, the first kid was already on the ground.  She was a long legged doeling that looks a lot like her sire, Blue-Ridge Apache and weighed in at 6.6lbs.  Her brother followed not too long after and weighed in at 6.9lbs, and has the look of his mother.  Both started with wobbly legs, but by this afternoon, they were getting around a little better, so we took them out for some quick photos.

Introducing Sawyer Farm’s Sassafras (dark colored doe) and Sawyer Farm’s Birch (light colored buck).

Turbo, our Sheltie, was watching over the photo shoot.  After we finished, he went back in the barn and hopped up on a bale of hay to take a break.

Goat’s milk – by the numbers

Since our last doe has been dried up and we are getting ready for kidding season, I closed out the milk records for last season.  If you are not familiar with the dairy industry, milk production is actually tracked and discussed by weight (pounds of milk), not volume.  While it was obvious on a day-to-day basis what the production of the goats was, we decided last June to start tracking it for analysis (I am an engineer after all).  So, after each milking, we would weigh the milk for the doe and record it on a sheet in the milking area.  Then, at the end of the month, I entered the data into a spreadsheet.

This year, we had 4 goats in milk.  We chose to only milk 1 time a day because it provided enough milk for us and reduced the chore load in the evenings.  When we dropped to 1 time a day, we saw the daily total for each goat drop by about 30%.  Lilly was sold shortly after starting the records, so she is excluded from the totals. Here is how the others did.

Saffron – Lamancha, first freshener. 283 days in milk. 840 lbs produced. 3.0lbs avg per day over entire cycle.

Tang – Lamancha, first freshener. 266 days in milk. 656 lbs produced. 2.5lbs avg per day over entire cycle.

Betty – Oberhasli, second freshener. 303 days in milk. 565 lbs produced. 1.9lbs avg per day over entire cycle.

Total for the 3 goats: 2061 lbs, or about 257 gallons.  If we were purchasing raw cow milk, it would have a value of $2570.  If we were purchasing raw goat milk, it would have a value of $5140.  If we were purchasing the milk, we probably wouldn’t use as much as we do.

We had already observed that our Oberhasli’s don’t produce nearly as much as the Lamanchas.  Therefore, if we decided to change to a single breed, it would be Lamanchas.  Of course, we are not in this from a maximum production standpoint.

Conclusions.  We use a lot of milk.  It is  cheaper to raise your own goats for milk than to buy milk.

More goats? Sounds good to me

To say this week has been busy is an understatement. I haven’t even had time to write about our newest goat herd additions. Last Sunday afternoon, I drove to New Hampshire to meet Cliff Parker of Longvu Lamanchas. I specifically went to buy Tangueray Texter, a first freshened in milk. She come from a very good pedigree and will help improve our herd. With her coloring, she should make nice babies with Apache, our lamancha buck.
While I was there, I looked at the kids they had, and decided to buy Pocohontas. I love her coloring and she is super friendly. The kids love to play with her.

20120617-093912.jpg

20120617-093928.jpg

The bucks are here!

Ok, so the bucks actually got here 2 weeks ago, but we finally made some pictures this evening.  We got one Oberhasli and one Lamancha (his ears are supposed to look like that).  They are young, but will be ready to breed soon. Here they are:

Blue-Ridge Mohawk (registration # pending)

Sire Blue-Ridge Titus (AB1311788)     Dam CH Blue-Ridge Sheena (AB1277945)

Blue-Ridge Apache (registration # pending)

Sire Blue-Ridge Zulu (AL1501363)     Dam Blue-Ridge Yanni’s Serenade (AL1466941)