ADGA Nationals 2026

When it was announced that the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) National Show for 2026 would be held at the Eastern States Exhibition Center in Springfield, MA, I knew we would be there with some of our goats. The ESE aka Big E is only about 1:20 from our house and we show there every year at the end of September for the 4-H New England competition and open show. The National Show moves back and forth between East Coast, Mid-country, and West Coast. It was last in Springfield in 2011. Our goals were simple:
1. Make it through vet check
2. Have Amanda make the cut in showmanship
3. Have some goats make the cut in their breed classes
At the National Show, the top 20 get placings in each class; “the cut” is when the judge dismisses all those who won’t be considered for a top 20 placing. In case you didn’t see the previous Facebook posts, we met and exceeded all our goals.

Let’s come clean about something. Rob and Amanda were committed to doing this; Anna was convinced it was a horrible idea. Rob and Amanda enjoy showing the goats; Anna wouldn’t care if we just had some pretty goats to look at for ourselves and make cheese. To say that Anna had anxiety about us taking the goats is an understatement. Making it through vet check was actually a goal because we have heard so many horror stories of people driving for days to get to a National Show, only to be turned around for an issue on a goat. If any animal on the trailer doesn’t pass the vet check, the whole trailer goes home. With that in mind and an abundance of caution, we left some of our senior milkers at home for various reasons and only took 2 young milkers and 7 juniors.

On Saturday, June 27th, we got up early, milked the goats headed to the show, and loaded the final items. We were in line at the vet check by 7:50 and through by 9. We had 3 horse stalls in Barn E for the goats plus a tack stall. Unloading and setup went smoothly and we got checked in. On Saturday afternoon, Amanda had youth activities including a judging competition, management/knowledge test, and a social mixer. The exhibitor briefing was Saturday night at 9pm and Amanda spent some time doing final cleanup on Fritter between activities.

Sunday morning at 8am, Youth Showmanship started. Amanda was in the Intermediate II group that included 66 competitors between 15-17 years old. After the Big E show in 2025, Amanda chose Sawfish Apple Fritter to be her 2026 season showmanship goat. Throughout the winter, she worked on patience for Fritter to stand in show pose, her handling skills, her fitting skills, and other components for the competition. It was clearly coming together when she won her class at the Nutmeg show in May, so she was confident walking into the ring. All the practice paid off and after over 2.5 hours in the ring, she finished in 7th place.

Half an hour after the showmanship ended, the kids had a fitting competition. This is a team of 4 that have 30 minutes to clip a goat and prepare it for show. They are limited to 1 set of clippers and only 1 foot can be off the ground at a time. Amanda was part of team “Barbies and their Dream Goat” who placed 4th out of 41 teams!

Monday and Tuesday morning were relatively quiet for our farm. We spent the time cleaning up clip jobs that needed some additional detail work and clipping 4 of the kids that hadn’t been prepped in advance. I guess this would be a good time to mention it was hot. Like temps in the upper 90s every day with high humidity. It actually exceeded 100F on Wednesday and Thursday, so simply being at the show and walking around was taking a toll on humans and goats alike. Tuesday afternoon was the Lamancha Junior show under head judge Scott Bice and consulting judge Mark Baden.

We started with the Junior Kid class (born 4/1-5/29). Sawfish Margarita placed 7th and Sawfish Gin and Tonic placed 11th out of 19 entries . The Intermediate Kid class (3/1-3/31) had 33 entries. Sawfish Espresso Martini took 1st with her owner Max Budlong. Rob has been a chaperone for Max at the Big E and his brother Noah. Last fall, Max was loving on our Lamanchas and got on the list for a spring kid. While Max has leased other goats, Martini is the first goat he has owned. Sawfish Guinness was 4th, Sawfish Bailey’s Irish Creme (Martini’s littermate) was 6th, and Sawfish Kahlua was 10th. We didn’t have any entries in the Senior Kid or Junior Yearling classes. In the Senior Yearling class of 32, Sawfish Bon Bon took 1st.

At this point in the show, we were absolutely ecstatic, because we had 2 of the 10 junior lamanchas entering the Junior Champion lineup. For those not familiar with goat shows, after each age class has been evaluated, the 1st and 2nd place goats from each class go back into the ring. The judge then selects the Champion from the 1st place goats. The reserve could be the 2nd place animal behind the winner in an age class or could be a different 1st place animal from a different age class. After lining them up, Judge Bice had them do a walk around the arena, put his hands on each goat again, and then gave a short description of each 1st place animal and the strengths they exhibited. He wrapped it up with something along the lines of “as we look at the total balance of the scorecard, I think our competition comes between our senior dry yearling and intermediate kid…” I will be honest, I almost lost it. Sawfish Bon Bon was selected for Lamancha Junior National Champion and Sawfish Espresso Martini was Reserve Champion; both are out of Sawfish QS Ferrari (2025 2 yo FF LA score 89 EEVV).
The National Show also has a Youth Embedded show, which means they track not only open placings but youth owned goat placings as well. Since the champion was youth-owned, Amanda and Sawfish Bon Bon also took 1st place youth embeddded.

Tuesday night, we were laying in bed trying to go to sleep in total disbelief. We kept looking at each other and asking, what just happened? We didn’t get a lot of rest, but had to get an early start on Wednesday morning when the Senior Lamancha show started at 7am. Sawfish Apple Fritter was first in the ring as a Yearling Milker and took 10th of 12 entries. In the 2yo Milker class, there were 30 entries and Sawfish QS Mina was 13th, but was 1st Youth entry. That meant Mina needed to stay ringside until after the senior champion lineup for the youth embedded lineup. Amanda was a little tired by this point.

On Wednesday afternoon, we wrapped up our show with the Junior Recorded Grade judging and Sawfish Tiramisu took 17th of 28 entries in the Senior Yearling Class.

Wednesday night, we went out to dinner with some friends to celebrate the adventure.

I think it’s important to note that in the Junior Champion lineup, 7 of the 10 goats were from New England. The quality of goats and competition in our area is phenomenal. The pottery awarded at the ADGA National Show is primarily a tradition and a prestigious keepsake, rather than something with a formal meaning in the show rules. The tradition developed because handcrafted pottery is durable and unique. Unlike ribbons, a piece of pottery is intended to become a lifelong trophy that many breeders proudly display. Each National Show has its own commemorative design. Winners can look at a piece years later and immediately remember the show where it was earned. We received 3 pieces of Pigeon River Pottery for Sawfish Bon Bon’s age class win, Lamancha Junior Champion win, and Embedded Youth Show win.

Our goal at this point is to continue using hardiness and longevity, linear appraisal, milk test and show results to make good retention choices in maturing our herd and to sustain the quality as they age. We will continue to keep a very small herd to keep it fun and manageable. But let’s be honest, it’s really cool to have won!