Breeding Plan Update

Hey all,

We have a busy year this year, and some changes to the does we currently own.  This has lead to our choice to breed only two does to kid this season.  Moon is due mid May and April is due mid June.  Moon is showing evidence of having a belly full of kids already.  April not so much, but I'm hoping. :)  These kids will be F2 Experimental and 50/50.  Please feel free to contact us if you're interested in purchasing a kid from us this season, and we'll keep you posted as to the progress of our does and the kids they have.

I finally got all of my registrations completed, and all papers sent off to new owners of our 2017 kids, and that feels pretty great too.  Now all of our mininubians are registered with the Miniature Dairy Goat Association (MDGA).  It's great to see a little herd of mininubians developing under our patient and thoughtful care.

We have a deposit on a Green Gables Mininubian buckling this year, so we should be able to update on who we get sometime this summer.  It's very exciting!  I've been looking at the Green Gables herd for years, and I'm like a kid at Christmas waiting to see him myself.  If all goes well, we should have four does ready to be bred to kid for Spring 2019, at least two of them sired by our new buck.  Some of the resulting kids next season will be F3, and should be American.  I expect some really nice breed character with them.  Some of the kids will be F2, but if their dams are bred to the new buck, I believe we should have improved breed character with more roman noses and longer, less controlled ears.  It's all so exciting to think about!

Sold Out

All of our 2013 kids are currently sale pending.  I expect deposits on them this week.  I'm always so happy when I feel they're all getting great homes where they'll be loved and appreciated.  I feel sure that's the case with the ladies who will soon be bringing them home. :)  I'll try to continue posting information about Nigerian dwarf dairy goats, and whats happening here at North Forest Farm.

If you're interested in future kids from our farm, keep checking back.  There's a SMALL chance I'll be breeding a couple of yearlings next month for September kids.  I'm still waiting on one of them to reach 40 lbs., which is where I personally feel comfortable breeding them.

If I don't breed them this spring, I"ll be breeding four does for spring 2014 kids.

For now, though, we're just going to sit back and enjoy playing with these kids until they're weaned in May. :)  And milking!  Of course, milking.  I can't forget that.  Of course, we had one tragedy in the loss of Cupcake, and Panzy's hard kidding has caused her to have significantly less milk than she would have.  I'm not sure that it will pick up again, but she does have a fat and happy doeling who is growing fast, so I guess she has enough milk.  Starlight, however, appears to be trying to single handedly udderly?  make up for it.  She is nursing her triplets, and yet still always appears to have a ton of milk in her udder.  Tomorrow I plan to attempt to milk her in the morning without separating her from her kids.  Not sure how much milk she'll let down for us that way, but I'm going to give it a try.  When the triplets are three weeks or a month old, I'll be separating the kids at night and milking the does in the morning.  I'll try to get some udder pics at that point, starting with only 8 hours of separation.