Sunday, April 20, 2014

Here is an introduction to my herd....


First is the herd namesake and matriarch, Winsome, or Winny (officially, Keno Farm's Winsome). I purchased Winny from John and Mary Fenolio of Keno Farms back in December of 2012 as a bred doe. I chose her out of the many for sale does in the pen because she was the first to come say hi and stood by us the whole time, watching the other goats. She has lots of personality.Winny is the only experienced mama in my herd so far and is a very good one too! Conformation wise I love her udder attachment, although her teats are easy to milk, yet uneven, and her good body capacity and strong back.  


Next is Winny's first kid born on this farm, Lily (officially, Keno Farm's Cream Lily).  Lily was born the spring after I bought Winny. She is a silly goat. She went through a phase a few months ago when her favorite pastime was to get her head stuck in fences so that everyone would make a fuss over her. Her horns where not properly dis-budded. She also enjoys tangling herself in lead ropes, finding crevices to escape through and pretending that she can't see the open gate we are asking her to walk through. But she is a sweet heart and we love her. : ) Her first possible due date was yesterday and she is really developing a nice udder! She will be a first freshener this year. She is showing more than her sister, Heather, who was bred the same day. Lily has nice legs, feet and good body capacity. I would like her rump to be more level and make her more uphill in stature.

Then is Lily's litter-mate, Heather (officially, Keno Farm's Fields of Heather). Heather is quite different from her big sister. She has never got stuck in the fence or tangled in her lead rope. She is the smarter one, but she dislikes being wormed and wearing a halter, and is good at evading you when she knows you're up to something. But Heather is also less of a drama queen and tends to cooperate better once caught then Lily. She also was not dis-budded properly. Heather has a similar conformation to Lily, except that she is slightly more uphill, but a bit less refined. She was bred on the same day as her sister. I am pretty sure Heather will be kidding with a single kid..



Next is my sweet Sheila (officially, Keno Farm's Sheila Macshan)! I purchased Sheila along with her full sister, Winny, in 2012. I chose her because she was the longest and the leanest and the most gracefully alert out of all the does they had. The first few weeks she was here she was rather wild and actually escaped the fist day and was gone for four days! I was devastated. I was just getting into goats and now this horrible thing happens! But, by a miracle and with the help of some neighbors, we found her and she quickly came around. Now she is the sweetest girl ever. She comes up to me every morning before she touches the food I bring and asks for a head scratch and a kiss. :) She was unfortunately left dry until this, her 4th year, but today was her 145 day of pregnancy, so she will freshen very soon! She has really matured this last season and seems to be developing a very nice udder! She is a very pretty girl with smooth attachments, great general appearance, strong legs and back and is naturally uphill.


And last but not least is my new buck Hull's RWHT King of Hearts. I bought King this fall from Cob Cottage Alpines and he will be the father of all my kids this year. I am really excited about adding his genetics to my herd! He has National Grand Champions, Top Ten Production List Does and Excellent Linear Appraisal Scores on both sides of his pedigree! He is tall, long and refined with excellent legs and feet, his hind feet especially are amazing. I am hoping breeding him to my does will also improve dairy character, "uphillness", rumps and teat size/placement. King is a sweet, goofy boy. He is probably close to 6 feet tall when on his hind legs, but has a pitiful little boy voice which does not sound like it should be coming from such a big macho buck! He is extremely smelly, but we've got used to it over time. 


No comments:

Post a Comment