8/1/11: Well, it looks like out of the 10 rare colored Muscovy ducks I got, only 2 are female! About as good of luck as I am having getting doe kids from my goats ...lol. Good news is ... my Australian Spotted bantam hen hatched out some ducklings! Too soon to know how many as she is keeping them pretty well hidden in her igloo house.
7/29/11: Fall Creek TAL Morgan LeFay kidded easily with triplets - all boys naturally:( She is a very nice milker and has the nicest personality I have ever seen in a goat. She just really loves people (without being obnoxious)!
7/28/11: Java chicks have started to hatch and I didn't even realize one of the hens had a nest somewhere. Nest ended up being in the loft of one of the goat barns.
6/9/11: One of my new doelings, Avian Acres W Natalie, is on the cover of the June issue of Gopher Goat Gossip!
6/5/11: I got another breeding pair of Australian Spotted Bantam ducks from Karen Valley at the CVDGA Summer Show. Both are Blue-headed which will give me the opportunity to get some Green-headed ducklings. I just love these little ducks:)
6/4/11: Had a blast at the CVDGA Summer Show in Ladysmith, Wisconsin (see the results on my Home page). Kristin drove Jean and I to the show. Poor girl got stuck with the driving again ... lol. Jean finally got to be a passenger however.
6/2/11: Well, let's see ... what else could go wrong:( In the last week, as I'm scrambling to get ready for the CVDGA Summer Show in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, my printer broke, I lost my camera, the storms took out my power supply on my computer, my dehorner quit working, and both my A5 type clippers died leaving me with the huge Clipmaster to try to finish up with girls with. ARGHH!!!
5/19/11: My 10 Muscovey ducklings arrived in the mail today from Old Country Hatchery. I ordered the rare colored assortment so it will be exciting to see what I end up with!
5/12/11: Kristin and I headed out on our trip to Old Mountain Farm. Read about it here: Old Mountain Farm Trip
4/3/11: My Java chickens are home:) Check them out on the Java Chickens link.
3/31/11: Well, I was trimming a few hooves today and decided to trim up the udders of some of my girls due to freshen in April. I got Java Jives up on the milk stand and was shocked to see her udder under her heavy winter coat! It was quite apparent that she wasn't going to be waiting to kid until the end of April as indicated on my kidding schedule ....lol! In fact, after feeling for ligaments and finding none, I was pretty sure she was going to kid today and indeed she did ... 2 flashy black & white bucklings that will be wethered as she is a first freshener. Upon looking back at my breeding notes, I initially had Java due on 3/26/11 but then I witnessed Tracker breed her again on 12/5/10 so presumed she hadn't settled the first time. Hmm ....so much for that!
3/1/11: I managed to get a couple of photos of Shere Country OB Arpeggio and Shere Country SH Aria today. They are so fuzzy that it's difficult to see their nice dairy qualities but all that fur is definitely needed with as cold as it has been.
2/8/11: Two out of three of the does bred to Lost Valley KW Excaliber *S have kidded. Wanda yesterday and Cinnamon Girls just a couple of hours ago. TX Twincreeks Seminole Wind should kid within a couple of days and then the wait begins for the wave of March babies.
1/25/11: My silly Australian Spotted duck decided the coldest week of the year was the perfect time to start laying eggs! I had to put a stop to that for now but can hardly wait for baby ducklings come summer. I also recently placed an order for an assortment of rare colored Muscovy ducklings. The Muscovies will be arriving around the first week in June. They are supposed to be excellent foragers as well as awesome for controlling the fly and insect population.
1/12/11: I just added some photos of the kidding process. Check them out here: Kidding Process Photos
12/4/10: Today was a very sad day for me. My little doe Mattie's (Matelasse) heart finally failed her. The vet said she was most likely born with her severe heart defect although nothing was apparent until she was about 4 months old and her heart couldn't keep up with her body's attempts to grow. Her back end just kept getting weaker and weaker even though she ate well and wasn't sick in any other respects. She was a little fighter and one of my favorites. I will miss her terribly.
12/3/10: ADGA has posted their tentative Linear Appraisal Schedule for 2011. Looks like Minnesota will be done early to mid-September. Click the link below to check it out.
Tentative ADGA 2011 Linear Appraisal Schedule
This is a wonderful program and I highly recommend that anyone who is serious about evaluating and improving their herd, participate in it. I had my herd appraised in 2008 and 2010 and will participate again in 2012. Since I am not freshening very many 2010 junior does in 2011, I decided I will make the effort to attend a few shows in 2011 instead and continue having my herd appraised every other year.
11/30/10: Check out my kidding schedule to see the changes I recently made. Velvet and Xplicit didn't settle in October when exposed to Zen. I may have removed them from the breeding pen too soon so Xplicit went back in with Zen on 11/24 and I believe she was in heat but still didn't see her get bred. If she comes back in heat again she will be bred to Megapixel. Red Velvet came back into heat today and was hand bred to Megapixel.
I also decided to breed a couple more junior does as they are a good size now and I'm so anxious to see udders on some of Obama's daughters.
Besides all the breeding action going on, I have been busy digging out from our newest snow storm. I swear I have shoveled more this past month than I did all of last winter!
11/13/10: I am so bummed. The weather forecasters have issued a Winter Storm Warning and travel advisory for both the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and for our neck of the woods so we had to cancel our plans to attend the MDGA Goat Breeders Conference. It's a good thing we didn't attempt to go as there were 401 car crashes reported by 4pm today due to the storm. Oh well, there's always next year.
10/19/10: I'm getting excited about attending the upcoming MDGA Goat Breeders Conference on November 13th. It will be held at the University of Minnesota again this year. It's a long haul but the trip goes fast with good company (that's you Kristin and Jean) and it's so much fun to catch up with what's going on with our other goatie friends that we don't get to see as often as we'd like. Lots of good topics and speakers are scheduled.
7/14/10: I haven't had time to update for quite a while but want to congratulate the breeders whose fine animals did so well for me at my recent Linear Appraisal. I had three animals receive 90 Excellent from the following herds:
TX Twin Creeks Farm - Kellye Bussey
Dancing Angels - Meghan Namaste
Silveraurora Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats - Suzanne Nevada
I was also quite pleased that my home-bred first freshening doe Suzy Q was appraised with a final score of 88!
4/9/10: I think I might finally be caught up on sleep. Only two more does to kid. I will work really hard to get photos posted and the rest of the web site updated this weekend.
4/6/10: Rachel came out to help me take photos of the new kids but instead played chauffeur to me and Sheyanne for another trip to the vet clinic. No c-section required this time but since the vet is so far away we didn't want to take a chance. Needless to say, the photos had to wait.
4/1/10: Much heartfelt thanks to my good friend Kristin at Babel Brooks Acres who dropped everything in her busy schedule to race me and Red Velvet to the vet clinic for a c-section. Velvet and her triplets are doing great.
3/20/10: Brucellosis and CAE tests on the remainder of my does (one year of age and older) all came back negative. I just have four of my adult bucks left to test and will try to do that this week if I can twist Kristin's arm to help me with the stinkers.
3/18/10: Just got notification that my buck reservation came through! Check out Big Bopper on the Bucks page.
3/17/10: Well, it looks like today is the day for Cinnamon ... hopefully pretty quick here. She is huge. I'm guessing triplets ... and triplets it was!
3/12/10: Looks like today might be the day for Persephone and Baby Doll to kid and Windy can't be too far behind.
3/9/10: My first kids sired by Obama are here! Expression kidded with beautiful buck/doe twins.
3/5/10: All TB tests were negative. Still waiting on the results of other tests.
3/2/10: Whole herd TB testing was done today by our vet, Dr. Fisher, from the Vermilion Vet Clinic. Test results will be read on Friday. Eleven more does had blood drawn to be tested for CAE and the two does that will be going to Wisconsin were tested for Brucellosis. Results will be posted when they come back. Much thanks to Kristin at Babel Brook Acres for helping me out with the goats!
2/10/10: Baby Doll is making an udder and will probably be the next to kid.
2/6/10: Our first kids are on the ground! Willow kidded with beautiful twin bucks. Both are available as wethers. One is a cream/chocolate buckskin and the other is a cream/black buckskin. See their photos on the New Arrivals page.
2/4/10: Pedigrees for all current animals are done .... Yeah! I am now working on pedigrees for upcoming kids.
2/2/10: Junior doe pedigrees are done, at least until kidding begins again <G>.
Our regular farm vet has left so in order to do my annual CAE testing, I must haul my goats quite a ways to another vet. I can only haul 4 - 5 at a time but will have everyone done before kidding. Results will be posted for each individual goat as they are tested and the results come in. I am also doing Johnes testing this year although this isn't something I test for on an annual basis. Whole herd TB testing will be done before reserved kids are shipped out this spring.
1/31/10: Well, I am finally getting back around to getting more pedigree information onto my site. I hope to have it all updated before kidding begins.
10/29/09: I will be making the long trip to Oklahoma to pick up Willow in the next week or so. Hopefully I can twist Kristin and Debbie's arms to join me on my trip! See Willow and her relatives on my Junior Does page.
10/11/09: Check out our beautiful new girls on the Senior Does page.
10/10/09: Our First Snow!!! It really just seems far too early for this, doesn't it? Hopefully we have a few nice days coming before we have to batten down the hatches for winter. Aria and the does above sure don't seem to mind though.
8/1/09: Well, I am now officially retired, quite a bit earlier than I had planned but that's how things go sometimes. I don't know what I am going to do with all my "free" time ... LOL.
12/20/08: We have a blog! Actually, I should say the start of a blog .... Read about the latest farm happenings at sherecountryranch.blogspot.com.
10/11/08: Please note we finally got DSL out in our neck of the woods so our email address has changed!
jshere@frontiernet.net
9/1/08: I just arrived home after my 1,765 mile journey to pick up my new girls. It was quite the adventure! Thank goodness my friend Debbie Newsam agreed to keep me company. Check out my Senior and Junior Doe pages to see the photos of my beautiful girls. Many thanks to Cheryl Sugar for parting with them!
Well, it has been another crazy week but things are finally settling down, at least temporarily. People have been asking about the Northern St. Louis County Fair results as well as my recent Linear Appraisal so here goes ....
In the Nigerian Dwarf classes, Pixie won 1st place Junior Doe, Masquerade won 1st place yearling milker, Little Voice won 1st place 3-5 year old milker, and Violette won 2nd place 3-5 year old milker. Little Voice then went on to win Reserve Champion! In addition, and with all breeds competing, Little Voice also won the Mother/Daughter award with Masquerade! Way to go girls!
My first ever Linear Appraisal was done and I must say that it was a truly educational experience and one I intend to continue participating in on an annual basis. It confirmed some things I thought I knew as well as teaching me a few new things to look for. It was money very well spent. My only regret is that I didn't have my bucks and more junior does evaluated this year. Due to other family obligations this year, most of my freshened does were dried off early. The does that were still in milk were only being milked once a day and in Xplicit's case, still had a single kid nursing on her, so their mammaries certainly were not all they could have been. Anyway, enough excuses. I feel the girls did very well all things considering and am quite pleased and feel much more comfortable knowing what I need to work on. One thing the appraiser did make note of was that all my appraised freshened does rated Excellent in their rump score, which she said is far from typical with the Nigerian breed. Below is a summary of how the girls rated. I have also added some additional comments on their individual listings on the Senior Doe, First Freshener, and Junior Doe pages.
| 8/6/2008 | General Appearance | Dairy Character | Body | Mammary | Final Score |
| Violette | V | V | E | + | 87 |
| Cinnamon | V | V | V | A | 85 |
| Xplicit | V | E | E | A | 84 |
| Terabithia | V | V | V | A | 82 |
| Aria | V | E | E | F | 80 |
| Fire N Ice | V | V | V | --- | V |
| Seminole Wind | V | + | v | --- | V- |
We attended the Northern Lights Dairy Goat Association's Annual Show and the Nigerian Dwarf Specialty Shows that were held in Marshfield, Wisconsin on June 14-15, 2008. It was a long haul but well worth it. Lost Valley KW Excaliber, Dancing Angels Tempo, TX Twin Creeks CAS Troubadour, TX Twin Creeks SEM Fire N Ice, and TX Twin Creeks SEM Seminole Wind made the trip and all of them made me so very proud with their winnings.
Many thanks to Debbie Newsam for keeping me company (and sane), helping me show, and for sharing her many tips and pointers during the show. I would also like to thank my new acquaintances Lori Knutson, and Jim and Andrew of Queensland Farm for their help. Angel and John McPherson and the Northern Lights Dairy Goat Association did a tremendous job of putting together a lovely, well-organized show and I am really looking forward to attending again in the future.