Raising Quality Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats & Limousin Cattle
Last Updated: 11/15/08
Blue and YoYo enjoying a little treat in the Autumn leaves.
Last Updated: 11/15/08
Blue and YoYo enjoying a little treat in the Autumn leaves.
11/15/08: I have made some changes to my breeding schedule - check them out. Save $100 on a doe or buck kid when you place your free reservation before 1/1/09!
11/2/08: I do have some bred does available for sale and possibly a junior doe. I was going to wait until after they kidded in the spring but am getting a little crowded. If interested, please call or email me for the list. None of these are listed on my Sales page yet.
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- |
| Pixie | V | A | + |
--- | + |
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 do a tremendous job of putting together a lovely, well-organized show and I am really looking forward to attending again next year.
Eight years ago my dream to live in the country finally came true when my husband and I found the perfect little farm situated on 36 acres in Embarrass, Minnesota. Embarrass is known for its cold temperatures and claims the rights as the "coldest spot in the state". It is not unusual to see 30 to 45 degrees below zero many mornings before the sun comes up during the winter months. The unofficial low temperature set on February 2, 1996 was -64 degrees!
Despite the cold, we had successfully raised a small herd of hardy, healthy, and happy pygmies and dairy cross goats prior to getting hooked on the wonderful Nigerian Dwarf breed. To read about the history of the breed, click the following link. Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats
In addition to our growing herd of beloved goats, we also are home to a small herd of registered Limousin cattle, a dozen laying hens, two zebra finches, two cats, and five pugs, and one Lionhead rabbit.
We are currently members of the ADGA, AGS, NDGA, and MDGA.
Our cattle are registered with NALF and you can see some photos of our herd on their own page (still under construction). Shere Country Ranch Limousin
To see other family and farm photos, click this link. Shere Family & Farm Photos
All of our goats are registered with the AGS as well as the ADGA. Our kids are dam raised and bottle fed both. All kids are disbudded at three to fours days old. We strive to breed hardy, structurally correct, disease-free animals that thrive and produce well in our rather harsh northeastern Minnesota climate. Our goats are handled daily and are friendly and well-adjusted.
Our feeding program for our bucks consists of high quality locally grown grass hay, free choice Purina goat minerals, free choice baking soda, dried beet pulp, and a 16% protein pelleted goat chow mix that contains a urinary acidifier to help reduce the formation of urinary calculi. Our water quality is excellent and in the colder months we bring our goats buckets of fresh warm (almost hot) water several times a day which they really love. In fact, even in the summer months they prefer warm water, although I still haven't convinced my husband of that! We are currently experimenting with adding a little apple cider vinegar to their water. The goats really seem to like it and it helps keep our buckets cleaner too. Our girls get the same diet with the addition of some alfalfa hay, a non-pelleted goat grain mix, and a small amount of Purina Animax (Purina's version of Calf Manna). A small amount of black oil sunflower seeds are given as a treat. I have recently added Thorvin Kelp to our nutritional program.
We are blessed to have very few parasites in our area so we are firm believers in treatment mainly based on fecal and blood tests. I have been doing research on the herbal wormers that are available and started my does on a year round herbal worming program this past summer (2007). I am using the two-part system from Molly's Herbals. Initially I experimented using both the drench method and mixing the herbs in with their feed. The drenching was a struggle, not to mention messy too. They wouldn't eat all their feed when I tried just mixing it in with their grain, so they weren't getting the proper dose of herbs. I ended up making up treat-like dosage balls by mixing the herbs with the slippery elm bark and molasses per the instructions on Molly's web site. That method was a success for me. My does just love it! You can visit Molly's web site at http://fiascofarm.com. She has a wealth of invaluable information on her site. I plan on purchasing a microscope for doing my own fecals so I can monitor more closely how the program is working for me. If all goes well, I will expand it to include the bucks also. Update: All of my goats, including the bucks, are now on the herbal wormer and I am very pleased with the results. My herd has never looked healthier!
Our herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats (all goats over one year of age) is vet tested for CAE yearly. Per our vet's recommendation, we will test for Johnes every other year. We have never had CL or any sort of abscess in our herd. We have also added annual whole herd TB testing to our health program. Our herd is also registered with the Minnesota Board of Animal Health as part of the Federal Scrapie Eradication Program. Our Scrapie identification number is MN46368.
We received the results of our May 27, 2008 testing for CAE and all tests were negative. Tests were done using the more sensitive ELISA test. All of our goats one year of age and older were tested. We also had a whole herd TB test done at the same time and those results were also all negative.
Our herd is very young but is founded with animals from healthy, productive herds that emphasize functional structure and correct mammary systems. We currently are not on milk test but hope to begin in the near future and have chosen our foundation animals with that goal in mind.
