Fair Skies Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats, at All I Saw Farm, Wasilla, Alaska, 907.232.5414 or 907.441.1851
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Dairy production

The improvement of mammary (milk production) genetics is vital to the success of our chosen breed.

For this reason, we participate in the Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) program. It is our goal to build a herd of does that can each produce a minimum of 1,000 pounds of milk per year by their second lactation.  Root for us in 2010 as we freshen up to eighteen does!


The proposed changes to Alaska's existing regulations 18 AAC 32 Raw Milk and Raw Milk Products are once again open for commentary.  The comment & public notice period runs through 5PM, July 6, 2010.  Contact DEC for more information.


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Updated 8 July 2010

Click here to see the current summary of rolling herd averages

We test through Langston University's E (Kika) de la Garza Institute for Goat Research, with authorization to test all lactating does under the auspices of ADGA and AGS through the end of 2010.  We have been testing since December 8, 2007 as DHI Herd #96007000, and prior to the establishment of our herd, most of the adult does we purchased were on test at their prior owners' farms.  Heather is also a certified tester through Langston, license #847, and Willamette, both effective through 2009 (renewal pending).  With these licenses she can test for other herds, but to avoid bias, she cannot officially test our own does or any does in which we have a pecuniary interest.

If you would like to join the DHI program on ADGA or AGS, feel free to contact us to set up an introductory meeting and schedule test dates for your herd.  We're also happy to help with paperwork.

We would like to express our continued gratitude to all those that have assisted us in our testing program.  We would especially like to thank Gail Putcher, AGS DHI Coordinator, and Penny Albert, ADGA DHI Coordinator, for their tireless efforts and endless patience with all our questions.

Ask us about our dairy Herd Improvement incentive program!  We may offer a credit toward a future purchase if you place and maintain your herd on test through the DHI program.  And now DHI has more flexibility than ever, with several new, innovative testing programs, including the Owner Sampler program!

Please see our FAQ page for information on legally obtaining raw milk in Alaska.


Update!
Does recognized by ANDDA's 2010 JuJu Awards for lactations ending in 2009 - Gracie and Beanie qualified for their Bronze JuJu Awards (over 750 pounds milk or over 37.5 pounds butterfat) while Whisper and Butter qualified for their Silver JuJu Awards (over 1,000 pounds milk or over 50 pounds butterfat)!  See our dairy production page for more detailed information.

Update!
Butter and Gracie qualified for AGS Top 10 for One Day Milk Tests in 2009!

Update!
SaySo qualified for her AGS & ADGA stars on butterfat and protein!

Update!
In August 2009, we completed our very first ADGA one-day test at the 2009 Alaska State Fair in Palmer!  The Alaska Mini Goat Cache sponsored the event and Fair Skies sponsored the award trophies for high milk standard-size and high milk miniature breeds.

Update!
Butter, Whisper, and Waiting all qualified for 2008 Bronze Juju awards from ANDDA and if we keep them in milk long enough this year, our girls should do WAY better in 2009.  In fact, Butter, Whisper, Gracie, and Beanie all qualified for their AGS stars on a one-day test in June.  Additionally, for their 305-day lactations this year, Butter, Whisper, and Gracie have already qualified for their AGS & ADGA stars on butterfat and protein; Whisper has qualified for her AGS star on poundage; Beanie has qualified for her ADGA star on butterfat and protein; and Butter, Gracie, Beanie, and SaySo are all on-track to earn their stars on milk poundage, butterfat, and protein very soon!

Update!
In June 2009, we completed our very first AGS one-day and AGS & ADGA verification test with Boreas Acres!  Thanks to Karlene Brouillet at My Kids Farm for testing for us!  As we're told is Murphy's Law, the girls didn't do as well as they had been doing on standard DHI, largely due to weather changes and the commotion of hosting another herd for the test.  Still, Butterscotch and WhisperSweetly both earned their AGS stars again.  In addition, Gracie and Beanie both earned their AGS stars as first-fresheners!

Sandy Hollow SS Butterscotch 3*D 3*M AR 1849
JC WhisperSweetly 2*D 2*M AR 2192
TH Xtreme Grace 4*D 4*M AR 2316
TH XBean 3*D 3*M AR 2316
Piddlin Acres DJ Ida Bomb
XR Yipsy
Fair Skies CC You'reGonnaLuvMe
My Kids Farm KT Black Molly

Fair Skies XK Yantarni

XO Yoo Yoo

XO Yancey

Fair Skies WP Zamarra
Fair Skies CC Zen
My Kids Farm B. Say ItAin'tSo star pending
Desertnanny Tequila Sunrise *D 1*M
- reference doe
JT Villa Nova - reference doe
SB WaitingForMe 2*D 2*M - reference doe

Lactation records for our does
Click here to see the current summary of rolling herd averages

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Butterscotch 3*D 3*M AR 1849
    twin does
3/18/10 

80 months (6-08) 

7*  87*  297*  18*  6.1%*  12*  4.0%* 
    quadruplets, two each sex 3/20/09 

69 months (5-09) 

1/21/10  308  816  58  7.1%  34  4.2% 
    AGS One-Day Test 6/20/09    Score: 43.02  92  2.8  7.2%  4.3% 
    ADGA One-Day Test 8/26/09    Score: 7.066  161  2.7  6.9%  4.4% 
    twin buck and doe 5/23/08  59 months (4-11)  1/23/09  246  623  46  7.4%  26  4.2% 
    twin bucklings 6/8/07  48 months (4-00)  2/22/08  260  459  33  7.2%  20  4.4% 
    twin bucklings 8/7/06  37 months (3-01)  3/12/07  218  434  38  8.8%  21  4.8% 
    triplet boy and girls 7/2/05  24 months (2-00)  11/24/05  146  257  22  8.6%  11  4.3% 
    single buck 9/16/04  14 months (1-02)  4/15/05  212  380  28  7.4%  19  5.0% 

Lifetime to date

1,477* 3,266* 246* 7.5%* 143* 4.4%*
   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test in seventh lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   In 2009, Butter qualified for Top 10 placings in AGS for One-Day Tests done in June 2009!  She tied for 7th place for butterfat.  Butter has already earned her dairy stars in both AGS and ADGA and her Silver JuJu Award in ANDDA.  In her last complete lactation (2009), she qualified again on all counts for both registries and on poundage for ADGA!  Butter also earned her AGS dairy star again based on her One-Day Test in June 2009.

   For her seventh lactation, Butter kidded with live twin does on 18 March 2010.  On her first test of the freshening on 1 May 2010, she milked 3.80# milk, 6.9% butterfat, and 3.8% protein.

   Of note, just for curiosity sake, in July 2008, in addition to our standard test samples, we sent in a sample taken separately from each teat the day after.  Interestingly, the left teat was 3.69% protein and 9.79% butterfat while the right teat was 3.57% protein and 10.53% butterfat.  WOW!  No wonder her kids grow so big so fast!  We aren't sure why these figures were so different from the official test samples (her butterfat was MUCH higher in these unofficial samples) but it is interesting, nonetheless.  Perhaps it is because, for this collection only, we milked right into the extra sample vials instead of milking out completely and mixing the whole amount to take a sample.


Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
WhisperSweetly 2*D 2*M AR 2192
    triplet does
3/18/10 

49 months (4-01) 

4*  87*  382*  17*  4.5%*  17*  4.5%* 
    quadruplets, two each sex 3/21/09 

37 months (3-01) 

1/21/10  307  935  55  5.9%  44  4.7% 
    AGS One-Day Test 6/20/09    Score: 48.17  91  3.5  6.1%  3.8% 
    ADGA One-Day Test 8/26/09    Score: 6.46  160  3.0  4.7%  3.8% 
    triplet bucklings 4/22/08  26 months (2-02)  1/26/09  280  650  39  6.0%  29  4.5% 
    twin buck and doe 7/17/07  17 months (1-05)  before 11/3/07  110  196  4.6%  4.6% 

Lifetime to date

784* 2,163* 120* 5.5%* 99* 4.6%*
   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test of fourth lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   For her fourth lactation, Whisper kidded with live triplet does on 18 March 2010.  On her first test of the freshening on 1 May 2010, she milked 4.20# milk, 4.6% butterfat, and 4.6% protein.

   Whisper has already earned her dairy stars in both AGS and ADGA and her Silver JuJu Award in ANDDA.  In her last complete lactation (2009), she qualified again on all counts for both registries and she nearly made 1,000 pounds of milk!  Whisper also earned her AGS dairy star again based on her One-Day Test in June 2009.


   Of note, just for curiosity sake, in July 2008, in addition to our standard test samples, we sent in a sample taken separately from each teat the day after.  Interestingly, the left teat was 3.6% protein and 4.84% butterfat while the right teat was 3.57% protein and 6.28% butterfat.  We aren't sure why these figures are so different from the official test samples (her butterfat was MUCH higher in these unofficial samples) but it is interesting, nonetheless.  We had some other interesting results with regard to LACT (Lactose), SNF (Solids Not Fat), TS (Total Solids), and SCC (Somatic Cell Count).  We believe this information may play a helpful role in our herd management and we definitely believe it is worth the $1.15 per sample to send in an extra vial for each teat and get this data in return!

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Xtreme Grace 4*D 4*M AR 2316
    three bucks and one doe
3/19/10 

32 months (2-8) 

2*  86*  495*  22*  4.4%*  19*  3.8%* 
    twin does 3/23/09 

21 months (1-09) 

1/21/10  305 857 46 5.4% 34 4.0%
    AGS One-Day Test 6/20/09    Score: 45.08  89  3.2  6.3%  4.7% 
    ADGA One-Day Test 8/26/09    Score: 5.784  158  2.7  4.6%  4.0% 

Lifetime to date

391*  1,352*  68*  5.0%*  53*  3.9%* 
   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test of second lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   In 2009, Gracie qualified for Top 10 placings in AGS for One-Day Tests done in June 2009!  She tied for 7th place for protein.

   For her second lactation, Gracie kidded with live quadruplets (three bucks and one doe) on 19 March 2010.  On her first test of the freshening on 1 May 2010, she milked 6.50#!!! She also produced 4.6% butterfat, and 3.8% protein.  As of her second test for the second lactation, Gracie has qualified for her ADGA star again on butterfat and protein.

   In her first lactation, Gracie has qualified for her dairy stars on poundage, butterfat, and protein in both AGS & ADGA as well as her Bronze JuJu Award in ANDDA!  Gracie also earned her AGS dairy star based on her One-Day Test in June 2009.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
XBean 3*D 3*M AR 2317
    two does and one buck
3/18/10 

34 months (2-10) 

2*  87*  421*  23*  5.5%*  17*  4.0%* 
    twin bucks 4/28/09 

23 months (1-11) 

1/28/10  276  741  45  6.1%  36  4.9% 
    AGS One-Day Test 6/20/09  Score: 47.23  53  3.5  6.4%  4.1% 
    ADGA One-Day Test 8/26/09    Score: 6.28  122  2.9  5.0%  4.6% 

Lifetime to date

363*  1,162*  68*  5.9%*  53*  4.6%* 
   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test of second lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   For her second lactation, Beanie kidded with live triplets (one buck and two does) on 18 March 2010.  On her second test of the freshening on 12 June 2010, she milked 5.30# milk, 4.6% butterfat, and 4.8% protein.  Beanie has already qualified for her ADGA star on fat again this year.

   In her first lactation, Beanie has qualified for her ADGA and AGS stars on poundage, butterfat, and protein and her Bronze JuJu Award in ANDDA!  Beanie also earned her AGS dairy star based on her One-Day Test in June 2009.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Piddlin Acres DJ Ida Bomb
    twin does
4/14/10 

27 months (2-03) 

2*  60*  207*  11*  3.3%*  8*  3.9%* 
    ? 4/17/09 

15 months (1-03) 

12/17/09  227  390  20  5.1%  17  4.4% 

Lifetime to date

287*  597*  31*  5.2%*  25*  4.2%* 
   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test of second lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   For her second lactation, Ida kidded with twin does on 14 April 2010.  On her second test of the freshening on 12 June 2010, she milked 3.2# milk, 3.3% butterfat, and 3.1% protein. She came to us a few weeks prior to this test.

   

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Yipsy
    single buck
3/16/10 

21 months (1-9) 

*  1*  89*  153*  6*  5.9%*  6*  3.9%* 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect third test of first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Yipsy is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in mid-March 2010 with a single buckling by difficult c-section.  We lost the buckling but we were relieved that she did not tear and still has a bright breeding future ahead of her.  We are loving her silky udder texture and her easy-to-milk teats.  Her first test on March 29, 2010 posted just 0.8# but we think the scale may have been accidentally set to kg instead of pounds, which would mean she actually milked 1.8#.  She was also only two weeks out from major surgery, and although she was recovering well, we only tested her because she did not have any kids to feed.  On 1 May 2010 she posted 2.30# so we're very pleased that this seems to have confirmed our suspicions on the prior test. She also produced 6.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein.  By her third test on 12 June 2010, she was holding her own with 2.10# milk, 5.9% fat, and 4.3% protein.  This is another doe that I look forward to milking and her udder properly deflates to nothing when she's empty.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
LuvMe
    twin buck and doe
3/15/10 

22 months (1-10) 

*  1*  90*  276*  18*  6.5%*  11*  4.0%* 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test of first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   LuvMe is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in mid-March 2010 with twin buck and doe.  Like her mother, Butterscotch, she has lovely udder texture, but we weren't all that thrilled with her overall structure at first.  As she's come into milk, the udder has improved tremendously, particularly in the fore.  For her first test on 1 May 2010, she posted a whopping 3.44#!  She also produced 6.0% butterfat and 4.0% protein.  Her second test wasn't all that impressive in terms of poundage, at just 2.6#, but where we were surprised was her butterfat at 9.3%!!  She also posted 3.7% protein on this test.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Molly
    twin does
5/31/10 

13 months (1-01) 

*  1*  *  *  *  *  * 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect first test of first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Molly is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in late May 2010 with twin bucks.  Too early to evaluate.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Yantarni
    single doe
6/5/10 

23 months (1-11) 

*  1*  *  *  *  *  * 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect first test of first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Yantarni is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in early June 2010 with a single doe.  Too early to evaluate.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
YoYo
    twin bucks
6/7/10 

17 months (1-05) 

*  1*  *  *  *  *  * 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect first test of first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   YoYo is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in early June 2010 with twin bucks.  Too early to evaluate.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Yancey
    twin does
6/13/10 

16 months (1-04) 

*  1*  *  *  *  *  * 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect first test of first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Yancey is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in mid June 2010 with twin does.  Too early to evaluate.

 


REFERENCE DOES


Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Zamarra
    twin does
3/30/10 

12 months (1-00) 

*  1*  75*  238*  11*  4.6%*  9*  3.8%* 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test of first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Zamarra is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in late March 2010 with twin does.  Although the appearance of the medial is a big improvement over her mother's, it is still not sufficient to keep the teats from pointing out or from creating a pocketed foreudder.  Although the capacity was fairly impressive, we are disappointed with her overall udder structure so far.  On her first test of the freshening on 1 May 2010, she milked 3.46#!    She also produced 5.2% butterfat and 4.1% protein.  On her second test on 12 June 2010, Zamarra milked 3.1# milk with 3.5% fat and 3.8% protein.  After this test Zamarra moved on to another herd in Palmer.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Zen
    single doe
3/28/10 

12 months (1-00) 

*  1*  77*  161*  9*  5.6%*  6*  3.7%* 

Lifetime to date

   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect second test of first lactation
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Zen is a first-freshener in 2010.  She kidded in late March 2010 with a single doe.  Although she was an absolutely stunning example of a very correct, very dairy doe, and despite the fact that her capacity wasn't terrible at first, we were very disappointed with her overall udder structure.  Zen had not improved at all over her mother with regard to her complete attachments.  On her first test of the freshening on 1 May 2010, she milked 2.60#.    She also produced 6.4% butterfat and 3.8% protein.  On her second test on 12 June 2010, she milked only 1.3#, producing 4.1% fat and 4.0% protein.  Zen apparently just could not forgive us for weaning her single doeling, who was growing very fast and gaining way too much weight on mom's rich milk.  After this test, Zen moved on to another herd near Fairbanks.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Say ItAin'tSo
    single doe
7/17/09 

13 months (1-01) 

6/12/10  331  549  35  6.4%  26  4.7% 
adjusted to 305-day lactation      305  499  33  6.6%  24  4.8% 
    ADGA One-Day Test 8/26/09    Score: 4.852  42  2.3  5.2%  3.9% 

Lifetime to date

331*  549*  35*  6.4%*  26*  4.7%* 
   *Results above reflect 6/12/10 final test for first lactation.
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   SaySo is a first-freshener in 2009-2010.  She kidded in mid-July 2009 with a single doeling and we are loving her silky udder texture and her early increasing production.  SaySo's first test on August 1, 2009 posted 2.6# and her second test on August 27, 2009 posted 2.3# (an ADGA One-Day Group Milking Competition off-site at the 2009 Alaska State Fair in Palmer, sponsored by the Alaska Mini Goat Cache & Fair Skies).  She was holding pretty steady at 2.0# during her third test on October 10, 2009.  She dropped off a bit during the cold winter months, but was still milking 1.5 pounds on test as of her February 2010 test and 1.74# as of May 2010.  She finished her first lactation posting 1.9# milk, 4.7% fat, and 4.2% protein.  Way to go, SaySo!  This is definitely a doe that I look forward to milking and we really enjoy testing her every month!  After her final test of her first lactation, SaySo moved on to the My Kids Farm herd where she is being rebred for a late 2010 kidding.

   Of note, on first March 29, 2010 test, she posted just 0.8# but we think the scale may have been accidentally set to kg instead of pounds, which would mean she actually milked 1.8#.  We know she was decreasing in production before the other does' new kids began arriving this spring, but we also know she started to increase due to allowing other does' kids to nurse her.  On 1 May 2010, she improved again and posted 1.74#.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Tequila Sunrise *D 1*M
    single doe
7/12/09 

51 months (4-03) 

sold in milk*  91* 191* 12* 6.3%* 9* 4.7%*
    ADGA One-Day Test 8/26/09  53 months (4-05)  Score: 4.824  47  2.2  5.6%  4.8% 
    twin bucks 12/20/08 

45 months (3-09) 

2/2/09  45  not reported  not reported  not reported  not reported  not reported 
    twin buck and doe 2/5/08 

35 months (2-11) 

6/26/08  143  192  18  9.4%  4.2% 
    single buck 2/5/07 

23 months (1-11) 

12/1/07  303  494  38  7.7%  25  5.1% 

Lifetime to date

582*  877*  68*  7.8%*  42*  4.8%* 
   *Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect 10/10/09 test
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Sunny is a fourth-freshener in 2009.  She kidded in mid-July with a single doeling.  Her first test on August 1, 2009 posted 2.4# and her second test on August 27, 2009 posted 2.2# (an ADGA One-Day Group Milking Competition off-site at the 2009 Alaska State Fair in Palmer, sponsored by the Alaska Mini Goat Cache & Fair Skies).  Sunny moved on to another herd in early November 2009.

   Sunny's third freshening and related lactation were never reported with the rest of the herd at her prior farm (a requirement for DHI compliance).  When we purchased Sunny on February 8, 2009, she had a full udder. We milked her out the evening of her arrival but she failed to refill, indicating she had been holding several days worth of milk and was already drying up.  We were disappointed as she was represented to us as "in milk" and she had only freshened 7 weeks prior so she should have had several more months of milk.  We reported the dates we knew for her freshening and the date we purchased her dry for DHI, so those days are calculated above, but any milk poundage, fat, or protein she may have produced during that time was not reported by her prior owner.  This skews her numbers somewhat negatively, as she did produce *something* during this lactation, it was just never recorded and reported.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
Villa Nova
    twin buck and doe
3/24/09 

40 months (3-04) 

6/20/09  89 117 7 6.0% 5 4.3%
    twin bucks 2008 

unknown 

unknown  unknown  unknown  spoiled sample  spoiled sample  spoiled sample  spoiled sample 

Lifetime to date 

89  117  6.0%  4.3% 
   
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Nova was a second-freshener in 2009.  Nova's first lactation at her prior owner's farm was not recorded due to an uncooperative attitude on the milk stand and a spoiled sample from her single test.  This year she kidded in late March 2009 with twins (buck and doe).  Although she had a rough delivery that set this lactation off to a slow start, she picked up speed for a while and posted a personal best of 2# on 11 April 2009.  Unfortunately, Nova fell ill, weaned her kids, and dried up in June.  She was under the care of a veterinarian and we were hopeful for a full recovery but it was not to be.  After many months of trying to improve her health and overall condition, Nova was laid to rest in October 2009.

 

Doe Freshened Age at Kidding Dry Lactation Days in Milk Milk (#) Butterfat (#, %) Protein (#, %)
WaitingForMe 2*D 2*M
    triplet does and buck
6/9/08 

28 months (2-04) 

2/4/09  241  588  40  6.8%  25  4.3% 
    twin buck and doe? 7/17/07  17 months (1-05)  3/22/08  250  407  27  6.6%  18  4.4% 

Lifetime to date 

498  995  67  6.7%  43  4.3% 
   
   Bold text indicates doe met or exceeded qualifying level for dairy stars. Qualifying for both ADGA & AGS is shown as indigo. AGS only is shown as pink and ADGA only is shown as peach.


   Waiting earned her dairy stars for protein & butterfat in her first lactation (2007)! In her last complete lactation, she qualified on milk poundage and butterfat for AGS, as well as butterfat and protein for ADGA.  She was very close to qualifying on poundage for ADGA but we bred her back a bit sooner than last year and so dried her up early to prepare her for her spring 2009 kidding.

   Waiting posted her all-time high milk on test at 4.7# (July 13, 2008)! Yippee!  Now we are kicking ourselves for not doing a one-day test! Unfortunately, after a week at the Fair only milking once daily due to showing commitments, our whole herd's production dropped way off.  On November 8, 2008, Waiting milked 1.7# milk, posting 8.4% fat and 5.3% protein, with a SCC score of 5.  Next year we will have to plan better to help keep production up while we are showing.  This is where the kids will come in for quick, short nips to keep the udder from overfilling and to keep the supply up over time.

   Of note, just for curiosity sake, in July 2008, in addition to our standard test samples, we sent in a sample taken separately from each teat the day after.  Interestingly, the left teat was 3.1% protein and 9.87% butterfat while the right teat was 3.14% protein and 8.81% butterfat.  WOW!  We aren't sure why these figures are so different from the official test samples (her butterfat in these unofficial samples was MUCH higher) but it is interesting, nonetheless.  Perhaps it is because, for this collection only, we milked right into the extra sample vials instead of milking out completely and mixing the whole amount to take a sample.

Waiting passed suddenly in late February 2009.  Unfortunately, her single buckling in utero was not developed enough to save.

 



Please note, our January and February 2008 milk tests gave us some unexpected results, which we suspect were caused by a processing error at the laboratory.  We have also learned that the same error is suspected in another herd tested and processed at the same time in February.  Despite several requests for investigation into the matter, no explanation was available from Langston.  This issue affected all three does' 2007-2008 lactations, but we do not expect the error made a significant difference in the calculations because these tests were done very late into their lactations and shortly after, the girls were dried up to refreshen (and thus restart calculations).

We are located on 20 gorgeous acres at All I Saw Farm, Wasilla, Alaska
Our mailing address is 645 G St., Ste. #100-579, Anchorage, AK 99501

You may email us at: FairSkies@AllISawFarm.com

You may call us at:
907.232.5414 (local call from Mat-Su)
or 907.441.1851 (local call from Anchorage)
Please note the current time in Alaska (we are 4 hours BEHIND the East Coast of the United States).


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