Fair Skies Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats, Wasilla, Alaska

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!

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!
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!

Lactation records for our does
Doe	Freshened	Age at Kidding	Dry	Lactation	Days in Milk	Milk (#)	Butterfat (#, %)		Protein (#, %)
*Butterscotch 3D 3M AR 1849* quadruplets, two each sex	3/20/09	69 months (5-09)	1/21/10	6	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	5	246	623	46	7.4%	26	4.2%
twin bucklings	6/8/07	48 months (4-00)	2/22/08	4	260	459	33	7.2%	20	4.4%
twin bucklings	8/7/06	37 months (3-01)	3/12/07	3	218	434	38	8.8%	21	4.8%
triplet boy and girls	7/2/05	24 months (2-00)	11/24/05	2	146	257	22	8.6%	11	4.3%
single buck	9/16/04	14 months (1-02)	4/15/05	1	212	380	28	7.4%	19	5.0%
Lifetime to date*					1,390*	2,969*	228*	7.7%*	131*	4.4%*
Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect end of sixth 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.*
Butter has already earned her dairy stars in both AGS and ADGA. In her last complete lactation (2009), she qualified again on all counts for both registries and this is the first time she's qualified on poundage for ADGA! Butter also earned her AGS dairy star again based on her One-Day Test in June 2009. For her sixth lactation, Butter kidded with live quadruplets (two bucks and two does) on 20 March 2009. On her first test of the freshening on 11 April 2009, she milked 4.5# at just 22 days fresh! This was her high-test day for this lactation. Her high butterfat for this lactation was 10.3% on her December 2009 test and her high protein for this lactation was 6.1% on her November 2009 test. Butter is confirmed pregnant for a March 2010 kidding. 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 2D 2M AR 2192* quadruplets, two each sex	3/21/09	37 months (3-01)	1/21/10	3	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	2	280	650	39	6.0%	29	4.5%
twin buck and doe	7/17/07	17 months (1-05)	before 11/3/07	1	110	196	9	4.6%	9	4.6%
Lifetime to date*					697*	1,781*	103*	5.8%*	82*	4.6%*
Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect end of third freshening. 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 her third lactation, Whisper kidded with live quadruplets (two bucks and two does) on 21 March 2009. On her first test of the freshening on 11 April 2009, she milked 3.7# at just 21 days fresh! In May 2009, Whisper topped her personal best again and posted 5.2# milk! Yea! We broke the 5# mark!! This was her high-test day for this lactation. Her high butterfat for this lactation was 9.4% on her December 2009 test and her high protein for this lactation was 5.5% on her January 2010 test. Whisper has already earned her dairy stars in both AGS and ADGA. In her last complete lactation (2009), she qualified again on all counts for both registries and she nearly made 1,000 pounds of milk this year! Whisper also earned her AGS dairy star again based on her One-Day Test in June 2009. Whisper is confirmed pregnant for a March 2010 kidding. 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 4D 4M AR 2316* twin does	3/23/09	21 months (1-09)	1/21/10	1	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*					*	*	*	*	*	*
Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect end 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.*
Gracie was a first-freshener in 2009. She kidded in late March with twin does and we were really pleased with her production. On her first test on 11 April 2009, she milked over 4# but dumped her afternoon bucket when she was startled by a loud noise outside. With the structure of her udder so far, we weren't worried, though. We were confident she would have another amazing test and boy did she ever! Her next test posted 4.7#! WOW! This was her high-test day for this lactation. Her high butterfat for this lactation was 9.0% on her December 2009 test and her high protein for this lactation was 5.7% on her December 2009 test. In her first lactation, Gracie has qualified for her dairy stars on poundage, butterfat, and protein in both AGS & ADGA! Gracie also earned her AGS dairy star based on her One-Day Test in June 2009. Gracie is confirmed pregnant for a March 2010 kidding.
Doe	Freshened	Age at Kidding	Dry	Lactation	Days in Milk	Milk (#)	Butterfat (#, %)		Protein (#, %)
*XBean 3D 3M AR 2317* twin bucks	4/28/09	23 months (1-11)	1/28/10	1	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*					*	*	*	*	*	*
Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect 1/2/10 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.*
Beanie was a first-freshener in 2009. She kidded in late April with twin bucks and we were pleased with her udder structure and consistent production. On her first test on 9 May 2009, she milked 3.8#, which she repeated on her July 2 and August 1 tests. How's that for consistency? Go Beanie! In her first lactation, Beanie has qualified for her ADGA and AGS stars on poundage, butterfat, and protein! Beanie also earned her AGS dairy star based on her One-Day Test in June 2009. Beanie is confirmed pregnant for a March 2010 kidding.
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)	*	1	205*	372*	25*	6.7%*	18*	4.8%*
ADGA One-Day Test	8/26/09		Score: 4.852		42	2.3	5.2%		3.9%
Lifetime to date*					*	*	*	*	*	*
Incomplete - Lactation in progress - results above reflect 2/6/10 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.*
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's dropped off a bit during the cold winter months, but was still milking 1.5 pounds on test as of her February 2010 test. Way to go, SaySo! This is definitely a doe that I look forward to milking and we really enjoy testing her every month!
REFERENCE DOES
Doe	Freshened	Age at Kidding	Dry	Lactation	Days in Milk	Milk (#)	Butterfat (#, %)		Protein (#, %)
*Tequila Sunrise D 1M* single doe	7/12/09	51 months (4-03)	sold in milk*	4	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	3	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	2	143	192	18	9.4%	8	4.2%
single buck	2/5/07	23 months (1-11)	12/1/07	1	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	2	89	117	7	6.0%	5	4.3%
twin bucks	2008	unknown	unknown	1	unknown	unknown	spoiled sample	spoiled sample	spoiled sample	spoiled sample
Lifetime to date					89	117	7	6.0%	5	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 2D 2M* triplet does and buck	6/9/08	28 months (2-04)	2/4/09	2	241	588	40	6.8%	25	4.3%
twin buck and doe?	7/17/07	17 months (1-05)	3/22/08	1	250	407	27	6.6%	18	4.4%
Lifetime to date					491	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).