There are six breeds of Dairy goats recognized by the American Dairy Goat Association. They are the Alpine, the Nubian, the La Mancha, the Saanan, the Toggenburg and the Oberhasli.
Our Saanan is Simmon's Farm Hannah, Out of Apple J Hana's Honey Bun, by The Simmons Farm Jemni. (Picture of Hannah coming soon.) We bred her to our young Oberhasli buck and she had 2 beautiful kids on Wed. 3/14/01, a cream colored doe and a white buck. They will be registered "experimental". The little doe, Jasmine, is pictured below.
We also have an extremely promising Y2K buck kid, Simmons Farm Pass The Buck, sired by Windrace Farm HT Jazzman *B, and out of Windrace Farm Saturn N Zephyr (whose pedigree is listed below).
Oberhasli, like Saanans and Toggenburgs, are a Swiss breed. They are not common in this country, and very little information is available on them. They come in 2 colors, chamoisee (pronounced as sham-wah-zay) and black. Breeding a black to a chamoisee will deepen the red color of the chamoisee. However, black bucks can not be registered. Does may be black, but chamoisee is preferred.
Chamoisee (which actually refers to the markings, not the color) is described as: Bay ranging from light to a deep red bay with the latter most desirable. Markings are to be two black stripes down the face from above each eye to a black muzzle, forehead nearly all black, black stripes from the base of each ear coming to a point just back of the poll and continuing along the neck and back as a dorsal stripe to the tail, a black belly and light gray to black udder; black legs below the knees and hocks, ears black inside and bay outside. Bucks often have more black on the head than does, black whiskers, and black hair along the shoulder and lower chest with a mantle of black along the back. A few white hairs through the coat and about the ears are permitted. Bucks frequently have more white hairs through the coat than does.
Hannah, Sahara, Sierra, Jasmine and Heather (Alpine/Nubian) have us swimming in milk! They each produce close to a gallon a day or more of delicious milk Heather has been showing us that you don't have to have papers to be a good producer! We are making alot of ice cream and keeping several of our friends in milk, too. Our puppies get all they need and are little butterballs from all the milk fat. We are very, very happy with our little dairy goat project!
We have 3 2003 A.D.G.A.doe kids as follows;
One dark chamoisee American Oberhasli out of Sahara by Passer
One chamoisee 1/2 Oberhalsi Experimental (meets Oberhasli breed type) out of Roxy by Passer
One chamoisee 3/4 American Oberhasli Experimental (meets Oberhasli breed type) out of Rachael by Passer
Priced at $150.00 to $200.00 each. Shipping/delivery *may* be available.
On a worldwide basis, more people drink the milk of goats than any other single animal.
A good Dairy Goat today gives as much milk as a cow did 100 years ago!
Goat milk has a more easily digestible fat and protein content than cow milk. The increased digestibility of protein is of importance to infant diets (both human and animal), as well as to invalid and convalescent diets. Furthermore, glycerol ethers are much higher in goat than in cow milk which appears to be important for the nutrition of the nursing newborn.
Goat milk tends to have a better buffering quality, which is good for the treatment of ulcers.
Goat milk can successfully replace cow milk in diets of those who are allergic to cow milk.
The natural homogenization of goat milk is, from a human health standpoint, much better than the mechanically homogenized cow milk product. It appears that when fat globules are forcibly broken up by mechanical means, it allows an enzyme associated with milk fat, known as xanthine oxidase to become free and penetrate the intestinal wall. Once xanthine oxidase gets through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream, it is capable of creating scar damage to the heart and arteries, which in turn may stimulate the body to release cholesterol into the blood in an attempt to lay a protective fatty material on the scarred areas. This can lead to arteriosclerosis.
Many dairy goats, in their prime, average 6 to 8 pounds of milk daily (roughly 3 to 4 quarts) during a ten-month lactation, giving more soon after freshening and gradually dropping in production toward the end of their lactation. The milk generally averages 3.5 percent butterfat. A doe may be expected to reach her heaviest production during her third or fourth lactation.
An interesting comparison of goat, cow and human milk.
Windrace Farm Saturn N Zephyr
Sire: *B Windrace Farm Parsons Saturn
ss: ++*B Body-Shops Tipsy Cherry Parsons (sire to 3X Nat'l Champ)
sss: ++B Seneca Valley's Felix ('92 Nat'l Premier Sire)
ssd: GCH Body-Shops 21 Cherry Pie 6*M (5X Nat'l Champ)
sd: Rocky-Hill Miracle SO Savannah *M
ssd: ++*B Highwater Alchemist
sdd; Rocky-Hill Roxanne
Dam: Sweet-Pea Tibby's Nibble 5*M VG87 (+ E E E)
ds: Alpenglow Beaux Jangles
dss: ++*B Highwater Alchemist
dsd: CH Happy-Hoof Farm Rainbow
dd: Highwater Tibby 4*M (VG87)
dds: ++*B Highwater Alchemist
ddd: Aire-Dale Acres Deborah 3*M