2012 Kidding Updates August 27

August 27,2012

Finally have updated some of our website with our Linear Appraisal scores.  We were pleased with our session and as usual there is always something to learn.   Now comes time to sit down and plan our breeding season while limiting the number of does we will be breeding!

I also have a lot of work to do on our website adding all of our new Hi-Land Saanen does.  We finished two does this year and earned several legs on others.  We will be attending the Big E in W. Springfield the end of September and that will just about finish showing for the year.  We may attend the show in Sandwich, NH the following weekend but not quite sure yet.  I really enjoy the show up there in New Hampshire.  It is such a neat little fair!

We continue to whittle down our Lamancha herd.  We have sold Crusader and three of the does which will leave us with Little Rainbow French Pie who will be 14 years old.  She will live the remainder of her life here.  She is probably one of the last of the Little Rainbow herd owned by Tom and Barbara Reed.  We may keep two Crusader dry yearlings to see them in milk!

We do have our Spotlight Sale Kickapoo Valley Alpine buck Zeus for sale.  He has grown into quite a handsome fellow but we are not going to be breeding any Alpines this year .  The old girls will live in retirement.

Madison is going on 13 years old and continues to amaze us .  She is rather spoiled but looking wonderful. We were extremely pleased with our Rendezvous daughters in milk and can't wait to see how they mature.

We are also downsizing our Oberhasli herd .  We had a lot of doe kids born this year so must decide who stays and who goes.  We are keeping 5 milkers .

We have gotten some lovely daughters out of  CH Mcquitty Farm WMV Macabee.  The Saanen kids are lovely and we are so pleased to have added quite a few of the Hi-Land herd .

We were worried like everyone else about the hay situation but thankfully, we have enough to get us through until next spring.  It does help when you cut down on the number of animals you have.

Enough for now.   Wishing everyone well.   Donna


June 3,2012
It has been quite a hectic year and I am finally finding time to update our blog.  We will be listing only what we have left for sale which will make it easier to browse through.  We have been to our first show in May and  were very pleased to have the Best Doe in Show with two different Saanens .  We also had a 4year old Oberhasli go Best of Breed in both rings with 25 milkers total.  Our yearling and 2 year old Oberhasli were first in their class in the Oberhasli Specialy ring.   Our yearling Toggs placed first and second in one ring and first in the second ring.  Our 3 year old Togg went Reserve Grand in one ring.  A hectic day showing three different breeds in two different rings!!!!

We have been very fortunate to have acquired some lovely Saanens  one of which at her first show ever was Best in Show!   Hi-Land Lotus.  Thank you Jean Hurlburt for entrusting your favorite old girl to us.

We have sold our small Nigerian herd and have dramatically cut down our Alpine herd keeping only the old girls who will be retired.   We may only keep a few dry yearling Lamanchas along with a 2 year old milker.  Hard decisions to make but necessary as we wish to concentrate on our Toggs, Oberhasli and Saanens.

January 1, 2012 Update

Hope everyone had a great holiday season. I have made all kinds of New Year resolutions and one of them is to keep everyone updated on what is going on at Welbian Farm. We have finished breeding the does (hopefully) and of course bred far more than we had planned on. We did leave some of the older girls dry but then bred several doelings that we had not planned on breeding!!
This is such an exciting time of the year as we await the new kids to arrive. We are extremely pleased with this year's kid crop and can't wait to see some of them in milk. Also hopefully this year will be a better year with no broken necks so that we can get them off to a good start milking on a regular twice a day schedule.

Glen still has to take it easy with his neck but was able to slowly but surely get the barn cleaned out. The does were almost able to walk over the feeders!! It seems good to be able to catch up on things. We still have a way to go but the animals will be comfy and cozy.

I have slowly been working on the website and have the Goats for Sale section updated with the breedings we have done. Mike also did quite a bit of updating on our facebook page "Welbianfarmdairygoats". It looks great and he even updated pictures. I also have updated the Semen Sales page. Now that the holidays are over with I hope to have the website updated by the end of January. With all the breeds it is quite a consuming task!

Take care everyone and hope you all have a great kidding season! Donna