I have a little goat. Her name is Violet. Violet is an Alpine goat. Her breed is originally from the French Alp area. Goats from that area are great mountain climbers. I mean, come on. It's the Alps!
This little goat of mine is my only Alpine. I originally purchased her mother, Viola, as a dry doe. I bred her to a buck named Simon. Simon's dam is Strawberry. I used to call him Simon the Strawberry Pie Man. Strawberry is a top milker at her farm & gorgeous. Part of the deal when I bought Viola was that Heather, the lady I bought most of my goats from, got a doe kid out of Viola. Viola kidded last year with buck/doe twins. Heather got her doe. I sold the buck to a little girl for a 4-h project.
Heather called me a couple weeks after having Viola at her farm. "do you want Violet back?" Hmmmm.... "What's wrong with her?"
"She keeps getting out of the pen. I can't have her showing the other kids how to jump out."
"Sure. Do you want her mother back? She sits on my milk pail. I can't milk her."
We than exchanged goats. Mother for daughter. That's how I got Violet back.
She is smaller than the other girls her age. I don't know why. Her sire & grand dam are big goats. Viola isn't small. Violet is. This made her perfect for Hannah to carry her around when the other babies got too big. Violet didn't care. She's a people goat.
I shuffled around the idea of whether or not to breed her this season. Her size was my biggest concern. Is she big enough? Will she be ok? I asked for advice on the matter because I am no expert. The decision was made to breed her to our Burlap the Lamancha. I do hope I have not made a poor choice. I will have to wait to see.
There are different opinions on this subject. To breed yearlings or not. I got Allie when she was a yearling, a goat less than a year old. I didn't breed Allie last year. Allie grew to be 1 of my biggest gals in the barn. Allie also got over-conditioned, pudgy. I had to put her on a diet of hay only until she got bred. This year will be a benchmark for me to see which way I will continue my breeding program.
I am from the school of thought that you never know until you try it. I guess I will find my answer in a month & a half. Violet is due March 28th. I will wring my hands with anticipation as the days grow closer.
In the meantime...this little bugger has found a way to get into my side of the barn! She gets onto the table & makes a mess out the things that are on there. She is obsessed with my stethoscope. I have it on the shelf, & she gets it down to play with it. Violet even has the gall to pee & poop on my feed barrel! How does she get in there? Through a hole that I made for the bigger goats to get their head in comfortably to reach the minerals. The mineral tray that I had to move because Violet kept jumping on it & pooping in it.
I can only tolerate so much. I only tolerate Violet's bad behavior because she is clever enough to figure out how to get over there, she should be a stupendous milker & she has a beautiful personality. Like I said, she is a people goat. She has a sweet face despite those long ears! I keep telling her that she is a LaMancha dressed as an Alpine. I can tell her bleat from all the others.
When I think she is misbehaving, I have to remind myself that she is just a goat doing goat things.
