Our goat herd is growing…..

Meet “Jedi”

We found a very promising herd sire for our girls.  He comes from some really nice Nubians  and we’re so excited to add him to our herd. Isn’t he so striking?!  Love his coloring, he’s so flashy!  Blue Roan and Tan Trim, so handsome! 

He will be our first bottle baby, so we’ll be busy for awhile with our new baby boy! We’re scheduled to pick him up in two weeks, so exciting with all these wonderful additions to our small family farm.

If all works out, we’ll be breeding him to our girls at the end of the year.  He’s going to add some wonderful attributes to our herd.

Thank you to Brittney Carpenter of Restoration Ranch Nubians for this beautiful boy!

Jersey Girl Growing

Our Mini Jersey is growing up so fast!  She gets prettier by every picture.  I just love her long eyelashes!  Her breeders are doing an awesome job halter and lead training her.  She’s already had a visit from the vet to dehorn her and we were happy to hear that she didn’t even move.  Sounds like she’s just as sweet as she is pretty! We can’t wait to bring her home!

Our 1st Goat Breeding

We sent Abby out to be bred in hopes of a summer kidding.  This young buck comes from great milking lines and we’re excited for our first kids to be born on the farm.  Abby had triplets at her last kidding so we have an ultrasound scheduled the beginning of March to see what we’ll hopefully be expecting.

Our New Livestock Guardian

Now that we have added some darling does and entertaining ewes, we found ourselves in need of a Livestock Guardian.  We have everything from foxes, coyotes and mountain lions and had already lost a few grown Turkey’s and chickens last year and didn’t want our other animals to met the same demise.  So, after much research we decided on a Maremma Sheepdog for their natural ability to guard large flocks of livestock and it’s desire to stick with the flock.  It took us a while to locate and  find the right breeder, then it was a matter of waiting for the right puppy.  We thank Deborah Reid from Black Alder Ranch for our newest member of our family.

Santi @ 10 Weeks

Santi is our foundation Maremma boy at Swift Family Farm.  He is from excellent lines and has done an awesome job adjusting to our home.  He has really bonded with our youngest son and my husband.  

Santi @ 13 Weeks

Santi is growing fast!  He will max out at over 100lbs and 27″ tall.  A gentle giant as he just melts at the sight of you and loves to be showered with affection.  He spends his days outside getting to know the goats and sheep and sleeps with them at night.  He is learning that they are his charges and what his job is on our farm.  He’s still a puppy after all.  

We’re hoping to add a beautiful Maremma girl in the coming months as well, to care for our newest addition (Mini Jersey)  and keep Santi company.  

Christmas on the farm….

My husband surprised me with a handmade goat milking stand for Christmas.  Now to start training the goat kids!

This little heifer, a Mini Jersey Calf was my next BIG christmas present!  She will be delivered in April 2017 and is an A2/A2 calf.  She will be such a fun addition to our little farm.  We can’t wait to meet her!

New Additions….

July 15, 2016 we welcomed our first litter of Satin Angora kits.  These two darling does are our next hopefuls.  The red, “Picket” will be staying here.  While, “Katniss” the little Chestnut now lives with a wonderful young lady just down the road.

Satin Angora wool is very fine and hard to spin on its own, so we decided to add these sweet Southdown Babydoll Sheep to our farm. This is “Millie” in white and “Luna” in black.  It’s amazing how calm and friendly they are.  Even our chickens love them!  You’ll find these two sleeping in the sun with chickens perched right on top of them.  So fun!!  They love the sweet grain we feed as treats and come running whenever we’re near.  We hope to breed them the end of 2017.  

These three girls are so fun!  We’ll be trying our hand at milking, selling goat milk shares and hopefully goat milk products (soaps, lotions, etc.).  “Daisy” (on the far left) is the most agile and loves to play.  “Abby” (in the middle) is quite the magician, you can find her breaking into food bins and is quite the instigator.  Abby’s daughter, “Violet” (far right) is the sweetest of the bunch, calm and quiet and always the follower.  We’re planning our first breeding of Abby in 2017, with kids due Summer 2017. 

Interested in future goat milk shares, a Nubian kid or Southdown Babydoll Ewe or Ram?  Contact us for more information!

County Fair 2016

We had an amazing time at the 2016 county fair.  Our daughter’s Satin Angora Jr. Doe, “Mocha” took Grand Champion Purebred Rabbit at 5 months old.       While our Buff Japanese Bantams took 1st and 2nd in their classes.