This spring our family held a discussion as to where we wanted to go with the dairy goat program. The guys all decided that they wanted to focus on breeding Miniature Alpines so that meant the Toggs had to go. Our new herd starter is Arctic Light's Jazzy.
Jazzy is a first generation Mini-Alpine. This means that her dam was a registered purebred Alpine doe and her sire is a registered purebred Nigerian Dwarf. The goal is to consistantly produce a line of dairy goats that look and perform like the standard size, but maintain a smaller stature to meet the needs of small acreage farms and ease of handling and care.
Jazzy sports a tightly attached udder that produces a steady 4 pounds (minimum) of milk daily. Since she is a first time freshener that produced a single doe kid, we expect that she will produce more on her second freshening. Despite her small size, she has full size teats that are easy to milk. Because of her Nigerian sire, she produces a milk that is higher in protein and butter fat than a standard Alpine. Her milk is sweet and wonderful!
If you are interested in attending any of our local goat shows, please see the schedule of events on our "Events Page".
For Jazzy's first freshening, she was bred to a Nigerian buck. In January, she produced a single doe kid that was fast and easy to deliver. This time around, we are looking to breed her to another Miniature Alpine to produce the second generation of the project.
Once we have the third generation and meet the breed standard, the goats will be registered as "American Miniature Alpines". It takes six generations, with the last three consistantly meeting the standard before the goats can be registered as "Purebred Miniature Alpines". As you can see, we have a ways to go!
Jazzy checks out her newborn daughter.
"I'm here, Mom. What do you think of me?"
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