Flyaway Farm Mini Mania

Our herd started as a 4H project as many do in 1984 with standard ADGA breeds of Nubians and toggenburgs. Lamanchas were added a few years later, as my son had to have an "earless" goat. Nigerians joined us in 1997 and we began experimenting with Minis a year or so after that.

Actually the minis began as way to freshen out the standard size yearlings and not have to keep any of the kids (ha ha!). We pretty faithfully kept to this plan for a couple years with two notable exceptions. My very favorite Saanen doe “Rapture” had given me a lovely AI kid from a breeding I had wanted to do for years.  I had plans for Winter Dream to be a dry yearling, but she and my Nigerian buck AJ had other plans and presented me with a single doe kid "Mary" as the first kid of the 1998 season. I soon gave Mary to my dear friend Marlys as a companion for an Alpine kid she was getting. Meanwhile an Alpine first freshener had given me an adorable lavender (my favorite alpine color!) colored kid, also by AJ. All of the other mini kids went off to new homes or to butcher as I had no intention of keeping any of them, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to part with the little lavender kid. She was still here and unnamed come fall breeding season and Mary had also returned home. So I told myself “well it won’t hurt to freshen them both and see a couple more AJ udders and then I will sell them in the spring” (ha ha again!). Not having anything in the way of minis to breed them to, I bred them both back their sire (another test for AJ and I wasn’t keeping them anyway, right?). The lavender kid freshened with a buck and doe, both lavender colored, and had a nice udder, while Mary had freshened in December with a white doe and a very pretty nice udder. Still what to do with them? One of our local fairs is a non-ADGA sanctioned show and allows grades to show in whatever class of purebred they appear to be. So I thought “Ah, I can take them to the fair and show them and somebody will want them I’m sure”. So I named the lavender doe “Lavender” and registered them and a few kids with MDGA and entered them in the fair.

Meanwhile my Nigerian buck Santana had snuck through the fence and Mary kidded again right before the fair. Our judge Sharon Philpott was somewhat surprised to see the little girls in the classes with all the big goats, but since she had judged a mini show before she took it in stride. I don’t recall exactly where everyone placed, but they all did fairly well against the big breeds. Mary had won her yearling class over one or two animals, surprising the judge again at being a second freshening yearling! Still when it came time to pick GCH Saanen, I was astounded to have her select Mary (a yearling and a mini!) as the best Saanen! Mary sure looked tiny out there in the line up for Best Udder in Show, where yet again I found my self completely blown over when Sharon picked her for the Best Udder in Show over all those big does. Wow, what a thrill!!  

Needless to say I had enjoyed this show immensely, so I quit trying to find a home for Mary & Lavender and decided to keep a few mini does. I searched for shows to go to and searched for bucks to use. There were no shows on the PCNW at that time. Texas appeared to be the only place with shows, a bit too far for me to drive to! No mini Saanen or Alpine bucks were found anywhere. So Mary continued to be bred Nigerian, while I kept and used an AJ son on the alpine minis, hoping for my first second generation animals. Meanwhile I talked to the goat superintendent at the fair about adding a no premium mini show to their classes for the coming year. Much to my delight this was approved and plans were set in motion for our first official mini show in July 2000!

Mary and Lavender freshened that spring with even better udders, and nice daughters for me. I couldn’t wait for fair time!
We had a decent turnout for the mini show, which was once again judged by Sharon Philpott. She selected Mary for GCH, Lavender for RGCH, and our lovely lavender mini Alpine kid Whimsical for JCH.  What a great show day for us! But the whole show season was over in a day. 

The following spring of 2001 I talked with the fair superintendent about the possibility of holding two sanctioned mini shows on the same day, for which I was willing to sponsor the trophies, sanctions and judge on the second. Once again I got the green light and we made plans to have Suzanne Murray and Tembi Buckingham as our judges. Lavender’s AJ daughter Laurel freshened with a nice udder and Lavender presented me with a really nice doeling by AJ’s son Calculus. Mary on the other hand presented me with twin bucks, so no progress was made on that front. The double mini show was a great success! We had 12 senior does and 15 kids with Mary winning GCH and Polygon winning JCH under Tembi. Lavender beat Mary for the first and only time under Suzanne and ended up being RGCH, while a very nice mini Nubian doe was GCH. Again a very successful one day show season for all. 

Plans to bring a Saanen mini buck up from California fell through, so once again Mary was bred Nigerian that fall, while Lavender and her daughters were bred to a 1^st generation buck I had kept. My policy has been to only keep the bucks for the breeding season and then to sell them afterwards, the theory being I should use the following generation bucks the next season. However I am beginning to think this may not have been the best of ideas, as I ended up not being able to use them again if I liked their daughters.  I am going to start collecting them before they are sold, as I certainly could have had more flexibility in my breeding plans if I had a way to use them again, several years down the road. Several of these bucks had nice daughters. 

Mary had triplets for me spring of 2002, while Lavender had a single chocolate and white doe. Lavender’s daughter Laurel had twin does of which I was particularly taken with the striking black and white one. She is very dairy and stylish, just what I like. One of Mary’s does and the buck were colored, but I was very fond of the colored one so I decide to keep her anyway and see if she produced colored kids or white kids for me. Mary is milking like crazy this spring; her first test is nearly 9 pounds! Awesome to see all that milk come from such a little doe. The Benton fair finally rolls around and we have an even greater turnout than before. It sure is nice to see all the other breeders and their animals, and see how their breeding programs are progressing. We had long time dairy goat judge Sally Callahan as our first judge and I am nearly holding my breath as I show Mary. Sally isn’t crazy about her shoulders, but finally decides she has the other animals beat in all the other categories and puts her GCH. This win is her third leg and Mary becomes the very first GCH Mini of any of the breeds!! Talk about being on cloud nine!! I pulled her from the next show and Tembi Buckingham selected one of Danette's beautiful nubian minis as GCH.

So another season rolls on and I am more committed than ever to these wonderful little milkers. Such a perfect size and much more of the good dairy temperament that some Nigerians seem to be lacking. I finally got a nice mini Saanen buck for Mary and her daughters and a new outcross mini alpine buck for the other girls. The kids are just now arriving and I am getting a wonderful assortment of colors from the alpine minis and a set of triplet does from Mary! Udders are still being evaluated and I am already thinking about fall breedings for some of them!  The colored doe produced nothing but colored kids. I guess that experiment is at an end as I just can't keep so many goats. Truly mini mania at its peak. 

This article was originally published in Ruminations issue 38, 2003. It has been slightly modified for this web page.
More recent herd info is coming this winter.

Other Mini Breeders

Linda Lee Babcock
Strangewinds Minis

Lisa Jo Helgeson
Spiritwind Nigerians/Minis

Margo Piver
Phantasma Minis

Cheryl Sugar
Sugar Creek Farm

Brianna Ratcliff
Redneck Acres