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Family News


The 7A+ Extended Family members are a busy bunch, and sometimes they share pictures and reports of the latest news with us.


Family News - Spring 2008  

 
From Good News Farm in Somerton, Arizona

CHRISTMAS IN MAY! Seven A Plus received a delightful surprise from our good friends of many years, Colleen Scott and her daughter April Fair who have Good News Farm in Somerton, Arizona. A friend of theirs hauled a very special nanny to us. Can Quest is from Can-Can, one of their many Permanent Grand Champions, and has in her background the first goat April and Colleen bought from us– Sackett, the beloved "Marshmallow Monster."

We are delighted with Can Quest. She is such an elegant, long-bodied, feminine lady, but don't let her fool you. She does have just a touch of tomboy behind that innocent face. Right now she is carrying out a special assignment that none of our goats can do. Because Colleen and April dehorn all their goats Can Quest is just right to become the close friend of our little bottle deer, Pet. Pet grew up with two bottle billy goats; all three of them born much earlier than the other babies. The boys had to go when they got weaned, but Pet is lucky because our new goat doe can become best friends with our deer doe. No horns to knock her around with when she gets cross. That way Pet will always have someone she knows close by to help her adjust to her confusing deer/goat lifestyle.
     

 
Our beautiful new doe, Can Quest.
This is one nanny we will call a "doe."
     
  Here are the two does sharing a cluster of leaves. Can Quest will be a sister for our bottle deer, Pet, who would have a lonely and confusing life otherwise. We need to keep Can Quest in a restricted area where she won't be exposed to twin leaf senna, and we want to let Pet grow big before we give her the freedom to wander and jump fences with the other deer. We think Pet will always come back to Can Quest after she after she spends some time around the deer.

Jerry and Frances Nix – just up the road from our ranch, near Rocksprings
     

  Many generations of baby goats have enjoyed romping on the monster rocks that are on the Nix ranch. Notice that circle of bare dirt tromped out around the rock.
     

  Remember when Miss Mary was sitting on a rock playing like she was Queen Mary? Now she has a real life role as Mama and looks very pleased with the job.

The VanderMartins - near Buffalo, Texas
 
Fred and Gwen VanderMartin bought some young goats at our Tyler sale and were good enough to share the news of this year's kid crop with us. Fred writes a newsletter that you should ask him to share with you also. He passes on the regional news about meetings and activities in the East Texas area, but he also talks about the meat goat industry in general. You would benefit from the industry-wide and pasture-wide observations in Fred's e-mail newsletter.

As a sample of the larger picture he urged producers to lobby for rules that would let goat meat be shipped between states. Presently foreign countries can send in goat meat to the United States with little or no inspection, but states cannot cross the border to the next state with this product unless they meet unrealistic standards. Fred is a lawyer so can analyze those laws better than we untrained people can.

Below you can see a sample of the observations that Fred and Gwen make in the pasture. This was an e-mail to us, but in his publication he also mentions common sense ways to set up your herd with a profit in mind. Notice that in this message he mentions what can be a real problem; stranger kids robbing milk from an inexperienced mother. Also he and Gwen are making muttons out of almost all their little billies to take advantage of the wether market.

The following is a quote from Fred's e-mails:

"7A+ Anacacho is the daddy of Penny's babies. His Sire is Traildriver and his Dam is Rainsong. Talkeetna is the other buck we have. His Sire is DSM Snuffy and his dam is Icemagic. The Momma is 7A+ Penny King, her sire is Rawhide and her dam is Muscadine. She's a popular Momma around the babies because I think she is too generous with her milk. She is a first time mom and becomes confused when a bunch of kids surround her and some of the little freeloaders try to get a quick snack.

"Both bucks have produced many males that will make some impressive show wethers. At this time we will be leaving only two single birth bucklings intact. Both have a wide base and a good loin that carries back to the hindquarters and were sired by Anacacho. At this time Gwen and I have 41 kids on the ground with 2 death losses. My dear, darling, long suffering wife that is burdened with a large herd and one hard headed old billy goat (yours truly), is very impressed with the babies that both bucks have produced, with a high ratio of bucklings, which we were hoping for, as all of the counties except Freestone Co. have their youth livestock shows in the late winter-early spring and we hope to sell them to the show folks."

And one more quote from Fred that all of us goat people can identify with:

"They say that dogs are man's best friend, but the originator of that old saw never raised a herd of nanny goats."

If you would like to receive Fred's newsletter, here is his email address: clwyer@gmail.com

This is a picture they shared with us of Penny Knight and her two billy kids.....




It looks like Buffalo Bob standing behind his mother Penny King has taken on the duty of Rear Guard stationed there to fight off the neighbors who have heard that Ms. Penny is generous with her milk.


Dream Acres Boers – Athens, Texas
 
Judy Hill sent us these pictures. We love to hear from Judy because they treat their goats so well. The Hill family have managed to gentle down so much the four goats they took home with them several months ago it just amazes us. Soon they're going to pick up two more nannies and another billy to take back with them to East Texas.
     

  That boy is barely taller than his goat, but look how in control and businesslike he is. This picture of Corbin and Rock Solid epitomizes the biggest contribution that Boer goats can make to a family. When three generations share in the fun of goats it brings a family together and gives them memories for the years to come.
     

  When Talladega went to East Texas he had never been handled and certainly could not have been caught in the pasture. Now Mike can give him a chest rub any time he wants to. Talladega has just received a short haircut which probably feels good in this hot Texas weather.
     

  These three nannies are the ones Judy bought earlier. Not one had ever been handled, but they're all three gentle now. And the one closest to the camera has shown problem solving ability that no other goat has demonstrated in our experience. The girls were shut away from the hay bale overnight by a horse panel fence – bars that started little more than a foot from the ground. The next morning Popourri was eating from the hay bale. Mike thought he must have failed to tie the gate well. He moved her back with the other girls and had hardly turned around before she flopped flat on her side and began to wriggle like a snake to pass under the panel!

Stoney Field Boers – Thurmont, Maryland
 

  Behold the Maryland Twist! In this picture taken on his 3-month birthday, Rising Sun has a longer and fuller twist than many billies months older. His mother is a 7A+ nanny from a Honey Girl daughter and a Wobbles son. His father is that great big old Jerry whose picture is in Mark Spalding's section of the Extended Family page. We have been trying to get kids from Jerry and our nannies here by means of artificial insemination for two years without any luck so far. When we look at how good this kid is we are even more frustrated at our lack of success than we were before.
     

  Rising Sun looks good from every angle.

Hill Boer Goats


This is an interesting bit of family news that we would like to share with you the way it came to us. We appreciate so much the kindness and thoughtfulness of Jim Hill of Hill Boer Goats to let us know about one of our babies that left here five years ago. As you can see from the pictures we remembered the billy and his mother with affection. This is an e-mail we received November 11, 2007. It was from Jim Hill from Lowmansville, Kentucky. We had met him at the Jackson, Kentucky, show in September of 2007. He showed two nannies there who both did very well.

Hi John and Cathie,
Well, I've waited until today to write you and tell about 7A + Nueces. I waited to see if he would pull through. You sold him at your Kentucky 2003 sale. He was one year old at the time. He's a Liveoak son. His mother is 7A + Wampus, a Cloud Dancing-DSM Huggy daughter.  In early October a friend called and told me that a 7A+ Buck was for sale. I called and got an appointment to see Nueces on October 7th.The lady told me he was going to Richmond's stock sale if not bought that week. Oct 7 was on a Sunday. I had already decided to buy him.  To make a long story short, he is doing fine. He's eating Honor Show Goat feed with a little sweet feed mixed in and Orchard grass hay. He has his own lot and stall. He and I both feel he deserves it. His chest is filling out and looks as if his rear end is getting some meat back. Last week he bred two of the does I showed at Jackson. Both does are long and big. One, Chloe, was Reserve Champion in the Senior Division and the other, Bubbles, was third in the 16-20 class.  I'm also retired and only attend the small shows, with the State Fair being my largest. Thought you would like to know. 7A + Nueces says "Hello"......Jim Hill

Jim mailed us a picture taken on Nueces' sixth birthday so we could see how well he was doing. As all of you who love goats realize it is a real comfort to know that someone is taking such affectionate care of one of your baby goats. What a great kindness it was for Jim to make such a very special gesture - taking a picture on his birthday! And the news also came along that Nueces' daughter from Jim's show winning nanny "Bubbles" was born on Easter and is named "Nueces' Bonnie." Now we can watch the show lists for Bubbles and Bonnie, truly glamorous names

Wampus and 3 wet babies Nueces 6th birthday

We sent Jim this picture of Wampus and three wet new babies that we thought included Nueces. When you compare the shape of the red on Nueces' face in the picture taken on his sixth birthday and the baby facing the camera in the newborn picture you can see that we did indeed find the picture of Nueces' first birthday.

 

More Family News - Winter 2007»»


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