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In 1997, I enrolled in an agriculture class in high
school and it was required that we have a project.
At the time I couldn't bear the thought of raising
and bonding to an animal only to sell it for meat,
so I took an alternate route. My family and
I went through many options for my FFA (Future Farmers
of America) project. We thought about everything
from planting a garden to raising fish. Finally
a friend of mine told me about a lady in our area
who raises pygmy goats. I got in touch with
her and that's where it all started.
I started out like most people do, with a single
doe and a wether. As the years went on my interest
grew and I became an active member of both the Sierra
Pacific Pygmy Goat Association and the Willamette
Pygmy Goat Club, showing at as many shows as I could.
I bought brood does and quality show goats.
Soon it was time to expand at home and up went another
pen for the boys. I was so excited when my
first doe was expecting. It was my very first
kidding and I had taken all of the precautions.
I watched all of the videos, read all of the books,
but nothing prepared me for the night that I was
about to have.
My prize showmanship doe went into labor at about
8:00pm. I watched her for about a half an
hour and she wasn't progressing. So I called
a good friend of mine for support. An hour
had passed and there was no baby. We ended up taking
her to the vet and having the kids pulled.
One live and one dead. My doe died four days
later of a torn uterus. She left me with a
beautiful doeling, Sonnet, who quickly became my
pride and joy.
Sonnet went everywhere with me. She stayed
in the house, went to school with me and even slept
beside me. She was even easier to house train
than a dog! Eventually Sonnet had to make the transition
to an "outside" goat. She wasn't happy about the
change, but over time she became the herd queen.
That season I still had two more does to kid out.
This time I was too afraid to do it on my own, so
I had my faithful friend, Linda Colville, help me
out. My herd grew and I learned the importance
of breeding for ease of kidding, correct structure
and longevity.
My main focus right now is to strengthen my herd
by bringing in bloodlines that produce correct structure,
kidding ease, longevity, and personality. I'm am
happy to say that I am achieving my goal to have
does that kid with ease. In earlier years, it wasn't
uncommon to rush almost half of our does to the
vet for kidding problems. In the past two years,
we've had 13 does kid and none of them had to pay
a visit to Dr. Heidi!!
I am now a full time nursing student through Oregon
Health and Science University and I've lost my free
time to attend shows during the "school year," but
I plan on attending some during the summer months.
Enjoy the site and If you have an questions or comments
don't hesitate to drop me an e-mail:
katie@fallingstarpygmies.com |
