Introducing… River

One of our ultimate goals for the farm is to eventually build an on-site creamery so that we can make and sell artisan cheeses from our goat milk, and perhaps add a dairy cow in the future to expand those fromage horizons, too. With that in mind, we have known for awhile that we wanted to add a Nigerian Dwarf doe to our herd. While they are smaller counterparts to their full-size cousins, and do not produce the same volume of milk, their milk is more concentrated with butterfat and protein, making it an excellent basis for cheese.

Yesterday, we picked up our sweet little Nigerian Dwarf baby girl! It gives us great pleasure to introduce River (as in River Tam, from Firefly). Like her namesake, she’s a little discombobulated about her new surroundings, but is feisty and sweet at the same time. She has beautiful blue eyes, and we love her markings – she looks like a little Shetland cow or a skunk, depending on the angle. Ha!

Since the Nigerians can breed during months that are normally out of season for dairy goats, it will be quite beneficial to us and our goat herd share program, because we will be better able to stagger our herd’s lactation schedule to insure that we have milk year-round.

River is the pen with our other kids, but she is weaned. As you can see, she’s quite enthusiastic about eating hay, jumping right up into the feeder for easy access. We’re really excited to have her here on the farm, and I will get better photos of her the next time we take all of the babies outside.

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