Goats

Probably most of you don't know that when I was a kid my family owned dairy goats. We even showed them in goat shows. Some of my earliest pets were goats and as a kid I had goat's milk on my cereal- it was good! These are not your general run of the mill scruffy goats. (in our family we called those "brush" goats) These are really well taken care of goats that people milk and enjoy sort of as pets. Some people even make cheese from the goat's milk. My sister recently contacted a person our family knew through having goats because she found their website. On their website there was a picture of one of their goats. What we didn't plan on seeing is a Morris family photo in the background! ha! Here's the picture.


If you look closely, the guy with the hat with the maroon shirt- that's my dad. To the left of him is my sister, Stephanie, and then my mom to her left. Up above my mom is a much younger me.

This particular breed of goat is called a Nubian. It has floppy ears and bleats VERY loud. My family never owned any of this kind.

Here are the other breeds of dairy goats.





This is the French Alpine. My family mainly had this kind. They are nice animals and very pretty. In fact, our family herd name was "Charity Hill Alpines".












This is called a LaMancha. It has very small ears. My family had several of this kind. People used to ask us if we cut their ears off!!! They are very gentle and my sister's favorite.






This is called a Saanen. This breed is all white in color. My family had several of these as well. They make lots of milk.






















This one is called a Oberhasli. It is always this reddish color and black markings. I think my family had one once, but I can't remember. They are not as popular as the other breeds.












This one is called a Toggenburg. It usually is not this scruffy looking. For shows people clip the hair and all. This one is not very common as well. Notice the small things on its neck? These are called "waddles" and they are not milked. (everyone always asked us that) They are just for decoration I guess. It's like the equivalent of dimples in humans... passed down from parents.

So now that you are are all thoroughly disturbed by my knowledge of goats... this ends the lecture on dairy goats.