Back in April, as I was waiting for Trixie to kid, I constructed a document on the care and maintenance of our herd. I finally got it typed up today and added it to the website. This will be a living document that changes as our operations change. Take a look and tell me what you think!

I had a little time to work on the website today, so I took the time to reformat the Nigerian Dwarf pages. The new column format makes it alot easier to see all of our breeding stock and navigate to their pedigree pages.  I have also added a Goats Ever Owned page. Check out the new changes and let me know what you think!

We have two does who are due to kid the first week of July.  Jasper Pine Precious is HUGE and is due on or around the 4th.  This will be Precious' fourth freshening, and she is bred to Jasper Pine TN Top It Off.  Gypsy Moon CM Airess E'lan is also bred to Jasper Pine TN Top It Off and is due to kid on or around the 6th of July. This is Airess' first freshening, and we have been waiting for babies from her for a long time.  Airess won her Junior leg when she was only 7 weeks old, and so she will be shown this fall for the first time as a senior.  She already has a handful of udder, and it is looking really nice. Her udder so far is very correct with excellent teat placement and a nice smoothly blended fore. Her dam, Airianna, won Best Udder of Breed as a first freshener, and we are hopeful that Airess will accomplish at least that much this fall. Airess will make her debut as a senior doe at the Summit City Classic in September.  We shaved her down this morning, to prepare her for kidding, and we decided to shave all of her instead of just the obligatory hind end. Here is one last shot of Airess E'lan as a Junior Doe. Love this girl!

I have been very busy lately and have fallen behind, but I wanted to let everyone know that I have updated the website with new recent pictures of kids on the FOR SALE page. We have also sold and bought a couple of animals and those are updated as well.

I wanted to take a minute to answer a frequently asked question. 

"Why are you selling your bucklings as unregistered?"

There is a very good reason for this, and it pertains to the quality control of our herd and of the Nigerian breed as a whole.  The bucklings we have for sale are being offered as unregistered because they were sired by *yet* unproven bucks. This means that the daughters that we have retained by the sires have not yet freshened. When the daughters freshen later this year we can evaluate their udder and compare their first freshened udder to their dam's udder.  This way, we can evaluate the udder genetics the sire has given to their daughters, and estimate the udder genetics of their sons.  It is purely a quality control issue.  This does not mean that the bucklings we offer would not be great herdsires, it just means that right now, we cannot estimate their udder genetics.  Since udders are very important in the show ring, and in the milkpail, and bucks obviously do not have udders, it becomes a waiting game.

Some of the bucklings we are offering have excellent confirmation, and might easily be the perfect match for your breeding program.  If you have any questions regarding the individual animals for sale, I would be glad to discuss the strengths and weaknesses in confirmation of each animal. We offer these bucklings at half their normal registered price, with the option (our option) of registering the buck at a later date for the balance of the registered price once the udder genetic characteristics are evaluated.

Yesterday, we attended the first day of Hoosier Classic in Richmond, Indiana.  We had a great day, and although we didn't bring home any ribbons this time, our animals did very well in both rings. We had two junior does and two bucks with us. There were 250 junior does shown and over 50 bucks!  Great show and awesome numbers!

Ring A
Twin Willows AM Betina D' Gato 1st (single entry)
Twin Willows SB American Honey 2nd of 5

Twin Willows SB Baron von Brio 1st of 2
Gypsy Moon CM Ain't Misbehavin 3rd of 5

Ring B
Twin Willows AM Betina D'Gato 1st (single entry)
Twin Willows SB American Honey 2nd of 5

Twin Willows SB Baron von Brio 1st of 2 & Reserve Grand Champion Junior Buck
Gypsy Moon CM Ain't Misbehavin 1st of 5 & Reserve Grand Champion Senior Buck

Ribbons for the buck show went to the winners of the next class older than Baron and Mischief.

We also brought home our new handsome buck, Helmstead Minis FF Scorch!  We have big plans for this guy.  He will help us bring the overall heights down on our does, and hopefully level out our rumps.  He is a very sweet boy, and he is (successfully) integrating with the other bucks this morning.

Here is a picture of Scorch in his pen last night.  It was too late to put him out with the other bucks in the dark, so we gave him his own stall to sleep in for the night.

This week, we will also be adding Parrish Farms AA Dionysus to our buck string.  Can't wait to meet our little guy! Big things are happening at Twin Willows Farm! Have you visited yet? Shoot me an email to set up a farm visit!

I've been working on getting everyone's pedigree pages updated and reformatted.  I now have pedigree pages for all of the senior does and the herdsires, and I'm still working on getting pages for the junior does finished.

I have also added a doeling out of Trixie and Mischief to the For Sale page.  Check that page for details on Beatrix.

If you are in the Richmond, Indiana area this weekend, stop by the Wayne County fairgrounds for the Hoosier Classic ADGA Jr/Sr Doe and Buck Show May 7-8.  See you there!

Twin Willows is proud to announce that we will be adding a new FANTASTIC two year old buck to our herd. I am confident that Scorch will bring more length, dairyness, and superior udder genetics to our herd. I am especially excited about Scorch's near level rump, which is a confirmation characteristic that we are currently working on in our herd.

Scorch is the progeny of MCH/CH/PGCH Kids Corral LL Fire Flame VG X Echo Point Aspen.  We will be bringing him home this Saturday. BIG thank you to Ben and Kate Helms of Helmstead Minis for allowing us to purchase this incredible buck!

Our Buff Orpington hen who went broody last month has hatched out three little chicks. She is still sitting on the remaining eggs.  Wonder how many more will hatch?

My very dear friend, Sara E. Graves, brought her family out for a visit last week.  Even though it rained, we had a great barbeque and a great time playing with the goats and fishing in the ponds. Here are some of the beautiful pictures that she took at the farm.