The Goat Herd

about the breed…

The precise history of the Nigerian Dwarf breed is incomplete as records in the early stages of breed development were not always generated or maintained. What is known is that a goat species referred to as a West African Dwarf lives in the lush, tropical climate associated with West Africa. This goat is used for meat and dairy purposes by the by the native population. However, it is not known if any methodical breeding program has ever been practiced. More likely, goats freely bred within their herd populations. There are currently government-sponsored programs in West Africa to preserve habitat and assist the resident population of "WAD" goats as development, unrestricted logging, and other livestock operations have threatened their existence.

It is believed that West African Dwarves (WAD) were originally imported to the United States from Africa between 1900 and 1920. There has been speculation that some may have traveled on old steamer ships that were charged with transporting tigers and lions and other big game animals from Africa to the Western Hemisphere for the circus, zoo, and carnival trade. The goats however were not destined for exhibitions; they were on the menu for the big cats while in transit. It is further suspected that occasionally, ships arrived in port, usually Miami or New Orleans, with excess goats on board that were not needed to sustain the cats while crossing the ocean. These goats may have been donated to zoos, petting zoos, and occasionally purchased by individuals.

There are documented cases of importation of the goat directly to individuals after 1930. The bulk of the WAD goat population however, still resided in zoos, where breeding did take place. Eventually, to manage their numbers, many zoos sold some of their goats to interested private parties. At this stage in the WAD goat's domestic history, they were widely referred to as "pygmies". Over time however, those that bred the WAD goats or their 1st or 2nd generation offspring from imported stock noticed that there appeared to be two distinct styles of WAD goat. One type produced heavy, rounded boned, stocky, and short-legged goats, which are today in fact classified as Pygmy goats. The other style of WAD evolved into a more angular, flat boned, and "dairy" type goat with a more refined appearance. These eventually became classified as the Nigerian Dwarf Goat. In 1981 the International Dairy Goat Registry registered the first Nigerian Dwarf goat and in 1984 AGS (American Goat Society) opened a herd book for the breed. Nigerian Dwarves were first shown at the 1986 AGS National Show. They have been selectively bred over the last 30+ years to represent a dairy goat in the "Swiss" style while managing to remain a true miniature.

about the milk…

Despite their miniature size, Nigerian Dwarf does produce an impressive amount of rich, high quality milk for drinking, cheesemaking, cooking, ice cream, fudge and other uses. Their milk is actually higher in Vitamins A, B6, C & D, Riboflavin, Niacin, and Calcium, yet has less cholesterol and is easier to digest than cow’s milk! Most Professional Cheese Makers consider Nigerian Dwarf Goat milk the premier choice amongst milk from all other dairy goat breeds. The All-Time Breed Leader for Lifetime Milk Production is ARMCH Rosasharn's Uni 3*D 'E' AR1669 2*M with over 11,400 lbs of milk to her credit. The Breed Leader for Milk Production on One-Day Milk Test is ARMCH Sugar Creek SS Silhouette 6*D 'E' (AGS 92.3) 1*M 'E' (VEEE 90) with 6.9 lbs.

about our origins…

We acquired our original Nigerian foundation herd from a wonderful lady named Nancy Lynch of New Boston, Texas. Her herd consisted of Nigerians, Mini-LaManchas, and Nubian Goats. Due to back problems she was having difficulty milking the smaller goats so she decided to disperse her Nigerian Herd and is now building up her Herd of Nubians.

Nancy, you are the best, thanks for all your help and encouragement!

You can visit Nancy’s website at www.lynchsittybittyranch.com

This foundation herd of Nigerian Dwarf Goats was comprised of some great genetics from many of the premier breeders in Texas (and beyond) including Flat Rocks Farm, Piddlin’ Acres, Jobi Dairy, Woodhaven Farm, Holly Berry Farm, Dream Acres, Briar Hill, Goodwood, Ponders End, Mighty Fine, Little Rascals, Gladys Porter Zoo, Willows/Willow Creek, Chisholm Trail, MK,

Irish Whisper and Cactus Ridge.

We were happy to bring such a diverse group of quality specimens to the Mid-Atlantic area.

Our Farm’s breeding program began in May 2006 and our Farm’s first kids were born in October of 2006.

The balance of our foundation does kidded in Spring 2007.

about our growth & evolution…

In January of 2007, our herd expanded. A fellow breeder, labored over the decision to reduce her Nigerian herd to a more manageable size. We gladly agreed to incorporate almost a dozen of her does into our foundation herd. These does contributed added diversity to, and enhanced, our already noteworthy genetic base adding new bloodlines to our Farm including Caesar’s Villa, Gay-Mor, CornerStone Farm, Stonewall Farm, Twin Creeks, Rosasharn, Sugar Creek Farm, 4 Fun Farm, Dav-Lyn, Pocket Sized Goats, High Acre Farm, Morning Star Farm, Munchranch, and Unicorn Farm.

In April 2007, Old Crowe Farm Domino arrived as a newborn bottle baby.

In June 2007, Meadow Farm Oreo, and Bar-K Loralei *D ‘VG’ (both in milk!) joined our herd from Virginia.

In November 2007 we welcomed Pocket Sized MN RhythmNBlues from Mighty Munchkins Farm in Warren, New Jersey.

In early December 2007, four outstanding Nigerian Dwarves (three does and one buckling) became members of our herd: Sugar Creek MO Water Beetle (Blue Eyed), Sugar Creek NT Windchaser, Sugar Creek FR Wisteria Lane and Sugar Creek SV XCalibur (Blue Eyed).

And we ended the year with a "bang" by welcoming the final new addition to Avolino Farm for 2007 who arrived in mid-December from Texas: the 2006 AGS National Reserve Champion Senior Buck, Green Gate Armageddon.

In late winter of 2008, a breeder we had corresponded with often over the last year or so, contacted us with an amazing opportunity. He had raised and bred goats including Nigerian Dwarf and Lamanchas for nearly 30 years. His herd had grown steadily to over 200+ members, and because of an imminent relocation, he realized he was not going to be able to move the herd. He conducted a couple of small-scale herd dispersals, eventually reducing his numbers to about 50 of his best goats. He expressed an interest to see his valued, core herd go to a home where their health and well-being would be given top priority. He intimated that he really only had a couple of choices of whom to entrust this herd to. We "fit the bill" perfectly, and after health testing every member, we acquired his 5 bucks and 47 does. The Heatherwood Herd arrived here at Avolino Farm in April of 2008. Many of the does were bred and kidded between May and August of 2008. The Heatherwood Herd is comprised of some outstanding genetics representing the best in the breed including Green Gate, Caesar's Villa, Goodwood, Gay-Mor, Piddlin Acres, Lost Pines, Woodhaven Farm, Creek Road, Hill Country, Rosasharn, Flat Rocks, Milky Whey, Steele Ballew, Twin Creeks, and Sugar Creek Farm.

Though herd acquisitions remained the top news on our farm in 2008, we realized several other achievements this year. We gutted the interior of our barn, redesigned it, and added 8 new dual-purpose kidding/breeding stalls. We built a new poultry house next to our barn and another large section of our barn was converted to additional shelter for our goats. We limed our fields late last year and frost-seeded to improve our pastures. Though much of the seed germinated this Spring, a lack of any measurable rainfall from May-August will necessitate that we repeat our seeding project.

As the year was winding down, we made our final acquisitions for 2008: Rosasharn FS Senshi *S, the littermate twin brother to our doe Rosasharn FS Ikura 5*D AR1874 (Thanks to Jodi Neal at Anbonjo Nigerians), and Piddlin Acres Samurai, GypsyMoon Medicine Man and GypsyMoon Sobi joined our buck line up.

In February of 2009, Fairlea Perkin Warbeck joined our buck pen.

Kidding Season 2009 began February 16^th here at Avolino Farm!

The 2009 Kidding started out as a heavy "buck year" (our first) with an 8:1 ratio of bucklings to doelings- but thankfully that number improved as the season went on and we ended up with a 3:2 respective ratio.

We conducted a small-scale herd reduction in 2009, offering up a number of adult stock in addition to all but 9 of our 2009 kids whom we've chosen to retain. We have been working to concentrate our bloodlines, and as we evolve our herd, we continue to see exceptionally promising outcomes from our breeding program.

While herd acquisitions was not a priority for us in 2009, as Autumn arrived, opportunities were presented to us which we could not pass upon. A West Virginia herd dispersal allowed us to acquire *B Sugar Creek VL Tune's Walkman *S, *B Rosasharn TL Tiger's 'Lfin *S, Lost Valley TB Boones *S, and Dill's OH Fiddle Stix *S, as well as Rosasharn UP Macadamia Delight and Kids Corral CR Ric-Rac (Polled).

Our 2010 Spring Kidding Season began in February and wrapped up in May. We had a nice crop of outstanding kids born on the farm. In early May, we attended the Delmarva Buck Show and had a great time. Several of our bucks earned premiums, took 1st in class and won Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion titles.

Flat Rocks Color Me Happy won 1st in his class (5+ Yr Old Sr Buck) in both Rings & took Reserve Grand Champion of Ring 1.

*B Rosasharn TL Tiger's 'Lfin *S won 2nd in his class in Ring 1, 1st in his class in Ring 2 and took Reserve Grand Champion of Ring 2.

*B Sugar Creek VL Tune's Walkman *S won 1st in his class in Ring 1 and 2nd in Ring 2.

Avolino Farm TWK Kieran took Grand Champion Junior Buck in both Rings.

Heatherwood K Benificence won 1st in his class in both Rings.

In 2011, with our focus on preparing our real estate for listing for an eventual move to Florida, we scratched any plans for showing this year. With the ongoing economic malaise, we bred less than half of our does again this year and produced just under 100 kids. Fortunately, sales of kids and adult stock were robust despite the economy.

about our herd's health & nutrition…

We've maintained the largest herd of 100% Health Tested, High Quality, Dual Registered Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats in the State of Maryland, on the entire Delmarva Peninsula, and in the Mid-Atlantic region for 6 years. Despite the size of our herd, we pride ourselves in giving lots of love and attention to our goats. We have grown steadily through selective retention of kids from our own breeding program and the judicious acquisition of new herd members that will blend or cross well with our bloodlines. For three years we owned and maintained the largest herd of registered Nigerian Dwarf Goats in the world.

We spare no expense to ensure that our herd receives the best forage/hay, ration/feed, supplements, and preventive and acute medical care that are available.

We perform annual health testing on our entire herd and we are CAE, TB, Johnes, and Brucellosis negative. Our annual tests for 2011 have been concluded and once again EVERY goat on our farm was tested and found to be 100% negative!) None of our goats have ever had any contagious abscesses. We have had testing performed on every prospective member of our herd over the age of 6 months before we purchase them to ensure the health of our herd and bio-security of our farm is not compromised. Unlike some, whether you are purchasing a newborn kid or an adult as breeding stock from us, we will gladly make available to you the testing results for every goat on our property to assure you of our testing claims.

We have nothing to hide and feel total disclosure and transparency is the best policy!

We use Colorado State University for our testing and consistently run only c-Elisa CAE as well as PCR CAE tests to obtain the most accurate information on our herd’s health.

Our herd receives routine de-worming (utilizing the FAMACHA system), hoof trimming, BoSE (Selenium) Injections, and is up to date on all vaccinations.

After researching goat nutrition for several months, speaking to dozens of breeders and several university nutritionists, we feed our herd horse-quality, lab-tested, orchard grass hay & pure alfalfa, a super-premium, nutritionally balanced ration, and a low sodium dairy goat mineral supplement. We also provide a direct fed microbial product, which aids their ability to maximize the utilization of all dietary inputs and support a healthy immune system. Our does receive an additional super-premium supplement when bred and a fiber supplement while lactating to maximize milk production and provide for their special needs. Our goats receive twice-yearly copper supplementation via bolus, and their water is double filtered to remove all sediment and solid particulate, as well as select binding minerals. They also ruminate around our improved pastures.

While some breeders must bottle feed newborn kids to prevent the spread of CAE from their CAE positive does to the offspring, here at Avolino Farm-- with a CAE negative herd-- we bottle feed our kids by choice to ensure they are extremely friendly and easy to handle. In your own herd you will need to make decisions regarding whether to dam raise or bottle feed, whether to heat treat and pasteurize or feed raw milk and how to manage potential transmission sources for disease. We manage our herd and maintain the integrity of our farm using sound, proven, and thoughtful practices. With the marked investment we have made in acquiring our herd, we strictly operate in accordance with best practices for the care, management and breeding of our goats.

All of our kids are either born hornless (polled), or are humanely disbudded using a Rhinehart X-50 disbudding iron while they are comfortably asleep. (We administer low dose Xylazine [a.k.a. Rompum] to ensure they are spared the unpleasantness of the disbudding process.)

our commitment to you…

As a dedicated breeder, raising healthy and happy goats is not only our goal; it is our mission. An extension of this mission is to educate and welcome new members into the Nigerian Dwarf goat breeding community. We are proud that we have assisted customers over the last six years to found and grow 98 Nigerian Dwarf goat herds throughout the United States.

Thanks to all of our fantastic and loyal patrons from coast to coast!

Our breeding stock is registered with AGS (American Goat Society) and many are dual registered with ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association).

In addition, some of our goats are also triple registered in NDGA (Nigerian Dwarf Goat Association).

When purchasing a kid from us you have the option to register with one, two or all three registries.

We have genetics that produce blue eyes, wattles, frosted ears, moonspots as well as polled (naturally hornless) goats. Some of our kids can have one or more of these traits. Unlike some, we do not charge "extra" when our kids bear these traits, as they do not influence milk production nor do they contribute to the scorecard in a show ring. Pricing is a function of conformation, quality, genetics/pedigree and individual performance and potential.

We also maintain pedigree information that goes back a minimum of 5 generations. The majority of our pedigrees reflect thoughtful line breeding, yielding exceptional outcomes and multiple ARMCH, MCH, CH, GCH, PGCH, and even National Champion Show and National Breed Leading Milking bloodlines.

We are always researching and making contact with current and past breeders to learn more about the heritage of our herd and the breed. We enjoy establishing supportive relationships with and maintaining contact with our customers. We take a proactive position on education before a purchase transaction so that we can ensure that our goats are properly cared for when they leave our farm and so our customers are comfortable in assuming responsibility for their care.

Most of the goats in our herd had never been taken to show prior to 2006, with a few exceptions. We participated in 3 shows in 2006 and have intended to continue to show however due to unexpected turns of events, we have been sidelined the last few seasons. As we mentioned above, we returned to showing in 2010 and attended 4 shows during the season.

When we were not able to show, we hosted visitors and patrons each weekend to the farm. We conducted 3 clinics on the farm in 2008 dealing with basic goat keeping, goat husbandry, milking, and goat kidding-- as well as skills clinics that included bolusing, hoof trimming, vaccinations and disbudding. We hope to repeat many of these clinics in the future while adding day-long learning workshops that may include goat milk cheese making and craft uses for goat milk including soaps, lotions, and salves.

the road ahead…

In 2009 we completed construction of a new, considerably larger buck shelter addition to our barn.

As we intend to realize our goal of starting a family, we will be exercising great restraint again this year when it comes to retaining goat kids. And, we may have additional adult stock available after kidding as we strive to manage our numbers moving forward.

The summer is coming to an end as it is Labor Day Weekend of 2010… we attended four goat shows this season and had great times and we enjoyed promising outcomes. As our schedule allows next year, we may be back in the ring again whether we are still residents of Maryand or if we have already relocated to Florida.

We helped to found 12 new Nigerian Dwarf herds this year and this continues to be a source of pride for us here at Avolino Farm.

2011 promises to be another interesting year for us as we have been planning on relocating and those plans are progressing nicely.

No new acquisitions were made in 2011 but we did retain some excellent kids from our breeding program that have a lot of promise and potential. We sold a large number of our kids this season as well as some very nice adult does and bucks and some promising junior stock.

Toward the end of the summer, with the realization that we were once again expectant parents, we decided to drastically reduce our herd down to just about 30-40 goats. The reduction is already paying dividends in less work around the farm and more time available to visit friends and family and for us to enjoy this special time. We are praying that this pregnancy will be a full-term, healthy and complication free experience. At 16 weeks, everything is progressing nicely.

We are nearly midway through November 2011. Our herd reduction is complete. Over the last 8 weeks, we've successfully shed the balance of goats we had up for sale to achieve a more manageable head count in advance of my hopeful delivery in April 2012. Our herd is now roughly 35 head: roughly just 10% of the record size we reached about three years ago. The choices I made of whom to let go on to new homes, and whom to retain were agonizing. The thought process involved holding on to the best foundation lines from the earliest incarnation of our herd, while maintaining the core of our line-breeding program from the last three years. Additionally, I had to hold on to as many 2011 kids as was practical. The 2011 kidding season was our best and the promise and potential that this year's kid crop presents for the future of the herd had to be preserved.

From the foundation of our Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goat herd, we've retained Irish Whisper Star LIBR, Flat Rocks Honey Do, and LIBR Peaches. These does possess traits that we highly desire here at Avolino Farm: longevity, vigor and health, heavy milk production (2-3+ quarts a day), large teats and orifices, and they uniformly produce offspring that are considerable improvements over themselves. They also routinely produce multiples (twins and triplets), have great temperaments, and with ages ranging from 6-8 years of age- they still have a lot to offer our herd.

From our herd's acquisition and evolutionary period of 2007-2009 we have retained Piddlin Acres SC Charmin 2*D 'E', Hill Country's Bailey, Rosasharn's FS Ikura 5*D AR1874, Alexander Farms TX Spice, Heatherwood AB Good Fairy, Heatherwood E Ms. M, Heatherwood Prince's Cinderella, Heatherwood CR My Bella, and Rosasharn's UP Macadamia Delight. These does all have heavy milk production which ranges from 2.5-4 quarts of milk per day. They too produce multiple offspring that are uniformly outstanding improvements over their dams and sires. They are indispensable in my opinion and they'll continue to contribute to our breeding program for years to come.

The last group of does that will continue to make up the Avolino Farm Nigerian Dwarf herd is composed of younger stock (1st and 2nd fresheners, yearlings and doe kids) who were born here on our farm. This group of home-grown milkers (and milkers to be!) represents more than half of the does I have chosen to retain. Aside from the fact that they are produce of the very best goats we have owned over the last 6 years, they were born here on our farm, most proudly bear our own herd name (though some arrived in utero and bear the Heatherwood herd name) and all are wholly beneficiaries of the premier management program that we've had in place at our farm for the last 6+ years.

And last, and most certainly not least, we come to the herdsires that will remain here at Avolino Farm. Perhaps the most difficult part of the herd reduction came when agonizing over which bucks to part with… Decisions were reached after evaluating which does we were going to keep. Having decided to retain daughters or buck son replacements out of a number of our finest bucks we have sold more than half of our buck pen. Avolino Farm's herdsires are now *B Sugar Creek VL Tunes Walkman *S, Heatherwood K Benificence, Avolino Farm TWK Blue Chipotle, Avolino Farm TLF Pinoli, Avolino Farm TWK Blue Bailout, Avolino Farm BNS Boondoggle, Avolino Farm TWK Blue Jalapeño, and Dill's OH Fiddle Stix *S. (One or two of these fellas may be up for sale after breeding season.)

Check our site often as we update it with news as circumstances warrant … also be sure to check out our 2012 Kidding Schedule for our planned kiddings for 2012 and our Goats for Sale Page as we may have an additional buck or bred doe available for sale!