Nubian Dairy Goat Lineages

Snowflake Arizona

Goat Lineages

The Family Tree for our Ranch

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BMR Goats are 100% CAE Free, CL Free, and G6S Normal

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We are very proud of the goats at Black Mesa Ranch. The dairy herd represents some very excellent blood lines. Many of the herd names represented in our lineages will be familiar to most fine goat breeders for their exceptional quality.

Our herd is developing beautifully due to our ambitious and thoughtful breeding program, endeavoring to introduce specific genetic traits to further our overall goals. General traits we look for include exceptional good overall health; easy milking, capacious udders with strong, high attachments; strong constitutions; friendly and easy-going temperaments. Of all these traits health is our most important goal since a sickly goat will not perform well in any area. Our second most important goal is having goats with good attitude and temperament because who wants to work with irritating goats? Luckily good health combined with a willingness to milk naturally produce animals that are very productive.

Our herd is 100% G6S Normal, CL abscess free, and CAE free. We test yearly for CAE as well as sending in milk samples several times a year to check for mastitis and Mycoplasma. Since we are a commercial dairy our herd is tested for TB and Brucellosis whenever the state tells us to. The herd, of course, tests negative for those.

Even though our herd has some great genetics behind them, we are not BINGO breeders! You know, those breeders that would rather collect pedigrees than the actual goats. The ones that throw a new goat into a pen without even noticing it so that they can go inside and lovingly look at the new registration paperwork, one more step towards calling, “BINGO!!”. Once, we were in serious long-distance negotiations for a high quality doe, only to have the whole deal fall through when we asked for a picture of her. We’ve been to places where the breeder has to check tattooed ears because they didn’t know their own goats by sight. Maybe these strategies work for those people – but NOT for US!! Our goats are part of the family here. We know each one by sight, know their strengths and weaknesses, their oddities and preferences. They are all individuals with their own traits, personalities, and attitudes, and we enjoy them for that. (They seem to enjoy us, too!)

We do not show our goats so you will not see references to show wins or "legs" but many of the siblings, offspring, sires, and dams from among our lines have been shown by others quite successfully.

The pictures that we take of the goats are, generally, candid shots of them going about their daily business - browsing, napping, browsing, sunning, browsing, playing and, of course, browsing. In addition, we are lucky to have some posed pictures of the goats that Mark Zieman takes for us on appraisal day with (if we are very lucky) Marshall Losey of M's Sagebrush Acres handling the goats. Wendy Woodward of Witch Hazel Dairy also contributes photos of our lovely herd. We appreciate their work.

In 2005 we went on official "Dairy Herd Improvement Registry" (DHIR) milk test. Our girls are exceeding our expectations, and they are all heading toward adding Milking Stars to their pedigrees. Once a month we send milk samples in to be tested. We have always been pleased with the high quality of the milk our herd produces. Now we know why. Their milk tests extremely high in the milk solids that are so important in cheese making. Trudy’s title has been changed from Herd Queen to "Herd Cream" because of her 7.5% peak butterfat percentage. That must be why BMR cheese is so sweet and creamy – thanks, Trudy!

Also in 2005 we made the decision to DNA test our goats for the G6S genetic defect that effects Nubian Goats. We will be posting our findings and working toward having a G6S Normal herd. For more information on G6S, please refer to: http://www.goatworld.com/articles/g6s.shtml

Last year’s entry into DHIR testing resulted in all of our milkers earning their milking stars. Great work, ladies! We are pleased with being in the program since it gives us feedback on udder health, milk quality, and productivity.

This year we have completed testing all our breeding goats for the G6S genetic defect. All of our bucks and all but one of our does are G6S normal! Our herd continues to test 100% CAE negative.

We were thrilled with last year's result from our Linear Appraisal. 2007 was our first year in the program and it was well worth the money, time, and organization required to participate. We learned a lot from the trained, professional goat appraiser. In this program the goats are not appraised for monetary value, but for quality of conformation. Our goats exceeded our expectations of quality with several of them (including two of our bucks) getting recognition as Excellent by the USDA and ADGA. We also had three girls listed as Elite does by the USDA, and six does received Superior Genetics titles. All in all 2007 was a great year for our goats.

This year our girls did even better on their Linear Appraisal with 5 does being scored as Excellent and the mature herd score averaging over 88.

We also would like to introduce our newest herd sire, Splash. He comes from Six M Galaxy which is a herd of high production, colorful goats, many of which earn Top Ten status. We are excited to see if Splash will carry on their tradition.

It's been a busy year so far. We had 77 kids born on the ranch - 13 of which we are keeping - and we are milking 31 does. The kids and does look great, the does are milking very well and the kids are growing so fast that it's hard to remember that they are just babies. Our last doe that carried the G6S genetic defect went to a new home so our whole herd is now 100% G6S normal! Our herd continues to be free of CAE, CL, Brucellosis, and TB.

Our Linear Appraisal this year will be late, possibly September. I'll post the scores once they are in. We are still holding our breath that Cory will be named a Top Ten Breed Leader. Her milk last year exceeded the amount that has allowed others that title but each year is different. As far as we are concerned Cory is Number One - giving us quintuplets (4 girls, 1 boy) and milking over 3000 pounds last year. What a girl!

Yes! Cory made it! Our girl Cory has now earned the title of Top Ten Breed Leader for being the 6th highest milk producing Nubian in the country for 2008. She was also the 7th highest producer of butterfat and the 6th highest protein producer. What a girl she is! She even had a bit of time in her busy schedule to pose with her people Kathryn and David (picture to the left).

Also, the goats did great on their Linear Appraisals. The scores are posted on their individual lineage pages. We even got some pretty stylish show type pics of the girls thanks to Marshall Losey of M's Sagebrush Acres (www.SagebrushAcres.com) who did the goat handling for the appraisal. Marshall also convinced the girls to pose for the photo shoot - something very foreign to them. Mark Zieman (www.DrMyattsWellnessClub.com) was the photographer and he did a great job. Amanda Henderson and Dana Myatt also helped out with handling the goats and getting them milked out once they had been appraised. Many thanks to all who volunteered their time to come help us out.

2 year old Ripley (left) and her mom, Rosie, try out the formal look. Both girls scored 91 EEEE on appraisal!

Well, if we thought last year was busy we didn't know what busy was! This year the goats are milking like gangbusters and we are making cheese like crazy. We started off by having 84 kids born and then moved full swing into making cheese. Many, many times we made cheese twice a day! Having a healthy, high production herd is really paying off.

Three of our bucks earned their Superior Genetics titles AND Elite Sire titles - Rio, Marco, and Benny. Peri and Espeez also earned their Elite titles - Espeez for the fourth time in a row!

Breeding season has started already and we are excited to see what the next generation of kids will bring. One change in our buck line-up this year is our new boy, Goldthwaite Exotic Affair (pictured to the left as a 5 month old). The Goldthwaite herd is a nationally known high production show herd. Both of Exotic Affair's parents score as Excellent on linear appraisal and his dam is a Superior Genetics Grand Champion. Exotic Affair is a stylish, high stepping fella with wonderfully long wide ears, lovely structure, and friendly attitude.

It seems that there is something always going on around here. We had a wonderful kidding season with 80 kids born. It was a doe year for a change with 47 does and 33 bucks born. We had four sets of quads, 11 sets of triplets, 12 sets of twins, and 7 singletons. With a few exceptions most of the kids were born mid-February thru April, so we were kept pretty busy with kids and cheese making. Hazel and Wendy, of Witch Hazel Dairy, not only helped us out at kidding time but have also contributed their time to taking pictures of the goats. You can see some of Wendy's work at: http://mulefancier.deviantart.com/gallery/31191435 as well as on the individual goat lineage pages.

Our linear appraisal this year went very well. We had an informative, helpful appraiser and we learned quite a bit. He commented that our herd has made great strides since his last time here several years ago. Three of our does received final scores of 91 - Poppy, Penny, and Marlyn. They are very nice looking, productive does that we are very proud of.

Our does Poppy, Penny, and Marlyn all scored 91 on their linear appraisal! Awesome scores for awesome girls.

The economic woes our country is going through hit us in a different way. Our business, thankfully, is thriving, but some of the people that have purchased BMR goats ran into trouble and had to give them up. We ended up with two small herds coming back to us. We rehomed quite a few, ate some, and retained three - Zoe, Lady, and Opal. The new goats were quarantined away from our main herd until health testing was completed on them before being allowed into the mainstream.

"The Girls", as we refer to our milkers, are producing so well this year that we needed another product to make with their milk. David came up with a great recipe for Goats Milk Caramel, a topping for ice cream that is sometimes referred to as Cajeta or Dulce de Leche. We now sell it in 12 oz jars and 64 oz tubs. So far it's been a great hit, it is truly divine. The Girls should really be proud.

Where does the time go? It seems like just last week that we weaned our last kids and now it's already time to bred the does again. They don't think it will be a problem. They are already flirting with the boys and driving them crazy. While their milk production is starting to slow down a bit, their butterfat is way up. That means that we are still making as much cheese as earlier in the year when their milk was leaner but more abundant.

Our linear appraisal this year was awesomely informative and interesting. Our goats scored quite nicely with Tarragon, Harmony, and Princess receiving final scores of Excellent as well as many others scoring as Very Good and Excellent.

Zoe and Lady, both of whom came back to us last year when their owners dispersed their herds, are consistently some of our best milkers. Opal, too, is a great contributor for a first time milker. Grace, with her incredible ear control and quirky attitude, continues to be a powerhouse milker - much to my dismay. She is such a goofy clown and troublemaker. Twice a day, right after getting milked, Grace will make a big show of chewing the bell on her collar. We make a lot of fun of her, but she doesn't seem to mind.

It was back to being a buck year in the kidding department. We had 34 does kid this year giving us a total of 79 kids. 36 does and 43 bucks. We had 2 singletons, 22 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 3 sets of quadruplets. For the second time in a row Celeste gave us triplet daughters.

We are very sad to have lost Benny (Lakeshore-Farms Mr. Bentley) this year due to pneumonia. His offspring are such elegant, productive animals. We did keep one of the last daughters he sired, Mia, and are looking forward to watching her grow.