City Mini Ranch

City Mini Ranch is a 1.63 acre ''ranch'' in outer S.E. Portland, Oregon. The goats here provide wonderful high quality milk which is processed into raw cheeses, kefir, ect, for our own use. The milk goats, Sadie and Ebony, are on extended lactation, meaning they will be producing milk for a few years without having kids. The LaMancha is known to have long lactations. Sadie will have had a continuous lactation for 3 years this spring 2012 and Ebony for 2 years. They produced 5-6 lbs. a day last winter, 2010/11, and have gone up in production this spring and summer to around 7- 9 lbs. a day. Sadie produced 8 lbs. 12 oz. Sept. 4, 2011. See my "cheese cave" freezer under the caption "Making cheese".

I have put together this little website to show others who are thinking about getting into goats, what can be done with them and their milk. Also most importantly to be steered in the right direction to manage them in their health and production. The old saying, "An ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure", applies with goatkeeping. Really, gaining knowledge about their care and management will save money. Knowing what to do instead of calling a veterinarian in many cases, makes sense, to save money. Actually most veterinarians know little about goats and their special needs. So it is prudent to be well informed about their special needs if they arise. I recommend DairyGoatInfo.com since they have many indepth articles to read up on.

If you are planning on buying goats please buy from a reputable breeder who has a CAE and CL free herd. With paper work in hand proving a negative blood test was done. CAE is Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis. CL is Caseous Lymphadenitis. Please research these goat diseases before purchasing any goats.

Ebony

Update on milk production. Sadie milked 7 lbs. 4 oz on December 5, 2011. Ebony milked 7 lbs. on Dec. 5. December 9, 2011, Ebony 7 lb. 4 oz. and sadie 7 lb. 8 oz. January 19, 2012 update on milk production, Sadie milked 7 lbs. 1 oz. , Ebony milked 6 lb. 13 oz. on a one day milk test that I did. Feb. 10,2012 both Sadie and Ebony milked 6 lb. 8 oz. each. Feb. 28, 2012 Sadie milked 6 lb. 14 oz. I didn't test Ebony. This is despite cold, dark days of the Pacific Northwest. I am just going to keep milking them without letting them have kids. It will be interesting to see how many years they will milk. Many want kids, each year, and have a market for kids, but I don't want the hassle, and time without milk plus worrying about the kids getting good homes.
Ebony is up to 8 lb. 5 oz. on March 27, 12
April 14, 2012 Sadie milked 7 lbs. 15 oz. and Ebony was 8.0 lbs.

Ebony- 3/4 LaMancha x 1/4 Oberhasli. I just put up a fence so Ebony's 14 mos. ''babies'' can't nurse anymore. She is producing pretty much identical to Sadie as of Sept. 9, 2011. I could tell they needed wormed for Liverfluke again which improves production.

I take pride in maintaining the goats in excellent condition. Their coats are super shiney. Sheep have a much lower copper requirement than goats, but some get it wrong that goats don't need copper either. This is wrong information. The Pacific NW is extremely low in Copper so my goats are given Copasure, a timed release copper oxide supplement made of tiny rods that lodge in the goats rumen and dissolves over a 4 mos. period. Many problems can arise if goats don't have adequate copper levels. This is a good site with information on copper for goats.
http://www.saanendoah.com/copper1.html

I have been experimenting with the copper and am doing the Copasure at half the dose recommended at Saanedoah every two months. The copper rods are degraded away by 3 1/2 to 4 months, in the rumen, but I feel that a full dose is too much at first. So far they are doing great. I also sift out the fine particles in the Copasure. Some capsules can have quite a bit of copper powder and I can see that this may be way too much copper at once, that will dissolve too rapidly, since it's powdery. So I like to make sure I only dose the rods. I also have good water without an iron problem so I can only speak from my experience. High iron water interferes with copper absorption so this may not apply in your situation.

I am adding Beta-Carotene to their management this winter, for vitamin A.

Sadie- 3/4 LaMancha x 1/4 Oberhasli. Full sister to Ebony. Sadie produced 8 lbs 12 oz. of milk when I weighed it Sept. 4, 2011. She freshened May 30, 2009. She's been milking for 32 mos. straight now. She's a great extended lactation goat. It looks like I'll be making cheese all winter again.

Missy- Sadie's doe kid from 2009 a Mini LaMancha. Blue eyes. Sire is Camanna FS Blue Ice Bergie, my Nigerian Dwarf buck. I would like to freshen her to see if her production and length of lactation will be like her mother but I just don't need the extra milk.

Capriola WS Buffybelle. She's a purebred Nigerian Dwarf and the latest addition. Born 5/6/2011 and one of a quad birth. Photo at 10 weeks old. I just love her straight legs and width behind. Her color is like an orange cat. I have been giving her Bo-Se orally, to get her selenium levels up to keep her healthy and growing well. I am doing an experiment giving Bo-Se orally. I feel like a selenium deficiency can cause muscle and tendon constriction in the lower back, spinal, and neck muscles, leading to a hunchy butt, roachey back and ewe neck appearance which can turn permanent in the growing kid. She also has been copper bolused to compliment the selenium. An extra E capsule goes with the Bo-Se since I've read that it doesn't contain enough E. She is on dry cob, Milk Plus pellets, alfalfa pellets, grass hay, pasture and minerals. I also weigh her weekly. She also gets my usual management of cocccidiosis and worm prevention, every 15-20 days, till she reaches around 6 mos. old or more.

Buffybelle is growing fast, gaining around two pounds a week. She's gained 8 lbs. this past month. She eats like a pig. She is developing a mild case of Milk Goiter so I supplemented her with some iodine on her skin. Here is an article on Milk Neck. All of my kids have developed Milk Neck from fast growth. http://www.goatbiology.com/milkgoiter.html

Buffybelle is 15 weeks old in this picture and 26 1/2 lbs. on Sept. 2nd 2011. She's growing well. You can see her milk goiter swelling on her throat. Weighed Nov. 3, 2011 at 24 weeks old and she's 41 lbs now and 18" tall . Wow, the last two weeks she gained 3 lbs. each week. Update on weight- Nov. 17, 11 she's 44lbs now. Nov. 24, 2011 she's 46 lbs. 4oz. She gains and average of 2 lbs. a week. December 1 she is now 47 lbs. December 8, 2011 she's 48 lbs. and 18 1/2 inches. Wow, another 3 lb. gain this last week ending Dec. 16, 2011. She now weighs 51 lbs. Dec. 23 weigh-in is 52 lbs. 8 oz. Dec. 30 weigh in was 52 1/2 lbs. She gained no weight this week. Jan. 5, 2012 weigh in is 54lbs. 4 oz. she'll be 8 mos. old on Jan. 6. Jan. 12, 2012 she's 55 lbs. Jan. 19, 2012, is 55 lbs. See MORE weights below. She likes to pig out on alfalfa pellets, some eastern Oregon orchard grass hay and whole oats and organic corn in the winter Her main diet is the alfalfa pellets. One of her prevention wormings I used Valbazen for Liverfluke, doing this 3 times 10 days apart.

Picture at 21 weeks old. Taken Oct. 12, 2011 at 33 lbs. and in the middle of chewing cud. Her favorite thing to do.

Picture taken January 12, 2012, 3 months after the above picture. Weighs 55 lbs. in this picture. She's 8 mos. and 1 week old in this picture.

January 27, 2012 Buffybelle is the same weight of 55 lbs. I have reduced her grain and she is on alfalfa and grass hay. I can see that her early growth is slowing and I need to watch her weight now. I'm not going to let her get fat.

February 2, 2012 Buffybelle is 56 lbs.
February 9, 2012 is still 56 lbs.
February 15, 2012, 56 lb. 8 oz.
February 23, 2012, 59 lbs. a 3 lb. gain in one week.
March 1, 1012. Ok, she's continuing to grow. 61 lbs. now.
My scale only goes up to 63
lbs. so she is getting close to the max I can weigh her unless I find a bigger scale.