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rachels.haven
Herd Master
@Baymule i guess i never explained that. The mini saanens, if they don't leak, make the same as mid producing standard lamanchas (and more than a good Nubian), but maintain condition and production better on lower quality and less forage and are smaller- usually 100-130 lbs as opposed to 160-200 lbs of a saanen doe. They blow expected mini production out of the water if fed like a standard making what they are would get (and they get fat while doing it) and they want to milk a long time. They get the thriftiness from the ND, and the milkiness from the saanen without bringing the long early period of high, difficult nutritional requirements of growing an XL production breed with them and i enjoy all that. When they work mini Saanens are like the ultimate home milking animal. And the milk is rich like ND milk as opposed to like Saanen milk.
Unfortunately the two does are not like my Iris that i got from the same breeder. Iris wound up soft textured, deflatable, and was quiet as opposed to difficult. When all the way bagged up if she ran i think there would be a little squirting as her legs beat her udder...but that was more than a half gallon of milk under a 100-120 lbs doe running, skipping, and bouncing at full tilt like a ND kid. These guys are softening a bit as I milk them but Snooter doesn't seem to want to stretch (still course textured) and she has huge orifices and always has a dirty udder so I suspect leaking when tight. The other, while still a little meaty she so far is softer and continues softening but she leaked so bad unprovoked on a colostrum fill idk if id trust her or want to freshen her here again. She will most likely be fine next year after a year of filling and emptying, but I'm not sure I want to breed that. I probably should have bred them year one like I did Iris and maybe, maybe they would have had lower production as a milking yearling and leaked less and been less of a mess starting out and at the very least I'd have gotten them out of here sooner...but I also suspect sometimes when you combine any two lines you can get the worst of both worlds in the dice roll. Iris was the best. These two are sort of more on the sides of the worst and are more backyard milkers for someone who just wants milk than someone who wants parent stock and to start a line.
Hope is doing okay, and in theory the white ND buck I have would eventually have his pedigree cleared and I could breed white mini saanens in 75% ND, 25% saanen, but the chronic issue I've had with mini Saanens is finding good bucks from consistent lines. I can't just breed them to more and more ND bucks until the Saanen in them is gone. Few people really care about establishing them as a "breed" and getting consistent quality fixed in. Unfortunately saanen breeders breed unproven yearling Saanens to sometimes any old ND buck from lines they don't know for easy kidding and to keep the kids of potentially lower quality animals out of the herd book and they go into the mini pools where anything can happen. I learned that young purebred saanens were hard to keep and some 900% want to be suicidal so I will not be making my own "Hope's" again. If we mini anything it will be MY Lamanchas to MY ND where I KNOW the faults of both lines for the most part and I'm ready to work with them. (The breeder that these two and Iris came from only bred mini Saanens until recently, and this still happened, so I admit I'm a little demoralized on this project, but on we go...). Taking out uncertainty is why I got back into ND. I want my ND line to work with here so there are fewer unknown factors.
So anyway, that's my deal with the minis. (and if my mini Lamanchas that we make do not produce well, I won't be mini'ing them either.) In short you get most of the production of an average standard in a smaller, more feed efficient package but sometimes you also get a lot of random.
Nigerian dwarf are just straight up butterfat boosters, but can be productive too if bred very carefully. During COVID people jumped into them like crazy, bought a lot of ND bred for cute, bred them, realized they weren't what they wanted and saturated the market as they got out. If raised right they actually dress out okay. They take a good few months to get there though. And they are SPICY and a little highly strung. (also, yup, the consistency in the breed isn't always there, so yes, breed carefully)
Unfortunately the two does are not like my Iris that i got from the same breeder. Iris wound up soft textured, deflatable, and was quiet as opposed to difficult. When all the way bagged up if she ran i think there would be a little squirting as her legs beat her udder...but that was more than a half gallon of milk under a 100-120 lbs doe running, skipping, and bouncing at full tilt like a ND kid. These guys are softening a bit as I milk them but Snooter doesn't seem to want to stretch (still course textured) and she has huge orifices and always has a dirty udder so I suspect leaking when tight. The other, while still a little meaty she so far is softer and continues softening but she leaked so bad unprovoked on a colostrum fill idk if id trust her or want to freshen her here again. She will most likely be fine next year after a year of filling and emptying, but I'm not sure I want to breed that. I probably should have bred them year one like I did Iris and maybe, maybe they would have had lower production as a milking yearling and leaked less and been less of a mess starting out and at the very least I'd have gotten them out of here sooner...but I also suspect sometimes when you combine any two lines you can get the worst of both worlds in the dice roll. Iris was the best. These two are sort of more on the sides of the worst and are more backyard milkers for someone who just wants milk than someone who wants parent stock and to start a line.
Hope is doing okay, and in theory the white ND buck I have would eventually have his pedigree cleared and I could breed white mini saanens in 75% ND, 25% saanen, but the chronic issue I've had with mini Saanens is finding good bucks from consistent lines. I can't just breed them to more and more ND bucks until the Saanen in them is gone. Few people really care about establishing them as a "breed" and getting consistent quality fixed in. Unfortunately saanen breeders breed unproven yearling Saanens to sometimes any old ND buck from lines they don't know for easy kidding and to keep the kids of potentially lower quality animals out of the herd book and they go into the mini pools where anything can happen. I learned that young purebred saanens were hard to keep and some 900% want to be suicidal so I will not be making my own "Hope's" again. If we mini anything it will be MY Lamanchas to MY ND where I KNOW the faults of both lines for the most part and I'm ready to work with them. (The breeder that these two and Iris came from only bred mini Saanens until recently, and this still happened, so I admit I'm a little demoralized on this project, but on we go...). Taking out uncertainty is why I got back into ND. I want my ND line to work with here so there are fewer unknown factors.
So anyway, that's my deal with the minis. (and if my mini Lamanchas that we make do not produce well, I won't be mini'ing them either.) In short you get most of the production of an average standard in a smaller, more feed efficient package but sometimes you also get a lot of random.
Nigerian dwarf are just straight up butterfat boosters, but can be productive too if bred very carefully. During COVID people jumped into them like crazy, bought a lot of ND bred for cute, bred them, realized they weren't what they wanted and saturated the market as they got out. If raised right they actually dress out okay. They take a good few months to get there though. And they are SPICY and a little highly strung. (also, yup, the consistency in the breed isn't always there, so yes, breed carefully)
. So much background research and still, waited a yr for a foal that may not be "wanted" 
At least goats are faster & less $$.
