Robla Dairy Goats
mabgrobla@aol.com
I guess I could describe myself as an old timer inbreeding dairy goats. My history with dairy goats goes back to about 1963 when I was introduced to my first dairy goats - a herd of Nubians and Saanens.
Lest someone thinks that I was a newbie to livestock, I was raised on a ranch where my parents had a cow dairy when I was very young that was changed to a beef cattle operation and
a commercial fryer/broiler chicken ranch.
There was never a time in my life except for a year and a half break when I was in college when I have not had something to milk. I was in 4-H for most of my youth. So I do know livestock. My heart has always been with the dairy stock.
Now, I was introduced to Betty Nordfelt (long time head of the Judges' Training Committee) in the mid 1960's. It was her pronouncement that if you put a paper bag over the heads of dairy goats they should all look alike. Betty was the queen then. Wes Nordfelt was long time president of AMGRA that finally became ADGA.
They pretty much ruled our part of the dairy goat world. Even at my young age I was not comfortable with this idea.
My first dairy goats were Nubians of the dual purpose style heavy on the Da Ruth/Oakwood bloodlines. In 1965 I started my own goat dairy with my husband and those Nubians plus a small family of Saanens. A year later French Alpines were added. The next year a Rio Linda Toggenburg doe was added. The next year the rest of her family was added plus a small handful of Rio Linda and Indian Rock Saanens were added.
Shortly after that Hazel Tate of the Law-Zel Goat Dairy gifted my husband and myself with a La Mancha doe as a belated wedding gift. My mentors in the dairy goat world were Gene and Lousie Geiger (Peg's Nubians), Effie Evans (Evania Nubians), Mrs. V. E. Thompson (Oakwood Nubians), Hazel Tate) and N. S. & E. L. Goodridge (Rio Linda Dairy Goats). I had a very good start in the dairy goat world.
I saw the breeds in my area back then. They were quite different from what they are today. A lot of the difference is in the loss of what I call true breed character.
Alpines were quite tall and rangy and lacking in real body width. The head was long with long upright ears that tended to point more out than up.
Nubians were chunky of body style tending to be easy in the chine and while wide in rump more sloped to the pins. The heads were strong of jaw. The eyes tended to be almond shaped. And of course there was that high Roman nose not the convex nose of today. Jaws did not always match. And the ears were very pendulous lying flat to the head with a bell at the end.
Saanens were the "Holsteins" of the dairy goat world. They were big and thicker than the animals we see today. Many tended to have soft pasterns and bad feet. The head was fairly short
with breadth between the eyes. The face was often dished. Many were polled and had wattles. The ears were the largest of the Swiss breeds tending to be set lower and opening wider at the base of the head.
The Toggenburg had two styles. The old-fashioned which was smaller and wider of body. Mammaries were highly attached with teats to the outside of the udder. The other style was a much taller,longer type. Both styles had a broad head with a wide muzzle and a dished face and were more often than not polled. The ears were small and set higher on the head to make a very alert appearance.
The La Mancha was a newly accepted breed to the registry. According to N.S. Goodridge, who was on the original sifting committee for the La Mancha breed, many of the early bucks used on the sport Spanish La Mancha does were Alpines because
the Alpines were known for their higher production and they had more color to offer. A few Saanens and Toggenburgs were used but were frowned upon because of the color factor.
La Mancha heads were longer. There were a number of
ear types. The elf ear was a brief ear with a flap that hung down. The Pixietype had a tab that pointed up. The gopher ear was the one we typically see today. Then there was a very tiny Swiss type ear that was about a quarter the size of the Alpine ear. There was a herd of these does not far from my dairy.
Now we come to the Swiss Alpines which is what we now call the Oberhasli. Via Hazel Tate I was introduced to Esther Oman and her "Swissies" who was living with Hazel at the time. When I first saw them I thought they were the dairy goat world version of the Jersey cow. They had the same color pattern though the goats were red while the cows were fawn. They had very similar black markings. And they had that very short broad dished face.
Ears were tiny and very erect. Stick-up ears my husband called them. There was also a certain body style of a shorter body but very wide sprung ribs. Rumps were broad and flat from the hips to the pins. They did tend to be hocky. Teats were small as were the udders. Like the Jersey cow they were small.
Thus my remembrances of the dairy goat breeds circa the mid 1960's.
Marilyn Burgess-Goodridge
Robla Dairy Goats
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