This little guy was so cute munching away on fresh hay, but I didn’t get too close. Goats will come up to you and munch on anything that is hanging loose. Once while I was working for a small newspaper in south Atlanta, I walked into a field with a small herd of goats, and they immediate came up to me and dove into my camera bag. I remember the herd’s owner laughing and saying, “They’ll eat anything.” Yikes!

At the suggestion of her husband Carl, Lilian Sandburg began raising dairy goats at their home in Michigan. She purchased her first goat in 1935 and started researching the benefits of goat milk. It wasn’t long before she was raising champion goats.

She earned world fame for her dairy goats and for her work improving the herd’s bloodlines and milk production. In 1952, her herd had grown to over 200, and workers on the farm were recorded as milking between 50 to 80 goats twice a day! In 1960 top doe Jennifer II produced 5,750 pounds of milk, averaging 2.5 gallons a day. She went on to become the all-breed American champion in milk production and the world Toggenburg Champion.

Today, the goats at Connemara are descendants of Lilian’s original herd. They are Toggenburgs (tan and whites), Saanens (all white), and Nubians (multi-colored with long, floppy ears). After a five-month gestation period, kids are born in the spring. I love this guy’s ears!

 

 

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