BREEDING STOCK

ABOUT REDTAIL RIDGE

We were content with a few sweetheart Nubians until meeting some Oberhasli does while visiting a local Nubian farm in 1989. It’s hard to say what struck me first...their rich mahogany brown color, strikingly trimmed out in black...or that classic, inquisitive Oberhasli expression begging to be a part of whatever activity is going on around them.  A few months later, we purchased our first Oberhasli, Mr. Zeb, though, to be honest, it wasn’t exactly the beginning of a ‘breeding’ herd.

‘Mr. Zeb’ was a month old bottle raised wether, that is, a neutered male. We didn’t learn much about breeding Oberhasli from him of course, but he did share with us how endearing, intelligent, loyal, versatile and absolutely mischievous Oberhasli can be. Zeb (pictured) has earned his place here as ‘Oberhasli ambassador’. Over the years, he has helped us clear our land by eating brush and hauling loads of it to our burn piles every spring.

He has introduced thousands of people to the Oberhasli breed and to goats in general by charming children at schools, attending festivals and proudly strutting his stuff at many parades. 

Zeb’s most important role though, was convincing my husband that life would be more interesting with Oberhasli goats around. And since our herd wouldn’t exist without his support, Zeb has played a sort of 'honorary' foundation role here. Very soon, Zeb was joined by several Oberhasli does and our breeding herd began to grow slowly but steadily.

Around that time, like most new breeders, I was looking for ideas on how best to develop a breeding program for my dairy goat herd. Everyone seemed to have a differing opinion about what was most important in a breeding program; show wins, pedigrees, appraisals, milk production, or simply whatever sells.

Eventually, I came across an article in one of the dairy goat publications that had a real impact on my view of breeding dairy goats. Here's a brief summary of this approach.

The author recommended that new breeders educate themselves about their selected breed and it’s standard so they would have a clear understanding of what the original breeders had in mind when they selected out the traits that set that breed apart from all the others. These traits are known as breed characteristics.

Then she suggested learning about the ‘form and function’ of dairy goats. 'Form' is how the body is put together and 'function' is why the body operates in the way it does, for better or worse.

Next she advised using analytical tools such as linear appraisals (individual scoring performed by an independent appraiser) and production testing (milk testing) to evaluate the ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ of every individual in your breeding herd.... no matter how attached you are to them.The idea being... if you can learn to pick each individual apart, you can then learn how best to combine individuals for successful breeding. Success is measured by continued, consistent improvement in quality.

With a newly educated and objective (we all try) perspective based on this approach, the author encouraged breeders to develop their own 'style' of animal..which means prioritizing these different elements in a way that appeals to the individual breeder...while maintaining consistent breed characteristics and sound selection practices.

We adopted this sensible approach in our breeding program and continue to work to produce top quality, unmistakably recognizable Oberhasli dairy goats. To learn more about our 'style' of Oberhasli, go to Breeding Stock.

Our best wishes to other breeders out there working hard to do the same...and our sincere encouragement to those of you contemplating taking on the exciting challenge of Oberhasli dairy goat breeding. Let us know if we can assist you with your own breeding goals.

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