At Shady Lawn Farm, we strive to
breed for a complete animal, not just a bits and pieces program, or
what is hot for the moment. We employ a structured line breeding
program in our herd in order to build upon genetic strengths and to
eliminate undesirable traits. We believe in a structurally sound
animal that is going to be productive on the milk stand (exactly
what a DAIRY goat is supposed to be!) over a long life span and more
importantly, reproduce offspring that are improvements over dam and
sire.
Our herd is heavily influenced on the
LaMancha side by One Oak Hill and South Fork lines, we are very
grateful for these herds to have shared these animals with us. On
the Alpine side we have added a good deal of Walnut Fork and One Oak
Hill to our herd and they seem to be blending very well with the
lines of Sodium Oaks / Shahena'ko that existed in our older lines.
Thanks to Lynn Benedict for sharing some of your good ones!
We practice a CAE prevention
program, every birth is attended and kids are raised on cow
colostrum and milk from Johnes free Jersey cows that we own. We
have been very successful raising our kids on this program. Our
does are fed a 16% custom mixed dairy ration, free choice grass hay
year round, free choice mineral, and limited alfalfa mix hay when
lactating. We worm only when needed, rotating wormers. We also use
in our program Triangle 9 and the CDT Vaccine as well as BoSe when
needed.
In 2006 we skipped Linear Appraisal
due to going on official DHIR test and making the trip to the ADGA
National Show in Indianapolis, IN. There was only so much we could
afford to do in one year, and after participating in Linear
Appraisal for three straight years, decided that we would skip that
in lieu of the other options. Our girls did extremely well at
both! You will see our records included with each animals pedigree,
all yearlings meeting the requirements to getting their *M. We had
records up to 3900lbs and were very pleased with the high components
of these individuals. SGCH Shady Lawn Classy Belle 2*M was #7 on Top
Ten for Milk and Butterfat for LaManchas. At the Nationals we had
several high placing animals especially in the LaManchas.
In 2007 we returned to Linear
Appraisal and though the animals were presented "as is" for the most
part due to the fire of our home just days before, we are very proud
to say we had the highest scores ever! Including our Sr. LaMancha
Herd Sire *B South Fork SK Class Act 8-05 93 EEE and his daughter
SGCH Shady Lawn Classy Beauty 2*M 4-05 93 EEEE! Over all we had 14
excellents with the remainder of the herd falling in the very good
catagory---nothing below 86!
The 2007 ADGA National Show in
Gillette WY was an amazing experience for us. All of the Alpines we
took made the cut and placed very well, our one Recorded Grade kid
was 6th place, but when LaMancha day came---we were just
speechless! We took four 4th place wins in the juniors as 2nd place
Jr Get of Sire for *B South Fork SK Class Act and some other high
placings. The highlight of our day of course came with the 4yr old
class when our girls SGCH Belle stood 1st/2nd udder and SGCH Beauty
was 2nd/1st udder and Beauty went on to be named Reserve Best
Uddered LaMancha to her paternal Grand dam the 2007 National GCH and
BU---GCH South Fork H. Cayenne 3*M! Congratulations To South Fork,
Ritchie and Marilou---you so deserved it! Beauty & Belle were 2nd
Produce of Dam , Beauty & Star 3rd Dam and Daughter, and Belle,
Beauty & Blonde 4th Sr. Get for Class Act. Then at the Awards
Ceremony SGCH Belle was awarded High 305 for both Milk & Butterfat
and our old man *B South Fork SK Class Act was named Premier Sire of
Show!! What an ending!!
Enjoy your visit!
