1st gen Saansey
aKlae
Saanen/GuernseyDoe (female)Gold
DOB: 5/26/20195 yrs
Klae has quickly become one of my favorite goats of all time.
It's hard to get the package of good looks, solid milk production, and an affectionate mellow personality all in one... But she has it all in spades, and I could not be more happy with her.
Klae hit the lottery by getting her mama's correct conformation and dairy strength, combined with her sire's eternal gentleness and tranquility.
She is patient when waiting for her grain, steady on the milk stand, and always quietly affectionate. If she thinks I'm taking too long to feed her, she'll catch my eye firmly and then look at her feeder... No fuss, just a reminder that she is hungry and I should hurry up.
Milking her is a BREEZE. Her teats are the perfect size, shape and placement. The orifices are large, and she lets her milk down without hesitation. No bumping or massaging needed with this girl, you just milk until she's empty and that's that. I don't milk often (that's usually mom's chore), but I can get Klae from full to empty in less than a minute...
Last year, as a first freshener during one of the hottest summers on record, she fluctuated in her production, giving anywhere between 5 and 8.5lbs a day. This year at 4 weeks fresh she hit 12lb (a gallon and a half!) a day, and has settled into a groove at right around 11lb.
**Klae hasn't settled the past two seasons. It's been devastating... Nice to know that she can do an extended lactation though! Over 2 years in and she's still producing a gallon a day.
I'll be breeding Klae to Ranger this year, fingers crossed it works. Any bucklings will be available.
side note. One of my favorite things about Klae, which is something that's not normally talked about, is how wonderful of a herd queen she is. There is always a herd queen, and it's usually the roughest goat in the barn. But Klae is a truly reasonable queen. If someone encroaches on "her space" in the manger, she'll toss her head and stomp her feet, then back out of the space and bump them with the side of her head a couple times. If the other goat doesn't listen, Klae will back up give her a good wallop, but never EVER without multiple warnings. And she treats all of the goats the exact same, never picking on the little ones. She is the fairest herd leader that I could ever ask for, and even if she wasn't a fantastic dairy animal (which she is), I would keep her just to maintain the happy hierarchy.