Meet the Does
The Leading Ladies of the Milking Parlor
Tanglebriar Velvet Night, known as Velvet, is another very outgoing goat, who had a tendency to hop into my lap at feeding time as a kid in 2020, and is sweet and good natured on the milkstand as an adult. Velvet shows a big improvement on her udder from her dam, Spice. Her sire, Foxtrot, was the son of Reason and Rocket Science, and she's seen an improvement in milk production and udder conformation as well as stature from Foxy: she's got more of Reason's udder, and the production from Rocket's lines. Velvet is doing a great job carrying on the easy kidding tradition of her dam, Spice, and is just as boy crazy. She's got quite a similar look to her great-aunt, Fancy, which makes me smile, but is less impish.
The Starlets
Blueberry
Tanglebriar Blueberry Pie was born in the 2023 kidding season from Everest and Velvet. She's sweet and a nice sized kid, and I'm very excited to see how she is going to shape up.
Breezy
Tanglebriar Easy Breezy was born in the 2023 kidding season to Parian and Ransom and is Parian's successor. She's a sweet, heavily moonspotted girl, with the big bunny ears of her sire, Ransom, and we have high hopes for her in the future.
Retired and Remembered
Tanglebriar Clarion Call, known as Clarion, was born in February of 2020 with a big voice, much like her dam, Reason, hence her name, Clarion. Although Clarion had a big voice, she gots her sweet temperament and graceful neck from her sire, Everest, who is the son of Parian (of the sweet temperament and graceful neck) and Rocket Science. Clarion was a shockingly compassionate goat, and was been such a sweetheart when her best buddy, Velvet was kidding. She has also been a late bloomer, and was due to be a first freshener in 2023, due to a complete lack of interest in the boys until late 2022. Clarion really likes to hang her head over the dutch door to the milking parlor and keep an eye on the goings-on. Clarion looked so much like Reason, but with heavy moonspots. We will really miss her.
Marmalade Spice, known as Spice, was born 5 March 2014, and I purchased her as
a yearling. She's a sweet and pretty little goat, and was very happy
to have her as one
of my foundation does. She was always skittish around new people, but a sweetheart with her people. Spice was originally at the
complete bottom of the
barnyard hierarchy, but subsequently ascended to herd queen after Reason, but has a more despotic approach to ruling than Reason. She was naturally a dream on the
milking stand, and
stood like a statue completely unsecured in the
kidding pen while I
milked her colostrum out. She always kidded out easily, and was always quite boy crazy. Although Spice has a
great little udder
to milk, she is rather weak in the fore udder
attachment, which is
something that seems to have improved quite substantially in future
generations.
Spice possesses the B/N alleles for the
alpha-s-1 casein gene,
which
correlates to an intermediate casein production
(intermediate amount of
cheese per volume of milk, intermediate amount of
protein for folks
sensitive to it). She is succeeded by her daughter, Velvet, who shows improvement in size and udder conformation.
Buttercup Acres Parian, known as Parian, was born February 16, 2013, and she was purchased as a four year old
from Old Paths Homestead in Oklahoma, and was the last of my foundation does.
Parian was purchased to be the special goat of my mom (an essential part of Tanglebriar Nubians, especially at milking time and
goat snuggles time). Parian is a the most sensible, easy going, and
calm girl, and fit herself into the herd structure pretty seamlessly.
She
is a real sweetheart, and has fabulous manners on the milking stand.
She has hair to spare, culminating in a mane that continues all
the way to her tail in a wild swoop. Although a short coat is
more 'dairy', we think the mohawk mane is pretty fantastic. Parian has passed on her elegant neck and sweet temperament to her descendants, one of whom is Clarion, her granddaughter, and the other is her daughter Breezy.
Provincia Pure Reason,known as Reason, was the full sister to Fancy. She was a big
doeling, and she shaped up to be a big doe, too.
She had a
lot of presence and confidence, and wass always the
first on the milking
stand, as was her due as herd queen.
She was the
ringleader of goat hooliganism, with Fancy as the lockpicker and was always relied
upon to lean on the
fence and snicker in goat at the humans doing
chores. Reason had the best udder of my foundation does, and she
milked well from a
mechanical perspective. She was always a little drama on the milking stand, and could be relied up to put a foot in the bucket if she ran out of food. We came to an arrangement, on the subject, and we had a special bond. Reason posessed the
A/B alleles for
the alpha-s-1 casein gene, which correlates to high
casein production
(more cheese per volume of milk). She was a benevolent dictator as herd queen, and did more shaking of heads at other goats than smacking, although she was always happy to boot a chicken out of the way if it got between her and the food. Her daughter, Clarion, is shaping up to be a worthy successor to Reason, with a more easy-going temperament.
Provincia Flight of Fancy, known simply as Fancy
was born 4 April 2014 and was the full sister to Reason, and grew to be
a very sweet and darling goat. She was our latch solver and she liked to mess with things just to
see what happens. She gave about 3 quarts a day as a first freshener, and she was a
very easy and fast goat to milk. Though her udder was not ideal
conformation-wise with her large cone-shaped teats, those big teats made for easy, fast and fun work of the milking. Fancy was great fun
on the milking stand, and was always cheerful at hopping up and standing
like a good girl, though if there was really nice alfalfa in the hay
rack, she would slide around with excitement because she would lean
into the hay so much. Fancy possessed the A/B variants of the
alpha-1-casein gene, which correlate to high cheesemaking production. She was a great goat, and we remember her with great fondness.
