Awhile ago, Violet joined our herd. I can’t believe it’s taken this long to post it, but alas, it has. Illness, pregnancy, quarantine, dirt piles… we’ve had a lot to occupy our minds this year. But don’t let the fact that it’s taken this long for us to post about her take away from the fact that this is big news, because it is! Violet isn’t just any goat, she’s a registered La Mancha that’s part of a high production dairy line.

Does that sound snooty and pretentious? It’s okay, admit it if it sounds snooty and pretentious to you, because it certainly does to me. But I assure you, deciding to build on our herd with registered stock wasn’t a decision made just for the sake of sounding elite. It has to do largely with practicality.

We love all of our other goats, but the fact remains that they aren’t top producers. At her best, Pepper can hit just under a gallon a day. Respectable, but for comparison’s sake, Violet’s mother is producing two gallons of milk a day. That’s no guarantee that Violet will, but it’s a good bet. Given that we have four human kids with a fifth on the way, we have need for higher producing goats. After all, a goat that gives two gallons of milk a day costs the same to feed as a goat that gives one gallon a day.

Hopefully Violet will be big enough to cross with Johnny (or Colonel Mustard) this year. She’s pretty small, so I have my doubts. But I’m hoping so, because if she’s as good (or even almost as good) as her mother, we could use a daughter from her too. It’s hard to believe, but we’ve been at this long enough that Pepper, our first dairy goat, is now considered middle aged. She has a few years of production left, but it also takes a few years to raise new does to replace older milkers. Now don’t worry, even if Pepper does get to that point she isn’t going anywhere; she’ll have a nice retirement right here with us. But still, it is time to be forward thinking about what we want our herd to look like in the future. If we don’t plan for it now, we’ll be in trouble later.

So, here’s to Violet and the start of the future!