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Other Goats Giant Cricket Farm Marshall, VA |
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Other Goats Giant Cricket Farm Marshall, VA |
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The story of Patty and Sancho
Pattibelle is a La Mancha milk goat. She came to us from the Adams' farm, Beekeeper's Garden, in November of 2000.
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| Sancho was born on Friday, February 8, 2001. Despite all
the horrors I was imagining, his birth was entirely uneventful. The
weather was nice, he was born sometime during the day, and he and his mom
bonded right away.
It is tough being a newborn kid, and requires a lot of naps. In this picture, Sancho is two days old. |
In this picture, Sancho is only a few days old and he is ready to explore with his mother. Patty is all-white, and the absent father, Roger Clark, is a brown and black pygmy. Sancho's coloring is starting to change and his horns are budding black. |
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At a few weeks old, you can really see Sancho's mixed parentage. His mother gave him long legs and a smooth coat. His father gave him a stocky body, a strong undershot jaw, alert ears, and short nose. The coloring is a mix from both parents. |  |
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Two years later, Sancho has grown into a fairly big goat. He is as tall as his mother, but far stockier. He weighs almost 100 pounds. His father gave him strong horns, a great main and badger stripes on his face, but he kept his mom's sleek white fur. (Photo from October 2003) |
More details:
Patty was one of my "starter goats" and came to us in November of 2000, already pregnant by a pygmy named Roger. She was a great learning experience because she was full grown, smart, and knew what she wanted. She taught Sancho a number of bad habits, but also helped him become very socialized towards people as well as other goats. He has no problem with strangers (people or goats!), though a few bad experiences have left him a bit wary of children. He was made a wether at three months because he was maturing faster than we thought wise, given that we only had one pasture and had no interest in line-breeding.
When I got more interested in angora goats, Patty became a bit of a problem, because she was too pushy and demanding and was useless to me for fiber. I was not interested in milking her, so started asking around for anyone who either wanted a La Mancha milk goat or wanted a starter goat. Happily, two ladies in my spinning group were looking to increase their La Mancha herd and were pleased to take Patty home.
