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Homesteading with our Nigerian Dwarf dairy herd

Our goals include high quality production with improved genetics for dairy character, strong structural support and good temperament. 

At La Buena Vida Farm,  http://labuenavidafarm.com we live a wonderful, homesteading lifestyle and enjoy the abundance that God provides. We started our herd in 2007 with no experience in farming or goat husbandry whatsoever. Our family absolutley loves our Nigerian Dwarf goats because they are the perfect homesteading animals for sustainable living. Our lovely goats give us ample rich, sweet milk to drink, make cheese, kefir, and sweet deserts with. Their manure is composted and put back into our organic gardening system. We keep our herd numbers small to ensure that we have enough time to dedicate to the care and attention each one needs (yes, our goats are very spoiled!). We raise our Nigerian Dwarf goats with a natural and holistic approach to animal husbandry.  We try as much as possible to dam raise the kids that are born here. We feel this plays a very important role in the overall health and well-being of both the kids and their dam. That being said, we do bottle train our babies so that when it comes to our monthly milk testing time the kids are ready and willing to take a bottle. Our kids are very friendly because they are handled daily. 

KIDDING SCHEDULE
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Our herd focus is high quality production with improved genetics for dairy character, strong structural support and good temperament. 

As of April 2014,  we began year round DHIA (305 day) milk testing program through ADGA. In 2016, in addition to milk testing we also got involved with the Linear Appraisal program through ADGA. Our herd planning and selection is structured and evaluated through the information gathered from these performance programs. Once we starting participating in both ADGA performance programs from 2016 to 2019 our herd name has had TEN does achieve their Superior Genetics designation, one 2017 ELITE doe and SIX does achieve a score of 90 or higher on linear appraisals. 

Our Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats are working farm animals that our family has come to depend on for a variety of quality homesteading dairy products.  We believe that correct structure will support a doe in her long career as a working asset to our farm.  Most of our animals are very easy to work with and have pleasant temperaments. Because we are a working homesteading farm, we have a strict culling policy.  We only breed and offer for sale what we feel are the highest quality animals meeting the breed standards. Our Nigerians are registered with American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA). All does and breeding bucks are registered at our expense. A certificate of registry and transfer will be provided at the time of purchase.  Registration in any other registries will be the buyer’s responsibility. 

BIOSECURITY:  Our herd is closed and isolated to protect our animals from diseases like CL, CAE, and Johnes. We do not offer buck services to outside herds. We have done periodic testing randomly over the years, all with negative results. We rarely bring in new animals, but when we do it’s always from a trusted, confirmed negative herd. We started lightly showing our animals in 2021 and we ensure very struct biosecurity practices outside our farm. We will now be doing yearly biosecurity tests to confirm our herd maintains a disease free status. 

We test annually all goats over 6 months of age for CAE, CL, and Johne's.  

June 2023
Results are all negative
​Email us for a Report

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Striving for excellence in milk production 

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© 2023 La Buena Vida 

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