We are so excited about our herd of goats and how great they are.  When we first got goats – they were ok.  But even though we loved them, it wasn’t hard to find a ‘fault’, even if it was just a matter of preference.  As we would get new goats or retain babies that were born, we would sell the ones with the most pressing ‘fault’.  Sometimes their feet were harder to maintain, sometimes it was their personality, sometimes we didn’t like the shape or placement of their teats.  Whatever the reason, it was pretty easy to decide whom to sell.

But now?  Now all we have are really good goats.  They’re all easy to milk.  They’re all easy keepers.  They’re all heavy milkers. And they all have great personalities.  But because we’ve been retaining bucks that have been born here, our herd is starting to lack genetic diversity.  This a good thing because it makes it so that the baby goats that are born are fairly predictable as to what kind of milker they will be.

But because we are building the certified kitchen and getting ready to add food products, the herd is growing.  That means we need to use a few more bucks to breed everybody.  And since we need some new bucks, we decided it was a good time to bring in some new bloodlines.

Meet our new bucks – Rachmaninoff and Vladimir!

They are from a goat dairy in Sebastapol, California.  Why the Russian names?  The boys were fighting for names like “Captain” or “Gladiator”.  But we decided that since Sebastopol is part of the Russian River Valley, we would give the bucks Russian names.  Rachmaninoff is one of my favorite composers, so I suggested his name.  And Vladimir was one of the characters in the animated film, Anastasia.

The two of them flew in from California in a shared crate.  Jim, Fletcher, and Hewitt drove to the airport to pick them up.

When we got them home, after feeding them, the boys took them into the field and ran around with them for several hours.  Since they had been cooped up in the crate for so long, they really enjoyed the exercise!

They were very happy to be free!

They are currently in quarantine away from the other goats to make sure they didn’t bring any sickness with them. But they’re enjoying the specialized attention that brings.

They both have excellent genetics behind them.  Rocky (brown one) is a little bit younger than Vlad and a little bit smaller because he was one of quads.

Can’t wait to see how they grow and what their kids look like in the future.

Do you like the names?