The herd

The Beginnings
We acquired our first 2 goats in 1978 but it was not until 1981 that we decided to expand the goats and we bought in more females. Three of these goats were female kids from two well established herds (Kolding and Oakcroft) and these 3 animals went on to form the basis of our breeding policy for the next 26 years and establish for us 3 excellent female families. Two of these families remain with us today and after the third family “died out” some 12 years ago we have, over the intervening years, replaced it with 2 other lines. Both of these new families started from the purchase of 2 female kids from two exceptional female lines, Myddlewood and Ashdene.

RM 131 Ashdene Neferkare. Founder member of our latest family.

Herd policies and health status
The objectives of our goat breeding etc. are stated on our home page and include producing show quality stock with:
2000+ litre annual lactations;
Good butterfats and proteins;
Extended lactations i.e. milking for a second year beyond 365 days;
Sound udder conformation.

We aim to increase our current total of 11 champions and 17 breed champions.

The herd consists of both British Saanen and white British (grade) goats with an occasional Saanen male also standing at stud with us. Our work commitments prohibit us milking any more than 6 animals and usually 4 goatlings (dry yearlings), 4 female kids and 2 males make up the remainder of the herd .
We do kid yearlings at times and good examples of these would include RM208 Toddbrook Missellie Q*2 BrCh and RM151 Toddbrook Missfreda Q* 3 BrCh (see my article in 1988 BGS Yearbook) and our current young milker -Toddbrook Yew, who has attained 3 CC's as a yearling.
Generally though our policy is to kid at 2 years of age. Weaning is carried out on both male and female kids at 3 months of age and surplus milk is fed to our beef calves.

The Males Three males in particular have been very influential in our herd - Seaward Sumao, Ashdene Ashworth and their grandson and son respectively, Toddbrook Tallahasee. We try and collect semen on a regular basis from our males and this is usually made available for sale. We are presently looking into upgrading our collecting facilities so that semen collected in future years will meet the stringent export requirements. Current males with semen availability can be seen HERE.
	CH R209 Toddbrook Valaquenta Q* and (CH) §131/197† Toddbrook Tacamahac BrCh winners of the Interbreed Pairs Competition at the 2005 National Breed Show Photo: Peter Cox

Goats names
Our naming policy is relatively simple. We currently have four families originating from Kolding Missprue, Oakcroft Hazel, Atherton Genoa and Ashdene Neferkare and all of our female goats have names which identify them to their mothers' particular family. So that we can tell quickly when they were born, these names all begin with the current year letter. As we have now gone through the alphabet, the 2007 crop of female kids will all begin again with the letter "A". The British Saanen males almost always begin with “T” “whilst our British males begin with “M”. Like the females, we try to name them so they are immediately identifiable as coming from their particular family. Of course though, with any good system there are anomalies and Toddbrook Seville is a classic example - she was named for the cancelled city break holiday to Seville which we had to give up as her dam was very ill before kidding.

2006 Herd Achievements

In 2006 the herd attended 13 ” A”shows and the National Breed Show and were awarded and held 10 CCs (4 different goats), 7 IPCCs, 13 BCCs, 14 Best Goatlings and 11 Best Kids.
At the last 5 shows that we attended, we were awarded, Best in Show, Best Milker, Best Goatling and Best Kid. Three different milkers contributed to these 5 Best in Show awards illustrating the strength in depth within the herd.
Our young buckling, Toddbrook Thurlow, who is currently out on loan with the Rhenelfa Herd, was awarded a Best in Show and Reserve Best in Show, 2 Best Bucklings and a CC and 2 BCCs this summer also.
On the milking front the 3 senior milkers (2 of which are 1st kidders) all gained over 29 points at some point during the season with Valaquenta gaining 32 points with over 8kgs of milk at the show where she gained her Q*

The Future
We continually aim to produce the perfect goat. One day possibly we may achieve this and then we will retire and rest upon our laurels! Until then we will continue to use only the best possible males available, which may involve bringing in blood lines from abroad, so that we can maintain our record of producing goats who do well both in the show ring and in the bucket and whose sons perform well not only in our own herd but in other peoples as well.

		John with AR181 Toddbrook Missnatali Q*4 BrCh (British Saanen) at the Royal Norfolk Show in 1999, where she was inter breed Champion

	The Beginnings
	Herd policies and health status
	The Males
	Goats names
	2006 Herd Achievements
	The Future