Monday, May 3, 2010

Show results and new calves!

Howdy folks!
So I'm sure a few of you may be wondering how we did at our first show of the year.  We went to a Tri-State show in Ohio and competed against people, I mean goats from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.  :)  I'll give you a little outline here....

Friday- We were hoping to leave around 4-5:00, but things just kept coming up so we finally pulled out of the driveway around 8:15.  Yeah, a tad bit late, but oh well.  We arrived at the fairgrounds around 10:00 and got everyone settled, then hit the hay. 

Saturday - Abigail and I were up early shaving udders and doing chores.  The show started at 8:00 a.m. with Senior Showmanship.  Abigail and I both made the mistake of not scrubbing our showmanship does' hooves and didn't place as well as hoped.  Rachel however got out there and got the job done and won the Intermediate division!  I decided to put Elizabeth (8) in the older age division (9-11 year olds) and she ended up winning as well!  Woohoo girls!  
  Right after showmanship, we went right into Alpines.  Thea', my favorite yearling won her class with our other yearling Dixie right behind in 3rd place.  In 2 year olds, Gala won her class with Alithia coming in 3rd as well.  Missy, my 4 year old won her class too, so we had 3 of the 5 in the Champion line-up.  We were elated when Gala won Grand Champion!   This was our first Senior Alpine Doe to win a milking leg, so that was SO exciting! 
  The Junior Doe show was just as exciting.  We had three Intermediate kids and three Senior kids.  Our Intermediate kids place 1st, 2nd and 4th.  Our Senior kids placed 1st, 2nd and 5th.    I also had Ali, my dry yearling who placed 2nd in her class.  In overall.....my senior kid Athena won Grand!  Then we waited around for Best Doe in Show and guess what......yep she won Overall!!!  Another exciting win! 
  The last thing we had for the day was the buck show.  We only brought our buck kid that we kept this year from Gala and Presto cross.  He's a beauty and showed it out in the ring winning both times in a class of at least 10!  So that was all our excitement of the day. :)

Sunday - There was a little church service before the show started, a wonderful addition if you ask me. :)  Again, we got right to showing but it didn't go quite as well as the day before.  They still placed decent with the yearlings going 2nd and 4th.  The yearlings went with Gala 2nd and Alithia 5th.  Missy did win her class, and nearly won Reserve, but she missed it. :(  Still, no bad placings, so I was still pretty happy.  Once we got down to kids though, we did well again.  Both our Intermediate and Seniors placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in their classes.  Ali won her class, and we were all hoping she would win grand, but....Abigail's senior kid Callie won Grand!  Ali received Reserve though, so I was still pretty happy.  We waited around for Best in Show, but the Nubian dry yearling won....so we headed on home!  Overall though, a great weekend!

Rachel and Rebekah in showmanship.
Elizabeth in showmanship.
Ben and Josh in showmanship.
Alpine Champion line-up on Saturday.  Elizabeth has the yearling, Abigail has the 2 year old and I have the 4 year old.
Gala, our 2 year old.
Alithia, our other 2 year old!
Ali, my pretty dry yearling.
Athena, the Grand and BIS on Saturday.
Callie, Grand on Sunday!

When we came home Sunday afternoon, we found a surprise waiting our in the pasture....a beautiful heifer calf from Violet!  What I didn't mention earlier, was that Fawn calved Friday morning with a bull calf, so we are now milking 3 cows/heifers.  Lots of milk going through here right now.  I figured it to be about 20 gallons a day (at least) which averages about to be about 140 gallons of milk a week.  Yikes! :) 
The family with the new heifer calf.
The bull calf is the light brown one and the heifer is the dark brown.  

The heifer is about 2x the size of the bull calf.   She has had a hard time getting on her feet, so we gave her some selenium tonight.  Hopefully that will get her up and going!  

Well, I'll close here.  It's way past my bedtime. :)
~Bethany~

4 comments:

Josh said...

Bethany,
It sounds like the show went great, especially considering Dustin was there.. How exciting to win Grand, BIS, and Reserve!

The calves are looking really nice. I wish Lucy's calf had broken coloring, but he takes after his Angus sire and totally solid.

Josh

Andria Crowjoy said...

Oh my and we though the tyranny of the milk from 3 goats was alot! 140 gallons a week! :faints:

Tiffany said...

Hi Bethany,

I LOVE your goats!!

I have been reading your blog for some time now and I have kept forgetting to follow you!

Anyway I have awarded you over at my blog so come and get it!!!!

In Christ,
Tiffany

Jenna said...

Hi Dear Friend!!

I really enjoyed hearing about the show! Sounds like you did phenominal and I'm very happy for ya'll:)

Looking forward to seeing you in a couple more weeks -

Love you,
Jenna