Reuel Linear Appraisal

2009 Dairy Goat Linear Appraisal

The Event

On June 6th everything was in readiness for our 8:00AM Appraisal session. The homemade honey buns were warm from the oven, The fresh melon was sliced, the strawberries were washed and ready, the coffee was on and the tea water was hot. The folks who were here to help were happily munching away on the goodies. The girls and boys were all clipped. our Photographer was set with plenty of extra batteries for the camera, our friend was here with her camcorder. Our appraiser was right on time and in fact everything was just about perfect, Everything except the weather! On Friday the temps topped out at 90 degrees on Saturday morning it was 59 degrees and blustery.... Oh well, such is life. We all shivered or donned jackets and started.

Our Appraiser did a through explanation of the program and the process to the big group of 4-H members, parents and breeders that were gathered and announced that Sharik got a final score of 90 to great applause and a sigh of relief from her handler :-D Below are the scores that we received and the ages of the does. We were and are thrilled with the progress of the herd as a whole and the development of the individual animals as they mature. Our Appraiser was exceptionally patient with does that just were restless or scared or otherwise not showing themselves to best advantage. He allowed them to settle down and had them walk several times in several different directions until he could see their natural walk and top line.

Following our herd's Appraisal one of the visiting herds started their Senior does while I got things set out for lunch with the help of one of my 4-H moms. The table was overflowing with lunch meats, ham 2 kinds, turkey 2 kinds, roast beef, 2 kinds of sliced cheeses, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, big bags or 4 different kinds of chips, Sandwich rolls and condiments along with all the leftovers from breakfast. The cooler was stocked with all kinds of pop and juice boxes and water.

We broke for lunch and then got back to the final few herds and all was finished up by about 3:30. It was a fun day and although getting everything ready was exhausting we had a great time and enjoyed hosting a stop. New pictures and Appraisal scores will eventually be posted to the doe's pages but that will take awhile so in the mean time please enjoy these pictures of our fine girls along with their incredible scores.

The Scores

5yr olds

Samiel VEEE 90

4yr olds

Chinook EVEV 90

Kai EEEV 90

3yr olds

Raya EEEE 91

Skarik VVEE 90

Rebecca V+EE 90

2yr olds:

Gingham VVVV 86 (First Freshener)

Viv VVEV 89

Jael VEVE90

Yearlings:

Belecia +V++ 82 (Bella has had a huge growth spurt about 3-4 inches in a month and that caused her lower score)

Kona V+V+84

Nissa +VVV85

About Linear Appraisal

Linear Appraisal is a program sponsored by the American Dairy Goat Association where a trained goat appraiser assesses each goat for quality of conformation. It's similar to a show but instead of the goat being judged against the other goats in the ring, during appraisal they are judged against the mythical perfect goat. This information is quite helpful as it allows us to breed better goats and avoid many conformational problems that might crop up if we didn't have a professional to help us look at our goats with a finely trained eye. Scores of 80 to 84 are considered Good, 85 to 89 are Very Good, and 90 or above are Excellent. By the way, the mythical perfect goat is a "mature" goat. That is why you will see our younger does with a slightly lower score than the mature girls. We like the youngsters to score in the low to mid 80's and improve each year. Getting a very high score as a first freshener might indicate a doe that will peak too early and burn out. We like our goats to mature slowly and show improvement each year.

Please contact us to reserve your kids now. Also, check out our For Sale page.

All does and pre ordered bucks and wethers are raised on heat treated colostrum and pasteurized milk.

All kid prices listed are for pre ordered kids that are picked up at 6 weeks or younger.

We give a discount to herds on milk test, youth in 4-H or for multiple purchases.

Thank you for your interest in Reuel Dairy Goats.
Feel free to e-mail any questions that you might have.

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ORDERING INFORMATION:

We request that all kids be picked up at the farm or shipped by 4-6 weeks of age as there seems to be less stress on them at that age. After 6 weeks of age we will have to charge $2.00 per day board until they are picked up or shipped. A $50 deposit is required to hold your kid with the balance due on notification of your kid's birth. All health papers, shipping kennels and shipping are the responsibility of the buyer and are to be paid prior to shipment. Deposits on canceled orders are not refundable but deposits paid on kids that are not born can be refunded or shifted to another available kid. We reserve the right to refuse sale of any kid and to return the deposit or apply it to another kid.