Kansas Bluestem Ethel

Elite- 2022

1*M

ADGA #N2078818

March 1, 2020

Ethel is a large doe who is our first homebred doe to freshen. To say that we have an emotional attachment to her, is an understatement. She is our only daughter of Lilly, one of our first goats, who we tragically lost in June 2021 to aspiration pneuonia, so there will never be another maternal sister… and most definately never another “Ethel.” Ethel is a big bodied girl but is sweet and obedient doe when around people. She stands perfectly on the milkstand, but will dump her feed pan “in disgust” if you milk too slowly. She throws her weight and size around in the goat herd and is second in command, behind Sphinx.

Ethel is a powerhouse on the stand. She is easy to milk, and puts what you feed her into the pail without losing weight. She has great udder texture and capacity, but we would like to see some improvement in her teat placement and teat length in her offspring. Her rear udder attachment appears stronger than her dam’s after two lactations, but we’re curious what additional freshenings will do. We appreciate the improvements we have in rear udder arch over her dam as well. She is AS1C B/N, making her one of our foundation does for our low-casein/allergen friendly milk line. We’re excited to cross her with some tested “N” allele carrying bucks and build that portion of our herd.

Ethel has great body depth and dairyness. Her rump score in our 2022 LA session was strong, but we do think she could use a bit more width throughout her frame. We'd like to see improvement in her legs and feet, as she tends to stand with them almost touching each other, despite her large frame. She’s not a flashy, show stopping girl, but is a great base for building up to goats that turn heads and put tons of milk in the pail.

DHI Records

Ethel earned her milk star, making her a 1*M, as a yearling first freshener, freshening with only a single buckling. Her second lactation far outperformed the first, freshening with triplets. We expect production to continue to rise. Click here and input Animal ID NUUSA2078818 (make sure the “GOAT” selection is toggled) to pull up her CDCB Query and see additional data.

CURRENT LACTATION IN PROGRESS

2024: Due February 27, 2024

2023: 3-01 y/o completed: 240 DIM

Milk 1682 - ButterFat 83 (4.9%) - Protein 62 (3.7%)

2022: 2-03 y/o completed: 261 DIM

Milk 2381 - ButterFat 119 (5.0%) - Protein 87 (3.7%)

2021: 1-01 y/o completed: 345 DIM

Milk 1856 - ButterFat 103 (5.5%) - Protein 63 (3.4%)

(Adj. to 305 days: Milk 1722 - ButterFat 96 - Protein 58)

Linear Appraisal Data

2022: Ethel scored well for our herd in Body Depth, Dairyness, Rump Width, Rear Udder Arch and Udder Depth. She was actually the highest scoring Rear Udder Arch, and that is a trait we hope she passes on to her offspring. We expect that maturity will bring improvement in score in the structural categories. Overall, she’s a great base, but we certainly want to see her score and the scores of her offspring climb.

2023: Ethel had another year of maturity on her this year and her structural conformation scores improved all around. We were especially pleased with her rump width score, as well as strength and body depth. Her udder traits did not score as well as her previous year.

Udder Photos

We’re (admittedly) not the most skilled at clipping and photographing udders. Please accept our apologies for the lack of skill in these areas, and know that we provide you with the best we’re capable of giving. If at any time you want current udder photos of a doe, just contact us.

Udder- May 2021

~30 DIM, 1st Freshening

Her foreudder needs more extension and better blending. The udder texture is soft and buttery, milking down nicely. We hope teat shape and length change with maturity and through the duration of each lactation.

Udder- July 2022

~30 DIM, 2nd Freshening

Ethel drastically increased production and capacity in this freshening. She’s not actually this lopsided… just chose to stand funny. Her teats are improving with maturity, but we definitey hope her offspring take teat traits from their sires.

Kidding Journal @ Bluestem Acres

2021- We bred Ethel to freshen as a yearling because she was a big girl, already, during breeding season. She was due April 26, 2021 with kids sired by P-Nut. We had prepared a stall for her, but hadnt moved her into it yet, and had a very busy few days ahead of us. We checked her ligaments and her udder in the morning and then left for the day on April 23rd. That day brought with it a spring thunderstorm followed by several hours of light drizzle. We arrived home just after 8pm and Ethel didn’t come in for dinner, and neither did Max and Gidget. So, we went looking. We found her, a beautiful spotted buckling, and both protective guardians in the pasture, all wet and cold. He was “dry” as far as birth fluids, but damp from the rain. She eagerly followed us as we carried him to the warm barn and a stall full of straw. While we typically pull kids are birth and immediately start them on the bottle, we allowed Ethel to raise him for 48 hours due to our schedule requirements. For a young mother, she did fantastic, but also seemed quite relieved when we took over care. Her buckling, Kansas Bluestem Reese’s Pieces, is currently working in a 4-H herd in Kingman, KS. He is a G6S carrier, and is AS1C N/N.

2022- We bred Ethel to Amadeus for her second freshening in hopes of improving some udder traits (we absolutely love the teats on Amadeus’s dam). She was due June 11. We planned a zoo outing on June 9, and having learned my lesson from 2021, I placed Ethel in her kidding stall prior to leaving for the day, even though she wasn’t really showing any signs. I checked the stall camera about 12:45pm, and Ethel was in labor. She had a kid on the ground, and was working on the second. The zoo is about 45 minutes away from our home, and since it didn’t appear she needed my help, we finished our visit with leisure, but I kept watching the cameras. She delivered three healthy kids, all on her own, with no issues, and went to work cleaning them up. At one point, one kid managed to get stuck behind the water bucket, so I called my dad, who lives about 5 miles away, and he went to its rescue. We returned about 2:00pm, and I immediately went to the barn to check the kids… I found three doelings! Amazingly they all tested G6S normal. Kansas Bluestem Calypso (AS1C B/B) headed to Independence, KS area as the start of a new herd. Kansas Bluestem Elektra (AS1C B/B) stayed here until weaning, and now lives near Paola, KS in a small Nubian herd. Kansas Bluestem Evangeline (photo at right; AS1C B/N) stayed right here… and she’s another welcome foundation doe to our low casein milk line.

2023- Ethel had a date with Apollo this season that resulted in triplets born two days before her due date. We did induce her for delivery prior to her due date because she was looking very large and uncomfortable and was starting to struggle getting up and down. We administered 2cc lutalyse at midday on April 23, 2023, expecting kids to hit the ground 24 to 36 hours after her shot. She went faster than that though, and at 6:00am the next morning we checked the stall cameras to find Ethel in early labor. The first kid out, was delivered at 6:45am, but initially presented with just front legs and her head turned back. I am glad that I was there and able to push everything back in and get her straightened out. Once that initial rearranging occured, everything else happened smoothly. All told, Ethel had just over 22.0 pounds of kids in there, so we understand why she was uncomfortable. Kansas Bluestem SunkissedFreya headed to southest Kansas. Kansas Bluestem Sunkissed Eden stayed here in our herd. The third, a buckling, was retained as well for G6S and AS1C testing, but he passed unexpectedly at ten weeks old from unknown causes. Ethel came into milk wonderfully, putting 12.6 pounds into the milk pail on her first milk test, just 24 days in milk. Unfortunately, she then presented with a severely congested udder and even though we were able to treat and clear the condition, it did affect her production through the rest of her lactation. She milked for a total of 240 days and held production at about a gallon a day until she was successfully AI’d in the fall.