2024- Our original plan was to freshen Souvenir in March of her yearling year. A positive blood test and absence of heats had us believing she was pregnant, but her due date came and went with no delivery. That was disapointing but we took her out as a dry yearling to some shows. She did quite well, and that made us want her fresh even more. We hormone cycled Souvenir, along with a small group of does, in May, for a fall freshening group. At first, we weren’t sure that the buck we’d selected for her would be willing, but Flasher finally consented to her nagging. Souvenir kidded on her due date with a large single doe kid. The other two does we had bred at the same time also kidded on that day, and both kidded in the early afternoon. We knew Souvenir was close to delivery, but hadn’t seen any real signs of labor, so left her for a few hours to attend to the other newborn kids in the house. When I checked the cameras, right before sitting down to dinner, I saw one of the other does who was sharing that maternity stall with her licking vigorously at something in the straw behind Souvenir. Souvenir didn’t have a clue what was going on, and didn’t see to care… and then the something move and I realized Souvenir had delivered! The doe kid hadn’t been out long and the other two does were working hard to dry her off, but they didn’t mind when I snuck her away to the house, and then returned to milk Souvenir’s colostrum. We retained the doe kid, Kansas Bluestem Parade Trinket, and she will join Knox’s 4-H Dairy Goat project string. Souvenir came into milk wonderfully with admirable production for a yearling. She does tend to hold back milk in the intitial stage of milking, but gentle bumping gets her to letdown the rest. Her orifice size is excellent and we’re glad to have her on the line.