Goat Geneology

I had been poking around on the "pedigree search" portion of the American Dairy Goat Association website, just looking back into the lineage of my does. Goat geneology. My does are all "American Nubians" rather than "Purebred Nubians" which means that somewhere along the line, another breed of goat got mixed into their pedigree. I was searching for the culprit goat.

Several generations back, I found what I was searching for: El Kahira Kienan Heidi. She was born in 1973 and had a purebred Nubian mother, but her father was unknown. Of course, this only gave rise to more questions. I posted on some of the goat boards to see if anyone could give me information that might tell me a bit more about this goat.

I received a nice note from a lady who knows the owner of this (now deceased) goat, and gave me her phone number. This was several months ago. I've been busy and a little sheepish about calling a complete stranger to ask about a goat who was born before I was! Yesterday, I got up the nerve. She was not home, so I left a message.

This morning, I got a phone call from the lady, Nancy, a 71 year old woman who is still milking 14 goats twice a day! The goat I asked about was their very first goat. Here's the story:

They were dog people. They showed, bred, and were very involved in championship dogs. A friend of hers in the dog world was also a purbred Nubian breeder. They lived near Fort Hood, TX and a wildlife reservation there. One of the friend's best Nubian does got outside her fence and was bred by a wild Spanish goat that lived on the reservation. She delivered quads.

The husband wanted to shoot all 4 of the babies, since they couldn't be registered as purebreds, but the wife wanted to keep at least one. She asked Nancy if her daughter might like a goat. Nancy said, "A GOAT?!?! Well you'll have to ask her and her father." That was the start of it. Daughter Beth wanted the goat, and soon goats became her passion. They went on to start a Nubain herd. Heidi was the foundation of all their American Nubians as well as their LaManchas, and to this day, they still have a Heidi granddaughter. She had several daughters and granddaughters that were top milk production does and several of her progeny also became finished champions.

Nancy's daughter, Beth, is now a state vet in the state of Kentucky, and one of the most respected goat vets in the area! Funny how the gift of an unwanted animal shaped the life of a young lady and how this animal's genetics are still part of the American Nubian gene pool today! I'm very happy to have them in my barn. :)