How Hobby Farm Dairy Goats Got Started
Hi,
Welcome to Hobby Farm Dairy Goats web page. I started raising dairy goats in May 1976, while living in Plymouth, Wisconsin, with my husband and 2 young children. My husband and I had joined a "Homesteading Club" because we had just purchased a 5 acre place out in the country. My husband had painted "Fritsch's Hobby Farm" on the side of the barn, so that's what I decided to use for my herd name. We had a few horses, chickens and rabbits along with a dog and some cats. One of the other members of the homesteading club had recently adopted a pony from the local Humane Society and it's hooves were in bad need of trimming. She asked if anyone else in the club knew how to trim the pony's hooves and could come over to her place and show her how. I volunteered and the next day harnessed up one of our ponies and went to her place and taught her how to do the job and showed her what tools she would need to purchase to keep up with the chore. When we finished, she gave me a tour of her little spread. She had a small herd of Alpine goats, most of which had recently kidded. The kids were bouncing around the yard and being really cute, so after I got home and my husband came home from work that night, I said to him "We should take the children over to her place to see the baby goats. They are so cute!"
His reply was "You ain't getting no G@# D@#% goats on MY farm!"
"Hold on", I said, "I don't want to get any goats, I just said that the babies were cute and the children would get a kick out of them."
Well, for the next three days he kept on me about how I didn't "DARE get anything on HIS farm without HIS permission."
Finally I said, "You do not own me. We are partners here. And if you want to get technical about it, I'm the one who made the down payment on this place and you have made a total of 3 mortgage payments, so it's more MY place than it is yours. WE will decide together what we get here."
His reply was "If you get a goat on MY farm, I'll knock you into the next county!"
That did it!! I walked over and picked up the phone and called my new friend and asked her if she had any goats for sale. "Yes", she said, "I have a little 1 year old Toggenburg doe that I'd like to get rid of."
"How much do you want for her?"
"$40", So she brought Gypsy over and taught me how to trim a goat's hooves. Gypsy seemed almost as wide and she was long, so I asked if she was pregnant. "No, she's having a false pregnancy, she's never been with a buck." And she went on to inform me about false pregnancies.
A few days later, I awoke in the morning to hear my husband's voice right outside our bedroom window, talking to someone. I continued to listen, trying to hear the other person's voice to determine who it was that he was talking to. But he was doing all the talking, so I pushed the curtains aside and looked out. He was sitting on the ground, with Gypsy listening attentively to every word he said!
About 10 days after that, Gypsy educated me about real (not false) goat pregnancies, by kidding with a set of twins! I called her former owner and said, "There was nothing false about Gypsy's pregnancy - she just kidded with twins."
"She couldn't have! She and Mr. French were never together!"
"Well, I think they've been keeping a secret from you, because her son looks just like her and the doe kid looks just like your buck, Mr. French." (A cou-blanc).
That first milking took me and Gypsy 45 minutes to accomplish. We taught eachother. I didn't want to have to milk twice a day - I grew up on a dairy farm with Holsteins, but now here I was.
Well, that's over 41 years ago now. The husband is LONG gone and I've had several thousand goats in the interim. I made a pretty good trade, in my opinion.
I've had all the dairy breeds plus Pygmies, and had a commercial dairy at one point milking about 250 - 300 head. But now I have a smaller herd of about 40, and currently it's mostly purebred, American, and grade LaManchas, and a few Alpines.
I joined ADGA in 1977 and started showing, DHIR, and "Classification" in 1979. I also paricipate in Linear Appraisal most years and attend from 4 -14 shows and fairs per year.
I normally keep all of my doe kids and few select buck kids, the rest go for meat. I usually keep more buck kids than I really need, so in the fall I often have an extra buck or two for sale. Then as first fresheners, I pick out the does that will fit best into group classes for my show string and sell the rest - often as a group to a commercial dairy.
I hope you enjoy looking through my herd. Maybe you'll find an animal (or several) that you would like to add to your herd. I can now accept credit card payments through Paypal, too, at [email protected].
You can contact me by letter at:
Bonnie Fritsch Land
N9534 Muskrat Rd.
Portage, WI 53901,
by phone 608-844-1444,
or by email [email protected] or at [email protected].
Welcome to Hobby Farm Dairy Goats web page. I started raising dairy goats in May 1976, while living in Plymouth, Wisconsin, with my husband and 2 young children. My husband and I had joined a "Homesteading Club" because we had just purchased a 5 acre place out in the country. My husband had painted "Fritsch's Hobby Farm" on the side of the barn, so that's what I decided to use for my herd name. We had a few horses, chickens and rabbits along with a dog and some cats. One of the other members of the homesteading club had recently adopted a pony from the local Humane Society and it's hooves were in bad need of trimming. She asked if anyone else in the club knew how to trim the pony's hooves and could come over to her place and show her how. I volunteered and the next day harnessed up one of our ponies and went to her place and taught her how to do the job and showed her what tools she would need to purchase to keep up with the chore. When we finished, she gave me a tour of her little spread. She had a small herd of Alpine goats, most of which had recently kidded. The kids were bouncing around the yard and being really cute, so after I got home and my husband came home from work that night, I said to him "We should take the children over to her place to see the baby goats. They are so cute!"
His reply was "You ain't getting no G@# D@#% goats on MY farm!"
"Hold on", I said, "I don't want to get any goats, I just said that the babies were cute and the children would get a kick out of them."
Well, for the next three days he kept on me about how I didn't "DARE get anything on HIS farm without HIS permission."
Finally I said, "You do not own me. We are partners here. And if you want to get technical about it, I'm the one who made the down payment on this place and you have made a total of 3 mortgage payments, so it's more MY place than it is yours. WE will decide together what we get here."
His reply was "If you get a goat on MY farm, I'll knock you into the next county!"
That did it!! I walked over and picked up the phone and called my new friend and asked her if she had any goats for sale. "Yes", she said, "I have a little 1 year old Toggenburg doe that I'd like to get rid of."
"How much do you want for her?"
"$40", So she brought Gypsy over and taught me how to trim a goat's hooves. Gypsy seemed almost as wide and she was long, so I asked if she was pregnant. "No, she's having a false pregnancy, she's never been with a buck." And she went on to inform me about false pregnancies.
A few days later, I awoke in the morning to hear my husband's voice right outside our bedroom window, talking to someone. I continued to listen, trying to hear the other person's voice to determine who it was that he was talking to. But he was doing all the talking, so I pushed the curtains aside and looked out. He was sitting on the ground, with Gypsy listening attentively to every word he said!
About 10 days after that, Gypsy educated me about real (not false) goat pregnancies, by kidding with a set of twins! I called her former owner and said, "There was nothing false about Gypsy's pregnancy - she just kidded with twins."
"She couldn't have! She and Mr. French were never together!"
"Well, I think they've been keeping a secret from you, because her son looks just like her and the doe kid looks just like your buck, Mr. French." (A cou-blanc).
That first milking took me and Gypsy 45 minutes to accomplish. We taught eachother. I didn't want to have to milk twice a day - I grew up on a dairy farm with Holsteins, but now here I was.
Well, that's over 41 years ago now. The husband is LONG gone and I've had several thousand goats in the interim. I made a pretty good trade, in my opinion.
I've had all the dairy breeds plus Pygmies, and had a commercial dairy at one point milking about 250 - 300 head. But now I have a smaller herd of about 40, and currently it's mostly purebred, American, and grade LaManchas, and a few Alpines.
I joined ADGA in 1977 and started showing, DHIR, and "Classification" in 1979. I also paricipate in Linear Appraisal most years and attend from 4 -14 shows and fairs per year.
I normally keep all of my doe kids and few select buck kids, the rest go for meat. I usually keep more buck kids than I really need, so in the fall I often have an extra buck or two for sale. Then as first fresheners, I pick out the does that will fit best into group classes for my show string and sell the rest - often as a group to a commercial dairy.
I hope you enjoy looking through my herd. Maybe you'll find an animal (or several) that you would like to add to your herd. I can now accept credit card payments through Paypal, too, at [email protected].
You can contact me by letter at:
Bonnie Fritsch Land
N9534 Muskrat Rd.
Portage, WI 53901,
by phone 608-844-1444,
or by email [email protected] or at [email protected].