CHINOOK WINDS FARM

NDGA/AGS Registered Nigerian Dwarf Goats 

Since 1999

Last Updated 11-14-09

Herd Highlights

2009   2008   2007   2006   2005   2004   2003

One point I want to make perfectly clear, as a veterinary technician, I can't and don't believe in doing anything else with my goats when sick or injured than taking them to the vet. I don't treat them here at home unless it is something minor, or they have been released from the hospital and sent home for me to continue treating. I think we have a moral obligation to take the best care of them possible and that means taking them to the doctor. You can't do enough at home. I don't mind answering questions about whether I think a goat has a problem or not because somebody new to goats might not be sure. But can't help somebody that is not taking their goat to the vet because it is too expensive. And I don't mind answering questions for somebody who lives somewhere that they don't have emergency vet services. I also want to point out that I have never had a goat die here or at the vet that I didn't have a necropsy done on them plus all the tests. There may have been times when the doctor didn't know what was wrong with them, but at least they knew what wasn't wrong. And maybe it helped further their knowledge of goats. Yes, I have lost several goats at the vet, but I have also had them save several goats. I believe if I had tried to treat them here, I would have lost them all. 

Please be aware that although we do allow visitors, we are not a petting zoo. Please email or call and schedule an appointment with us. Also, please don't bring your children unless you are going to keep them from chasing our animals. Be aware that we have five very large dogs whose job it is to keep anything from harassing the other animals here. That brings up a good point. We truly feel that you need livestock guard dogs with the goats. We have had too many people tell us that their goats were  killed by coyotes or stray dogs or even their neighbors' dogs.

All  our goats are given a pelleted food that we purchase from the Co-Op. We no longer feed a molasses based food, as we think that can lead to trouble. They also get hay and water daily, as well as Capri-Min minerals from Caprine Supply. This brings up another important point. Everything we feed is formulated for goats, their food and their minerals. We have heard of people buying horse products to save money. We don't believe in taking this chance. Our hay is Tifton 44 Bermuda. We don't feed alfalfa.

Please email first and tell us what you are looking for before calling. Sherri is a veterinary technician and works 12 plus hour days and then has to come home and feed the animals. Now that it is fall and time has changed, I do everything different. Please don't call any later than 8:00, since my days begin at 4:00 AM. Better yet, just call Tuesdays or weekends. 

We bought our first Nigerians in early 1999 from Twin Creeks, Chisholm Trail, and Ponders End. We picked six up from Texas and had a couple more flown here from Arizona. Later that year we added a few more  from Piddlin Acres in Texas. We knew from the beginning that we wanted show quality goats and we feel we were lucky enough to stumble upon some of the top herds in the country from the very start via the internet. We have continued to add goats from these herds through the years. Some other top herds represented here are Goodwood, Lost Pines, Green Gate, Woodhaven Farms, Lost Valley,  and Pride Of Texas. Almost all our goats are descended from the excellent Texas genetics of Goodwood and Willows/Willow Creek. All our goats are out of Master Champion, Permanent Grand Champion, ARMCH, and/or production award bloodlines. 

One herd highlight was being able to purchase MCH Gladys Porter Zoo Ali's Tex +S in 2001 from Carol Fleck of Chisholm Trail. We will always be grateful to Carol for Tex. Even though he passed away in 2005, he will always have a big impact on our herd. Another buck with a huge impact on our herd is MCH/PCGH Green Gate Dragon Heart who we purchased as a kid and successfully campaigned to Master Champion status in 2002 and the Permanent Grand Champion status in 2007. In January of 2006, we saw the most welcome addition to our herd of MCH Twin Creeks BH Baywatch ++*S, a buck we had long admired. We started using him right away and had kids sired by him start to arrive in June 2006. Sadly, Baywatch has now passed away. We have a few of his offspring for sale.

Although we have had several herd names represented here, we have actually bought our goats from very few breeders, these being breeders who buy and sell to each other and have herds known to be very healthy and disease free. Herds that are tested yearly for CAE with 100% negative results and no history of abcesses of any kind. We plan to start complete herd testing ourselves soon. We will test for CAE, CL, and Johnne's, sending the samples to Washington State. When we receive the results, we will post them on the website. So far the goats we have sold have tested negative for CAE, CL, and Johnnes.

You can see a list of the other Master Champions and Permanent Grand Champions that our goats are related to, by going to the Reference Animals page. You can see a list of our goats show wins by going to the CHW Champions Page. You can also see a yearly break down of our herd highlights by clicking here. We got into showing our goats early on and have done fairly well so far. We only attend between two and five shows a year, but we always come home with Grand Champion and Reserve Champion wins. We usually attend shows in Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma. We are always willing to deliver goats to shows at no additional cost. 

It is our goal to raise healthy, show quality goats. We have a few blue-eyed goats and several polled (naturally hornless) goats. Nigerians are very colorful and very friendly. Their small size and easy going  personalities make them great pets for the whole family. Even a small children can handle a Nigerian kid. They make great 4H projects for children. They produce a large amount of milk for their small size, with a high butter fat content. 

Our web site is set up so that you can see front, side, and rear photos of the goats, as well as photos of their sires and dams. We are working to get clipped, posed photos of all our goats. We try our best to describe them accurately, including weaknesses, not just their strengths. We have our goats pedigrees listed five generations back on their individual pages, but you can click on the pedigree links to see the pedigrees further back. We also have as complete a list of their kiddings as we have records of. There are also udder links to click on to see enlarged, higher quality photos of our does' udders.

We guarantee our registered goats to be free of any disqualify faults in the show ring, except we do not guarantee height. We further guarantee our goats to be fertile, and will provide a refund, or a replacement animal, upon a written statement by an accredited veterinarian that the goat received adequate care by the purchaser and that the sterility is a genetic defect. All deposits are nonrefundable, except in the instances that the requested kid was not produced or the goat died. A $50 deposit will reserve a kid from a breeding before birth. Otherwise a $100 deposit is required. Please see our Sales Page for our complete sales policy and our Sales List for goats that are available.

Please note that our kids are dam raised. We're sorry but we absolutely cannot bottle feed upon request. We only do it when necessary. Our kids will be dewormed, vacinated, and disbudded (if not polled) and will be ready to go to new homes by 8-12 weeks of age. Our goats either are or can be registered with both the American Goat Society and the Nigerian Dwarf Goat Association. They can also registered with the American Dairy Goat Association. 

Please note that we do not milk our does. Many Nigerian breeders now milk their does twice daily as well as letting the kids nurse them to really increase their milk production for shows. But we simply do not have the time to do it, being gone more than twelve hours from the time we leave for work until the time we return. 

Our goats are still foremost our pets. So please tell us a little about yourself and your facilities for goats when inquiring about goats we have for sale. We feel sure that if you are an animal lover as well, you will be glad to take the time to reassure us that our goats would be going to a good home. We have a page that is specifically for first time goat buyers and the questions they  may have. Our upcoming planned breedings for the next year are listed on the Kidding Schedule page and kids for sale might either be listed on the Sales Page or the separate Doe Kids and Buck Kids pages.

We usually have wethers (neutered males) for sale at $50. Sometimes a female may only be suitable as a pet and then would be available to a very good home only. We have placed a few this way. They have gone to new homes with excellent families to love and care for them. When a goat is born that can't be shown or bred for some reason, we keep them and care for them here and try to honestly evaluate their quality of life. They wouldn't be born if it wasn't for us and they are our responsibility. Sometimes it may be kinder to have them humanely put to sleep by a veterinarian though and we do this when that is the case. If you are looking for a goat to just be a pet, don't be afraid to ask us if we have any. But be prepared to answer some questions about your barn and fencing. 

***A walk through tour of our farm. Pics coming.***

We would like to describe our farm to those who may buy from us, but not actually come here to pick up, so that you don't get to see our farm. Many people ask us how we do things, and I have always had some description on the questionaire page, but nobody seems to look at that page. I think it is important that people know our goats have heat lights and ceiling and drum fans and big walk in barns where they are completely out of the elements. I can't be responsible for what happens to them if they are suddenly thrown outside with next to no shelter and no way to get warmed up or cooled off. In other words, no I don't think a pet igloo in a pen is adequate shelter, and it's sure not what mine are used to.

We have the goats separated by age groups and each group has their own pasture, guard dog, and barn complete with heat lamps in the winter, and ceiling and/or drum fans in the summer.  There are windows that can be opened and closed as needed. The barns are completely cleaned out down to the dirt  floors on a regular basis depending on the size of the barn and the number of animals in it, so usually one to three weeks. Then they are packed with clean pine shavings.

Our goat groups are junior does, mothers with babies, adult does, aged/retired does, two senior bucks and one small one for junior bucks. All our fencing are the steel hog panels from the Co-Op. They are 16 feet long and have the graduated spacing. Every pasture has a drive gate just in case we need to get in that away with the truck or van to quickly take a goat to the vet, or for easy show loading and unloading. At this point this may be all the description that most people need, but for people that are doing all this for the first time, and want to know how to do things, and maybe more importantly how not to, read on. Because I can certainly advise you not to do some things the way we did. 

The first drive gate you come to is the mother and baby yard, sometimes also the junior doe yard (there is another drive through gate that can be opened to make this one larger yard). Although the maternity barn is not the first barn you come to. You walk through this yard into the two story, concrete floored, brick barn that is the original barn. I call this the concrete or work barn. I love this barn because it was built by my dad and two uncles who have all passed away now. It's where I do most of my health care on the goats and all my clipping for shows. There are two industrial ceiling fans and multiple drum fans on stands. This is where I store my goat supplies that aren't affected by heat and cold. I also have two refrigerators in here. The bottom floor is concrete with multiple large windows as well as a double garage door that can be pulled down. It has a 15' ceiling and is 20 x 40. This is where the does and dogs love to spend the hot summer days. Lying on the cool concrete with the ceiling fans whirling over head. On really hot days we also turn on some drum fans.

The upstairs has a wooden floor and an equally high ceiling with just two windows, one on each end. This is where we store our hay. What a job it is to get it up there, not to mention back down. This is something I think we did wrong, storing the hay here and not building a single level new barn for it. You either have to carry it one bale at a time down the flight of stairs or throw it out one of the windows. To get it up there, we have to lift it up by electric hoist through a window, one bale at a time. And to get it into the yard and up to the window, we have to shut the mothers with babies, or junior does, inside their barn. Because they certainly don't run from a truck pulling a trailer like you think they would, they just see the bales of hay and come running at it instead.

Walking out the garage door you go into the adult doe barn, which is an addition we built on ourselves with a steel roof. It is the length of the concrete barn, plus the length of the maternity/ junior doe addition, but it is narrow, 12 feet. This area has drum fans and heat lights. It is has a sliding ten foot door, that is pulled back in nice weather and pulled to when cold or raining. From this barn, you walk through a door into the maternity barn finally. You can't get into it from their own pasture unless you climb through a dog door or window, and don't think I haven't. This is another pain to me that I would like changed.

The mother and baby barn, or maternity barn is another original barn structure that was built by my dad and two uncles. It was where the Winnebago was parked. It has a shared brick wall with the concrete work barn. This is the only wall without windows. It has a two story sloped ceiling that comes off of the second floor of the concrete barn. So it's 30 feet high, but slopes down to about 15 feet. There is a lot of air flow with that high ceiling and there are windows on three of the four walls. Plus there is a ceiling fan and a temperature controlled exhaust fan, as well as one drum fan. In the winter we hang as many as four heat lights in this barn. It is 20 x 20. There are gates within this area that can be closed to make three separate kidding areas. This is another problem I have. I would like more separate areas , instead of just the three large ones. But Aaron says I have no business having more than three does kidding at a time anyway.

 This barn has one wall  that is where the junior doe barn is connected onto. We had this addition built. There are windows along this connecting wall as well as a walk through door that can be opened to make this one large barn for the junior does. This barn addition has windows on all four walls and two exhaust fans, as well as a drum fan. I use as many as three heat lights in this area. The ceiling slopes from 15 down to 10 feet. In both these barns there are normal size doors that go out into the adult doe barn, as well as dog doors that go out into the two outside yards and can be closed to keep the goats inside. 

 The aged doe barn is about the last one third of the adult doe  barn fenced off, so about 15 x 15. They have their own heat lights and hanging drum fan. Their yard is an interior yard, surrounded on all sides by other goat pastures. 

The original buck barn we had built and is 20 x 20 and has three windows, plus one side is almost open. In the winter, we hang plywood siding to close it up most of the way. They have sleeping benches along the three walls and a built in wooden hay rack. The second buck barn we built and is 12 x 8 and has one partially opened end that can be closed off more in the winter with plywood, or is a nice opening for summer with just a steel gate there that can be closed. Built onto this barn by us, with one connecting wall is the 8 x 8 junior barn, that can also be used as a breeding barn. This has a dog door that leads outside to a small yard with a covered lean-to area with a built in wooden hay feeder under it and a gate that opens into the big buck pasture. 

While I think the sturdy fencing and nice barns are some of the things we have done right. I think there's plenty we have done wrong. Things here are set up for the goats, not us. Nothing makes my job of feeding and cleaning anything  but harder. Including the fact that I have to carry the buckets of food 100 yards or so across the pasture to get to the barns with goats jumping on me all the way. That's why I love nice weather when I can just throw feeding pans down on the ground and feed them outside quickly and then pick them back up. But I still have to drag the hay and the water hoses all the way to the barns, not to mention all those bags of shavings, and all the dirty shavings that I take out of the barns. In the barns with sleeping benches, there is a lot of stooping to get the poop out from under them, but the goats love them in summer time. In the winter, they sleep in the shavings under the heat lights. 

Chinook Winds Farm Nigerian Dwarf Goats
Sherri and Aaron Jones
9987 Tracy Road
Atoka, TN 38004

Email turtlmuthr@aol.com

Please make checks payable to Sherri Jones and mail to the above address.