[Momma's] Meet the LaManchas!
[Momma's] Meet the LaManchas!
Welcome to week 1 of our short "Meet the Momma's" series for spring babies at Penner Mini Farms!
Hiya, farm friends 👋🏼
Can you' believe we’re already 1 week into MARCH?
Bonkers, right?
For us, Spring = babies arrive 🥳 = ZERO time for anything outside of the farm 😬
(#sorrynotsorry in advance!)
So, to help prepare everyone for the upcoming bouncing babies, we decided we’ll have a short series introducing all of our Momma’s!!
After the Momma’s series, we’ll have a baby series so you can see all the new additions to the farm.
Starting out this week is our LaMancha’s 🤩
LaManchas, LaManchas, what happened to your ears? 🐐
Upon first look at a LaMancha goat, you may realize one distinguishing feature.
It ALMOST looks like they have no ears! 👂🏼🫣
But upon a little bit of research or a simple conversation with anyone who has a LaMancha herd, you’ll soon understand that they absolutely DO have ears, they’re just a little different than the norm.
LaManchas are known for their unique ear shape, which can be either “Gopher Ear” or “Elf Ear.” Gopher ears result in very small ears that are almost non-existent, while the Elf ears are no longer than two inches.
Another fun fact about LaManchas?
They can be milked for two years without being freshened 😲
So if you’re interested in dairy goats in the future, keep your eyes out for a LaMancha doe because you’d only have to breed her once every 2 years without having to rebreed to a buck.
But, my goal today was not only to introduce you to the LaMancha breed, but also our LaMancha momma’s - so let’s hit it!
Meet Daisy
Daisy is a firecracker.
(Jeff’s nickname for her is “Conflict” because if there’s trouble to get into, she’ll be the one to find it!)
She’s also super sweet.
I’d call it a solid 50/50 mix. 🤷🏻♀️
Daisy joined us at the farm when she had just turned 1 year old, and she just celebrated her “golden birthday”, turning 3 years old on 3/3!
For spring of 2023 we had bred her to Bucky, and she gave us 2 of the most amazing Mini Manchas: Honey and Maple.
(we ended up retaining both!)
For Spring of 2024 we bred Daisy to Willard (“The Waddle Wilson), so we’re hoping to get a couple Mini Manchas with waddles!
We plan to keep you all posted in future newsletters as the babies arrive, but until then, learn more about Daisy here: https://www.pennerminifarms.com/daisy
Meet Merci
Oh, Merci 💞
Merci joined us at the farm November 2023, and she has been an absolute darling and has warmed up to us nicely!
She has some prior show goat and milking awards up her collar, so we are expecting her to be our best milker this spring.
(she milks more with one udder than most other goats milk with two!)
Learn more about Merci here: https://www.pennerminifarms.com/merci
For Spring of 2024 Merci was bred with a registered LaMancha buck, so we are really excited about getting our first full LaMancha kids!
Will they be boys? Will they be girls? A mix?!?!
We shall see…
…and SOON! We are expecting Merci to kid first on or around 3/20/24 and shortly thereafter most of our other momma’s will take their turns kidding.
Exciting times are coming at Penner Mini Farms, so be sure to tune in for “Baby Watch 2024”.
📸 BONUS PHOTO SHOOT 📸
When we went in to get some updated photos of the LaManchas last night, Jeff got attacked by the little killers known as Honey & Maple (our Mini Manchas)!
Apparently they wanted to be introduced to you this week as well, so here are some of those gems 💎
Fun Fact: Maple & Honey are LITERALLY the only pair of twin girls we’ve ever had on the farm.
and finally…
WAIT!!! BEFORE YOU GO…
🐐 GUESS HOW MANY KIDS! 🐐
Back in January we asked how many goat kids you think we’re going to have this spring. Have you had a chance to take the poll? If not, find it here and let us know how many you think we’ll have!
🥛 HAVE YOU EVER TRIED RAW GOAT MILK? 🥛
A couple months ago we wrote about some great benefits of raw goat milk and introduced our Goat Milk Waitlist. So far, we’ve already got over 10 people on the waitlist, so be sure to sign up to our First Come, First Serve waitlist before it’s too late!
🙏🏼 HOW YOU CAN PRAY FOR PENNER MINI FARMS 🙏🏼
Every day I try to pray over ourselves and the farm. I ask God to “give us clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean food to eat”; for the animals and for ourselves. We humbly invite you to join us in that prayer for the farm, as well as for your own families!
This awesome!!! I look forward to the next one ❣️
Thanks Holly! Next week will be featuring our "Mini's" (Nigerian Dwarf momma's), then the following week will be our Blackbelly's ♥