Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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Updated!
6/07: We have revamped our Ranch Workshop Packages!
In addition to our one and three-day cheese making and goat management workshops learn about our free open- house days and lodging accommodations.
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Award Winning Artisan Goat Cheeses
4 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
3 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
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Click here to read the online version of Kathryn's booklet
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This site last updated:
March 29, 2008
© 2000-2008 Black Mesa Ranch Inc. All Rights Reserved
Arizona Grown!
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About Our Goats, Our Philosophy, and Our Health and Production Testing
We are very proud of the goats at Black Mesa Ranch. The dairy herd represents some very excellent blood lines. Many of the herd names represented in our lineages will be familiar to most fine goat breeders for their exceptional quality.
Our herd is still a relatively new and small one compared to many operations but we have already developed an ambitious and thoughtful breeding program, endeavoring to introduce specific genetic traits to further our overall goals.
Those goals, in a nutshell, would be to develop good, reliable milking goats, capable of thriving in a more natural environment. General traits we look for include exceptional good overall health; trouble-free pregnancies and deliveries; easy milking, capacious udders with strong, high attachments (a practical consideration for when traipsing over rough terrain); strong constitutions; friendly and easy-going temperaments.
We are not BINGO breeders! You know, those breeders that would rather collect pedigrees than the actual goats. The ones that throw a new goat into a pen without even noticing it so that they can go inside and lovingly look at the new registration paperwork, one more step towards calling, “BINGO!!”. Once, we were in serious long-distance negotiations for a high quality doe, only to have the whole deal fall through when we asked for a picture of her. We’ve been to places where the breeder has to check tattooed ears because they didn’t know their own goats by sight. Maybe these strategies work for those people – but NOT for US!!! Our goats are part of the family here. We know each one by sight, know their strengths and weaknesses, their oddities and preferences. They are all individuals with their own traits, personalities, and attitudes, and we enjoy them for that.
We do not show our goats so you will not see references to show wins or "legs" but many of the siblings, offspring, sires, and dams from among our lines have been shown by others quite successfully.
You will notice that our pictures are not the usual stiff "show poses". To be honest we wouldn't know how to go about getting a goat to pose like that. Our pictures are, generally, candid shots of them going about their daily business - browsing, napping, browsing, sunning, browsing, playing and, of course, browsing.
2005 Update
Herd on DHIR Testing
In 2005 we went on official "Dairy Herd Improvement Registry" (DHIR) milk test. Our girls are exceeding our expectations, and they are all heading toward adding Milking Stars to their pedigrees. Once a month we send milk samples in to be tested. We have always been pleased with the high quality of the milk our herd produces. Now we know why. Their milk tests extremely high in the milk solids that are so important in cheesemaking. Trudy’s title has been changed from Herd Queen to "Herd Cream" because of her 7.5% peak butterfat percentage. That must be why BMR cheese is so sweet and creamy – thanks, Trudy!
DNA Testing for G6S initiated
Also in 2005 we made the decision to DNA test our goats for the G6S genetic defect that effects Nubian Goats. We will be posting our findings and working toward having a G6S Normal herd. For more information on G6S, please refer to: http://www.goatworld.com/articles/g6s.shtml
2006 Update
Last year’s entry into DHIR testing resulted in all of our milkers earning their milking stars. Great work, ladies! We are pleased with being in the program since it gives us feedback on udder health, milk quality, and productivity.
We are very pleased to announce the arrival of our newest boys, Jacobs Pride Show Me Zanzibar (Zane) and Lakeshore-Farms Mr. Bentley (Benny). We feel that they will make great additions to our herd.
This year we have completed testing all our breeding goats for the G6S genetic defect. All of our bucks and all but one of our does are G6S normal! Our herd continues to test 100% CAE negative.
2008 Update
We were thrilled with last year's result from our Linear Appraisal. 2007 was our first year in the program and it was well worth the money, time, and organization required to participate. We learned a lot from the trained, professional goat appraiser. In this program the goats are not appraised for monetary value, but for quality of conformation. Our goats exceeded our expectations of quality with several of them (including two of our bucks) getting recognition as Excellent by the USDA. We also had three girls listed as Elite does by the USDA, and six does received Superior Genetics titles. All in all 2007 was a great year for our goats.
This year we will continue with our DHIR testing and have already enrolled our goats for their second Linear Appraisal.