Cherrywell Quillet

Our St. Patty’s girl almost made it to Valentine’s Day ❤️. We got a spotty little blue-eyed single buckling for Irish ☘️ today, sired by Jared 🔷

This boy will likely be available as a wether, as Irish is a first freshener this year. Her pre-kidding udder was looking pretty 🤩 though!

We’ve updated our breeding plan on the website! The next kids should be arriving in under 2 weeks ❤️

We’ve dropped a few girls off the list, and it’s possible we will cave and breed a few for June kidding if they cycle in February.

We still have quite a bit of availability for reservations, so please message with interest. Fandango will have purebred ADGA standard Nubian kids. All others will be Mini Nubians registrable with MDGA and TMGR.

I’ve been procrastinating posting, but we still have some very nice Mini Nubian goats we’re reluctantly making available to new barns in order to make space for our expanding standard Nubian program.

Our website has more details, but to name a few house hunters, we have:

💙 Jared - a mature *B moonspotted, blue eyed buck
🐙 Kracken - (I’m torn on this one and won’t be mad if she stays) a mature polled moonspotted doe. Currently open but could be bred before leaving. Should be able to easily earn her star, but she had a single last year prior to us purchasing.
💌 Prynne - (ditto on being reluctant to sell) bred moonspotted coming on two year old doe.
🧚‍♀️ 🧚🏼 Feyre & Elain - F1 coming yearling does. Open. Urban Acres breeding, very sweet bottle baby littermate sisters (can go together or separate).
🍓🫐 BONUS 🫐🍓 - Berry - a blue eyed moonspotted yearling daughter of Jared’s from last year is available due to no fault of her own from her new herd. Would be a great starter combo with Feyre and Elain!

We also have/will be having babies!! Doelings, wethers, and bucklings may be available. Message to get on our interest list 🍒

Located in Albany, OR. Delivery may be available and happy to work with transport.

We will be at this show for sure, and hope to see lots of our goat friends as well!! Exciting to have more opportunities to show our Minis in the PNW area 🐐

Who's excited about our upcoming Mini Dairy Goat Show!?!!!

It's a done deal. The venue and judges are secured. It's time to mark those calendars and start planning. The show will take place on June 1st. There will be a showmanship class and early check-in on May 31st. For all the details, visit the PNWMDGC website: https://pnwmdgc.wordpress.com/pnwmdgc-summer-sensations/

What can you do to help make this a successful show?
🎖️Join the Pacific Northwest Mini Dairy Goat Club.
🎖️Sponsor the show.
🎖️Donate items for the raffle table.
🎖️Volunteer your time and talents.
🎖️Share this post with your goat friends and on your farm pages.
and, most importantly
🎖️Enter your Mini Dairy Goats in the show!

Many hands make light work. If you can volunteer to help with any aspect of the show, please reach out to Sarah C. Donaldson.

To join the PNWMDGC, click here: https://pnwmdgc.wordpress.com/memberships/

If you'd like to sponsor the upcoming show, send $25 (or more) to [email protected] and send your farm or business card to us and you’ll be featured on our page AND website!

Thank you for all your help and support. We appreciate you all so much. We can't do this without you!

🖤🍫 Our BCMs are laying! 🍫🖤

The black copper Marans girls have started up again with some beautiful dark chocolate eggs! So fun to see what beauties they leave for us in the nest every day. Most of our colorful layers are from

💖 Triplets for Poly 💖

Two bucklings and a doeling 💙💙🎀

Poly surprised us by kidding unassisted 4 days early on Monday night. At least one buckling will be available. We expect Poly to earn her milk star this year and the boys will then inherit their *B. Looks like Poly remains stingy with her blue-eye genes and all three triplets have brown eyes. One boy for sure is polled, one boy is likely horned and will be disbudded, and we suspect the doe will be giraffe polled.

Poly girl is looking ready to pop 🫧

She still has 9 days to go, but she’s looking large and in charge. And her pre-kidding udder has us all excited! 🤩 Poly will be a second freshener this year and should easily earn her milk star. We expect big things from her in the show ring as well!!

Message us with interest - she may still have a few kid reservations available. Poly is bred to Soaring Heart’s Dolomite *B. Kids could be polled, moonspotted, and/or blue-eyed.

Our first kids of the season should be hitting the ground in less than 2 weeks!! 🤗

But in order to make room for keepers this year and to accommodate growing our standard Nubian program, we need to reduce our numbers a bit and have to make some hard cuts. Our website is updated with some of the amazing goats we’re making available to new barns.

Contact us with questions or interest, or if you would like to be added to our contact list for 2024 kids!

https://www.cherrywellquillet.com/available

We brought home some American Bresse chickens from our friends . They’re very inquisitive and sure are striking 🤩 We are looking forward to working with this breed as a sustainable food project for our family. 🐓

🎄All we want for Christmas is to have all our does bred before the end of the year! 🎄

We did ultrasounds on the girls who should have been far enough along to confirm, and weren’t thrilled with what we found. 7/12 were confirmed bred, with a couple to recheck. We will be updating the breeding plan with these results shortly. No June babies this year 🙅🏻‍♀️ so whoever we can’t settle this month will have to chill until next fall.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for some quality breeding stock or sweet pets, we will be making a few goats available to make space in the barn for the spring kid crop. Let us know if you still need a special something under the tree 🎄🎁🎅🏻

May the odds be ever in our favor🤩

🌟🌟🌟Closed for entries, stay tuned!🌟🌟🌟

It’s Christmas time and we are pleased to announce our 2023 Buckling giveaway! 🎄🎁❄️

We had a fantastic year this year and as such would love to celebrate with all of you. Entries will run from now until Friday, December 22nd 2023!

Entering is easy, simply like our page and this post and you’re entered! You can earn additional entries by sharing the post and tagging friends! Winner MUST have liked and followed our page to win.

In the past we have selected the buckling that will be available to the winner but this year the buckling will be your choice! Current reservations will take priority but any open/available buckling will be open for the winner to select! Winner will be responsible for all transport/DNA typing/CVI costs and will need to agree to our normal terms of sale.
Check out all the fun breeding we have to choose from here! https://www.midnightmilkers.com/breeding-plans

We love all the support we have received this year and know this is but a small gesture but we hope it will be a fun one. Ready, set, go! 😁💗

Our 2024 breeding plan is finally live on the website. We will have MDGA/TMGR registered mini Nubian kids as well as ADGA registered purebred standard Nubians. Please reach out if you’d like to be placed on our reservation contact list!

We also have a few goats barn hunting this winter - including a handful of keeper doelings, one or two mature *B bucks, and possibly a bred doe or two. 🏡 Let us know if you’re looking for something now!

For those local friends still working on breeding plans, we are happy to offer buck service for clean tested does.

Albany, Oregon 🌲🐐🍒

2024 Breeding Plan & Nursery — Cherrywell Quillet 2024 Breeding Plan & Nursery. We reserve the option to retain any kid born at our farm. Reservations are available. Please see our “Reserving a Quillet Kid” entry on the FAQs page for more details!! Meet the Bucks Check out our bucks here! All of the boys currently at the Quillet have their inhe...

🍂🦃 Happy Thanksgiving from the Quillet! 🦃🍂

This year, we hatched, raised and harvested our own heritage turkeys! It was very rewarding, and we’re looking forward to raising more of our own poultry for food in 2024.

If you’re looking for something to fill your ears, we had the opportunity to join our good friend Kerry from Rafter O at Cordova Creek on her podcast to discuss our trip to the ADGA Convention! Wendy Valentine from Soaring Hearts Farm joined in on the conversation as well!
This was a very fun discussion that is full of great information and we hope it may inspire some of you
to plan a trip to the 2024 ADGA National Convention in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin!

The new episode just dropped!

Ever wonder what goes on at the annual ADGA Convention? Listen in on a fabulous wrap-up conversation with fellow Mini Breeders Wendy Valentine (Soaring Hearts Farm) and Tovee and Nicholas Esch (Cherrywell Quillet). Learn about all the education and fun we had, and why YOU should attend the 2024 ADGA Convention in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mini-dairy-goat-podcast/id1582648738?i=1000633603347

🎃 SpooOoKy Halloween from the Quillet! 🎃

We had the ✨treat✨ (no tricks 👻) recently of some unexpected good news from the TMGR Top 5 milk results from 2022! We only participated in a couple of one-day tests in 2022, and we were delighted to learn that 2 of our girls made the top 5 for butterfat!!

🏅Our old gal Soaring Heart’s Lady Masquerade 2*D (with TMGR - she narrowly missed her star with MDGA due to a bucket kicking mishap) was number 4 on the list with 5.24%

🏅Hazel Homestead Heidi’s Millie made 5th place with 5.06%

We were also so excited for our friend Wendy at Soaring Hearts Farm that Soaring Heart’s First Lady Hillary AR2*D and Soaring Heart’s Lavender Blue AR3*D made first and second place for both pounds of milk and butterfat on 305 day testing! Hilary is the dam to our outstanding buck Soaring Heart’s Dolomite *B, and Lavender is dam to our sweet baby Soaring Heart’s Lavender Haze and full sister to Soaring Heart’s Raspberry Beret, who we can’t wait to see freshen in the spring!

We miss our Millie girl, but are excited to breed her daughter Kinsey next fall - Kinsey’s sire is Dolomite, so she has incredible potential. Masquerade took the year off last year after a false pregnancy and we may elect to breed her one last time this year in hopes she gives us a daughter to retain and can complete that MDGA star ⭐️

And while genetics play a role, butterfat can also be heavily influenced by diet, so this gives us some valuable insight to work with as we make tweaks to our nutrition program for the milking does next season.

It was a good weekend for a full moon 🌕 bonfire 🔥

We finally got around to stacking and burning all the random branches and logs from the 2 years we’ve lived here. Thanks to friends and family we made a party out of it and finished with hot dogs and s’mores.

We were delighted to confirm that the goats and mini horses are in fact smart enough to stay away from open flames 😅

We’re home from the in Tulsa!

This was our first convention and it was an incredible learning experience! We took classes to learn more about linear appraisal, judging process and criteria, forage, nutrition, hoof maintenance and much more.

The opportunity to spend time with and learn from our goat friends and meet new ones is unmatched at an event like this. We’re already looking forward to next year in Wisconsin!!

She is waiting for her night on the big stage! Pre-bidding has begun, and transport options are available to regions all across the US https://cowbuyer.com/servlet/Search.do?auctionId=1105

Went to the fair, and came home with a cold. Then we went on vacation and the rest of the fam got 🦠…

So…. we’re way overdue for some updates and some introductions! I’ll be working on getting the website back up to speed and we will be posting our breeding plan soon. We are also offering buck service again this year to clean tested does - pm if interested.

In the meantime, here’s a little highlight of our standard Nubians. We’re venturing into the ADGA realm, and excited to bring new qualities and genetics into our Mini Nubian herd, as well as open more show opportunities with our big girls. We are also using this as an opportunity to learn more from the ADGA community! Catch us at Convention 2023 in Tulsa in a couple weeks 🐐🥛📝

Home from another wonderful Oregon State Fair!! 🎡🎟️🐐

We had an amazing Labor Day weekend spending time with our lovely goat friends (both old and new) and showing off our girls.

We had another successful year and had the honor of earning 3 banners: Supreme Champion Mini Dairy Doe (Happy), Premier Exhibitors for Mini Nubians, and the Herdsmanship award for large herds (10 pens or more).

Our incredible Happy girl took home Grand Champion Mini Nubian and Best in Show.

Happy’s 2023 daughter, Jovie, made things a family affair and took home Grand Champion Junior Mini Nubian. Happy’s dam, Esmee, rounded out the Mini Nubian winners circle and earned a Reserve Grand Championship at 9 years old! We are so impressed with this line and are honored to have these stellar genetics from our friend Wendy at Soaring Heart’s Farm as one of the main foundations of our herd.

Our homegrown doelings, Twilight and Kinsey took home first and second place in their Intermediate Kid class, and gorgeous Poly took first place and second udder in the Two and Under Three Milkers class. Baby took second place and first udder in Two and Under Three Milkers.

Our standard Nubian, Fandango, from Urban Acres took first place and first udder in her competitive Yearling Milker class - which was a lovely start to our ADGA showing careers!

For now, we are happy to be home and excited to get to work on our fall breeding plans. Reach out if you are interested in getting on our reservation list, and watch for more updates soon!!
🍒🌸🐐

**Edited to add - I forgot the poor dry yearlings! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Irish from Dandelion Meadows took first place, and our homegrown Cecily Parsley (Happy’s daughter from last year) took second. AutumnWood’s Hester Prynne took fourth in a large competitive class!

We entered 10 goats in the MDGA spring V-Show this year, and (beyond Happy’s thrilling results) the rest of our entries did pretty well.

Here are our results. Poly is a real up-and-comer and we can’t wait to see how she looks after another freshening! The dry yearlings were all over the place, but they are growing and it was a huge class so we will cut them some slack 😅

We’re also pleased with our boys’ respectable placings. Especially for having grabbed them out of the field for baths and photos with no prior practice 😂
💙

Woke up to some exciting news about our amazing Happy girl 🤩 In this year’s MDGA Spring Virtual Show, she earned Grand Champion Mini Nubian Senior Doe under judge George Andrew, and Reserve Champion Sr. Doe under judge Ashley Burton. 🏆

We also recently received the official certificate for her live show Grand Champion award at the Oregon State Fair last summer. What a fun surprise! She also won the year before, but unfortunately that show didn’t sanction, so that leg doesn’t count. She did also win both rings at the Roseburg show in June (which was only sanctioned with TMGR), which should mean she is a finished Champion with TMGR.

Happy is definitely the bestest girl in our humble opinions, and we will be sure to give her extra love and scritches today!! Not too many extra treats though, because we’re prepping for our last live show of the year (OSF) and she’s watching her figure 👙☀️

Overdue for an update! Our air quality is terrible and the temps are scorching 🥵

But our girls are starting to cycle, and we’re getting a jump start on breeding season. We have some introductions to do, and will release our full breeding plan soon.

We do have just a few goats left still seeking new barns this year. One show quality, blue eyed doeling. Two young blue eyed wethers. And one pet/brush 2yr old doe. Pm for more info on these guys, or to get on our reservation list for kids next year 😊

We have a couple of lovely blue eyed doelings who will be on the hunt for their own farms in a few weeks 💙🐐

These girls are 5th generation, both have blue eyes, long ears, and are disbudded.

🫐 Cherrywell’s Beautiful Blueberry is black and tan with frosted ears and nose, white on her poll, and a single roaned moonspot on her shoulder.

🥒 Cherrywell’s Cute Cucumber is buckskin with some light roaning, frosted ears and muzzle, and white on her poll.

Dam is Mini Love Farm Skye’s Water Lily. She is a first freshener and will be milk tested at the end of the month. She is a big producer out of lovely Texas lines and has nice wide attachments.

Sire is Daystar’s Prince Jared *B. Every goat on his pedigree has a milk star and he is maturing handsomely this year. Jared is a nice smaller statured buck and gives his kids lovely long ears.

Check our website for more info: https://www.cherrywellquillet.com/breeding/2023

We may also have a couple first generation doelings from top quality standard stock available to the right home - let us know if interested 💕

Located in Albany, Oregon 🌲

We need to get back on our posting game, but we had a super fun week away in Redmond watching the ADGA National show. We had a great time catching up with our goat friends from the standard breed side of life, and enjoyed meeting many new friends as well.

We also brought in a little surprise. More to come on that soon ✨

Before we get too far out from our eventful week last week, we need to cover the remaining excitements!

Lucy ended up kidding Tuesday right on her due date with a single blue eyed buckling. He’s strong and adorable and doing great.

We got photos done for the MDGA V-Show/TMGR Conformation Clinic for our senior does (except the three that just freshened), bucks, and yearling does. 📸 Now we just need to do the doelings and super fresh ladies if they’re up for it.

We also brought in something new-to-us to help facilitate our goat and goat showing obsession 🐐🛣️

Now we just need a bigger truck 🛻😅

It was an eventful weekend, and we’re just now starting to get caught up!

Lily was due the day of the Roseburg show, but seemed like she was going to hold out for us. Well… she almost made it. We were checking our barn cams all day from the show and she seemed fine, but then when we checked on the drive home we suddenly saw 2 babies in the stall with her!! We had a family member run out to check, and she had delivered two healthy babies all by herself. We got home a short time later and she it turned out she had given us twin blue eyed doelings out of Jared 💕

I also realized I never formally introduced Baby’s single buckling from the previous Saturday. He’s an adorable spotty buckskin with impressive length and width.

We have one more girl left to kid this season (she’s due today and appears to be in early labor), and then we will be evaluating who may be available!

Back from the Roseburg Dairy Goat Association show! We had such an amazing day - this was our first multi-ring show, and we had an amazing time meeting new goat friends and catching up with old ones. There are few available shows for minis and we are so grateful to have been included in this lovely show!! 🌹 🐐 🥛

We took 4 senior does in milk and Happy really shined. She is now a finished TMGR champion! ⭐️ (this show was only TMGR sanctioned, she needs a couple more legs for MDGA - hoping to finish this summer 🤞🏼).

Here are our results:

Ring 1 - Judge: Emily Thompson-Healy

Happy -
1st place Aged Doe (5 & over)
Best Udder Aged Doe
Champion Mini Nubian
Best Udder Mini Nubian
Grand Champion Mini
Best Udder In Show Mini

Poly -
2nd place 2 Year Old Milker
Best Udder 2 Year Old Milker

Kracken-
2nd place Aged Doe
Reserve Champion Mini Nubian

Esmee-
3rd place Aged Doe

Ring 2 - Judge: April Hitch

Happy-
1st place Aged Doe
Best Udder Aged Doe
Champion Mini Nubian
Best Udder Mini Nubian
Grand Champion Mini
Best Udder in Show Mini

Poly-
1st Place 2 Year Old Milker
Best Udder 2 Year Old Milker
Reserve Champion Mini Nubian

Kracken-
3rd Place Aged Doe

Esmee-
2nd place Aged Doe

First hay run of the season!

Hopefully we will have our new hay barn up in time for second cutting and we can put up what we need instead of buying piecemeal like we’ve had to do this year 🌾💸🐐