In mid 2020, my daughter, Emma, who lives in the USA, told me she had bought 3 Nigerian Dwarf goatlings as pets. I had not heard of the breed and was intrigued so I did some research and what I found was a delightful, miniature breed of “goat of all colors” originating from Africa and new to Australia. Now, some months later, we are at the beginning of our own Nigerian Dwarf journey and we are smitten with these gorgeous little animals.
Called “Ivydale” the property came into my partner, Greg’s, family around 1915 when the house was built. We have just under 200 acres of undulating land with a creek and a dam just north of Toowoomba. Greg runs beef cattle now although his family operated a dairy here for many years until the 1980’s when small dairies became unviable. It is ironic that we have decided to buy and breed Nigerian Dwarfs as they are the smallest of the dairy goat breeds! The old dairy and yards are being used now as housing for them, but the bails are way to large for these little goats to use! We have fenced off several paddocks for the goats and have used 1.2 metre predator proof fencing to ensure their safety. As an added precaution, they are shut in at night so we know they are safe.
We have started our “Ivydale” herd with 3 x 100% pure bred does (Carmen, Lisa and Maud) and 2 x 100% bucks (Elliot and Pinky) who we were lucky enough to purchase from Michael and Ulrike Garwood from their highly sought after First Fleet herd in Victoria. We also purchased two percentage does from the Rodney Surawski’s successful Stoney Creek Farm here in Queensland. Acacia is 75% and Botanica is 87.5% and they will be bred to our 100% bucks. We are looking forward to an exciting future with these quality animals to base our breeding program on.
The property and our goats have received full biosecurity clearance from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries under the Caprine Retrovirus (CRV) and Johne’s Disease Control Scheme. CRV is a disease affecting dairy goats of all breeds and it is very wise for anyone considering the purchase of dairy goats to ensure that the animals are tested clear of both CRV and Johne’s.
For further details please feel free to peruse the following pages. We are always happy to answer any questions or to host visitors who are interested to find out more about this special little breed so please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.