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All Spice is our Princess gem. She is one of the most solid consistent does that I have ever met, and we are glad that she owns us.
When I was working at Redwood Hill, we would do an out of season breeding program using lights. Most of our spring born kids would get bred the next spring and kid at about 18 months in the fall. Because goats are seasonal breeders and we were tricking them into coming into heat, the heats were very light and sometimes only lasted a few hours. It would be really hard to catch them in heat and hand breed them, so we did breeding pens. We had a few small pens of purebred breedings (1 Alpine buck with 5-7 does), but some of the does were in a large pen with multiple bucks so we ended up with a lot of cross bred does.
The cross bred babies are so cute! They are really hard to resist. All Spice’s dam Marigold was one of those overly cute babies. A Nubian LaMancha cross. I couldn’t resist and kept her for myself. The next year All Spice was born. While grades are not too popular, I really like them, and because there are few of them shown, if you have a nice one they can make you loads of money at the fairs (which, when you are small hobby herd and the feed bill is $1600 per month, is VERY important!)
All Spice was part of quads, 3 does and 1 buck, but I only kept the one doeling. Boy I am glad I did! All Spice is just lovely. She is nearly ideal in general appearance. The only thing I would change is her rump. Other than that she is so well put together and always stands so square. Her mammary system is gorgeous with one of the widest most lovely shaped rear udders and perfect teat placement. She is one of my most consistent milkers. She peaks at about 13 pounds, and will continue to do near 10 deep into her lactation.
All Spice has killed in the show ring. She started her show career off being 1st/1U yearling milker at the 2012 National, and since then, she has been many times champion and best of breed. Most recently we were so stunned and excited when she was Best Udder in Show at the 2014 California State Fair, and Best Doe in Show at the 2014 Sonoma County Fair.
Oddly enough with all her beauty I have yet to get a picture of All Spice that does her justice. She is just not very photogenic. She is much lovelier in person. All Spice’s kids are still grades, but her granddaughters are first generation American LaMancha. I hope that she can infuse her goodness into my LaMancha herd through her offspring.
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