Tyke had borrowed Verlin–the dairy doe–in order to save a kid from a no-milking mother.  Once again, Verlin performed.  He brought her back this past weekend.  I had kind of forgot about her, you know, out-of-sight, out-of-mind.  Now that she is home, there are decisions to be made.  One–how much longer is she to stay in production?  Mainly, because I have no idea how old she is.  I’ve had her for quite a while and she wasn’t a young one when we got her.  She has raised numerous kids (17 one year) But, she has started to be a little bit cranky to deal with the past two years.  She will still take extra kids, but she doesn’t like it much.  Two–Which buck is she going to get bred to for this year?

      Verlin has always kind of done her own thing in the pasture.  She doesn’t ever pick fights with other does, but you never see any of the dominant does mess with Verlin.  I don’t know if they are scared of her vertical horns or have learned not to mess with her.  We kept her rainman daughter this year.  Duke has her broke to lead.   We are done messing with bottle babies around here as it doesn’t work.  But the kids that get raised by Verlin or other dairy does do very well.  A good dairy doe is priceless when trying to save kids.