What's Going on at Pryme Farms
Updated August 31, 2010:
CMGA East National Show in St. Hyacinthe, QC
In late July we travelled down to the East Nationals, what a great three days we had! We made the trip with three children and six goats but what made this trip particularly fun was the "Ontario Convoy" consisting of ourselves, the Schlegels and the Big Boer gang. Thanks for the camaraderie you guys!
The show itself was well attended with over 130 entries and there was no shortage of impressive animals and passionate breeders. It was a fantastic opportunity to admire Canada's leading genetics and to network with fellow breeders.
Unfortunately, we had little time for snapping photos but we were able to get some photos of one of the senior doe classes. Our six year old doe "Kindred Caressa" (pictured in the middle) was in this class among exceptional and very accomplished does. She made us very proud placing second in this particular pen of senior ladies!
Ryan showing Kindred Caressa ~ CMGA East National Show
Pryme Farms Visits the Prince Edward County 4-H Goat Club
We recently spent some time with the PEC 4-H Goat Club. We were pleased to be invited by their club leader Sue Vincent, a fellow meat goat producer. We took two of our purebred Boer does as well as a purebred Nubian doe and demonstrated show ring preparation and proper hoof trimming. We worked on our own animals also giving the children hands on opportunities with our goats and their own.
To wrap up our visit we set up a moch show ring and the children brought their project goats in just as they will on Achievement Day in September. With a fun, light hearted approach we went over show ring etiquet and some do's and donts when showing goats.
We really enjoyed spending time with this group and getting to see how much pride they took in their 'projects'. Its really neat to see goats linking such a great group of people together. We wish them all the best as they prepare for Achievement Day!
New herd sire from the 'bluegrass' state of Kentucky!
We are just home from a fantastic trip to Kentucky. We have brought back with us an outstanding buck "Rowdy Mtns. Dancing King". Some of the names in this buck's pedigree include: DSM Cloud Dancing, Eggsfile, Kaptein, Top Gun No.2, and Bodacious Hunk!
At 17 months, he is a solid picture of the quality those old genetics produce and it is not hard to figure out why people keep going back to those bloodlines.
We can hardly wait to start producing daughters from this buck and we look forward to his influence on our program.
"Rowdy Mtns. Dancing King" is pictured above at 7 months of age! (photo courtesy of Rowdy Mountain Boer Goats)
Special THANKS to Rowdy Mountain Boer Goats for making this import possible!
You can see more about 'Dancing King' on his page in the 'breeding bucks' section.
Doe Additions:
We were recently fortunate to have acquired six new does from Chevrerie Du Biquet. Beautiful, feminine does from proven lines of show winners and consistent producers. We will be posting specific photos and information about each of these does very soon so keep an eye on our 'breeding does' section.
"Du Biquet Heritage" is pictured above at 7 months old. (photo courtesy of Chevrerie Du Biquet)
We sincerely appreciate Chevrerie Du Biquet for making these animals available to us. Merci Nancy et Evelyne!
Farm Improvements:
If you haven't been to our farm recently you will notice some big changes to our set up the next time you visit. We have expanded our feeder front style penning by more than double and have poured a finished concrete floor from front to back in each of them. The gate style feeder fronts allow us to completely clean out these pens with the loader as often as we like and the slope to the concrete keeps things clean and dry. In addition to the concrete and penning expansion, we have installed large circulation fans to move air through our barn and maintain air quality.
Our bucks are now housed in a separate buck barn when not at work. We are finding this to be a nice arrangement and this has given us more room for weaning pens etc.
The increased penning has given us the ability to breed small choice groups of does to specific bucks when desired.
Our goats are content with this new set up and so are we!
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June 2010:
'ACR Tarzan GS Yankee Doodle', Grand Champion Buckle Winner and Classified:
June 12th we travelled to the Canadian Buck Classic in Orillia, ON. We showed in the morning under well known Boer goat expert Dr. Brian Faris, president of the ABGA. In the afternoon official CMGA classification was conducted by knowledgeable breeder, judge, and classifier Ian Clarke.
We are proud to announce that 'Tarzan' was the Grand Champion Overall Boer Buck at the CBC amongst some tough company and very impressive animals.
Later in the day he went on to classify VG89, the highest possible score a two year old can achieve!! Look at the twist on that buck!
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April 2010:
Pryme Exhibits the 2009 Canadian Show Champion Percentage Doe:
We are thrilled to have had such a successful 2009 show season with our percentage doe "Stonemoore Ultima". As a reward for her achievements with limited showing, Ultima has been honoured as the 2009 CMGA Show Champion Percentage Doe! We saw the potential in this doe as she graced our pasture last summer and are really happy that we put her to the test in the showring. She followed up her stellar achievement with a great set of kids this January, proving her ability not only in the showring but also as a herd mother.
We have recently bred 'Ultima to 'Tarzan' and we really look forward to their late fall progeny.
Traceability Tags:
We have now gotten on board with the new, voluntary, traceability tagging system developed by the Canadian National Goat Federation. At this point, all of our permanent herd animals will be tagged with the identifiably orange CFIA numbered tags. Once the program becomes mandatory we will then of course be tagging all animals including those going to market.
We are happy to have gotten on board at the voluntary level and have found it a straight forward transition for our tagging procedures on farm.
Keeping us Busy!:
Besides the obvious chores of keeping a farm operating, we are thrilled to be involved in some current projects/organizations in the goat industry.
At the moment, Christie is proudly serving another year on the Ontario Goat board of directors, a busy committee working on the current issues and project's within the Ontario goat industry.
In addition, Christie is also sitting on an enthusiastic committee for the Canadian Buck Classic. A progressive event concerned with producer education and genetic awareness and improvement.
"Du Sillon Matches 'n Gasoline" (AKA "Piro" pictured below at 4 weeks old)
Talk about a great young buck kid from our doe "Chevroie Chelsea EX"!! He is growing fast and looking great! We look forward to adding this buck to our program, we have never had the opportunity to breed with a top quality red buck, they are really hard to come by. Thank-you to those of you who have inquired about "Piro", we appreciate your acknowledgement of the quality animals we are raising.
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March 2010:
Alberta Arrival
We have been very fortunate to add seven new goats from KSF Boer Breeders of Leduc, Alberta. The six does we have added to our herd stem from the original imported embryos brought to Canada several years ago. These does are older now but they are still fantastic examples of what a boer goat is supposed to look like; All extremely long, wide and well muscled. In the group we have four traditional purebreds Kindred Tazu, Kindred Nana, Kindred Chabula and Kindred Caressa. The other two does are powerful percentage does Kindred Mikala and Kindred Alura, and they are both a product of the Boer / Spanish Cashmere cross. The does are bred to an impressive young buck "Kindred Genesis" for May kids.
Kindred Mikala (Photo courtesy of Lisa Erickson)
This group of accomplished does were the last of Lisa Erickson's herd. We thank her greatly for her faith in us as breeders and for allowing us to acquire these magnificant animals.
The seventh goat in the group from KSF is a ten month old buck "Kindred Chiraz". He stands firmly on solid legs and feet and is a very upfronted buck with a beautiful chest and neck placement that is quite showy. Chiraz is sired by Central Alberta TNT. We will look forward to kids from him this fall.
The KSF animals will all be added to our breeding bucks and does pages soon and you can look them up there!
Pryme Farms and Buck's Horn Boers Introduce "ACR Tarzan GS Yankee Doodle"
(photo above courtesy of Dale Spencer, Almost Heaven Boer Goat Farm)
We are proud to announce that together with Buck's Horn Boers we will be bringing a new herdsire to Ontario! From Almost Heaven Boer Goat Farm in New York state comes "ACR Tarzan GS Yankee Doodle". A grandson of Antelope Creek Ranch's Tarzan T66 and tracing back to *EN* Powell/Holman 2sis Bingo (2002 and 2003 ABGA National Champion Buck & 2003 IBGA National Champion Buck). This buck is bred to produce!
We would like to thank Dale Spencer & Family for making Tarzan available to us and for their help in making this import possible!