It's Raining Goats!

Oh happy day! Laurel Haven has made me an offer I simply can't refuse: that I could buy Harmony's mother, Sahara, at a very discounted price. You see, Harmony and Sahara still have a very special bond and spend just about every waking moment together. Their breeder says they browse side-by-side and she even finds them sleeping together in an old dog carrier on a regular basis. How cute! Besides, who can resist a goat with a BEARD?! Marigold, you know what I'm talking about. I feel very happy knowing my two new girls will have each other for comfort and emotional support coming to their new home. I'm very close with my mother, too, so I kinda get it. ;)
I'm so excited to pick up not one, but TWO Nigerian Dwarf does this coming Saturday! And to make it even better, Sahara is also pregnant! She's been bred to a buck by the name of Sharpie, who is apparently ALL THAT and a wheel of cheese. See for yourself.
Sharpie is actually the buck I was hoping would be the sire of my buckling-to-be in the spring. At first thought, it would make sense to keep a buckling from Sahara and Sharpie to be my herd sire, but Sahara's pedigree is not nearly as "milky" as a few of Laurel Haven's other does whose pedigrees are laced with stars and +'s and all sorts of fancy stuff that I really don't know what it means, just that its good! Seeing as how I want the best possible buck to sire my herd, I think it would still be a good idea to get a buckling from one of those superb does. In that case, the only goats on my farm that he'd be related to would be the kids that Sahara is currently pregnant with, because he'd be their half-brother. Although frowned upon by humans, it is perfectly safe to breed half-siblings in the goat world, its called line breeding and has produced some of the best quality goats available today. Generally speaking, the only combinations that are not a good idea are mother-son, father-daughter, brother-sister. The dilemma I face is that I cannot afford to replace my buck each generation. In other words, after my buck has been utilized his first year, that next generation will be his, and I would not want to breed him back to his own kids when they came of age. My thoughts at this time are that if Harmony were to be pregnant right now with a buckling from Charles, I could keep him intact and use him as my pinch-hitter every other generation as needed. Charles' pedigree is not quite as impressive as Shapie's, though, so I'd want to take a closer look at that and make sure I'm not breeding flawed traits into my herd. I'll definitely be talking to someone who knows what they're doing first. What it comes down to, is Nigerians are small, friendly, don't eat much, and rare in this area, so it would not be a bad thing to have two unrelated bucks on the premises. Besides, they'd keep each other company. This could all be conjecture, of course, as Harmony and Sahara could both have bellies full of doelings.... *sigh*... I can only hope!