ABOUT NUBIANS
"The Cadillac of the Dairy Goat World"
BREED HISTORY
Considered by many to be the most popular goat breed in America. Nubians are of African and Asian origin. The Anglo-Nubian breed, which has been exported to most countries, is a cross between the Old English Milch Goat and Zariby and Nubian bucks imported from Egypt, Russia and India.
Nubians are large in size and tend to be heavily fleshed in comparison to other dairy breeds. They are set apart by the breed standard of long, pendulous ears and proud (convex) Roman noses. They can be of any color. They are very vocal and have an outgoing temperament. In fact our Nubians are social to the point of being 'silly' in comparison to the Nigerian Dwarf and French Alpine breeds that we've raised in the past. Many would consider this to be a nuisance, but we cherish it in these loving, intelligent dairy goats.
Although not the highest in milk production, the elegant Nubian leads standard dairy goat breeds in butterfat production, an average of 5% or more butterfat content. This gives our Nubian goat milk the excellent flavor that we noticed our French Alpines didn't have.
Here in the United States, Nubians are registered through The American Dairy Goat Association.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
We started out raising Nubian dairy goats in 1996 and added Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats soon after. The Nigerians were sold and French Alpines were purchased from a friend who was going out of business in 2005. We chose to go with the standard size dairy goats due to extreme laziness on the part of our family. If we're going to get a doe on the milk stand twice a day, she needs to fill the milk pail, period. We did find that we preferred the Nubian milk, which is higher in butterfat, than what the French Alpines were producing for us. Just a matter of personal preference and taste. We have friends who find the French Alpine milk preferable.
So, after all these years, we've had quite a few dairy goats which have carried the Quicksilver Farms (or QSF) herd name. But the Nubians have remained our favorite breed, hands down. They aren't for everyone and we don't consider the Nubian a good 'beginner's dairy goat'. Our does are loud mouthed, extremely stubborn and highly prone to rebel at the slightest change in routine.
We are so fortunate in that our first Nubians were from Cherry Hill in Virginia. We were introduced to the Kastdemur bloodlines through Cherry Hill. When we moved to Idaho and purchased Nubians again, those were the lines we remained with, even though we had to travel all the way to Texas to purchase does in milk. Since then we've had the pleasure of visiting Karen at Kastdemur's in person. We can say without a doubt we'll be sticking with the same bloodlines. Although we don't show. we appreciate the fine conformation, increased milkability and over all consistency in the Kastdemur herd.