# How many people are into Mini Lamanchas?



## GladdieAcres

I just had my first mini LaMancha kidding and was curious how many people are into this? Thank you!!


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## seren

We bred one of our lamancha does to a nigerian dwarf buck this year! I am super excited to see the kids and decide if we are going to go further in this direction. The problem here us mini lamanchas cannot be shown at any shows or the fair here and are not accepted by 4h so not sure how profitable it will be.. :-( but I love both breeds and I am looking forward to seeing if the milk production will be more in line with the lamancha but smaller in size.


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## adriHart

I have 2 mini lamanchas. One topped out last year peaking at 6 pounds per milking with 1 kid on her and milking once a day but started to taper off after about 5 months with irregular milkings on my part. I also have another 1 that was a first freshener about a week ago. she is already giving me over a gallon a day but I haven't weighed it yet. The 1 I milked last year I have bred to a Nigerian Dwarf this year and she is huge and not due until the 11th of April. I'm thinking 3 or 4 kids this time. I will try and sell the kids probably maybe the milk too. I'm worried about not being able to sell the kids in my area because of the fact there is no registration for them and we are overflowing with Nigerians around here so there are probably quite a few minis too. I would love to hear about your plans with them and whether you have success.


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## ThreeHavens

If they were registerable with ADGA I'd be ALL over them. Even now with my first lamancha, I will probably end up with some lovely Mini Manchas in the future.


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## seren

adriHart said:


> I have 2 mini lamanchas. One topped out last year peaking at 6 pounds per milking with 1 kid on her and milking once a day but started to taper off after about 5 months with irregular milkings on my part. I also have another 1 that was a first freshener about a week ago. she is already giving me over a gallon a day but I haven't weighed it yet. The 1 I milked last year I have bred to a Nigerian Dwarf this year and she is huge and not due until the 11th of April. I'm thinking 3 or 4 kids this time. I will try and sell the kids probably maybe the milk too. I'm worried about not being able to sell the kids in my area because of the fact there is no registration for them and we are overflowing with Nigerians around here so there are probably quite a few minis too. I would love to hear about your plans with them and whether you have success.


Have you noticed a difference in feed? Interested in knowing if I could save money on feed but with the higher milk yield? Any thoughts???


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## adriHart

I've only had goat for a year and when I got her she was pregnant and then I milked her. Then I brought her again she is due to kid April 10th and she is huge this time with Nigerian Dwarf kids. she eat like a pig. She eats more than my full size LaMancha. But she was giving me a lot of milk when I was milking. more than a half a gallon a day for at least 5 month plus a buckling on her the full time.


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## milk and honey

I just bought a nice Lamancha 2 days ago, and I'm gonna make me some!!! All my other goats are NDs. I love this doe! she is SO sweet! I think it will be a really nice mix!


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## ThreeHavens

milk and honey said:


> I just bought a nice Lamancha 2 days ago, and I'm gonna make me some!!! All my other goats are NDs. I love this doe! she is SO sweet! I think it will be a really nice mix!


I am in LOVE with my Lamancha doe. The Mini Manchas are growing more and more appealing. I want her personality and production, and a bit larger, but not quite as big.


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## LuvmyGoaties

The breeder that I got my goats from has 48 Mini LaManchas due this spring. She used tp breed full size LaManchas. She has found that you only need to feed a Mini LaMancha 1/2 of what a full sized one would eat but yet the Mini's can produce 75% of the milk. They are quite popular here because they need less space and are easier to handle than the full sized goats. I love mine.


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## seren

LuvmyGoaties said:


> The breeder that I got my goats from has 48 Mini LaManchas due this spring. She used tp breed full size LaManchas. She has found that you only need to feed a Mini LaMancha 1/2 of what a full sized one would eat but yet the Mini's can produce 75% of the milk. They are quite popular here because they need less space and are easier to handle than the full sized goats. I love mine.


Wow! I may gave to keep one doe if my Lamancha has a doe!


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## adriHart

After 2 weeks of milking here is my update. I am getting enough milk from 1 of my mini LaManchas that is 2 weeks fresh to feed a growing 6 week old bottle baby Nubian plus about a half a gallon a day extra for my family. I think that puts at her at about a gallon a day or almost there. in fact I even sold some extra. I can't wait until the end of the month so I can anticipate babies from my other LaMancha.


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## debbiep

I love mini-manchas. I lost my doe yesterday in birthing. I have a 4th generation mini-mancha buck that needs some does. After my husban had to go in turn the babies and pull them out he is not wanting more goats. I just wanted a milk goat. We are in Royse City, Tx if any interest.


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## debbiep

Here in my Mini-mancha buck.


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## adriHart

The 1 on the left is my doe bully. she is due on April 11th this year and she had my surprise baby BG. He was born last July. to her right and behind her. I think he is a boer cross. This year when I bred her she was bred to a registered Nigerian Dwarf with blue eyes and tri colored. I'm hoping for some colorful offspring.


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## Terra Mia

We just bought a 3rd Gen Mini-Lamancha and I am really impressed with her size and her frame. She really is a miniature! We have 2 full sized lamanchas. She is due to kid in July with 3rd Gen babies... Here is a pic. At our local fair the kids can show her in 4H as a crossbred, I am hoping to convince our county to allow them as part of open class as long as they are registered with MDGA. I like the fact they are the perfect size for the kids to handle, not too pushy and not too small.


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## seren

myterravita said:


> We just bought a 3rd Gen Mini-Lamancha and I am really impressed with her size and her frame. She really is a miniature! We have 2 full sized lamanchas. She is due to kid in July with 3rd Gen babies... Here is a pic. At our local fair the kids can show her in 4H as a crossbred, I am hoping to convince our county to allow them as part of open class as long as they are registered with MDGA. I like the fact they are the perfect size for the kids to handle, not too pushy and not too small.


She is adorable!


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## romanad

My mini lamancha just had her kids two weeks ago. I did just have her and one full size goat, now I have three mini lamanchas! I love my mini mancha doe. She is very loving and sweet, and her kids are turning out to be the same. I seperated my full size doe until just a few days ago, and I can tell you, the full size (not a lamancha, an Alpine/Togg mix) eats a ton more than my mini. As much as I love my full size girl, I'm thinking I would like to just got with the minis. We just do backyard homestead stuff and they are perfect for that. I haven't started milking her for us yet, but I'm hoping we will get enough for family use out of my one mini. 

I'm a beginner here, but that's just my experience so far and my thoughts. I can't wait to see how much milk we get!


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## faithfarmgoats

We raise Mini Mancha's in Northwest Florida. I LOVE them! We started with a standard La Mancha then got a few more this year so that we now have 2 Mini Manchas and 4 standard Lamancha's who all gave us several more Mini Mancha's to add to our ever expanding herd. We also raise Nigerians and one of the things I love about our Mini's and our standard Lamancha's both is their lack of desire to get into trouble . They also produce about twice as much milk than or Nigerians for just about the same amount of feed. They are not greedy eaters like the Nigerians either and will actually stop eating at some points if they are full. I don't think it is possible to ever fill up a Nigerian dwarf. Over all we love them with a passion and love the fact that they make excellent backyard milkers for those who really have a desire to be self sufficient but don't have the room for a full size goat yet need more milk than what a Nigerian dwarf would produce.


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## adriHart

As I'm reading your post faithfarm, I am laughing out loud. it must just be a difference in lines or possibly the difference in how they are raised, but my 2 mini LaManchas so far are the biggest butts. they're constantly trying to get loose and get into the food doesn't matter if they've just been fed or not and they constantly want to eat my magnolia tree that is off limits. 1 of them calm down after having her kid and the other 1 remains to be seen how she will be , but for now they are a handful. I should mention I bought both of them as adults so I have no idea how they were raised up as kids.


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## faithfarmgoats

maybe I just have had some troublesome Nigerians . We have one standard lamancha who likes to be destructive (knocks down fence, chews everything) but at feeding time they are more sedate and actually get pushed around by our Nigerians. Our 1st gen mini mancha doe herd queen will acutally let me milk her with no grain which is something I can never accomplish with any of our nigerian does. All of our current herd were all raised here on our farm from kids so that may have something to do with it. No way of telling I would imagine. Just crazy goats.


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## DLeeB

I think the MiniManchas are adorable. I have one LaMancha doe that I expect to kid around the end of this month with first generation minis. So excited.


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## adriHart

Here is what I'm wondering my mini LaMancha first generation Doe is bred to a Nigerian Dwarf that is registered with ADGA. are the kids registerable with anyone? My doe is not registered


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## seren

DLeeB said:


> I think the MiniManchas are adorable. I have one LaMancha doe that I expect to kid around the end of this month with first generation minis. So excited.


Me too! I am super excited to see her kids!


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## adriHart

The 1 I mentioned above is due April 16th but she is so huge and I'm comfortable I bet she goes early


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## diamondD

We just had two adorable mini mancha bucklings, but there hasn't been much interest for them. Not sure if it is because they are bucks, or if the mini manchas just aren't that popular. Anyone else having success selling them? I have put them on Craigslist and here too. They are so cute, and one of them even has blue eyes like his daddy!


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## faithfarmgoats

Both the doe and the buck have to be registered in order to register them with the MDGA. 

We have a waiting list for Mini Mancha doe's but bucks are a hard sell in any breed right now I think. I know many breeders that are selling bucks for $250 that last year they could have sold for $500. Personally we have always sold all of our kids but this year I am not sure we will manage that. We have 5 bucks right now born in the last month that we have had no interest in and several of them have blue eyes and come from excellent milking lines with their dams proudcing 4-6 lbs as Mini's.


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## singing2day

We just brought in a nigerian dwarf with our 3 Lamancha does, in hope of starting a herd of mini lamanchas. Any tips on how to help breeding happen with such a little buck & our full size does?


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## TeyluFarm

I think that most people use step stools for the little bucks


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## lottsagoats1

I am just starting into "mini's" and have mini Oberhasli, mini Nubians and Mini Manchas. Since the 2016 Mini Manchas were all bucks, they went bye-bye. I retained 2 Mini Nubians.

I will be breeding for the same 3 this year- 1 Nubian doe (instead of 3), 1 Oberhasli doe and 3 Mancha does. I am breeding the daughters of my standard bucks to the Nigerian.

I use pallets with a partial sheet of plywood on top as a booster step for my tiny buck. He still tries to push the does away from it and mount them from the ground. Even if he hops and jumps, he can't reach without his booster. The does don't like to hold still either. I am working on an idea for pallets with railings to keep the does in line for the buck.


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## DawnStar

We love our minis! We started with nubians, but after we got our first la mancha we quickly sold them and switched over. A lot of people dont like their alien faces (lack of ears) but where they lack in ears they make up for with their sweet dispositions!
La Manchas are also the ONLY American Heritage breed... they were created in the US on a small dairy farm in Oregon, but weren't admitted to ADGA/AGS for registerability until the 1960's! So they are still a 'new' breed. Mini La Manchas are also pretty new, I think that once enough people own them they will start to see more value in owning mini manchas.

We can sell the does like they are going out of style, but not bucks. I think alot has to do with the fact people dont want to breed pure bred minis. They already have a nigie buck they want to use. So, since we dont have a market for bucks, we castrate and eat them.. unless they are from excellent does-- then we breed them, and try to sell them (at least they got a chance to prove their worth one way or the other).


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## groovyoldlady

I can never tell when our yearling LaMancha is in heat. Since we were leasing a Nigerian buck this year, I let him tell me when she was ready. ;-) If she took, we'll have some F1's in June!

I have all mini munchies if I could. But my daughters show dairy goats for 4-H, so only purebreds are allowed. Consequently, we have 2 Nigerian does and 2 Lamancha does.


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