# Dawn*Star Ranch-- Arizona Mini-LaMancha Herd UPDATE



## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

So its been a while since we gave everyone an Update....








2x vGCH SunCatcher Sweet Cassie is officially RETIRED!
-Cassie was our foundation doe, and one of our lead milkers for 8 years running. She produced an average of 8# a day, with her peak production being 10# as a third freshener! Then on a whim we entered her in a v-show, and at 7 years old she swept 2 GCH titles out from under all the younger does! 
-In 2017 she delivered Triplets, all had to be pulled, and she suffered from pregnancy toxicity that nearly took her from us. But that didn't stop her from breaking into our buck pen that fall! So she delivered QUADS in 2018--another difficult labor, and fearing that she would manage to find a way to escape again, she was retired into a pet home. 
-Her three BUCKLINGS are now available for sale in AZ, NM, CO, UT, and NV! 







WallowHallow King Neptunes SOS sired a bounty of bucklings for us this year as well.. and we are happy to announce we are retaining 2 of his daughters to see what he has contributed to our herd. He will also be participating in this summers v-show, so stay tuned!!

And last but not least.. we have some exciting NEW arrivals coming to AZ this summer! 2 New herd sires! Both are fro GoGo's bloodlines--and will be very interesting to see what they produce for us!


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Sounds awesome.

Looking good.


----------



## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

Wow, you have some very nice Mini-Lamanchas!


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Good looking goats!


----------



## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

Very nice


----------



## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

HERD UPDATE!
A lot has happened since our last post... so to get our fans up to speed (if you dont already follow us on facebook)-- in the fall of 2018 we had a devastating family health crisis that forced us to disperse our herd, and move. We sold all our goats, and most of the herd was purchased (for a fraction of their cost)by friends who promised to let us buy back three goats of our choosing at the same price they were sold for.

2 years later (with intermittent contact in-between) we saw a craigslist post by our friends advertising does in milk for sale. One of the animals pictured was in very rough shape, and we became worried. We reached out, and let them know we had other friends who would be interested in buying animals from them if they wanted to sell (thinking that having less animals to care for might be more beneficial for their herd) they declined. Then I took the opportunity to let them know that we had a buy back agreement and that I wanted to buy-back the three animals we had previously agreed to.

Well, these "friends" informed me that I would have to buy back the goats for a total of $18,745.23 to essentially cover the cost of 'boarding.' Which is obsurd. We went back and forth, and it was revealed that she had been selling goats as papered (to new buyers) from animals that were still registered in my name! I told her the ramifications for that, and that she was being very dishonest-- those poor people will not be able to register their offspring without a bill of sale from me since they were still in my name for the last 2 years! Then, after more talk, and seeming to get through to her... I showed her pictures of the animals that we wanted. She had NO CLUE what their registered names were. Which raised another question...how was she selling goats as registerable with applications if she (still) doesn't know how to identify the animals and match them to their papers? Likely the paperwork she had been giving buyers was all wrong (her problem now, not mine).

More rounds of conversation and she told me I had to drive to go get my animals on short notice--literally that same day. After talking to her we told her we could be up the very next day--so she agreed. $100 in emergency supplies, 8+ hour round trip in a blizzard with no working windshield wipers or defrost, we made it up on time. Then she informed us (via text) that she wanted us to trust her to send us the registration papers (because she had apparently just mailed them in). We told her no, that she could do a transfer on-line, and contacted the registry to be sure that they knew to forward our papers to us once they got her bill of sale on-line. She was very content to make us wait as we froze with no heater for over a half hour in our truck, knowing the storm was getting worse. After again deciding to delay and not send in the transfer-- we left.

A month later (another customer with a buy back agreement) dumped their goats on a sales board for under $20 each and moved. We reached out through their email and phone number (as we had exchanged info to also keep in touch)-- no response. A meat goat buyer roams the area they were posted, and we have no doubt these animals have been hauled off to auction/slaughter.

So after 13 years of hard work and dedication developing our herd for performance show/dairy-- our entire herd is now officially gone.


----------



## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

IN BETTER NEWS!!

We were given the opportunity to rebuild in the fall of 2020-- we purchased 2 ADGA LaMancha does form a great breeder in Oregon. Our plans are to focus more on full-sized dairy goats-- opting to pour our efforts into showing and DHI. Since shows are more widely available to standards than minis in our area.

We have retained our Dawn*Star Herd name for our standard bred animals.

Our Plans for the Mini- Herd:
Minis are on the back burner.

We will eventually get another herd up and running... but have not determined when that will be. In the meantime we have changed our herd name-- not wishing to be associated at all with our old farm name. And since we will be starting over from scratch (with none of our original stock contributing their genetics to our herd anymore)-- we figured why not have a new name to better represent our fresh start?

*Copper-Creek Minis* (formerly Dawn*Star Ranch Miniature LaManchas) is Arizonas' new home for Quality Miniature LaManchas.

We have since updated our web page. Working on updating our sales policy. And will now be 10 fold more selective as to where our lines end up--and especially to whom we sell (if we ever sell any minis again in the future).

To see the changes, and keep up-to-date on our re-building efforts you can check us out on-line or on facebook.

http://coppercreekminis.weebly.com/


----------



## Goat Whisperer (Dec 3, 2018)

I absolutely hate that the remaining goats ended up going meat. How devastating I read your FB post some time ago about everything you were going through. I’m so sorry all your hard work went out like this. You had a lovely herd of minis. I wish you the best going forward!


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I am sorry it went that way, how devastating.

Best wishes to you, things will get better going forward.


----------



## DawnStar (May 19, 2013)

Thanks all.. we are pretty excited to get our ADGA herd up and running


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

No problem.


----------

