By Luke Edwards
These days you may hear some people talk about “girl math”, but for Tanya McCarthy, it’s more like “goat math.”
Ask how many goats she has at her Wellandport farm, and the answer might come back as a somewhat surprising number. Standing in the barn it appears there are far more than 12, but Tanya insists it’s a cool dozen. She does so, in part, for the sake of her husband Brent, who may not have fully realized what he was getting into when Tanya suggested they get a few goats.
“I knew they were addictive…but it totally takes over everything you do. And I’m not complaining, because I love it,” she said.
The family recently reaped some of the benefits of that obsession, bringing home several ribbons from the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, including grand champion, premier breeder and premier exhibitor. And it wasn’t just Tanya that received accolades, son Sean and daughter Georgie also got top marks in youth goat showmanship and youth dairy goat categories.
While they’re no strangers to success - in addition to previous successful trips to the RAWF Willow-Haven also received the prestigious Master Breeder title last year - Tanya said the Royal is always a mix of fun and anxiety.
“The nerves are flying that day,” she said. They enter a few shows every year, but are always building up to the Royal. In fact, preparation for next year’s contest is already beginning.
“The Royal’s the big finale…That’s the one you want to do well at. You work all year for it,” Tanya said.
The experience for Sean and Georgie is newer, though no less exciting. There’s a video of Georgie finding out she won. The fist pump and look on her face leaves no question to how excited she was.
Sean, meanwhile, got his first goat about six years ago, and now maintains his herd under the banner Golden Acres. It may be a lot of work, but he said he enjoys it.
“I like having them around to play with,” he said.
Anyone who’s been around goats knows they can be a handful, making them great fun but also troublemakers, often finding ways to get out of their pens.
“They are like drama queens. If you ask anyone who’s shown goats, they know,” Tanya said with a laugh.
Tanya grew up on a dairy farm and decided to get into goats after her family sold their cattle in 1991. Her first goats were Angora goats and arrived in 1993, but they have since switched to Nigerian dwarfs. They’ve brought in bucks from some of the top herds south of the border, slowly but surely developing some of the best genetic lines in Canada.
They’re one of only a handful of herds on the Scrapie program, which proves they have a healthy herd, and Tanya said they’re the only herd of Nigerians dwarfs in Canada that have Master Breeder status.
Tanya did 4-H as a kid, showing dairy cattle. She said there are a lot of similarities, given they’re both dairy animals.
“The extra effort you put into them, you get to see come out of them,” she said. That means milking twice a day just like cattle, driving hours to find the best grain they can, and the regular maintenance of hoof trimming and clipping.
It’s not just in the barn where the work happens, either.
“I sit for hours and just stare at pedigrees and look at things, and that’s as much a part of it as looking at an animal and seeing their physical traits that complement each other,” she said.
Fortunately, Tanya said the goat community is a helpful community. For instance, Jonathan Dugdale, who also received some accolades at the Royal, is active as a 4-H leader and helped Georgie and Sean out a lot, she said.
“He was a huge influence for these two, and a lot of help with them.”
Tanya said it was in the last year or two that she really began to believe she got her herd to a good spot. Looking out at her herd and not being able to tell the young animals apart was a sign of success.
“I’m starting to like what I’m seeing with the consistency, that’s the big thing, the consistency,” she said, adding they’ve also improved milk production, the other key aspect of things.
Not to be outdone, Tanya said last year Sean’s goats broke a Canada and American record for highest butterfat on a test at 14 per cent.
“That goes back to the work and extra effort you put into them,” Tanya said.
Even with their recent success, the family isn’t resting on their laurels.
“Back to udders, again, always trying to improve those. And they do very well with milk production but you can always get more,” she said.
“You’re trying to breed to improve the standard, so you want them to be beautiful but you want them to milk too.”
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