Thank you so much for your interest in our dairy goat herd. Bountiful Harvest Farm (the home of Harmody Alpines) is located in a farming community on the plains of northeastern Colorado. We purchased our first goats as a 4-H project for our oldest daughter in 1997. We have since grown to milking between 10-20 does and involving the entire family.
Our goal in the beginning was to use managing a herd of dairy goats as one of the ways to raise children that love the Lord and reflect His character. Now as adults, dairy goats continue to provide us all with real-life opportunities to grow in our walk with the Lord.
As stewards of these animals, it is our goal to raise Alpines (and in 2007, Oberhasli, and in 2009, Toggenburgs) that excel in the show ring as well as milk production and breed conformation. We attend as many shows as possible, linear appraise with ADGA regularly, and this will be our 23rd year on DHIR test, beginning in 2001.
In 2022, we were blessed to finish our 38th Harmody goat! It has been exciting to see our appraisal scores continue to improve since our first session in 2003.
Our breeding philosophy continues to look at each goat's individual strengths and weaknesses and select bucks accordingly. While pedigrees are important, we design our breeding program around the individual animals we own and what we think certain breedings can maintain and possibly improve through the generations. Continuous improvement is our overarching goal while maintaining the style we like to have in our herd.
We strongly believe in using the scientific advancements available to goat owners to help improve our goats along with providing our buyers with the confidence they need to trust in their purchase. Every buck we own is DNA typed along with all of our senior does. We heavily rely on AI in our herd to bring in bucks we feel will have a positive influence in our breeding program. We have utilized strategic embryo transfer to further the genetic advancement of our herd.
Concerning health, we maintain a strict CAE prevention program. (2023 results) Every kid is hand raised on heat-treated colostrum and bottle fed pasteurized milk. We test our entire herd every year. We are also in the process of being recognized as a TB free herd. We vaccinate the herd for tetanus and clostridium regularly. We feed a high-quality alfalfa, a 15% protein grain mix, and free choice trace minerals.
In 2021 we attended 8 shows in 6 states with a total of 18 rings. We came home with 7 BIS, 7 BUIS, 8 BJDIS and finished 2 Alpines (Ziva and Stella). We were able to attend our 18th National Show—our 4th time in Louisville KY. Our Alpines placed well. We brought 8 Alpines and 7 placed in the top 12—with Zamara and Ziva being the stars at 2nd and 3rd! Our token Oberhasli, Marrakesh, was the 4th place dry yearling. We showed 3 Toggenburgs. Four year old, Maggie, capped our week by being named the 2021 Reserve National Champion Toggenburg!
2022 was an amazing year for us. We arrived in Harrisburg PA for our 19th National Show. We brought 15 animals, 9 Alpine and 2 Togg milkers as well as 4 Jr Oberhaslis. The Oberhasli dry yearlings placed in the top 7 and the Toggenburg milkers each placed in the top 3. 8 of our Alpine milkers placed in the top 8 of their respective classes. We were so very excited when Talia won her 2 year old class with 1st place udder. Zamara won the 5 & 6 year old class with 1st place udder and then was named the 2022 Alpine National Champion and Best Udder!!!! We have always loved Zamara and are so humbled to have a second Harmody Alpine National Champion. We also achieved long time goals of placing 1st in Dairy Herd and having Zamara win Alpine Total Performer. Overall, we attended 8 shows in 6 states with a total of 17 rings. We came home with 13 BDIS, 6 BUIS, 9 BJDIS, and finished 3 Alpines (Talia, Fanfare, Tirza).
