The LaMancha herd started in 1981 with one little cream colored doe that was presented to me all wrapped up with a pink bow (my Nubians didn't know what they were in for).  That doe grew up to be  GCH Gold Country Rose Kismet 4*M. Kismet.  Kismet was the 2nd place 3 year old at the '84 Nationals and 4th place 5 years and over at the '87 Nationals.  Kismet was a 2nd generation GCH and produced at least four GCH daugthers and MANY champion grand and great-grand daughters.  You will find her in many of today's top LaMancha herds.
        

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INTRODUCTION
 

Welcome to the website for the Timber*Cove "earless wonders", otherwise known as LaManchas.  If you are new to the LaMancha breed of dairy goats; I feel I have to warn you that they are very "clown like" and will take your heart and steal it ... In my opinion, there is no other breed of Dairy Goat like the LaMancha (yes, I'm just a little biased).
 

A little herd history and how I evolved from a "city born and raised person" to being owned by these wonderful creatures called Dairy Goats. Back in the very early 70's we lived in suburbia.  Since we had always been animal oriented we decided to sign my niece and nephew up for 4-H.  When my nephew came home from his first general meeting, he told us he had signed up for two projects and gave me a choice of what he was going to get;  the two projects were Wildlife and Dairy Goats ... my choice was between a Tarantula or a Dairy Goat.  At that time in my life I couldn't handle anything with more than four legs, so the choice was a simple one for me. The University of CA, Irvine had donated 2 acres of land for the 4-H club to use as a farm, so we would make the 14 mile round trip twice a day to care for the goats ... yes, that is "goats" in plural since the herd grew fast.  I was hooked from the very beginning and cannot imagine my life without my goats.  The two-legged kids grew up and went on to other passions in life and the goats took over my life.   I have now been raising dairy goats for over 35 years (closer to 40…yikes, I’m not sure I want to think it has been that long).  Up until 1981 the herd consisted of only Nubians.  In February of 1981 a friend, Sheila Raymond (Gold Country LaManchas) presented me with a three day old little cream package (complete with a bow) who I named Kismet.  I had shown Kismet’s dam to her Championship (and several BOB and BDIS) and Sheila felt I should have at least one LaMancha in the herd. Sure, just one LaMancha; Sheila knew exactly what she was doing.  Well, it didn’t take much time for GCH Gold Country Rose Kismet 3*M to take over my heart, the herd (oh what a herd boss she was), and the show ring.  Kismet finished her Championship as a 2 year old, and through her 8-year show career was many times BOB and BDIS (actually, she was BDIS 1 week before she died of anaphylactic shock),  she was the 2^nd place 3 Year Old  at the ’84 Nationals, the 4^th place 5 yrs and over at the ’87 Nationals, produced 4 GCH daughters (2 in my herd LA 90) who in their own turn produced Champions and many other offspring, sons and daughters that have and are producing champions; and it goes on and on and on. Though Kismet is no longer alive, she still lives on in mine and many other herds as well as in my heart.  You will find Kismet offspring as the progenitors  of many of today’s top herds.
 

I like to make sure anyone who is considering adding a Timber*Cove animal to their breeding program knows that the line is usually slow to mature (don’t expect yearlings that look like 3 year olds).  My lines have lots of longevity; I lost my 16 year old, GCH Dew Time (older sister to Dew Say who is the dam of Sir Hershey, Saylor, Clown and Honey Dew) in 2007 after the worst ice storm the state of Missouri had seen in over 20 years.  I feel that this longevity is in part due to the fact that I demand that my goats be correct in type and strong in general appearance, all must stand on good feet and legs (that along with temperament are real high on my list of “must haves”).  My stock is medium in size; this is not to say they are short, they have a long bone pattern.  We all have our likes and dislikes, and we all have to look at our goats on a daily basis; we had better like what we see and I enjoy looking at my goats.  After saying that, I would like for those of you contemplating adding Timber*Cove breeding stock to your breeding program to be sure you will be comfortable with a little slower maturing line...I personally feel they are worth the wait. When you visit the doe page you will notice that each appraised animal has a breakdown of traits; hopefully this will give you more of an image of the stock.
 

A few years ago I was able to experience the wonder of embryo transfers, this, thanks to the expertise of Dr. Bill Davis of Santa Rosa, CA.  This is an experience that I wish to repeat; plans to do so two years ago were cancelled, but we will do so again within the next couple of years! 
 

The herd has gone through some very stressful moves in the past few  years; first was a move from my home state of California (born and raised there) in October, 2006 to Missouri where we experienced the worst winter Missouri has seen in 74 years with the worst ice storm (as noted above) in over 20 years and then another major move in May, 2007 to Idaho to be with close friends/family, Patricia Walker and her family.  Then one more (the last) move;  this one is a short move right across the Snake River to Nyssa, OR to an old cow dairy and 60 + acres to farm alfalfa.  The moves and conditions took their toll on the herd; though I am VERY pleased to report that the girls are starting to look like their old selves again (the move to ID really jump started them).  We are now back (after too many years to count) on DHI and the herd was appraised in 2008. The younger stock have bounced back and are milking well; the older does are taking more time to readjust and I’m not sure if they will ever milk what they had while in CA.  Most of the yearlings through three year olds have ME projections for 3,000 pounds (+/-), two of the yearlings were on the Elite list and I just received notice of three of the girls getting their Superior Genetics designation. We unfortunately had to dry the herd up early in '09 due to the move and the milk room not being ready for the girls; but we are back on test this year.

If you have visited this website in the past, you will notice the absents of several of the does and a couple of bucks.  The size of the herd had to be decreased to a manageable number (more still need to go to new homes).  It was heart wrenching to see several of my special girls go; but the fact that they went to homes where they are appreciated helps to soften them moving on.

SHOWS OF 2009:  Well I guess I should put "SHOW" as we only attended one this year and that was the Western Idaho Fair in Boise, ID where there were approximately 640 does shown; not only were the numbers high, but the quality was incredible!  The LaManchas had 64 milkers in their regular classes with an additional 4 Champion Challengers.  I only took 4 kids and 7 milkers and I am VERY proud to say that the milkers really "strutted their stuff"!  In the yearling milker class DQ was 7th, Bow topped the 2 year old class with first udder, Pill was first with first udder in the 3 year old class with Quill being third with second udder and KC was fifth in that class, Tribby was 6th in the 4 year old class and Feather was 5th in the 5 and under 7 year old class.  Bow was Grand; she placed 3rd in the Champion Challenge class (behind two 6 year old, 6 freshening does) with first udder in that class and then won the Best Udder of Breed Class.  Bow, Quill and Pill were first for their sire, +B Here Be Goats C-Note in the Senior Get of Sire class, they were also the first place Best Three Females and part of the young second place Dairy Herd.  Bow and Tribby were the first place Dam and Daughter.  Needless to say these classes were very large.  I am so proud of my girls!!!!!

TERMS

Kid orders are on a first deposit, first on the list basis.  I ask that you make at least 2 choices for each kid ordered.  I require a $100 deposit for each kid ordered with the balance due by certified funds within 10 days of notification of birth. All payments should be made out to Linda Shuls with notations on the bottom of the check/money order for what the deposit/payment is for.  Deposits are non-refundable on cancelled orders.  If the kid you ordered is not born, you have the choice of letting your deposit sit for the following year (at this year’s prices) or you may request a refund of your deposit.  All shipping related costs (health certificate, any test required by your state or country, transportation and airfare, kennel etc) are the responsibility of the buyer.  I will be shipping out of Boise, ID.  I prefer to ship kids at 4-5 weeks of age; arrangements for pick up or shipping must be made no later than 6 weeks of age.  At this time I am not charging for transportation to the airport or for traveling to obtain health certificates, but if gas prices continue to rise I may be forced to do so.  All stated prices are for preordered kids.
 

The choice of breedings is a very well thought through process (and at times, an agonizing one); there are reasons for each, though sometimes it is hard to choose when there are so many quality herd sires available; each strong in certain areas, all  strong in depth of pedigree.

All kids are raised on pasteurized milk.  Back in 1981 (I believe that was the year) I was lucky enough to be one of the herds asked by Dr. Nancy East of UC Davis to try a new program of pasteurizing milk … Nancy even bought a springing cow and tested her for everything under the sun to get colostrums for us (who knew you could heat treat colostrum in those days?).  I have continued to feed pasteurized milk since that time.  I test for CAE on an annual basis; the last test was in January of 2008, my herd was 100% negative. Actually the only positive animals I have had since starting the program were Karess, who re-entered my herd as a 3 year old after being raised as a kid by someone else (tested positive on her return to the herd) and Korrieanne who was a milk drinker; while at a show, “Korrie” proceeded to get to a bucket of positive milk before anyone could grab her and within 2 years had converted.  Both of these does lived to be 15 and 16 years old respectively, both were asymptomatic

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have and again, thank you for showing interest in the Timber*Cove LaManchas.

We now ask that you take a peek at the herd on the following pages.  We hope you will enjoy going through this site and like what you see.

                                                                     
 

CH TIMBER*COVE DD CATALEAH
Owned by Sanger FFA
This cute faced baby became a Permanent Champion in 2009 with VERY limited showing in top CA competition ... 2 legs in open and 1 in a youth show where she was BDIS

 

Linda Shuls
timbercove@earthlink.net
541 201-8832

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All rights reserved.  Photos  from this site may not be reproduced in any way without permission