Riverview-Ranch Alpines

My name is Pam Peterson. I'm 14 years old and I am homeschooled. I raise Alpine Dairy Goats under the herd name 'Riverview-Ranch.' I'm going to give you a short history of how I got into goats, and then tell you about the herd I have now, herd managment practices here, and just about the farm.

First Goats

The first goats at Riverview-Ranch were two Saanen/Angora cross doe kids named Sara and Daisy. Sara and Daisy stayed with us for awhile, and then we decded to get Pygmies. We had the Pymgies for a couple years, and then my mom decided we should get a milk goat. We started out with two unregistered grade does- an older doe and her 4 month old kid. We bred them to registered bucks, and had recorded grades. In the spring of 1995, I purchased an Alpine doe kid from Beauty-Mountain Farm. I named the kid 'Beauty-Mountain Rain Dance,' known around here as just 'Dancer.' That Spring I also purchased a 4yr old Alpine doe named Daffodil. From there on my Alpine herd grew. That is a short history of 'Goats at Riverview-Ranch.' Now, I'll tell you about herd managment.

Herd Management

The main goal Riverview-Ranch is to raise happy, healthy animals. All animals at Riverview-Ranch are CAE and Johne's negative and we have never had any abscesses. Every spring we draw the blood for CAE & Johne's testing and send it to Washington for the testing. The goats are vaccinated, wormed, and have their hooves trimmed as needed. I adminster all of the vaccinations, wormers, and do castrating and disbudding on the kids. Kids are raised on a CAE-prevention program. I currently have 5 goats- 3 does and 2 bucks. I do some showing, and plan to be at the ADGA National Show this year, as well as at a few others. I am not yet on milk test, although I am thinking about getting on this year. Every year I have the goats evaluated through HES. Of course, my goat are spoiled rotten too! Riverview-Ranch is located in Cotton, MN, which is north of Duluth. We have 127 acres and the Whiteface River borders the north and east sides of our land. Besides goats, we also have ducks, chickens, cats, rabbits, and dogs. My sister raises toy poodles. We used to have cows and horses, too. Every summer we put up anywhere from 1500 to 2500 bales of hay.

I would like to say thank you to everybody from Minnesota who have been both helpful and encouraging to me: Ramona Birdsall (Beauty-Mountain Farm), Cynthia Niemela (Dawnwind), Dave & Peg Daubert (for taking me to Nationals with them, Tonka Tails), Marianne Sans (Sanstorms), Karyl Dronen (Body Shops), Gloria Splinter, Marge & Earl Kitchen (Wood & Stream Creations), Terri Kunz (Cedar Ridge), Ann Goplen, DVM, Leah Maher (FBS*Farm) and many others. I would also like to say thank you to all of the wonderful people on the Goatslite mailing list and to the people I met at Nationals last year in Pennsylvania, for being so helpful and encouraging. And of course, my mom, my dad, and my sister (who does chores for me when I'm gone). If you have internet/e-mail access, Riverview-Ranch has a website at http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/Meadows/8067, and our e-mail address is Rvfgoat@aol.com

(Note: the web page address is now http://www.oocities.org/Petsburgh/1520 6/5/99)

Last updated August 24, 1999

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