SG Barnowl Ambrosia *M

Sire: +*B Goat San Victor
SS: ++*B Kastdemur’s Eye of the Tiger
SD: SGCH Blue Unicorn Ice Z Velour 8*M
Dam: SGCH Barnowl Deesse de L’Amour
DS: ++*B SGCH Tempo Yagudin
DD: Barnowl Aphrodite
ADGA Genetics Pedigree

From a few hours after she was born, Ambrosia was one of the most stunning kids we have ever had. She easily won her dry leg at her fist junior show and with good signs of growthiness we bred her to be a yearling milker.  She freshened with a well attached, beautifully shaped mammary and her superb dairy character just keeps getting better as she matures. She is easily one of the tallest and longest does in our herd even at just two years old. We actually think she might be taller than Fish was at 2 years old.

She has had a difficult first three years as a milker. First being inexplicably sick as a yearling milker and then finding herself not as okay when being uprooted as a two year to the new barn and parlor system. For the first few months of her 2014 freshening, she was frankly a “spazz” who had little interest in eating and despite her size let the other goats pick on her, because of this she was on and off our of sale list. Amazingly no one swooped in and bought her, and even more amazingly our patience paid off. Once a few of the old does were dried up and she had heard that she was on the chopping block, she started being a real goat, gaining body weight, increasing production, and not fighting in the holding stall.  At her first show of the year at Oregon State Fair, she easily won her class, was considered for Best Udder of Breed, and was a crowd favorite. She followed that up at the Washington State Fair with a second place in a 15+ goat class with first udder and then third best udder out of all of the 1st and 2nd place udders in Washington’s unique fully placed Best Udder of Breed class. She still has a lot of maturing to do both in professional show goat personality and in body, but like many of our best does before her, Ambrosia is proving that a little bit of patience can go along way.

Unfortunately 2015 and 2016 were difficult years for her too. A few weeks early in 2015, she delivered a single, tiny buck kid that didn’t survive the night. She came in with half the amount of milk we would expect and half the amount needed to balance out her giant frame. Nevertheless, she made it out to one show: the ADGA National Show. In a class of dozens of 3 year old milkers, she still managed to win a ribbon coming in at 12th place. In 2016, she had another single buck kid from Blade and was doing well until late spring when she developed rumen acidosis. A condition that is typically fatal and had claimed an unusually high number of animals in other local herds that year, Laurie came to her rescue and after a week of acupuncture, she was bare bones skinny, but alive. Laurie said she is one of the only does she has seen recover from this illness. Thankful she was alive, she was deemed to be “not in condition” by the appraiser and didn’t make it out to any shows. 

After two bad years, 2017 was at last a good year for Ambrosia. She delivered healthy, normal triplets, with even two does, one for us and one for a buyer that had waited three years. She has made it back into the show ring, and while she hasn’t picked up any big ribbons, she is holding her own. But most of all, she is milking, like really milking! Since 2018 and right through the pandemic, Ambrosia has continued to be an incredible large, strong, and especially productive doe who more than holds her own in the milk parlor, the show ring, and on appraisal day. She’s had a long road, but we love the vigor and bright personality of this grand old lady. 

After an easy delivery of a beautiful set of buck-doe twins, milking and looking incredible at 11 years old, the weirdly cold weather of the 2023 northwest spring sadly got the best of our majestic Ambrosia with a case of fast-acting pneumonia. Her loss will long be felt on our farm.