Barnowl Red Fantasia

Sire: *B Little Orchard L Joplin
SS: *B Tempo Leo
SD: SGCH Little Orchard BR Joyful Song 10*M
Dam: Barnowl Red Ecstasy 7*M
DS: +*B Barnowl Blade
DD: GCH Barnowl Red Bliss 6*M
ADGA Genetics Pedigree

Fantasia was a very exciting summer kid from one of our favorite does Red Ecstasy when she was just a yearling. Although they may be Grades, these animals are absolutely the style we breed for: large framed, strong feet and legs, wedgy dairy shape, dairy strength, and capacious mammaries. Actually, when we first wrote up this bio on her we had no idea just how “large framed” her dam was going to become, and in many ways we are actually quite happy that Fantasia is not as large framed as her dam. 

We really like the way Fantasia is maturing, unlike her mom and some of her maternal sisters, she is a well-balanced, moderate size doe who is already looking like a “mature” doe not even at 2 years old yet. We were a little bit worried about her maturing too quickly and substituting body capacity for dairy character, but we’ve been happy to see that she’s maintained nice ribbing and pliable skin, while also deepening in the barrel. Her mammary attachments are an improvement on her mother’s. Although we’d like to see more milk, she does hold her mammary tight to the body wall and have the smooth fore that we missed with Ecstasy. As just a first freshening late two year old, we expect she will truly bloom with another freshening. At our Appraisal session, she handily went Very Good across the board as a yearling, scores that truly represent just how well balanced and solid of an animal she is. And then at Oregon State Fair, she handily won a very large competitive 2 year old class–a win that led to us being recognized as Premier Breeder and Exhibitor of the Recorded Grades, a true honor. 

2018 was not an easy year on the farm, but Fantasia was the real heart breaker. After freshening absolutely beautifully, she erupted with horrible, fast acting mastitis less than a week before the first show of the season. It was touch and go, but we managed to save her life and her udder, although had to dry her up and isolate her from the herd. There is no doubt in our mind, and with all due respect to her own herdmates, she would have swept that first show and easily finished her championship–she just had that winning look to her in early spring. A few weeks before this all happened, Mariah and her fiance Jeremy were on the farm, Fantasia looked so good even in the middle of the day that they decided to take some hairy, winter goat photos of her just for fun–sadly, these ended up being the last photos of this beautiful doe as the staf infection spread through her body and we sadly lost her in fall 2018.  We are thankful for her daughter Red Kiara and look forward to seeing her mature.