Growing Our Herd

When we started in ND's back in 1996, we got very lucky. Our first purchase was Rosasharn's Black Onyx, from Anne Petersen's Rosasharn Farm. She told us that Onyx was bred to "Goodwood Tom Thumb," which sounded very impressive, but we didn't know what that meant. We found out! Tom Thumb was one of the breed's most important sires, fathering dozens of correct and productive does and dairy sons. You can learn more about him here.

That first breeding gave us Wonder and Vern and the addiction began. Our second purchase was also from Rosasharn. This time, it was Rosasharn's Tobiko Surprize 3*D, also bred to Tom. That breeding gave us triplets, Silly Professor, Scotch and Fawn.

Since then we have used those great foundation lines to build the present day Hames & Axle herd. With a lot of luck and research we have brought in descendants from some the great bloodlines in the breed, Gay-Mor, Stonewall, Jobi, among others. We reached out to diversify for genetic strength to Leighstar and blended them with our own stock to meet our goals.

As you can see from our current herd, A Hames & Axle goat is consistently long, wide, correct and sweet in personality. Our herd has been on DHI test for 6 years with more than half of our herd receiving their AR *D, during that time. We have had some animals in the Top 10 for AGS, but that is not our main goal.

That goal is to produce consistent, well tempered animals that can produce reliably on basic ration. Like many people, our pocket book isn't thick, so our goats have be hardy without pampering. So far, we've met that goal, but always strive to improve, both in the bucket and in our management.

When you look at Hames & Axle goats, you're looking at lines built here with love. We have been very selective in the bloodlines that we've brought in, and have kept our herd fairly small, but genetically rich. While some herds promotethe bloodlines they've brought in, we proudly promote our own herd, with the genetics they carry.
We're very proud of the Hames & Axle herd.