Castle Rock Farm First Fresheners

CRF Castle Rock Honey Bee
DOB 5/18/6 height 22"
1 x Jr.GCH
LA: VVE+ 86

Sire: Lost Valley KW Stetson *S
(Gay-Mor's RA Kingwood+*S x Hill Country's Like A Phenomenon 2*D)
Dam: Algedi Farm S Honey Heart 5*D AR 1980
(Kaapio Acre's KK Sultan *S x CH Rosasharn's UMT Tupelo Honey 4*D)

I really like the length of body on Honey Bee, her levelness while on the move, depth of barrel, sharpness, and angularity. On our linear appraisal, she received the highest dairyness score in our herd, a quality that is really most apparent when you put your hands on her and feel her super dairy skin and great spacing between her ribs. Her first freshening udder is very soft with good foreudder attachment and MSL. I would like to see more capacity to her udder, which will hopefully come with future freshenings. She has that great dairy personality we like to see, wagging her tail every time she jumps up on the milk stand.

CRF Castle Rock Alum Root 3*D
DOB 6/13/6
1x Jr.RGCH, 1x GCH, 1x Best Udder
LA: VVVE 89

Sire: Twin Creeks BW Montego Bay +*S
(MCH Twin Creeks BH Bay Watch ++*S 'E' x MCH Gay-Mor's JJU Nonpareil 3*D 'E')
Dam: Castle Rock SnowFlurryCeanothus 2*D AR 1988
(Cornerstone's GN Nahbi x ARMCH/CH/PGCH Esperanza WS Sara *D'VG')

I knew that once her winter coat came off, Ali would look much better-- and how! Her first freshening udder is high, very well attached, with the strongest MSL in our herd and near ideal teat placement. She is quite capacious, and easy to milk with those nicely sized plumb teats. She has lots of dairy character, with that long lean neck, flat bone, soft pliable skin, proper sweep to her ribs, and angularity. On one day milk test, she produced 4.1lbs of milk to easily earn her milking star.

CRF Castle Rock Snowberry
DOB 6/13/6
LA: VVE+ 85

Sire: Twin Creeks BW Montego Bay +*S
(MCH Twin Creeks BH Bay Watch ++*S 'E' x MCH Gay-Mor's JJU Nonpareil 3*D 'E')
Dam: Castle Rock SnowFlurryCeanothus 2*D AR 1980
(Cornerstone's GN Nahbi x ARMCH/CH/PGCH Esperanza WS Sara *D'VG')

Snow is another experiment in keeping sisters out of the same litter (Sky and Cali being my original experiment). Snow does excel her sister in body, having a bit more power in the front end and more depth and width- she is definitely less prone to looking like she hasn't eaten in days. Her first freshening produced a nicely balanced udder, with good side attachment and medial, plumb teats and a smooth foreudder. As her copper levels have been brought up, her rear udder has also improved in height. Due to an injury suffered as a doeling, her thurls are not quite even- something I haven't seen on a doe before. It is on the side that faces the judge most often though, so I am not sure if she will be making it into the show ring as it does take away from her general appearance.

CRF Castle Rock Denali
DOB 3/15/07 height 20 1/4"
LA: VVV+ 85

Sire: Buttin'Heads Sharp No.2 Pencil
(Sugar Creek's Sharp Shooter *S x Buttin'Heads Polished Apple)
Dam: Twin Creeks BW Cascade
(MCH Twin Creeks BH Bay Watch ++*S 'E' x Far-n-Best Little Darlin' VG)

Denali is a very fast maturing doe who seems to be filling out very well. She has lots of dairy character, is long and level with a very wide rump, very nice angularity to the rear legs. She has much more udder capacity than I was expecting either from her lines or for a first freshener. My only disappointment with her is that her rear udder could be higher, and she is very wiggly in the show ring and when you pull out the camera- thank goodness for digital cameras, or I would have wasted rolls of film trying to get a decent picture of this doe.

CRF Castle Rock Vespa
DOB 4/9/7
VVV+ 84
1x RGCH Jr.

Sire: Rosasharn HB Mithrandir *S
(Rosasharn TF Honey Bear*S x ARMCH/GCH Rosasharn's TL Arwen 8*D 2*M E AR1809)
Dam: ARMCH Lost Valley TB Infinity 4*D
(MCH Lost Valley Tae-Bo *S x MCH Lost Valley Mercedes 3*D)

Vespa has always been an eye catching doe, winning her reserve GCH at just shy of two months old. She has outstanding general appearance, being very dairy, long bodied, and elegant. We were quite surprised when she freshened for the first time this year with quintuplets! I had no idea there were that many kids since she really didn't look that big. Unfortunately, carrying that many kids as a first freshener seemed to take quite a toll on her and impared her milk production, hence the smaller than expected udder. I am hopeful that she will be able to rebuild her reserves and have better capacity next year when she freshens.

CRF Castle Rock Arroyo Lupine
DOB 4/13/7
VVVV 87

Sire: Rosasharn HB Mithrandir *S
(Rosasharn TF Honey Bear*S x ARMCH/GCH Rosasharn's TL Arwen 8*D 2*M E AR1809)
Dam: ARMCH Castle Rock Sky Lupine 2*D
(Twin Creeks BW Rebel w/o a Cause *S x ARMCH/CH/PGCH Esperanza WS Sara *D'VG')

Lupe was one of quads, and insisted on being a bottle baby from the beginning. Her first time out in the show ring reminded me of why I try to drag a few juniors to shows every year- this first freshener acted like a four month old doe, hoping, leaping and spinning her way through the class. Sigh. She is showing improved dairy character over her dam, good angularity, refinement, and a nicely shaped udder. She is refined while still posessing strength, and has good depth and width. When we did one-day test at the National Show, Lupe was just barely over one month fresh, and came up just a half point short of getting her milking star- had she been in milk for nine additional days, she would have gotten it.

CRF Castle Rock Blizzard 3*D
DOB 4/13/7
LA VVVV 87

Sire: Lost Valley KW Stetson *S
(Gay-Mor's RA Kingwood +*S x Hill Country's Like A Phenomenon 2*D)
Dam: Castle Rock SnowFlurryCeanothus 2*D AR 1988
(Cornerstone's GN Nahbi x ARMCH/CH/PGCH Esperanza WS Sara *D'VG')

Blizzard is another nice doe in our Sara line. She is long and level with nice blending, a great front end assembly and very good angularity. Her udder is well attached and has nice soft texture and plumb teats, although I would like to see them a bit larger. She went to her first set of shows and did very well, placing first in her class at the AGS National Show. We also did one day milk test while at the show and she produced over 4.2lbs- outstanding for a first freshening yearling!

Sarah Hawkins and Andy Pestana
7547 English Hills Road
Vacaville, CA 95688
707-448-4655
castlerocknigerians@yahoo.com