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STUMPHOLLO GUERNSEY GOATS Registered
with the
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Welcome to Stumphollo Guernsey Goats. We are pleased to have curious visitors pop into our website for a look at these beautiful and delightful dairy goats. After twenty-odd years of breeding top quality Alpines, we leaped at the opportunity to help develop a US version of this charming rare breed. As the name implies, the Golden Guernsey originate from the Isle of Guernsey, along with other nearby Channel Isles. They are believed to have descended from goats brought by sailing ships from the island of Malta, where very similar golden goats are still seen. In turn, these Maltese goats are believed to have originated from golden goats that were found in Syria. Golden Guernsey goats were imported to the mainland of England , where many found them to have a sweet, gentle and docile disposition. This, plus their smaller size, made them an ideal goat for cottagers and smallholdings. They have never been all that numerous though, and were eventually added to the RBST list as much due to limited genetics as to numbers. My interest in the Golden Guernsey goats began years ago, when an article was submitted for publication in the Dairy Goat Journal, where I worked at the time. My interest was peaked by the coloration of these goats, since I had lived close to a large palomino horse farm. I read everything I could find in our school library, about breeding for color and raised color-bred Persian cats for a number of years, before moving to the country and starting with goats. In 1997, the opportunity to acquire a few straws of imported Golden Guernsey semen was all I needed to start me dreaming, although the semen was not actually delivered to me until late in 2002. Earlier that year, I had also purchased a purebred GG buck kid, Swind Panzer, from South Wind Farm and began my breeding program I selected six of my best Alpine does, some French and some American, to become the foundation of my Guernsey herd. These were all does that had appraised EX90 and above, or were daughters of does that had done so. Stumphollo is the first Guernsey herd in the US to be on DHIR test. Since we have been on continual test since 1987, we were looking for a way to have the Guernsey goats on with our Alpines. We were very pleased when we were approached by the ADGA Production Committee Chairperson about this. We were then assigned the very first of the block of USDA numbers assigned to ADGA for use by unofficial animals to be added to their official production testing program. These goats are not eligible for awards, but being able to track their production is reward enough in itself. These first three Guernsey/Alpine crosses, Shilling, Swansea & Skye (aka Sassy) did themselves proud, with two of the three exceeding 2000 lbs and one just pounds short in the regulation 305 days... They then proceeded to milk through, following the BGS approved 365 day lactation and beyond... finishing, after being bred, with Shilling at 1-00 463days 3,239milk 122fat; Swansea at 1-01460days 2,976milk 106fat; Skye/Sassy at 1-01 438days 2,844mik 110fat. This past year
we have had four more Guernsey/Alpine crosses on test, showing
very similar results and will be adding four more this year, with
two being second generation crosses. We are very interested
to see how well these will milk, as they have already shown a "will
to milk" by producing precocious
udders.
We are located in Eastern Pennsylvania
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