Drovers Croft

06/25/2026

Molly is currently shorter than a rooster 🤪

06/24/2026

My Marilla.

She’s the girl who sat down during her udder clip. She didn’t do much better for her quick photo either 🤪 she’s much prettier than this photo but as a 4 year old 4F, I think she’s matured nicely. While her dam is my heart as far as who makes me giddy when I see her, Marilla is more my emotional heart goat. I have loved her since she was born and we have a special bond. She hates being pregnant and kidding so my plan is to retire her. Let her milk as long as she can, and be the pet she prefers. We shall see if I stick to that when breeding season arrives 🙄

Farms are generally supposed to only have productive animals, but I firmly believe we can allow ourselves animals that for no other reason stay because they bring us joy. And this doe does just that ❤️

06/22/2026

Summer barn cleaning isn’t as much fun as spring barn cleaning lol 😂 I hope the girls appreciate their nice clean sheets 🤣

06/22/2026

Okay quick update to my “copper deficient” doe. I gave her a quick clip last night and an even quicker photo this morning. She isn’t set up really, but you can see her coat is solid black back where the rust colored hair was. She just needed a spa day.

Thanks to everyone who gave me input. I assumed ahead of time she just needed a clip, but I definitely learned from everyone’s responses and I appreciate that very much! Lily here is a five year old doe who habitually grows rust colored hair over the winter. She is one of my main girls in my herd and is always healthy and easy to manage. This is my heart goat along with her four year old daughter Marilla who objected to her udder clip yesterday lol.

06/21/2026

How an udder clip went today 🤪😳😂😂😂 good thing this was just a random spa treatment and not for a show lol 😂

06/21/2026

Browsing is easier when you are the tallest goat in the farm 🤪🤯

06/20/2026

I will take my raw goat milk any day thank you 🤯

Also, there is absolutely nothing wrong with people buying store milk. It’s what most people have available, so I am not here saying anyone shouldn’t drink that. But, let’s at least know what’s happening to that milk before you get it, education isn’t a bad thing.

Someone commented on my post today and said:

“Grocery store milk isn’t highly processed. They just heat it up and cool it down.”

So let’s clear the air on what REALLY happens between the cow and your gallon of milk.

When a dairy cow is milked, that milk doesn’t just get heated and bottled.

First, it’s collected and hauled to a processing facility. Then the milk is filtered and clarified. After that, it’s run through a separator that literally spins the milk apart into cream and skim milk.

Then they standardize it. In other words, they take the milk apart and put it back together to achieve an exact fat percentage. That’s how every gallon of whole milk tastes nearly identical year-round regardless of the cow, breed, season, or feed.

Next comes pasteurization, where the milk is heated and rapidly cooled.

Then comes homogenization. The milk is forced through tiny openings under extremely high pressure to break the fat globules into microscopic pieces so the cream never rises to the top.

Many products then have vitamins added back in because some naturally occurring vitamins were removed along with the cream during processing.

Then it’s packaged, warehoused, transported, distributed, stocked, purchased, transported again, and finally ends up in your refrigerator.

And speaking of that…

Most people would be shocked to learn that the milk in the grocery store isn’t from cows milked yesterday. Depending on processing schedules, transportation, warehousing, and store inventory, that milk may have been collected days or even weeks before it ever reaches your refrigerator.

This isn’t a debate about what’s right or wrong. Plenty of people choose grocery store milk and that’s their choice.

But let’s stop pretending commercial milk is simply “heated up and cooled down.”

There’s a whole lot more that happens between the cow and the carton.

06/20/2026

Woke up to see we have over 2,000 followers on here… small potatoes compared to some of my friends but super exciting for me! Welcome to all the new recent followers to my small farm adventures 🥰

So hi 👋🏻 my name is Barclay, I am addicted to goats 🐐 😂🤦‍♀️ I post a lot of goat photos of all kinds. I have been on a farm since I was 9 years old and let’s just say I am a few decades older now 🤪. We raised/showed Angus and Highland Cattle back then, and I was a horsey girl. In more recent times, I swapped up my horses and some babydoll sheep for Nigerian Dwarf goats almost 9 years ago. I wanted a milk source for my then very busy soap business. Things are slower with soap now (but still going!), and much busier with goats and my humans. I am really just a SAHM who needs farming in my life to keep me happy… so I have my goats 😉

I maintain a small-ish herd of Nigerians and added two standard breed doelings this spring to keep things fun. I like to show a couple times a year, and hope to have linear appraisal again this summer. I used to milk test but haven’t in a couple years, hopefully I can add that back in next year, but no promises 🤪. We are located in southern Maryland on small acreage in a suburb. I run things fairly low key around here, and aim to breed healthy, “pretty” goats with “pretty” udders and great personalities. I enjoy mentoring newer goat owners and my buyers as well as learning from other breeders, so feel free to jump in, ask questions and we can all learn together 😉

I would love for you to introduce yourself and add your farm page if you like. I have not had one of these introductory posts in a hot second, so I’d love to reconnect with everyone 🥰

06/19/2026

This cutie-patootie doesn’t get much screen time but that’s only because she’s been spending the past year growing slowlyyyyy into the swan I have faith she will be. Drovers Croft SH Tozzetti will be a two year old FF next spring and I can’t wait to see how she freshens. She has hands down the closest placed teats on a goat I have ever bred here, and I am so curious how that will translate into an actual udder lol 😂

Tozzetti is my only retained doe from Brook Valley MN Biscotti, and is sired by Sunny Daze SM Sleight of Hand *B, aka Magic. Magic’s dam has one of the prettiest udders I have ever seen on a doe, and his dam’s dam was almost even prettier. Tozzetti’s dam is my Biscotti who I just love to pieces, and has a lovely front end, back, rump and fore udder. I am really hoping this combination of genetics works out well when she freshens.

I currently have Tozzetti paired with Brook Valley MN Billy Elliot… that’s a tight linebreeding on her grandsire that I need to dig into a bit more. I have so far had a lot of good luck with those genetics, so I’m really intrigued by that option. But, Jackpot or Levi could be exceptional as well. Maybe I’ll toss her in a pen with all three and see who wins? 🤪🤭🤦‍♀️🤣🤣🤣 noooo maybe not lol 😂

06/19/2026

Conventional wisdom in the various goat groups would probably have me copper bolus this doe because she has some rust colored hair coming in… what say my followers?

🤭🤪