ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN ADAMS STAFF WRITER
If you look deep into the eyes of a Nigerian dwarf goat, chances are it will kiss you.
It may nibble your hair. It'll probably lean against you to be patted. The little ones may crawl into your lap and fall asleep there.
Which explains why people all over the country are falling in love with them.
Ed and Joan Kinser of Bent Mountain have been raising Nigerian dwarf goats for about five years at their Enchanted Hill farm. They now have 38 in their family. The goats' main attraction is personality, said Ed Kinser. ``They're friendly, mellow and social animals, something like dogs, only better. A dog that really likes you can be pesky,'' clamoring for attention.
As he talked, Blue Sky, a silver-blue doe with golden eyes, stood silently by his side with hircine patience. ``Blue Sky would like to be with you all the time; she likes that contact,'' Kinser said.
For exercise and training, Kinser likes to walk his goats near his Bent Mountain home. Not long ago he was walking four goats with a friend - they each led a mother and a baby on leashes - when they met a woman out for a stroll.
``She stopped and just stared at us. Then she said, `Now I've seen everything.'''
The Nigerian dwarf goat is gaining in popularity, both as a pet and as a dairy goat (a milking female can provide about a quart a day for up to a year).
The goats are small, easy to handle and require little maintenance. At maturity, males stand only about 23 inches tall at the withers (shoulders); females stand 21 inches. They live 12 to 15 years and are thought to be healthier than the chunkier and better-known pygmy goat.
Last Saturday, seven farms from around Virginia and North Carolina herded 64 of their little darlings to the first Roanoke Nigerian Dwarf Goat Show, sponsored by the Blue Ridge Goat Club and held at Centura Farm, a horse stable in Bent Mountain.
``People ask, `Why would you want to take a goat to a show?' It's fun," said Kinser, who served as show chairman. "And everyone likes to have their kids praised.''
The Kinsers brought 19 goats. Their 5-year-old Lily, named the grand champion doe, is the matriarch of their herd. She's a proud mother with a lot of spirit.
After the show, she posed for a four-generation family portrait with daughter Lisa, granddaughter Lyric, and great-grandson Luigi.
During preshow preparation, the dusty air was punctuated with assorted youthful bleats - not just ``baa,'' but ``eee,'' ``ahh,'' ``ma-ma,'' and even ``dad'' - making the stable sound like a nursery.
Melvin McLaughlin, who helps his wife, Anne, run Honey Patch farm in Mooresville, N.C., watched their goats being groomed. ``You have to make their coats look nice and shiny and dress their little feet,'' he explained. Each goat was bathed and clipped (for easy viewing of body structure). They also had their hooves trimmed. McLaughlin admitted that his favorite part of the day was watching the little ones play.
``Goats are very personable,'' said Fred Stump, Blue Ridge Goat Club president. He and his wife, Sharon, have been raising Nigerian dwarfs and pygmy goats at Stump Hollow Farm in Boones Mill for 10 years. They now have 20 goats altogether.
``They'll eat out of your hand and follow you around,'' he said. ``And they all have different sounds. If one of mine is hollering, I can tell who it is.''
The goats are good pets for children (the Stumps raised a family on the farm, too), because they're friendly and gentle, he said. Also, caring for a goat teaches a child responsibility.
In his pasture, Fred Stump has made a playground for his goats out of wooden cable spools and cinder blocks. ``They love to climb and play `King of the Mountain,''' he said with a grin.
``They make great little companions,'' said Renee Orr, of Sol-Orr Farm in Chantilly, Va. A friend gave her a baby Nigerian dwarf goat three years ago after its mother died. Orr bottle-fed the baby and she was hooked. She now has 37.
"It's nice to look out in the pasture and see so many different little goats out there,'' she said. An added bonus: Her new pets manicured her property. ``We had nine acres of land ... and they trimmed all the trees and ate all the poison ivy. Now the air comes through and the land looks so much better."
Toby Witkege, 12, is a sixth-grader at Cave Spring Junior High and caretaker of nine Nigerian dwarfs. On Saturday he helped his neighbors, the Kinsers, with theirs. ``It's fun,'' he said, as he knelt to let 2-month-old Luigi climb into his lap.
After a quiet moment, he told of how he had lost a female recently during a difficult birth. ``It was the worst day of my life,'' he said. ``You ask yourself if it's worth it to go through the pain of losing one. But you get a lot more enjoyment out of it than pain.''
Nikki Smith, president of the American Nigerian Dwarf Organization, lives with her husband and two daughters - and 150 goats - at Mountain Retreat farm in Rocky Mount. ``People look at me and say, `Goats?' and I say, `You've never had one.'''
They have a lot of character and they can be housebroken, she said. "Also, their manure doesn't smell. Really.''
The Smiths also raise llamas and alpacas. Nikki Smith said the goats help the llamas, which are standoffish by nature, adjust to being touched. ``Sometimes I'll see the llamas cushing [sitting] out there on the ground and the goats will jump up on their backs. The babies like to see how high they can jump. And sometimes they'll go to sleep on the llamas.''
Her husband, show judge Dr. Michael Smith, is licensed by the American Goat Society, and spent the day stroking each animal from head to foot.
When he's not judging goats, his wife said, ``he delivers babies on the side'' as an obstetrician.
Ed Kinser said that at shows even the best-trained goats may ``show their spirit'' and throw fits, jump up and down, even roll over. For this reason, goats are judged only on their physical characteristics, not behavior or obedience.
They are led into the ring on leashes, like dogs. Their stride, delicate and deer-like, will indicate whether their joints are healthy. Once in the ring, owners pose their goats in a ``show stance'' (i.e., good posture), and the inspection begins.
On Saturday, even when a goat yanked on the leash or sat down in the ring, there was good humor all around, because - well, they were just so darned cute. This was no angst-ridden beauty pageant. Like doting parents, the owners were proud, regardless of the outcome.
LENGTH: Long : 131 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. Cynthia Smith, 7, of Rocky Mountby CNBpets Wizzle, a 2-month-old kid, during the Nigerian Dwarf Goat Show
in Roanoke County. The Smith family owns 150 goats. 2. Goat show
judge Dr. Michael Smith (above) gets a closer look at the junior
buck kids. To find out what makes ``a good goat,'' see Page 3. 3.
Twelve-year-old Toby Witkege (left) has a little trouble when Lily
and Lisa ``show their spirit.'' The two does, mother and daughter,
had just won Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion. color. 4.
Even the horses were curious about the Nigerian dwarf goats at the
show in Roanoke County. 5. Renee Orr (left) is the proud owner of 37
goats, including Buttercup.