Recent Happenings at the Ranch

UPDATED 5/31/09

 It's official

Kidding Season is Over!

Niska's singleton doeling

  5/29/09   With the birth of Niska's doeling we end our 2009 kidding season.  It was a great success with the kids being healthy, active, and beautiful.  The does have come into milk well and we are making lots of cheese.  To see pictures of all the kids and read about their births check out Kathryn's Kidding Diary.  To order our cheeses, please go to our on-line store.

David and the kids

 Department of Education Report:

More Goat School Grads

 5/23/09   Bill and Jenny from Washington State are the latest students to graduate from our BMR Goat Management and Cheesemaking course.  These two delightful people spent 3 days and 3 nights here at Black Mesa learning to care for our herd of over 40 goats plus learning to make several types of cheese.  We wish them great success with their plans to put this new knowledge to work by adding goats to their lives.

Click here to learn more about our workshops

 Congratulations to our new graduates Jenny and Bill

 News from the Trough:

New babies arrive!

And can you even believe it's not goat kids!

 2/19/09  Each year we get a few pigs to raise.  They eat the whey from our cheesemaking and scraps from our garden.   Last year we even raised one for Quiessence, an up-scale Phoenix restaurant that specializes in using local foods.  It's hard to believe how fast these little critters grow.  These four ultra-cute new pigs will each be over 600 pounds by fall.

 Construction Crew Report:

A New Barn for the Boys!

   2/1/09  We dry off the goat herd around the holidays and don't make cheese again until after the girls start kidding in March.  You'd think we could put our feet up and relax a bit.  But there always seems to be projects to do.  This year we built the buck boys a new barn!  The bucks are really appreciating their new accommodations and we are too. To see the new barn go up from start to finish just click here.

 Another Awards Department Report:

More Superior Genetics!

   11/25/08 The American Dairy Goat Association has announced that three more of our beautiful goats have qualified for their Superior Genetics title!   We were already pleased with Ripley, Princess, and Lavender for their great conformation and production.  Now they are getting official recognition, too.  Congratulations to these lovely, productive members of the BMR team!

Ripley (Right), Princess (Center), and Lavender

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2008 BMR Best First Freshener Award

12/24/08  We are proud to announce the winner of the 2008 Black Mesa Ranch Best First Freshener Award!  It was a really tough decision this year with three very strong contenders for the prize.  We looked at Linear Appraisal scores, attitudes, awards, milk test records for quantity, protein, and butterfat, and much more.  We congratulate RIPLEY for winning this coveted award!  Princess was the first runner-up, and Harmony received honorable mention.  It's a pleasure to have these wonderful girls on our milking team. 

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More Elite Does!

Pepper and Espeez were again named Elite Does by the USDA, and now Poppy has made the list also.  Elite Does and Bucks are goats that rank in the top 5% of dairy goats for performance and conformation. 

Espeez (Right), Poppy (Center), and Pepper

 Awards Department report:

BMR Cheeses Win First Place!

   10/20/08 Two of our cheeses recently took first place in their categories at the American Dairy Goat Association Cheese Contest!  Our Boule (pictured on the right) is a creamy pasta-filata style cheese just great for cooking.   Our Feta is a brine cured Mediterranean style cheese that is fresh-tasting and creamy, perfect for Greek cooking, salads, or omelets.

 In the News:

Phoenix New Times Award

   10/4/08  The Phoenix New Times, a weekly newspaper in the Phoenix area, has recently honored us with one of their "Best Of Phoenix" awards.  Below is their article about us.

Best Homegrown Goat Cheese

"Though Snowflake, the northern Arizona town nestled in the White Mountains, is outside our coverage area, we make an exception for this fabulous cheese that is available for purchase at boutique food stores around the Valley (Whole Foods is one) and at fine restaurants such as Quiessence. If you consider goat cheese to be an overpowering, overly pungent experience, think again. Black Mesa's cheeses are made exclusively from the milk of their own herd of Nubian goats, an African breed known for their adaptability to the hot summer temperatures.

The family-owned and operated company's Web site declares that Black Mesa never works on more than 14 gallons of milk at a time. That allows it to pay the closest detail to every step of the cheese-making process. The various cheeses — we especially like the goat's milk feta — are available online and at very reasonable prices. In a previous life, one of the owners was a pastry chef, and Black Mesa's commercial candy kitchen includes Goat's Milk Fudge and Butter Almond Toffees. Let's hear it for the goat! "

Other winners of this year's "Best of Phoenix" awards who use BMR cheeses include:

Binkley's Restaurant · Best Destination Dining

Rancho Pinot Grill · Best Place to Take a Slow Foodie

Pizzeria Bianco · Best Gourmet Pizza

Atlas Bistro · Best BYOB

The Farm at South Mountain · Best Patio Dining

Pane Bianco · Best Sandwiches

Quiessence · Best Seasonal Cuisine

Whole Foods · Best Cheese Selection

Congratulations to all!  We are proud to supply these fine establishments with our wonderful goat cheeses!

 BMR Utility Company Update:

BMR Goes SOLAR...Again

   9/10/08 Since we are totally off grid we have little choice but to be our own utility company.  Our main power sources are the sun and the wind.  Our well, however, has always required the use of a gasoline powered generator.  Finally, we have a solar powered water pump and it is really a treat.  When the sun shines, our water tank fills!  The overflow is directed to a cattle tank and the cows are enjoying having a second source of refreshment.  While this was a very pricy upgrade, the cost was somewhat ameliorated by the fact that when we pulled the old pump out, we discovered that one of the plumbing fittings was so corroded that it would have totally disintegrated within the year, necessitating emergency repairs.

Earlier this year our wind turbine was damaged during a storm.  The good folks at Val-U Solar promptly came out, climbed the 50 foot tower, and brought the turbine down to send in for repair.  Unfortunately, the only company that does the repairs took two months to return the equipment!  Once the turbine was finally sent back, the Val-U Solar dudes came right out, climbed the tower, and installed the turbine.  Good folks, those Val-U Solar people!

The old raised tanks are not in use and the old wind mill is just decorative for now, but some day may be put back into service. Our 4500 gallon tank is set on the ground (lower left hand corner of the picture). The new solar panels are mounted on the wind mill framework with a custom rack designed by Chuck.

Chuck, one of the Val-U Solar owners, installs the repaired turbine at 50 feet above the ground!

 Webmaster report:

BlackMesaRanchOnline gets Downsized!

   7/7/08 After years of dreaming, research, and just plain impatient waiting, we've finally been able to acquire the domain name BlackMesaRanch.com.  The "online" part of our old domain name has been dropped.  Web site access and email addresses will work with either the new or old name for now, but soon we will change over to the shorter version - so please update your favorites list!

A Word from the Herd...

Linear Appraisal 2008

   6/11/08 We take great pride in our goat herd. They are a wonderful bunch and work hard making milk so that David can turn it into our award winning cheeses. We know that they can crank out the milk. We are on DHIR milk test so every month a supervisor comes to monitor the quantity and quality of the milk. Our girls consistently earn their milking stars. However, since we don’t show our goats, we don’t get a lot of feedback on their conformation. So last year we starting doing Linear Appraisal (LA). LA is an American Dairy Goat Association sponsored program where a trained appraiser evaluates every goat. The goat gets scored on many different attributes. We were incredibly pleased with the results of the appraisal. Last year the appraiser commented several times about what a wonderful, strong herd we have here. This year they did even better!  The results of the LA will help us continue to breed attractive, productive animals. Five of our girls scored as Excellent with most of the rest of our mature herd scoring 88 or higher. Their scores are listed on their individual lineage pages.

BMR Linear Appraisal 2008

Many thanks to the appraisers for all their hard work.  We really appreciate the time they spent with us teaching us how to breed productive and beautiful goats.

 Continuing Education at BMR:

BMR Classes, Seminars and Workshops

Take a look at our updated 1,and 3-day Goat herd Management, Artisan Cheese-Making and Ranch Life Educational opportunities.

6/1/07 So many people have asked us to do seminars and get-away weekends we finally have taken the plunge and said "yes".  Click here for more information on our Ranch Workshops and Retreats.