White House Goats : Spotted & Colored Boer Goats

WHITE HOUSE GOATS

Quality Boer Breeding Stock.
Spots, Polka Dots, Reds, & Paints

Color that Competes

Elise & Zoe Conlee, White House Goats: We're located in Ridgefield, Washington about a half hour north of the airport in Portland, Oregon. Feel free to email or call with any questions. We enjoy visitors that like to 'talk goat', so we hope you'll come for a visit. Zoe is 4-H age, which means lots of activities so we're often in and out -- call for directions and to make sure we'll be home. Email: elise@whitehousegoats.com or eaconlee@yahoo.com . Phone 360-887-4590.

History: We started out in traditional boers, but when I saw a photo of Stinger as a baby buck on the Outback Boers website, everything changed. Even though he was just a baby and at that point I didn't know much about his daddy T4 Scorpio, that one photo was enough to convince me that it was possible to breed colored Boers that could compete with the traditionals. He was sent to me in early August 2004 and won his first reserve championship the very next day. We immediately got on the wait-list for the best red buck Outback was willing to sell that following year, and in summer 2005 brought home Outback Boers Red Warrior, an own son of ennboled War Paint to compliment the breeding program we started with Stinger. We worked towards building a top quality colored herd and trying to make a name for ourselves as having colored goats that could compete for those top ribbons against the traditionals. Stingers ABGA ennoblement and Warriors ABGA Sire of Merit awards stand as testament to what they have brought to our breeding program.

In 2008 we had a chance to take a new turn with our colored breeding program -- spots. We were able to purchase CRCR Aged to Perfection, a spotted fb Boer buck. The first kids started arriving in Dec. 08, and they were not only colorful, they were quality too. His first fb doe kid to walk into the show ring walked back out with 20pts, a first place and a reserve champion ribbon - and she was only 6wks old. His other spotted kids have followed that path and as of May 2010 Perfection has enough points to be ABGA ennobled, although for it to be official, one of his young daughters still must pass inspection this fall.

We have worked hard to put together color and quality, and I think our show record is an indication that our dream is coming true -- we are breeding colored Boers that can compete with the traditionals.

Management Philosophies: Well, there's no easy answer, and exceptions to every rule of course, but we do believe that these Boers need to be able to be carry kids easily and often, kid on their own, be great mothers, and raise a full set of live, healthy & quality offspring to weaning age. I travel frequently for work and the farm-sitter comes once a day, so these does need to get the job done themselves to keep paying for themselves. Over time you come to se that certain bloodlines are 'easy' goats and consistently more than pay for themselves. You'll see many related does in my herd - those are the lines that have shown themselves to be low maintenance & good producers, so I keep daughters and sisters to keep those characteristics.

Zoe's my right-hand-helper and knows her way around a kidding, getting kids started, and can and does do chores when I'm out of town without her. She loves the goats and babies, but I'd say her clear passion for competition isn't in the goat arena but in the horse -- to see what we do when we're not with the goats -- click here for some pics of Zoe and her horse.