About Givernay Farm

I’ve been raising dairy goats and heritage poultry since 1997. The herd started out in Cape Breton Island, NS where I was born and raised. Two Toggenburg does were purchased for me as 4-H projects at the age of 12. I didn’t realize the impact two little does would have on me, not to mention how they would shape the next chapters of my life. After attending university, I headed west to Alberta to pursue my professional career. Sadly, I left my goats behind, it wasn’t long after my move that “the goats found me” again and the rest is now history.

After a bit of a hiatus team Givernay hit the road in 2022 and managed to attend 7 shows. We were honoured to receive best doe in show at 6 of the 7 shows we attended. We also had most of the herd classified in the summer and we’re back on 305 test. You can see all our new show, type and milk recording data under the animals individual page.

Herd management has always been important to me. No matter how good your breeding program and how proven your genetics are, animals will never produce to their potential without a solid management system. Our does are fed according to need. Our mature milking herd is fed 2nd and 3rd cut alfalfa hay; we supplement with a 16% dairy ration based on milk production. Our dry stock and bucks receive grass hay or grass alfalfa mix hay. All our goats have free choice access to cobalt salt and loose mineral.

We’ve done whole herd CAE testing for many years and have had consistently negative results. We don’t test for CL as we’ve never had any animals with CL or show symptoms thereof. We’ve done whole herd Johnne’s testing in the past and have received negative results in all instances.

Despite our consistently negative test results, we will continue to raise our kids on a strict pasteurized milk program. We feel this is the “gold standard” of kid rearing, it has and continues to produce healthy, happy kids. Kids receive powdered kid colostrum or heat-treated colostrum immediately after birth, at approximately 2 days of age the kids are switched to pasteurized goat’s milk. All our kids have free choice access to 2nd cut alfalfa immediately after birth. We rarely feed gain to our kids, our hay is very high protein and our kids grow quickly on it.

All kids and mature stock are vaccinated annually with Tasvax 8. We worm as needed, usually twice per year. Because we are in a selenium deficient area, we do have a selenium program we follow. Many of our does are high producers and our kids tend to be fast growing so we’ve found additional selenium is required to meet their needs.

We will offer some doelings and a few milkers for sale in the spring of 2023. If you are interested in milkers please feel free to contact us about reserving one. For kid reservations please see our for-sale page for sales information and each individual doe’s page for their breeding plans. We take great pride in our animals and love talking about them, feel free to contact us about any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Adam, Steve and Avery