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Umbra Luna Lamanchas

A couple of years after Moon Shadow Ranch began to materialize as a real farm, we began thinking about how we could broaden the selection we offer our customers. Dairy was the immediate answer. What was not so clear at the time was how to bring something as unique and as memorable as our farm to the table. While travelling down this path we had the very good fortune of coming across dairy goats. Umbra Luna Lamanchas was soon to become an important part of Moon Shadow Ranch.

The particular breed of dairy goat we chose is the Lamancha. There are a number of defining characteristics that led us to favor the Lamanchas. Following our goals, one of the primary reasons for the decision was the wonderfully rich and mild-flavored milk they produce. Unlike the milk produced by many other breeds of dairy goat, Lamancha milk doesn't taste like goat. Additionally, the goats do very well in the biome our land is located in. The natural foliage of our land supplies them with a healthy portion of their nutritional intake. Aside from all of that, it is important to us that all of the animals on our farm are people-friendly. Lamanchas fit this role quite well. They are intelligent and outgoing with entertaining personalities.

If you are familiar with the size of goats, it is certainly reasonable to ask "what can you expect one little goat to produce?" One of our prize-winning, grand-champion Lamancha dairy goats answers that question daily with two whole gallons of milk. That's right. Two gallons of milk per day, per goat.

It would be easy to take all this milk to the market and sell it just for drinking. It is our belief, however, that through ingenuity and novel innovation we can provide our family, friends, and customers with wonderful products that they simply can not find elsewhere. One of our most exciting projects at the moment is the use of goats milk in skin care products. The nutrional value of our Lamanchas' milk is not limited to dietary enhancement. It is well known that goats milk is excellent for use in skin care. While this is not the most original of the ideas we are pursuing, we are proud to be able to offer these goods with original scents created using much of the same natural growth from our land that our goats love to eat. We are also pursuing goat-breeding interests. We are currently attempting to cross the Lamancha with smaller goats to acheive a small, family-sized goat that will inheret the Lamanchas' quality of milk. This would result in a goat that could be easily cared for as a family pet, while producing about a quart of market-quality milk per day.