about us

Our life with goats began a over a decade ago, when Joe developed sensitivity to milk. We were spending almost $2 per quart for Lactaid milk, until we attended a county fair and became infatuated with the Oberhasli breed. Wallowing in our 'newbie' ignorance, we acquired our first goat. Roxanne was an unregistered, wild, horned Oberhasli/Alpine cross. Despite her attitude, we continued to want more goats. Since then, we have had Alpines, Saanens, and grades, but our true love is the Oberhasli. We have a happy, healthy herd, where everyone gets along well.

The herd is currently at 19 but doubles that during kidding season. Having mostly Americans, we were fortunate to add Purebred does to the herd and we look forward to breeding them. Until recently we had been doing live breedings with our bucks. We are now learning AI and excited to find the purebred buck gene pool at our fingertips. We have been on DHIR milk testing for 4 years and have found this to provide invaluable information. We also participated in Herd Evaluation Service with Harvey Considine, and participate in ADGA's Linear Appraisal.

The milking herd is primarily fed a 16% protein dairy pellet with our homegrown sunflowers, corn and oats added. We provide free choice baking soda, sea kelp and minerals. Bucks receive the same feed with added ammonium chloride to prevent urinary tract problems. Because of our concern for CAE, all kids that will be retained are taken at birth and fed heat-treated colostrum and pasteurized milk until weaning. All hay is grown on one of the original Satkowski Homesteads located approximately 20 miles north of us near Lake Ontario where the land is rich in minerals. The recently planted alfalfa field provides nutritious hay for all the does and first cutting grass/timothy hay is baled for the bucks.

The girls are housed in a new 24x36 barn. Our management practices divide the girls according to age, feed and health requirements. In cooperation with our local veterinarian, we have developed a preventative health program that includes CAE and Johnes testing at WSU, timely wormings and routine vaccinations for rabies, CD&T and Bo-Se.

We hope that our herd catches your eye. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.

Thank you for inquiring about Harper Hill Oberhasli. We are located on 10 acres in Western New York State, halfway between Buffalo and Rochester. In our area we enjoy all four seasons. The summers are short but warm and the winters dip below 0°F for days at a stretch. In addition to dairy goats, we raise heritage breed Black Spanish turkeys, Muscovey and Call ducks, Silkie Bantams chickens, blue egg-laying Aracaunas and heritage breed Delawares. Our excess goat milk is given to hogs which we raise each summer. We have 2 acres of fruit and vegetable gardens, which provide the animals and us with a variety of healthy, natural foods.