July 22, 2007 proved to a be a big day for Braveheart Farms, literally, as we welcomed the birth of the biggest baby goat thus far bred in the four-year operation of the farm.

The young buck, whose father is the NGSCP National Champion 70 Rocky and whose mother is a regular sized doe named BHF Survive, weighed flat 6 kilos at birth prompting the farm hands to help the mother in birthing.

What was even more surprising was the fact that after only three days, the young buckling who has been named BHF Shaquille (after Shaquille O'Neal, who else?) immediately ballooned to 7 kilos for an average daily weight gain of about 335 grams.

The biggest kid prior to Shaquille was BHF Apo, also a Rocky son out of Rawhide Nike, who came in at 4.1 kilos and grew to over 6  kilos after one week for an average daily weight gain of about 300 grams.

Apo by the way is taken from the name of the Philippines' highest mountain, Mt. Apo at whose foot the Braveheart Farms are located.

We thought BHF would be the biggest kid until BHF Shaquille came along and broke all weight records in the farm.

Shaquille's father, 70 Rocky is himself huge, tipping the scale at 130 kilos when he is rested from his almost daily chore of satisfying the needs of our does. So it was expected that all of Rocky's offsprings would carry his weight potentials.

We were surprised that Shaquille would come out of BHF Survive because the mother is not extraordinarily big. She's only about 65 kilos. (The biggest doe in the farm is BHF Vina, the NGSCP 2007 National Champion Doe who weighs between 82 to 85 kilos.)

BHF Survive is the daughter of a white buck called BHF 77 and a white doe Ms. California 49, both imported goats from California whose pedigree papers I lost during the early days of the farm..

She was named Survive because we almost lost her when she was a doeling. I experimented on my goats and allowed them to graze under the elements only to discover that given the Philippines' unpredictable weather, it was a blunder. We saved her in time just as she was starting to show indications of emaciation because of pneumonia. She recovered and is now the mother of the biggest buckling ever born in our farm.

We will continue the monitoring of Shaquille and Apo's weight gains as we move along. But this early I think we already have the potential heirs to Braveheart Farms King of Goats, 70 Rocky.

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