Goats galore - Acclaimed radio host raises prize-winning goats in rural Shell Rock

No kidding: February is coming, and with it, kidding season—the busiest time of year for goat farmers.
     Pat Blank of rural Shell Rock, award-winning host of Iowa Public Radio’s All Things Considered, has her work cut out presenting a mix of the day’s news, analysis, commentary and coverage of art and sports on the radio. But the day’s work doesn’t start when she walks into the studio—or even when she walks into the classroom where she teaches newswriting as an adjunct instructor at UNI. She’s also a goat farmer. Her day starts in the barn at the Black Eagle Ranch where she raises Nigerian Dwarf Goats.
     As a registered breeder with the Iowa Diary Goat Association, she sells a majority of her goats for 4-H projects. She also participates in the Iowa Dairy Goat Association’s Share-a-Kid program, where producers donate a doeling to 4-H or FFA youth otherwise unable to afford a registered animal.
            Colorful Nigerian Dwarfs are the smallest of dairy goats. 
 
Read more in the January 10 edition of the STAR.
 
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