Sterling farm is home to a herd of world’s rarest goats

STERLING – A farm outside Sterling is the new home of a small herd of Arapawa goats, the world’s most endangered and rarest goat.

The Happy Little Hooves Farm, 18187 Freeport Road, is a three-acre spread owned by Abby and Shawn Sweeney. It is home to almost 40 goats from three registered breeds who, according to Abby, are “like our children.”

There are only about 500 to 600 Arapawa goats in the world, with half in the U.S., Abby said in a recent interview.

Happy Little Hooves – owned by the Sweeneys for almost five years – now is the only breeder of Arapawa goats in the state, according to the Arapawa Goat Breeders Association.

“They’re beautiful,” she said about the newest additions to their farm. “They’re very inquisitive. Arapawa is a semi-feral breed, so they need a lot of human interaction.”

The Arapawa goats arrived at Happy Little Hooves late last month. Sweeney said they’ll be in quarantine for 30 days for health reasons and to get them acclimated to their new home.

Arapawa are medium-sized, predominately black, brown and white goats. Does (adult females) weigh between 60 and 80 pounds and bucks (adult males) weigh up to 125 pounds. They’re not aggressive goats, and they become attached to their goat family and human keepers.

So how did the Sweeneys get their six Arapawa goats?

Sweeney said her husband, “a king researcher,” came across information about the Arapawa being the rarest goat in the world, which was news to the couple.

The couple contacted the Arapawa Goat Breeders Association, which helped them find breeders they liked in Indiana and Connecticut.

Two of the Sweeneys’ Arapawa goats came from the Still Waters Farm in Danville, Indiana. Legacy and Evolution are 16-week-old males (bucklings). Legacy has straight ears. Evolution has floppy ears.

The other four Arapawa goats at Happy Little Hooves are from the Newbury Farms in Newton, Connecticut.

They are 7-year-old Magnolia, Lucy (15 months), who is Magnolia’s daughter, Buster (6 months), who is Lucy’s son, and Finn (3 months), who is Magnolia’s son.

Finn is a buckling, a young male less than one year old and Buster is a wether (castrated male). Lucy is a half-sister to Finn.

The boys in the herd have floppy ears and the girls have a straight right ear and a floppy left ear.

Magnolia has longer hair than the other Arapawa goats on the farm.

There’s another difference in the herd.

“We were told by the Connecticut breeder that Arapawa goats on the East Coast seem to be darker than the ones found in the Midwest,” Sweeney said. “What we have seems to verify this. It’s most likely because of genetics and the lines they come from.”

The Arapawa breed is named for the Arapawa Island near New Zealand, which was the goats’ home for centuries.

They thrived there until the 1970s, when the New Zealand Forest Service decided the goats were damaging the native forest and the herd had to be culled.

Arapawa Island residents Betty and Walt Rowe, along with friends and volunteers, created a sanctuary for the breed in 1987. They began with 40 goats in domestication.

The Rowes received international attention for their work, which is the reason why the Arapawa goat survives today, according to the Livestock Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on preserving and promoting rare breeds of livestock.

The Sweeneys love all their goats, whose diet is mainly roughage (grass or hay), grain, fruit and the occasional Cheerios and potato chips.

In addition to the Arapawa, the Sweeneys have two other registered breeds: Mini Lamancha goats and Mini Silky Fainting goats, which are known to “faint” when startled (an affliction caused by a genetic mutation) but recover quickly when their muscles relax after contracting involuntarily.

“Goats are just like cats and dogs. They have different personalities,” Sweeney said. “They can be brats, skittish, and mean to others, and there’s a definite hierarchy.

“For us, they’re cathartic and therapeutic.”

The Sweeneys have two goats with special needs.

Two-year-old Reba is a permanent house goat, “unless at some time we feel it’s safe for her to be outside,” Sweeney said. “She’s a very high degree fainter, bottom of the totem pole outside. She does go outside to visit the other girls, but she lets us know when it’s time to go inside. She’s incredibly smart. She’s even potty trained herself.”

Bunny, who is 14 weeks old, also has special needs.

“She’s a temporary house guest while she heals [she had her back left leg amputated because of a compound fracture]. We’re working on transitioning her, but it will take time,” Sweeney said.

Also at the Happy Little Hooves farm are pigs, chickens, two mini fillies (Triscuit and Biscuit) and two guardian dogs that live with the female goats in the main barn.

The dogs are Great Pyrenees. Koona (“squirrel” in Hopi) is a 2½-year-old female and Tatanka (“buffalo” in Lakota) is a male who will be a year old this month.

Happy Little Hooves Farm - 18187 Freeport Road, Sterling

Farm tours are offered at Happy Little Hooves. Tours are from 1 to 3 p.m. and 3 to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday and Sunday. The tours are free. Donations go to the goats’ care and feeding. Call 309-206-7579 for more information.

Website: happylittlehoovesfarm.com