Sales and Reservations

Philosophy: Our breeding goal at Lofty Hearth is to produce animals that combine dairy capacity, conformation, optimal health, and parasite resistance. We don't feel any of these things have to come at the expense of the others. We want our goats to have long, healthy, productive lives as dairy animals but also to turn heads! While Alpines have a reputation for bossiness, temperament is partially genetic and we also select strongly for friendly, gregarious Alpines who get along well with both their people and other goats. We call this our "No Jerks" policy.

Pricing and Registration: Prices for kids out of our registered animals include all fees related to their ADGA registration and transfer. Intact bucklings purchased from us will have DNA tested by UC Davis and put on file with ADGA at our expense. However, just because a buckling may be born to your chosen dam, it doesn’t mean we will definitely sell him as a herd sire. If your reserved buckling is born and we feel he will not serve as adequate breeding stock for any reason, we will offer you a replacement animal or a refund. (Our sporadically available wethers or does who are designated as "pet quality" do not include registration fees.) We offer discounts for 4H participants and significant discounts if you are purchasing animals in pairs or more. Discounts or cash reimbursements of up to $100 per animal are available if you enroll our animals on DHIA milk test, linear appraisal, and/or earn distinctions for them in ADGA-sanctioned shows.

Deposits and Purchase Agreements: We require a $100 deposit per animal to hold kids who are due in the upcoming breeding season. This deposit is nonrefundable unless we are unable to deliver the animal you selected (although you can choose to roll your deposit over to the subsequent breeding season OR apply it to another currently available animal). In the case of AI breedings, if the AI breeding doesn't settle, we will contact you to let you know your selected doe is being live covered by one of our bucks and you can decide whether you are happy with the new pairing, or would prefer a different animal or a refund. The outstanding balance on your animals is due immediately when the animal is picked up or delivered. Deposits and balances can be paid via cash, Venmo, or Paypal. Sellers reserve the right to terminate an animal sale at any point for any reason (but deposits or payments will be refunded if that should occur).

Health and Performance Guarantees:
- CAE and Johne's: We test our herd yearly (plus on the rare occasion an animal is added) for CAE and Johne’s disease and take precautions to never expose our animals to risk. Kids are raised on complete CAE prevention with pasteurized milk or milk replacer. With the advent of Cornell offering pooled fecal PCR Johne's screenings for goats in September 2025, we have switched to this new "gold standard" method of Johne's screening. Fecal shedding is the most reliable way to detect Johne's since animals can be actively shedding the disease and still come up negative on a blood serum test! Fecal tests are more expensive but are currently the best way to ascertain that you have no Johne's shedding in your herd.
- CL: Because of the unreliability of blood tests for CL, we discontinued whole-herd screening for CL in 2025 on the advice of our vet team. However, we had never had a positive test in the seven years preceding that. We additionally certify that we have never had a CL abscess (nor a single positive test) on our farm and we maintain very strict biosecurity and quarantine protocols here to ensure it stays that way. At this time we screen incoming animals only instead of yearly screening, but we will always do a blood test on request for CL on goats over six months old (the age when the serum test becomes reasonably more accurate).
- Every animal in the herd tested free of tuberculosis and brucellosis in November 2025.
- The herd was last tested for all communicable disease in August 2026 and we have no history of any communicable disease in any of our animals. Our tests are conducted via WADDL or Cornell via our vets. We maintain extremely strict biosecurity protocols and we take our animals’ health very seriously, but we still recommend that you quarantine your new animals when they arrive at your home.
- We guarantee our animals are free of communicable disease or observable defects when they leave our farm, however we are not responsible if the animal later tests positive for any communicable disease after spending time on other farms. We cannot guarantee final conformation, show, milk test or appraisal performance of animals born here, but we can assure you that we won’t sell you an animal if we deem them to be subpar for any reason. In addition, we are fully responsible if an animal you purchase later shows up with an obvious genetic defect that we somehow missed (such as a supernumerary teat). In the unlikely event that this occurs, please notify us ASAP and we'll make arrangements for a replacement.

Support and Mentorship Guarantee: We love to support new goat owners and are available to you for any management and husbandry questions you may have, not just at the time of your purchase but at any time in the future. We will never turn down emails, texts, questions, or requests for assistance and advice from anyone who has ever purchased an animal from us, even if that is 10 years in the future or at 3 o'clock in the morning. (Yes, this has happened. Yes, we picked up the phone.)

Husbandry and Care Policy: We will not sell single goats to a home without other goats. Goats cannot live as single animals and they need at least one goat companion (and ideally two)! If you are newly building your herd, we will give you a discount on bringing in multiple animals as a starter herd. You'll also need a vet. If you don't already have one, we recommend forming a relationship with a large animal veterinarian before bringing any goats to your farm. If you are in New England, we may be able to make recommendations for trusted vets in your area - just ask.
Pre-Pickup and Pickup: All non-polled kids are disbudded professionally by our vet (using pain management) unless you specifically request otherwise when reserving a kid. Reserving a horned kid requires full payment in advance and availability is not guaranteed, as horns will exclude the animal from ADGA performance programs. We currently raise ALL kids on a full CAE prevention program (heat treated colostrum, pasteurized milk or milk replacer). When your kid is picked up they'll be eating goat’s milk (and/or cow’s milk or milk replacer if you notify us that you don’t have access to goat’s milk at home). They will start Calf Pro coccidia prevention on day 3 of life. They will have started nibbling hay and browse and have been offered free choice kid feed. If you make arrangements with us to hold your kid for several weeks after birth, they'll receive their initial CDT vaccine. We will do our best to ensure your kid has a strong start for a healthy life and good socialization with humans, other goats, and the livestock guardian llama. Arrangements for your desired age of pickup should be made in advance as kidding season is a super busy time for all of us. Holding kids for an extended period may require a boarding fee.

Transportation: We’re happy to work with transport services, but we don’t ship by air. We’re located near the town of Chester, Vermont. We might be able to deliver or arrange to meet you partway if you have a lengthy drive. Just ask.

Buy-Back Policy: If you disperse your herd or decide to sell an animal you purchased from us for any reason, please give us a heads-up just so we have the opportunity to discuss buying that animal back from you. This is not a legally enforceable policy and of course your animal is completely yours to do with as you choose after he or she leaves our farm, but we ask it of you as a courtesy just in case we had to let a particularly loved animal go. We consider this a way to be a good neighbor in the goat community.