SCI Goat Seed Saving Fundraiser
*Thank you all for the fabulous fundraiser title ideas. I’ll use them all in different contexts, but thank you Jenny Bye for this title.
Woohoo, it’s 2025. Do you know where your goats are? My goats are managing the Wisconsin winter with their fluffy cashmere coats and bellies full of hay.
Onto the topic of this blog, San Clemente Island Goat Seed Saving Fundraiser. The basic framework and reason behind this fundraiser is as follows. To raise money to collect, preserve, and donate semen from at least ten San Clemente Island goat bucks. Secondly, to pay for the expenses of up to three Tepper Line does, including transport from the west coast to the EB Ranch Farmstead. With a bonus goal to raise money for an additional three does that aren’t necessarily Tepper Line.
This is essentially seed-saving but with a critically endangered goat. The SCI goat bucks I plan on collecting from are either a higher Tepper Line, express rare color traits, or should just be collected for preservation's sake. You can learn more about why line preservation is important at the bottom of the blog. Preserving these uncommon color variations may or may not be important. But there are only a small handful of cream and black, and solid black SCI goats left in the United States. And all of the cream and black come from one of my goats, EB Ranch Conan. Different colors and patterns were represented on San Clemente Island at one point. And trying to preserve that diverse representation could be important at one point in the future. Right now, if these animals die that means these unique traits are likely gone for good.
Brierwood Jasper is a stunning cream and black buck that recently came all the way from Washington. He is the son of EB Ranch Conan and grandson of my first SCI goat buck named Max. Max also sported this rare and beautiful cream and black color.
The rough plan right now is to work with a traveling semen collection business. Having that minimum of 10 bucks is a requirement for this business to make a stop. They can also artificially inseminate does while they are at a stop. Other services they offer are storing the frozen semen for a fee, and mailing frozen semen to buyers for a fee as well. After details are figured out with the owners of the different SCI goat bucks and with this business. I plan on shipping these semen samples to The Livestock Conservancy and likely one other safe location as a donation for long-term storage. Think of it like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. A safe place for genetic diversity to be stored if the breed faces some kind of extinction event.
The second piece is working with a breeder who has the last group of higher Tepper Line goats on the West Coast. To either buy a group of mature does, or have her breed for higher Tepper Line goats to bring back about 4 months after they are born. If I’m able to raise extra money, I may try and purchase a few more does from this breeder to work with the unique color genetics found in my group of bucks. This breeder also has one of the few solid black SCI goat bucks, and that buck has sired several offspring that may carry that recessive gene.
The plan is to start taking donations for specific projects online immediately. With a local event where people can meet some of the goats, and listen to some guest speakers discussing the importance of heritage breeds in our lives. With hopes, that the local event would take place in mid-May at a public location.
The estimated amount for the semen collection and storage would be around $3,000.
The estimated amount for three Tepper line goats, plus transport would be around $3,400.
The estimated amount for three more does from the West Coast breeder, plus transport would be around $2,700.
The minimum goal to raise would be $6,400.00
The bonus goal would be $9,100.00
That minimum goal is doable, I’m sure about the bonus goal. There may be other less expensive alternatives, but I would lose out on lineage from that preferred solid black buck that would be valuable for color-variant research.
I will keep on working on more details and will keep everyone posted. As well as posting public thank you’s and some fun bonus gifts for people who donate at certain tiers. Below is a key to links that can better describe some aspects of the proposed project.
If you want to donate you can click HERE.
To learn more about line preservation, specifically The Tepper Line Project click HERE.
EB Ranch Kasimer. Not only is he a buck that carries a higher Tepper Line. He also expresses the uncommon black color on top of sporting adorable frosting on his nose and ears. He is one of the bucks that I would like to collect semen from.
