Blissberry - About Us

3 93EX does LA 2021 500w
Linear Appraisal 2021: Three new EX93 does!

Danni & Trinity before we sold our bucks at the 2021 ADGA Spotlight Sale

Danni & Trinity milking out Jubilee for Best Udder at the 2022 ADGA National Show

Celebrating a Senior Best In Show win at the MN State Fair

Our favorite show family!

Thank you for visiting our website. We hope you enjoy getting to know our beloved herd. We enjoy chatting about goats and look forward to meeting new dairy goat breeders as well as spending time with our dairy goat friends. Our amazing, helpful, close friends, Katie Stringfield, Josie Stringfield, and Riley Blomquist have given us a lot of great memories over the years and have been instrumental in keeping the herd happy, milked, fed and shown at ADGA National Shows around the country. We would be lost without our local show family, the Shisler's... they keep us fed and always lend a helping hand. We’ve truly been incredibly fortunate to have such beautiful friendships and wouldn’t be where we are today without the love, support and encouragement from our amazing, dedicated, dear, long time friends and fellow breeders, Trinity Smith Malmanis, Ben & Rebekah Rupchis, Krista Senn Myers and the late Karen Senn. We love you all so much!

Malibu and Sara on the day she finished her championship.	2024 Bluff Country Show... we finished 6 does!	Josh and Sara having fun showing goats!
Our first goat show together!	Team Blissberry	Our first ADGA National Show together!

Dan resting with one of his special girls

Danni resting with one of his special girls.

Megan and Sara at the 2012 ADGA National Show.

Danni & Blanco

The day I knew I wanted to breed goats!

Gertie... the OG that started it all

My first show ever... do you recognize the judge?

Always meant to breed Nubians & Saanens

Humble beginnings... first show & first ADGA rosette!

I (Sara) started the Blissberry herd in 1998 with a single Saanen doe received as a wedding "gift". She was dropped off during our rehearsal dinner by a co-worker as a joke. Upon arriving home, we noticed a sign hung on the garage door alerting us to our new addition. Imagine my surprise when I found a Saanen doe in our dog kennel (complete with a bowl of carrots for food)! I was so excited that I just couldn't wait to meet her. I opened the kennel, pet her a bit, she ran out and promptly jumped on the hood of our pick-up. We lovingly named her "Gertie" and she lived to be a grand old lady. Little did anyone know at the time, the direction my life would take because of that one sweet and quirky goat. Shortly after, I got my first Nubian and it was love at first sight... the rest, as they say, is now history! Danni’s first love was a pet wether named Blanco that was half Nubian and half Oberhasli. A few years later, he started breeding Oberhasli under the Butte Creek's herdname. Danni and I met at the 2010 ADGA National Show (although we do have differing opinions on how that first meeting went!) and in early 2012, Danni moved his small Oberhasli herd to Minnesota to join the Nubians. In 2019 we made the tough decision to disperse the Oberhasli to focus on our Saanen breeding program. Saanens are proving to be a great fit for our herd.

The sign we came home to

LA day 2016: our 6 new EX92 does!
2016 Linear Appraisal Day: Our 6 new EX92 does!

I have been obsessed with animals my entire life. Growing up I had a couple parakeets, lots of fish, pet rats, a few rabbits, a boa constrictor, iguanas and my parents even let me have a dog. I didn’t grow up on a farm but got here as fast as I could! I’ve worked with my parents at our family transportation company for the past 28 years and am so grateful to have a job that’s flexible with my goat schedule. Danni grew up in Northern California and was the 5th generation to have been born and raised on his family’s cattle ranch. At one time or another, Danni has raised and bred about every furry or feathered animal possible; from not only a large, thriving beef cattle herd of his own, but horses, llamas, all different types of poultry, ring neck doves, fancy mice and Mini Lop rabbits as well. He graduated with honors from Chico State University in 2010 with a degree in Agriculture and an emphasis on Animal Science. Danni is employed with the American Dairy Goat Association as a Linear Appraiser and owns his own semen processing company, XCell Genetics.

Kitty Love!

Our passion and focus at Blissberry is obviously our cherished dairy goat herd, but to further diversify our farm, we raise a variety of other animals as well. We have a small Angus beef herd and a flock of laying hens. Each year we raise a couple batches of broiler chickens for butcher along with 3 pigs that we raise on goat milk. We also raise Blue and Broken Blue Satin rabbits. In addition, we trust the safety of our herd to the Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dogs that we breed and raise. We have several rescue barn cats that keep any rodent or bird from entering their territory.

Annabelle with her Angus heifer calf

Stella, our Great Dane
RIP 08/27/10 ~ 01/12/20

Dottie, our "Fug"

Along with the menagerie of farm animals, we share our lives with several treasured pets as well. I have a love affair with Great Danes and I’m always on the lookout for any Dane who needs rescuing. We have a sweet, crazy, kooky “Fug” (our Frenchie x Pug cross that Danni affectionately created a breed name for), Dottie, and Olive, our foster fail Great Pyrenees. Pop Tart, our Sulcata Tortoise, keeps us laughing with it's funny personality. Our home is also run by Oscar, our African Grey parrot who tolerates only me!