Castle Rock Neve Ice 2*M 4*D AR 2978

We had an outstanding reservation for Neve for three years. I had long admired Neve’s dam, Castle Rock Blizzard, so was absolutely thrilled to finally bring this beautiful Blizzard daughter into the Curbstone Valley herd.

Blizzard had everything we look for in a dairy doe. A long balanced doe, smoothly blended, with a level and wide rump, and excellent body, and udder capacity, scoring in the Top Ten during one day milk tests on more than one occasion.

At first glance Neve looks like a similar, but darker, version of her sire, Castle Rock Harvest Moon. This is one of two Harvey daughters in our herd. The first, Castle Rock Lotus, has been our highest producing doe. Harvey already has seven finished ADGA champion daughters, including Castle Rock Snownamie VEEE 90, Neve’s full, albeit older, sister, and five superior genetics offspring, including Lotus.

Neve showed remarkable maturity as a first freshener, demonstrating excellent body capacity, with tremendous depth and width for her age. Her udder is well supported, with strong all-around attachments, a strong medial, and smooth fore udder. While we would like to see some improvement in teat length, Neve’s udder texture is very soft and pliable, and she easily milks completely.

Neve’s third freshening in 2018 was uneventful, and produced beautiful buck/doe twins, sired by CH Alethia HB Destiny’s Starman *B *S. However, a few days after she freshened, Neve became acutely ill. She was transported to the UC Davis Livestock Emergency Medicine Service, but died shortly after arrival. Necropsy revealed damage to the area of her duodenum, and a one inch-long tear along the duodenal wall, with a subacute peritonitis. The cause of the duodenal rupture was not able to be determined. Neve’s absence has been very difficult to bear, but she will live on through three daughters retained to the herd, Curbstone Valley Chanterelle, Whitney, and Zenith who was just a few days old when Neve died. Neve’s son, Zephyr, is also retained.