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Chad Wegener is a modern-day goat herder. He starts and ends every day by walking these goats out to pasture and then back again. The goats he cares for are family to him – he knows each one, many by name.
"This little guy is just a couple of days old," Chad said to a newborn. "What are you doing? Welcome to Planet Earth."
To Chad, each one of these goats is unique. But the entire breed is also unique. They’re San Clemente Island goats. There’s estimated to be fewer than 1,500 of them in the world, and the single largest herd, 250 of them, is on this ranch in rural Gretna, Nebraska.
"I take it for granted sometimes, but then I also sit back and I think, wow. Wow. Look at these goats."
The goats get their name because about a century and a half ago, there were believed to be as many as 18,000 of them living on the small San Clemente Island off the coast of California. When they began to overrun the island’s natural ecosystem, an eradication program was started until only a small population returned to the mainland.
So how does this breed of goats get from a small island in the Pacific Ocean more than a thousand miles away to a 40-acre farm in the Elkhorn River Valley in Nebraska?
Chad and John Carroll are the reason. The couple started contacting breeders across the country and buying the goats, slowly building this herd of one of the rarest goats in the world. Chad had been in pharmaceutical sales until he walked away -- for his daily walks with the goats. John has been a medic in the Air Force and a registered nurse who’s now an attorney in Omaha… and he quickly adds, a goat farmer. He says the goats have brought an “old world” feel to their farm.
"When I see Chad out there shepherding them from a distance and they follow him everywhere, they’re one unit," John said. "It reminds me of Italy or those European countries where shepherds took their flock or their herds, and just walked around."
Those walks allow the goats to stretch their legs as Chad says, often climbing up to munch on tree leaves along the way. It’s exercise for the goats, and Chad says for him, it’s a daily therapy session in the middle of a field. He calls it his “happy hour.”
"I’m part goat. Maybe that was my calling to do this," Chad said. "I think it’s because I spend a lot of time with the goats. They know my voice. They know my smell because I smell like them most days."
There’s a word Chad uses often when describing his relationship with the goats.
"I use the word “symbiotic.” Not only with the goats, but with all living things. The trees, the bees, the butterflies, the plants, especially these guys. Whether it’s good for the soul, good for the health of these goats and the planet, or the soul and health of us as humans, it’s very symbiotic," he said.
This isn’t just about the good feelings they get, though. Chad and John want to see the San Clemente Island breed of goats increase in numbers and flourish. John says they’re looking for more serious breeders to join their mission.
"We recognize that now that we’ve got the numbers, we need to find people who really don’t want just two or three and just have them eating weeds and things like that. We want them to really want to breed them." John said.
They believe another way to increase the number of these goats is to show they have value. Chad says they have a long-term plan they think will do just that.
"As with any critically-endangered animal, we need to come up with a value-added purpose," Chad said. "Of course, they have a great set of genetics, but what we specifically want to do is create that value by building a dairy and showing non-San Clemente Island goat breeders and milkers that these guys can be milked and make a really good cheese. That would be a value add, which would help for the sustainability of this goat and keep them from going extinct."
It would be the first-ever commercial milking goat dairy for San Clemente Island goats. John says there would be a storefront, a milking parlor and a cheese room.
"For those that want to make a boutique niche cheese. The butterfat is very high and I think it actually will make a really high-quality cheese," John said.
Chad adds the dairy would also serve as a real-world classroom and the subject matter would be San Clemente Island goats.
"So bring different groups and educate them, whether it’s children, at-risk children, LGBTQ youth, local elementary kids, bring them in and let them see us cheese, let them help us milk and do some of that in this area," Chad said.
"We just got to figure out how to make it happen," John added. "And it takes money and learning how to do it and all that. So we’re just inching our way that way."
These two Nebraskans may be the best chance the San Clemente Island goats have to survive. John says that’s exactly why they call this their “passion project.”
"And we feel like if we can do this, we’re going to find an outlet for these goats to save them," John said.
And Chad says they will save them, despite what he hears from others who don’t believe it can be done or is worth doing.
"Why are you doing it? What are you doing that for? Why are you spending all that money on it? And I think that one day we’ll prove them wrong," Chad said. "When I have that goat dairy up and you and I are sitting there eating goat cheese, maybe drinking a glass of wine, we’ll toast to this interview… and say, “Told you so.”
We also produced a version of this story for Nebraska Public Media's Nebraska Stories television program. You can watch it by clicking on the video below.