Our farm is located in the scenic Appalachian Foothills of Southeastern Ohio near Athens. Consisting of 100 acres of hardwood forest, 70 acres of bottom lands and hilltop meadows, Bryson Branch is the home to Gail, Mary and Aaron McPherson, our Black Labrador Retriever, Champion, and our small herd of Purebred Nubian Dairy Goats. Named after Bryson Branch Creek (from early settler in the area, David Bryson), the creek runs for nearly a mile across the property and has been home to the McPherson family for 60 years.

Gail is the muscle and grit that keeps us moving physically. Without him we could not exist. He drives us to goat shows, takes care of our facilities which includes mucking the pens, bales the hay, builds fence, keeps the place mowed to perfection and a million other things!!!

Mary is the herd manager and primarily does all the milking. She plans the breedings and physically keeps the herd functioning. She is the master feeder and groomsman.

Aaron is the expert handler/showman and has the eye of a judge. He assists with the chores, does hours of kid bottle duty, helps with milking, has lots of input on the herd management and culling decisions and helps his Dad with the physical work.

What began as a 4-H project for a 9 year old boy has blossomed into a quality herd of milking Purebred Nubian Dairy Goats. We have had to cull many animals near and dear to our hearts to obtain the kind of solid dairy doe that we are trying to create. We have been blessed by the genetics of many fine herds including Haf-Hidden-Acres, Kismet, Copper-Hill, Longmans, Little-Bics, Prairie Patch, Dayspring and Rio Del Oro. Our foundation does, Poverty Knob Ivy Marie and Poverty Knob Nettie Rose inspired us with the love of the roman nose as the herd at Poverty Knob possesses great Nubian breed character. We will forever be indebted to Mary Ann Kilzer, owner of the Poverty Knob herd, for being our goat mentor and friend throughout our life journey with dairy goats.

We attend about 4 ADGA sanctioned shows each year and have had the privilege of attending two ADGA National Shows, the 2006 Indianapolis Nationals and the 2008 Louisville OH-KY Nationals. We served on the host committee in 2008 and while it was a lot of hard work it was also a great memory to cherish for a life time. It’s hard to believe that we have had 6 different does “make the cut” in those 2 trips to Nationals, one doe making the cut twice now. We believe it may be the magic Aaron has on the collar as he has never been cut from a breed class at the ADGA National Show. So……need someone to handle for you? Give Aaron a call!
We also participate in the ADGA Linear Appraisal Program which we feel has tremendous value and plan owner/sampler milk test for 2009.