Sue, she is a beauty!
Tahnks for all the info, i am going to be asking a LOT of questions.
tf
A goat question for those of you who raise them.
Thanks! She followed me everywhere. She never minded getting hugs! A bit of a trouble maker but what goat isn't!! She learned how to open latches and the barn door-she'd let everyone out of the barn! So we ended up having to put latches on the outside of the barn door!-we had the door on rollers which I personally prefer as it doesn't take up any space when opening plus you can slide out the door a bit easier when 'someone' is trying to follow you out!!
here she is 'helping' us build the barn! She would run off with the box of nails and anything else she could wrap her lips around! She just loved lots of attention.
she is adorable, is that a toggenberg?
Sue I am so sorry about your Miss Sandra Dee. I picked Missy (the younger doe) because she let me pat her and hug her right when I met her. To me that said she's be gentle and good to handle. Not that she was a slug in any way. She had a bright alert look to her that I liked. The other doe (Mama) is a bit older than Missy (months) and a bit more aloof. She didn't run but she didn't stay close to me like Missy did. She was picked because of her heritage and her scar under the eye lowered her price into my range.
The goats there were all really lively. One of the does stood on two legs when Paul wasn't looking and next thing I hear him going 'OH' LOL she had her hooves in the middle of his back checking him out!! He was so startled! She moved away too fast to get her number and check her out.
How do they attach those numbers to their ears? Staples?
Had to laugh at the thought of your goat 'helping' you build the barn!!
Our barn has three doors too. One in front and two opposite each other on the sides. They're on rollers too. Now if I could get Paul to build a garage and move all his stuff into it I've have a great barn for my flock. Upstairs there is a neat hay loft too.
Sue don't worry about babbling on. The vet didn't even think to mention getting the soil tested for selenium. She only mentioned not using the same mineral/salt blocks made for horses. She said I was better off with the ones for sheep to avoid too much copper getting into their systems.
How on earth did you get the rock out of that goat??
MollyD
She was half Saanan and Alpine-which is why my DG name is saanansandy-dedicated to her! I'm such a sap!
The vet said not to worry about the rock. He said it was too big for her to pass but it wouldn't hurt her-we never had any problems from it. Thankfully!
We use a Tattoer. The left ear has the letter of the year and the birth order on your farm: 2007 letter was X and if the kid was the third born that year you would tatoo X3. The right ear has your farm id number. This is the ADGA's year letter. The ABGA(American Boer Goat Assoc.) has different year letters-2007 is W. The ear is determined by you standing behind the goat! If you have a LaMancha the goat is tatooed in the tailweb.
I think you are going to love your goats! The little one especially sounds like she'll be your best friend!
always wondered aobu tyour username, how sweet ^_^
Thanks Sue. I like the idea of a tatoo better than the stapled tags my girls have on them. He uses plastic tags (different colors for fullbred, purebred and percentages) with #'s on them. Wethers have a shot of pink spray paint to on their backs id them right away. He sprays blue on the ones going to market as meat. LOL very few blue sprayed ones on his place! From what I hear he's a softy who has trouble parting with them especially to the meat market!
MollyD
We use the tagger gun on sheep. He probably prefers the tags over tattoos because he has such a large herd. It would be difficult for him to chase specific goats down. Some people want a kid from a certain doe this would make it faster for him to find the kid. We have brushy areas that the goats would browse in so I was hesitant to use tags. I didn't want one to get hung up and tear the ear.
It's so easy to get attached I always tried to sell for pets instead of meat but that's not always the case.
Sue
Sue I think I will avoid the guilt by not asking what they want it for! Or doesn't that work?
MollyD
Everyone I've had contact with usually start the conversation with" I'm looking for a pet goat for my ___." or "I'm looking for a meat goat." So unfortunately I know why they are buying. It's good to know when someone is looking for a pet or starting a herd so you can make sure they understand the goats needs for feed, housing and especially fencing. Alot of people don't understand that their sweet Fido can chase down and kill their new goat. One of our neighbors had a year old golden retriever that killed one of our rams which was eye-witnessed and they didn't believe it. We called animal control and they said since we didn't catch the dog we couldn't prove it was this dog. A week later, he came back and severely injured one of the ewes. We caught him and called animal control. He had blood caked around his muzzle and down his chest so there was no denying it. The neighbors comment was "we live in the country we shouldn't have to keep our dog tied up." They lived over a mile away!
Most of our lots have 4' cattle fence w/ barbed wire running in 2 strands along the top. He was scaling the fence where there was no barbed wire. I dislike using the barbed wire due to the goats like to stand with there front feet on the fence and I worry about them sticking their face into the barbs. I've never had an injury from the barbed wire but I worry anyway!
Some people like to use "we live in the country" to justify being inconsiderate of others. There is no excuse for letting an animal run loose when you know it's causing damage to other's property (leaving aside the fact that it took lives here).
I'm adding an electric wire at the top of our fencing just in case. Occasionally strays come into our property so I'm not going to wait for a problem to happen. Our own dogs are enough of a problem! I don't trust either of them to not try to chase the goats.
I hope you were at least able to recoup the dollar value of the goats he killed or injured?
MollyD
They were renting the house they were living in and apparently were in the process of getting evicted. So we figured it would be trying to get water from a stone and dropped it. One good thing is they are no longer in the neighborhood.
The electric fence wire is a good idea, a little snap on the nose is much better than a barbed wire in the face! We are starting another stone wall which will extend up the driveway and we plan on putting an electric fence along with it.
Sue
Good idea Sue.
btw do you know if for the person who won't be showing their goats having a registered buck is important? I've been offered a percentage buck for $100. He's too low to register so no papers with him. Paul likes him a lot. So much that he's promised to help handle the goat. His name is Hammer. Here's his photo http://toddfarmsboergoats.com/id13.html that was taken a month ago. He was born January this year. My answer will decide if he remains a buck or becomes a wether. Kim (one of the owners) says he's really sweet natured. I'm going to see him this weekend. Our goal in raising goats is meat on our table with the occassional sale to others. I spoke with Jim (seller I'm getting our does from) and he felt I could get him and a registered buck. I'm not keen on one buck let alone two!!
What would you do?
MollyD
Personally, if the papers don't matter I would get him. The laid back personality is very important to me. I've had sweet bucks that carried that trait to their off-spring and I've had nasty tempermented does that had nasty tempermented kids!! I'd use him as a buck and see how it goes. You can still get papers on kids even if the buck is unregistered.
He's a cutie!
Sue who would register them? Everywhere I've checked they won't register the kids from an unregistered buck. As for the personality I never saw him in person so I only have their word for it.
The ABGA won't register Boer's with less than 94% and their offspring can't be either. I've got the chart in front of me right now.
MollyD